Publication in a Magazine and a Book

The first place my work has appeared in print this month is in Talking Point the magazine issued by the UK Coloured Pencil Society.

This is an exerpt from the current issue of Talking Point it was written by the editor Malcolm Cudmore and forms part of an article on Fur and Feathers.
The UKCPS website is well worth a visit if you are interested in using coloured pencil in your artwork.

The second place it will appear is in the soon to be published book ' The Secret Ingredient' which has been compiled by my friend Dot Tadman.
The book has been put together to raise funds for the Friends of Anchor Charity.
Anchor is the Aberdeen and North Centre for Haematology, Oncology and Radiotherapy and supports patients with different forms of cancer.
The book itself itself features favourite recipes beautifully illustrated by Local and International artists.
You can now visit the website for the book to find out more and view sample pages:-
The Secret Ingredient.

Art Materials Live

I really enjoyed demonstrating for the UKCPS at the NEC, it is always a great social occasion meeting old friends and making new ones.
The art materials section had been moved this year and was surrounded by craft and food stands. I thought there were slightly less visitors to the art section although the craft section was really busy.
The format of the stand worked well as it was long and narrow enabling visitors to walk down the line of UKCPS demonstrators. As usual there were lots of comments about what could be achieved with coloured pencil and several new converts.
My eye demo seemed popular and sold out on the third day, I will be printing some more when get some time.

I'm at the NEC again next weekend this time it's the Supreme Cat show, more details to follow.

Demonstrating for the UKCPS at Art Materials Live

I spent Thursday and Saturday helping the UKCPS with their stand at the Art Materials Live show which is held at the NEC. I was demonstrating the use of coloured pencils on various surfaces.
I was joined by several other demonstrators all working with coloured pencil but producing very different effects. I have to mention both Peter Woof and Suzy Herbert as I spent more time with them , I absolutely loved the pieces they were working on.
I think the demonstrating role was far easier than running the workshop, the members there worked non stop helping people have a go using coloured pencils. Hopefully those people will go on to become members of the UKCPS and create art using coloured pencils.
Once again I lost count of the number of people who were astonished at the effects you can achieve with a "crayon"
A special mention for Rachel who I never saw stop throughout the whole time I was there, and she was attending for the whole four days.
Hello to all the people who stopped to talk to me, I really enjoyed meeting you all.
Thursday was a major disaster for me as my husband managed to spill a full cup of coffee over the commission I was working on. Not only did the pristine white background suffer, so did my legs, feet and bag. I'd spent around 10 hours on the work up to the coffee incident so I was ever so slightly upset. However my husband was so sorry that he bought me the entire set of Luminance pencils so I recovered a little after that.

I thought that on the whole there were slightly less people visiting than last year which some of the traders agreed with. However they felt that individuals were spending more per head than last year so didn't think takings would be down.
I hope to be helping again next year as I really enjoy it.

Changes to the Conditions of Entry for the 2008 UKCPS Exhibition

I received my entry form for the Annual Coloured Pencil Society Open International Exhibition 2008 yesterday.

There have been two changes which have caused much discussion amongst prospective entrants.
The first is that the artist must have taken any photographs used for source material. Now obviously copyright laws must be respected, but this means that even if you have permission to use someone else's photograph, your entry would be ineligible. I have no problem with this being a condition of entry, but it has caused some artists serious problems with work already partly completed.


I have used photographs taken by other people, always with permission, but have been working hard at taking my own. Meet my latest film star, Harry Mouse. I'm wanting to paint some cat and mouse pieces and spotted a little mouse living under the waterfall in my garden.So I've been feeding him in orders that I can obtain my own refernece material. Please all keep your fingers crossed that my neighbours cats don't spot him.


The second condition which is more concerning to me, is that, work is excluded which has been displayed as a 'step by step' exercise over the internet, on forums where other artists comment and make suggestions.

This may well stop a lot of artists putting work on art forums, or at the very least asking that no one make suggestions. This will then have a detrimental effect on the usefulness of such posts for people wanting to learn from them. I find this to be hugely different from making work ineligible which has been completed in a learning environment and I cannot see how it can be enforced. Even if it is not displayed on the internet, would a comment from family or friends which is acted on render it ineligible?

I rgreatly espect the UKCPS Executive, but I think they will have to resolve the huge confusion that has been created in some way.

For a much more thorough discussion see Katherine Tyrrell's blog and for a slightly different perspective see the post by Nicole Caulfield.

Demonstrating for the UK Coloured Pencil Society

I spent Thursday and Friday at the Art Materials Live Exhibition held at the NEC in Birmingham.

I was demonstrating for the UK Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) and it was great fun. I talked myself hoarse early on the first day, and had to revive myself with large amounts of liquid refreshment, strictly non alcoholic as I was driving. The stand had several artists demonstrating, all very talented and quite diverse in approach, so people got a good idea of just what can be done with the coloured pencil.

I had two half finished pieces there, Shred the ginger cat on ampersand pastelbord, and one on drafting film. People were amazed at the finish you could get on the pastelbord and I got some really wonderful comments, if any of you read this, thank you for making my day.

I got so many questions on how to draw eyes and how to work on drafting film that on the second day I started a new cat. I started with the eye and showed people how to work by building up the layers, and then adding the final highlight to get the glassy appearance. I also did a little of the surrounding fur. I met several architects and graphic designers who found watching me work brought back happy(ish) memories of using drafting film.

The drafting film I use is Polydraw double matt, 75 microns in weight.

Here's what I drew plus a bit more that I added yesterday.

I also had my photograph taken with my work several times, even by one of the other exhibitors.

I really enjoyed my two days, I met up with some old friends, made some new ones and saw some stunning work.

The exhibition finishes today but I can highly recommend a visit next year to stock up on your materials and see some wonderful work. I know that as long as they want me, i will be back on the UKCPS stand.

Several people asked me about workshops or if I would do a DVD on drawing animals in coloured pencil, I will look into that after Christmas.