weekend

Bloghopping

I've been asked by Marianna of sewpro2 to participate in 'bloghopping' which involves answering a few questions about my blog and then passing them on to someone else to complete. The idea being a way of spreading the word about other blogs. I don't know when Marianna and I first communicated or how we became aware of each other but it is one of the lovely things about blogging - finding a 'connection' with someone and becoming friends even though you haven't met. Marianna writes with a wicked sense of humour and I'm in awe of her ability to run up a wardrobe of clothes for her and her family with such style! 

Why do I write/illustrate what I do?
I'm self employed and work from a home studio which can be a lonely experience and making a living as a designer means always satisfying the briefs and specifications of others. So when I started my blog 7 years ago I became part of a whole community of like minded people and I used my blog as a vehicle for my own illustration projects and photography. I always write and illustrate from a personal viewpoint on the blog rather than a work one and it's very therapeutic.

What am I working on now?

I'm inspired to illustrate or photograph when I see something that brings me pleasure and I see shapes, colours and textures that urge me to put pen to paper.

I'm concentrating on drawing at the moment as it's the basis for all my work. I bought a variety of squash last week - the patterns are incredible plus there's a beautiful bird's nest I found when trimming the garden hedge - so I'm about to embark on 2 new drawings.

How does my work differ from others in the genre?

This is a hard one! I find it difficult to be subjective about my own work. If I analyse things too much or compare my stuff to others, I can get a creative block. I love to see work that's unique and very personal and I think it's so important to embrace your natural style and not to mimic others. After all it's being different that makes life interesting.

How does my writing/illustration process work?

I either draw from life (which gives me the best results) or from photos and use a HiTechpoint 0.7 black pen on white paper. This is the part that gives me most pleasure. Here the process is shown using an illustration of my favourite bag.

I scanned the initial pen and ink drawing from my sketch book and used it as a graphic which I coloured in CorelDraw and then added some more decoration by drawing the green shapes. Finally I found a photo of some cracked mud, turned it into a line artwork, made it brown and clipped it into the shapes of the bag to show the effect of old leather.
This bag is very old and battered now but I still love it.

Thanks Marianna, I thought answering these questions would be daunting but actually I really enjoyed it!

I'm passing the task on to Cally of Forest & Sea who again I've connected with through blogging. You get a real sense of Cally from seeing her beautifully delicate designs - it's a calm and tranquil place to visit and I can't resist the pictures of her sweet cats too.

Coincidentally....

It's strange that my latest drawing resembles a scarf after some of the lovely comments on my last floral drawing. It is a complete coincidence as I had done this drawing before I saw your comments but watch out Marianna - I may well take you up on your offer!

This was inspired by gifts from a friend of beautiful yellow dahlias and ceramic blue plate.
© 2013 nicky linzey

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone who visits here and to all the friends I have made through my blog. Working from home is quite a lonely existence and so contact with other artists and designers is very important to me. My posts have been little sporadic lately I'm afraid, I've been busy with a few new projects and am now on the freelance team of gibsonholt to sell my card and pattern designs, which I'm very excited about.
Here's to a happy, healthy and creative 2012!
© 2011 nicky linzey - design available from http://www.gibsonholt.co.uk/

A spot of sunshine

I've been waiting for a sunny day to photograph these gifts from Malaysia, received in the post over Christmas. It hasn't materialised and I realised I might be waiting forever at this rate. Above are beautifully wrapped presents from Caroline - a stunning book of Malaysian birds illustrated by her and a patterned fan which looks fabulous on my mantlepiece.

Fun presents - handmade and chosen with great thought from Yoon See.

If you don't know their work then visit their blogs, they will definitely bring you a lot of sunshine from Malaysia too!

seasons greetings

A very Merry Christmas to everyone - thanks for visiting throughout the year and for taking time to leave comments. Your friendship is much appreciated. Here's to a wonderful 2011.

The picture below just about sums up how cold it is in this part of the world at the moment, but very beautiful too. The illustration above was inspired by this.

