Work in progress for a fairy design.

This was going to be an illustration for one of my 'Fairy Cake' designs, but I have now decided to use it in a collage I am making for a friend for Christmas (I will post the collage when it's finished - I hope my friend doesn't read my blog in the meantime, haha).  I will use the painting for a card illustration at a later date.  Anyway, this is how I drew my fairies.  First of all, I sketched out a very basic idea in my sketch book:

I scanned the image into photoshop and drew around the figure with a black line.  I then started to experiment with colour:

This is a close up of the unfinished fairy's head.  I'm painting her hair in a swirl pattern to match the swirly tail on the heart.  I like swirls and curls and a lot of my designs incorporate this.

I then decided to change the dress colour to a turquoise blue and I added a friend for symmetry (I used the same fairy but flipped her and changed her hair and her face slightly).

I made the heart bigger so I could fit the beautiful words 'A friend is someone who dances with you in the sunlight, and walks with you in the shadows':

It's not a very good image, but I used this design in a simple collage for my friend, on canvas 8 inches by 8 inches.  I printed it out on handmade paper, glued it to the canvas and embellished it with gingham cotton ribbon, lace and buttons that I found, shaped as hearts. Hope she likes it :-)

Pen sketch of my niece and dog - 'Friends'

I was going through my sketch book and I thought I would post this pen sketch I did of my niece, Charlotte, walking one of my dogs, Daisy, on Doxey marshes in Stafford back in May this year.  I remember it was a beautiful evening with a slight breeze, and we took the children and the dogs for a walk before their bed time. (I also remember my other dog, Dougal, had a little altercation with another dog... but that's best forgotten).