I love Autumn, it’s no secret. Using Anna’s artwork to create Autumnal spreads has been a therapy I’ve craved. My life is going through a huge transitional period and being able to sit and create has kept me sane! I usually work with watercolour but decided to get out the acrylics. I’ve been using them more and more recently, I find they give a much brighter and solid finish.




The first spread has an introduction to Autumn and the falling of leaves. In the UK the season is named ‘Autumn’ but as it’s well known, in the US it’s named ‘Fall’. I used to be quite biased and say Autumn was the best name for it however I am beginning to really warm to the word ‘Fall’, it literally makes me picture leaves falling. The past week has been quite blustery in the UK and we’ve finally got big piles of leaves everywhere! Also, how cute is Anna’s little Fox?

 

I then move onto Conkers! I don’t know what it is but there’s something very exciting about seeing conkers falling to the ground and collecting them. It immediately takes me back to my childhood and running to gather them, bonus points in I found one still in it’s spiky casing! A lot of the other kids would put them on string and have conker fights in the playground, if your opponent smashed your conker you lost. I have a feeling this has now been banned from playgrounds! I never used to play conkers, instead I would hoard my findings like treasure! Now I get to relive it, my Children are mini me’s!



From Conkers to Pumpkins. It wouldn’t be Autumn/Fall without Pumpkins. The majority of the page is taken up by a massive Pumpkin complete with decorative black Cat. I added to this a mouse from Anna’s 2017 Autumnal work. It’s only now as I look back at it that I realise I’ve placed a Cat and Mouse on the same page, a Cat hiding behind a Pumking ready to pounce! I’ve added a recipe journal card from Anna’s Patreon and found a Pumpkin Soup recipe. I may even attempt to cook it...eventually!

 

My last page is my chill out page. I seem to get a bit rubbish with reading during the Summer, I still do but it slows down. Autumn rolls round and out come the books! I love that the quote mentions “stacks of books (but read on my Kindle!)”. I must admit, as much as I love a real book in my hands, I do tend to read fiction on my Kindle. There’s only a handful of books I will read more than once (fiction that is) so it becomes clutter in my house. The Kindle is a running joke with a group of friends I have, they believe it is blasphemy. With the page itself I have chosen one of my favourite colours and used a pearlescent over the top. I’m not quite finished with the page at this point. I’m still working out how I want to finish it. That’s my most recent up to date artworks. I’m almost finished this sketchbook!

 Kelly xxx

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It is almost Autumn!!

As I'm writing this blog it is pouring with rain outside and is starting to feel a bit nippy. That means it is nearly Autumn!!

As soon as Anna posted a sneak peak of her watercolour Fox from this months Patreon and Mrs Brimbles Sticker Club, I knew exactly where he would go! My latest obsession - I have many, I am one of these people who become consumed by new things and spend hours researching it - is traditional or perhaps I should say more traditional forms of book binding. I have just finished learning the Kettle Stitch technique and so made a textblock with Tomoe River Paper (yes I jumped on that bandwagon too!). I had a rummage about in my random bits drawer and came across some very autumnal looking ribbon which was wide enough to cover the spine of my journal. Perfect!

Now just to make the inside as beautiful and autumnal as the outside!

Pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin! Completely inspired by Anna's watercolour pumpkin I decided it would be the perfect opening for my new Autumanl Art Journal.

I'm really pleased with how this little one turned out! I'm another to jump on the Tomoe River Paper bandwagon after hearing so many good things about it....especially the crinkle! It certainly takes some getting used to as the water and paints don't necessarily behave how you expect them to. I saw it mentioned on one of Anna's posts in the Mrs Brimbles group about being more reserved with the amount of water and paint, so I followed that advice.

I began with a base layer of watercolour and slowly built up the colours. I decided to just get stuck in with it and forgo sketching or swatching. I just went with what happened and moved forward from there. The result is certainly not the traditional watercolour style but I'm happy with it :) would certainly recommend giving the paper a go. I really saturated it with water when I painted the foreground, to the point where I thought it would struggle to maintain it's stability as paper. But to my surprise it withstood it and has dried with such a lovely wrinkle. My heart is now all a flutter when I turn the pages.

Moving away from the art stuff I've been busy back journalling since the weather has started to turn. I find my creative journalling can be quite cyclical, I tend to quieten down over the summer months, I journal and document less only to suddenly pick up again with such ferocity by Autumn. I'd love to know if anyone else experiences similar patterns in their creativity?

I began with creating the background with watercolour, splodging it about not too carefully. I left the paint quite concentrated and then washed over with water and let the pigment settle where they chose. I was aiming for enough colour to provide something to look at but for it not to be so strong it became the focus of my page. The photos are a little hodge podge and from over a couple of days but to me all signify the onset of autumn, misty mornings, long walks and seasonal house decorations.

At first I wasn't sure about adding the gold washi, I restricted myself to using it in a couple of places as often I have little restraint and have tendency to go overboard with sparkly things. I was aiming for just enough to compliment the warm earthy tones of the orange background - hopefully I did that!

I carefully cut out the Anna's watercolour animals from the collage sheets as I wanted to use them like emphera pieces - it was more fiddly than I thought it would be but totally worth it! I did however chicken out of trying to use my craft knife on the deer - I think she would have ended up antler-less!

I spent quite some time fussing around working out the placement of the photos and the other bits and bobs. It's one of the reasons I now tend not to stick everything down straight away as I have commitment issues and end up pulling them back up again. No more sticky glue marks or torn paper! Eventually I settled on what you see now :) 

That's all from me for this week, thank you for reading!

I hope you are all are looking forward to Autumn as much as I am!

In a bit guys x

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