My New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone, here's to a fantastic 2015!

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, mainly because I never have any ideas, but this year there are a few things which I hope to do and achieve in 2015.

To give me more motivation to succeed, I've written them out, or rather painted them out, in the style of a journal page.

I really enjoyed making this today. I used it as an excuse to experiment with my Winsor and Newton watercolours. I've never really known how to merge colours successfully, so blending pink into purple was a bit of a challenge! For the most part it worked really well, although the right hand side of the 2015 rectangle looks a bit dodgy.

Anyway, back to my resolutions...

#1 Draw or paint a miniature portrait every week

I've done quite a few miniature portraits now and thought it would be a fun challenge to complete one per week, not only of celebrities but 'normal' people too!

This is my first one of the year, a coloured pencil drawing of Angelina Jolie on brown paper. I think I'll get bored if I do them all in the same medium, so I'll chop and change depending on how I feel!

#2 Make my art business flourish

Those of you who've read my blog for a while will probably know that I work full time and use my spare time for art. 2014 was an exciting year for me as I took more commissions for drawings, paintings and paper cuts than I ever have done before and I hope that 2015 will see many more!

If you would like to help me along with this resolution and commission a piece of art, please let me know! I can do mini portraits like the ones above, paper cuts, paintings, doodles...have a little flick through my blog or Facebook page and see what takes your fancy.

At the moment I'm working on some wedding card paper cutting templates for people to cut themselves. This is one of them. I have another two to cut before they'll be up for sale on Etsy as digital downloads.

#3 Get my ears pierced again

Bit of a weird one this! I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to get my ears pierced again. My sister got her second set done a while ago and I like the way you can wear dangle earrings alongside studs.

#4 Wear high heels to work

Again, another odd one! I walk to work every day, so wearing heels isn't really practical, but some of the girls keep a set at work to change into. I do like wearing heels, so thought I'd give it a go. Not sure how long this resolution will last!

In other news...

I ordered some new pens the other day and decided to put them through their paces to create a mandala. This is far from finished and there will be more inking on the section you can see here, but I'm very pleased with it at the moment!

I had a sudden urge to draw octopuses (octopi?) so they've made it into one of the rings!

Not sure what to include in the outer rings, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of Croyde beach where we started our walk to Saunton today.

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Paint Party Friday, The Queen of Creativity and Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

Cornwall, the Thames and mandalas

Right, I wrote this whole post out before remembering that tomorrow is the last day you can vote for my blog in the UK Blog Awards! For those of you who don't know, I've entered in the Arts and Crafts category. I have no idea what happens if you win and I don't expect to find out, but it would be lovely, if you enjoy reading my blog, if you could pop over and vote. Thanks peeps, now on with the post...

This week we're on our holidays in Cornwall, yippee! We're staying in a beautiful little cottage called Phillack in St Erth, close to Hayle on the West coast. It's welcoming and homely, and lovely and warm which is a real treat considering we spend most of our time at home layering jumpers to save on the heating bill!

It's part of a barn which has been newly converted into three cottages and is just the most peaceful and cosy little place. I ran around taking these photos when we'd just arrived, before we could make it untidy!

It was a beautifully sunny day yesterday, too hot for a coat, even, which is surely unheard of just a few days before December. First stop on Saturday morning was Gwithian to check out the waves - brace yourself for a very photo heavy post today!

Then we went into St Ives where I sat and painted overlooking the swathe of golden sand and turquoise water that is Porthmeor Beach while Sam went in for a surf.

If it wasn't for the long shadows, I think these photos look like they could have been taken in summer!

My painting still needs quite a bit of work and I'm not sure I'll ever get around to finishing it, but here's a peek.

When Sam finished surfing, there was just time to squeeze in a pasty stop before heading back for a cosy evening in the cottage.

This morning we got up early as Sam went off to check out the surf in Gwithian while I spent a couple of hours working on the Thames map. Yes, I did bring it along - there's no rest for the wicked! My workspace was a little different from normal!

I can now reveal that the client is Le Boat, a fantastic company which hire boats on the Thames and many other rivers across Europe. I have to say that working on this project has been very inspiring; there are so many lovely places to visit along the river. Before, I very naively thought of the Thames as just the section which runs through central London, but in reality it offers so much more, from peaceful countryside stretches to wonderful riverside attractions.