Friendship

Your help in overcoming my 'stuckness' has been just what I needed. Even just the thought of a cycle ride in the countryside sent me into raptures - playing with and walking my dog is the best thing I can ever do, I'm investigating spoonflower  and definitely switching off my computer more.
Again & again I come back to Keri Smith for inspiration - I just love her rebel's manifesto.
Thank you all for your friendship - it means a lot.
Image is of photographed wire with coloured in sections

Merry Christmas

It's getting very busy so I probably will not be blogging until the New Year. So a Merry Christmas to everyone and a massive

to all of you that comment here, you are a great encouragement and I've made so many wonderful inspiring friends over the year. Hope you all have a happy, healthy and creative 2010.

We are spending Christmas with family and this year instead of lots of present buying are competing in Charity Shop Challenge - we've all (adults only) bought each other presents from Charity shops. It's been hard but enjoyable and I think we'll have quite a laugh at what we've all come up with - I shall post pictures in the new year. Infact I've found so many nice things I shall be keeping some for myself . . . !

Detour

Driving through France one year, we decided to travel overnight and reach our destination as early as possible. At 5am our car started to lose power and barely made it up a steep hill, at the top the engine died completely so we had to decide whether to freewheel down the hill in our continued direction or to turn right. We turned right off the main road and travelled down a twisting road, having no idea what was at the bottom. Half way along this road we came across a garage, so we pulled in - it was obviously closed at that time in the morning so we walked down the hill to see what was around - a sleepy little town.

Returning to our car at 6.30am we found the garage owner had arrived and he said he would look at our car straight away and suggested we should go and have breakfast in the town. We found a cafe and although they had not had their bread delivered they went across to the bakery and bought us croissants to have with our coffee. I couldn't believe the service, how everyone was going out of their way to help us.

After breakfast we walked back to the garage and our car had been fixed - it was dirt in the petrol, they charged us the equivalent to £10 for this - unbelievable. We continued on our way arriving at our destination only a few hours late despite our DETOUR. The people we were staying with were so glad to see us arrive safely that they poured us a neat pastis each, it was so strong that I could barely feel my legs when I stood up to go to our room!

This is posted in response to the weekword over at Artsyville, home of the very talented Aimee, go have a look.

Modify

I've had a bit of a block when it's come to the recent subjects on Illustration Friday but I was determined to participate this week whatever . . ! Cars are not that important to me as long as they get from A - B but I have to admit I would love a Fiat 500 - especially if I could modify the paintwork with one of my patterns. Out of these 3 I would have the top one, which would you choose?

Thanks to my friend Yoon See for jolting me out of my block.

© 2009 nicky linzey for illustration friday.

Thanks

It's been an exciting week for me post wise, as I received 2 giveaways . . yes 2 . . from the One World One Heart project that I entered earlier in the month.

As my correspondence is almost entirely done by e-mail I hardly ever receive anything interesting in the post, so it was lovely to receive these exquisite handmade gifts. A silver necklace from Nancy and a ceramic collaged notebook from Don, so original. It was a great thing to participate in and I've come across blogs and people that I would not have 'met' otherwise. Check out these 2 bloggers - both so talented.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2009 to everyone, especially Gray and my family who give me loads of support and encouragement in everything I do.

© 2008 nicky linzey

Friendship

I've been submitting an illustration every week to Illustration Friday for nearly a year now and it has made me become much more productive with my drawing. I've also felt part of a creative and inspiring community which is great, as I work from home and sometimes don't go out for days (apart from walking My Jack Russell that is!).

I've recently been given 2 awards from Yoon See for 'I love your blog' & 'Artistic blog award' which is a great honour. I love the the way she generously extends her friendship to everyone.

I'm really into the 'ripple effect' of how reading one blog leads on to another and another . . . it's a great way of finding new friends and other artists that inspire me so here's the links to some of the great blogs that I've discovered through Illustration Friday.

Aimee - for inspiring words - in more ways than one!

Bella Sinclair - for exquisite illustrations

Cecilia Levy - for beautiful line work

Flying Colors - for richness and amazingly colourful and varied work

Shugar - for sweet illustrations

Nicola - for stunning woodcuts

Marina Tsu-mina - for vibrant colours and especially dog illustrations.

