Bookmark

I had a bit of a clear out this week. (Not too much Mum, don't get excited), but I didn't manage to clear half a cupboard in the sideboard which I fully intend to fill with art supplies currently cluttering up every available surface.

I must admit it did feel good and I vowed to tackle next the spaces filled with yellowing paperbacks. It's just it's not quite so easy to part with magical prose... and I will read them again... probably... someday...

Thank heavens for my Kindle I say. In the same way that iTunes has prevented CDs from taking over the house, this flat little electronic device is saving my home from turning into the British Library. And while it's not quite the same as holding paper in hand, it more than makes up for it on the ease of use and storage.

All Kindle need to do now is create some digital bookmarks and I'll be a happy bunny. Maybe they could start by using one of these I made earlier... for the Artist Playroom.

I make a lot of digital bookmarks. I love to chop up my work in PhotoShop to focus on the finer details or layer up a new look for an older image.

Why the long face?

Because it's typical that when you're just doodling on some scrappy piece of paper-cut-off-from-something-else, you end up with a piece that you quite like, except that you don't listen to the niggle at the back of your mind that the proportion appears to be slightly wrong. No, you just carry on quite happily, until the following morning you discover that your girl's face has become elongated over night!

What can we learn from this?

Well, firstly that the fairies have clearly been at her. I'm sure she was fine when I went to bed.

Secondly, one should never give up. My motto is 'where there's a will, there's a way' and so I determined that her features would shrink (in the least painful way possible rendering no harm to the poor girl). An eraser was gingerly (and then somewhat ferociously) applied, but it would not oblige. Too many layers of prismacolour wax put paid to that idea.

So, I just drew over her in pen, restyled her hair - including a fringe covering the second eye line - added a dab of paint or two et voila!

Yet... there still seems something amiss. Is one eye bigger than the other? What happened to her torso? Do I like that green smudge to the right of her neck?

Well, let me tell you - the fairies were certainly present. Look what they bade me do. She squealed when I stamped her (but not as much as when I applied the beeswax!). I appeased her with the pretty crown sprinkled with pain relieving fairy dust and she has forgiven me for having one eye slightly higher than the other. Fairies are wonky though... apparently.... so that's OK!

I'm sharing with Sunday Sketches. Might as well post it now, as it's Sunday somewhere East of here...