Thank you Yoon See

Chattering Birds

On Saturday I went to have a drink with a friend whose birthday it was. As the room filled up with women, the noise level rose to fever pitch. It sounded like an aviary full of birds. I had to laugh.

Photo - © Sim Kay seng Dreamstime.com

Guest Blog

It's My Jack Russell's birthday, he's 9 years old so I've decided he can choose the subject matter for this blog today. He's very sad as he cannot see his true love on Valentine's Day - she's just had an operation to remove some lumps. Luckily she's ok although it took 4 hours and she's very sore.
So he wants to say "Get well soon Elle - I love you!"

No loving care required

Last year a friend came to lunch and brought me an amaryllis in a box - a bulb, the compost and a pot to plant it in. At the time I was busy cooking so put it in the conservatory and I'm sorry to say . . . forgot . . all . . . about . . . it.
Just before Christmas when I was cleaning, I caught sight of the box from of the corner of my eye and guiltily did the required planting, placing it on the kitchen windowsill - holding little hope for its survival. We went away to Wales and on our return I couldn't believe my eyes, it had grown a green spike of about 2 feet in height and is now sporting 2 enormous flower heads. It is such a magnificent plant with the most beautiful striped petals that look as though they've been dusted with red glitter. I find it quite amazing when plants grow despite no loving care.
© Nicky Linzey 2008

Happy New Year

I had high hopes of this holiday, staying with friends over New Year in this beautiful cottage set high in the Brecon Beacons, I was anticipating a week of walking, eating, drinking, laughing and catching up on reading, writing and drawing. That is until the first day when I went down with an horrendous fluey cold which I could not shake off. They all still carried on regardless and on Monday attempted to conquer Fan-y-Big, the huge mountain behind the cottage. They came back full of it, how high, beautiful, scary, it was. Apparently a mist had come down and they had to retrace their steps in order not to get lost but they'd reached the top! On New Years Eve I was determined to stay up until midnight but was flagging until the lovely Isabella came up with the great idea of celebrating in Dutch time - an hour earlier - so I was able to toast in the New Year with a glass of water and still be back in bed by 11.30pm! On New Years day I decided I would not be left again and joined the others on a Waterfall walk which they had assured me was flat - ok until I found myself struggling up a precarious rock face with a dramatic drop hundreds of feet below me to pounding cold water. I had a hacking cough and could not breathe and wondered what on earth I was doing. They had forgotten about that bit! I think that finally did it for me - I needed to go home to my own bed and so left early on Wednesday just after the others returned exhausted from a second walk up Fan-y-Big, with the grave news that it had not been conquered the other day, apparently they had only just scratched the surface!

Thanks - Day 7

Well it's the final day of a week of thanks which has taken me over 2 weeks to do.

During this time my Uncle has died, he was 86 and had not been well for a while, so in a way it was a blessing. I was very fond of him and have wonderful memories of time spent with him, he was a great joker who told the most elaborate stories and as children we loved these. To this day I do not know which ones were true. He told us his name was Clement Arthur Thomas Dean and it was only at his funeral yesterday that I was a hundred percent certain it was, as we always called him Dixie. He had a way of recounting things with a gleam in his eye as if to say "Well do you believe me or not?".

Yesterday was a day to give thanks for his life and to get together with family I have not seen for a while. Cousins with whom I spent a lot of time during childhood and teenage years and was very close to. It's odd with family even though we hadn't seen each other for ages, we immediately fell straight back into the closeness and camaraderie we had all those years ago and it was great to remember old times and catch up with the present.

Tomorrow Gray and I are going to 'The Spirit of Christmas' - a Christmas Extravaganza - not the sort of thing we would normally go to but some friends were keen and I know that we will have good fun in their company and we will make some more memories ...

This is thanks for all my family and friends... and my memories.

In the pink

Look at this lovely rhubarb, the first of the season for me, I love the intense colour and it tasted gorgeous stewed up and eaten with yoghurt. On Sunday I went to the allotment and used the rotavator for the first time - nearly demolished my raspberries and a neighbour's greenhouse! I came home feeling quite shaken - literally! A friend bought me some hyacinths, they smell beautiful. Bit of a pink blog today!

© Nicky Linzey 2007