The part which I am illustrating is from Oxford right the way through to Teddington Locks, as this is the section navigable in the company's boats. I've finished outlining the whole map now, and am feeling excited about starting to paint, if a little nervous!

After a morning indoors, beavering away, it was nice to get out for a walk near Godrevy this afternoon. It was a little shorter than it could have been as dark grey clouds were threatening rain, so we thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

I always think 'people' photos are far more interesting than landscapes, so just to prove I was there, here are a few Sam took.

There are those clouds!

I'll end this post with a photo of a mandala I doodled last night. My Mum has been working on some gorgeous crochet mandalas in vibrant colours and I've seen quite a lot on Pinterest recently, so wanted to give drawing one a go.

Not as neat or precise as it could be, but I've started another one with some lines underneath as a guide, so hopefully I'll have that to share next week!

Have a lovely week everyone! Over and out...

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs:  Handmade Harbour, Paint Party Friday and Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

Miniature Johnny Depp

Not much to report again this week. I've been making progress on my map of the Thames but as it's just a pencil sketch at the moment, it's hard to take good photos.

I also did this tiny watercolour painting of Johnny Depp. I hear he was a bit inebriated at the Hollywood Film Awards on Friday night!

This portrait is the size of a two pence piece. I love working on a small scale and thought I'd put my new paintbrush and watercolours to the test! I was partly inspired by Lorraine Loot's wonderful 'Postcards for Ants'. If you haven't seen them yet, go and have a look, you'll be amazed!

That wrinkly pink sausage thing is my finger...if you were wondering. Which you probably weren't.

Here are a few photos of the map, hopefully I'll have more next week as it comes together!

Sorry about the dark pictures, these short, gloomy days aren't very good for photography!

I really can't wait to get started on outlining in pen, it seems I've been sketching for days!

Last week I mentioned that I've entered my blog for the UK Blogger Awards and would really love your vote! I don't expect to come close to winning, but it would be great if my little blog could be seen by a few more people as a result! If you could spare a minute, the link to vote is: http://www.blogawardsuk.co.uk/candidates/Clare-Willcocks

Thank you!

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs:  Handmade Harbour, Paint Party Friday and for the first time, Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

All good things come to an end...

...so the saying goes, and holidays are no exception! We arrived home at 3am this morning after a week in beautiful, sunny Praia da Luz in Portugal. True to good old English form, it rained as we drove home.

The tan is already fading and it's back to work tomorrow; it's beginning to feel like the last week was just a lovely dream!

We stayed with friends in an incredible villa on a hill overlooking the beach at Praia da Luz. I would definitely recommend James Villas, the villa was extremely clean, service was excellent and there was always someone on hand to help (if, like us, you're silly enough to lock yourself out for example).

I painted this watercolour from the balcony. I wanted to capture the subtle colours of the terracotta rooves and cool white buildings against the backdrop of lush green trees and gorgeous blue sea.

Just to prove it did happen and it isn't just a figment of my imagination, here I am, painting.

Here's the painting and view for comparison. I tried to be accurate but used a little artistic license!

I didn't quite get round to finishing this one, a painting of the contents of my suitcase.

I have to admit there were a few more clothes than pictured here!

This little drawing contains all our memories from our holiday. I thought it might look nice with a bit of colour and framed, but I expect I'll get too caught up in new projects to finish this one!

Today I finished sketching out a paper cut which I hope to start next weekend as I need to borrow my Mum and Dad's scanner to transfer it to the cutting paper!

It'll be the most intricate one I've done yet but I'm really excited about getting started.

I designed it for the Papercutting Workshop 'transportation' challenge on Facebook. The following photos show a bit more of the detail.

The pencil gives a bit of perspective to show how teeny it is!

I'll leave you with a few more of my holiday snaps, hope you've all had a lovely week! Don't forget you can also find me on Facebook and Twitter which I update in between blogs :)

PS. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you're interested in commissioning a paper cut; I've finished a couple for other people now and really enjoy them!

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Manon Popje's Illustrations, Be Different Act Normal, Handmade Harbour and Sunny Simple Life.

Hand painted Christmas cards - Happy Christmas everyone!

Just a very quick one today to wish you all merry Christmas! I had an overwhelming response to the gift bag tutorial in my last post so I'd like to thank you all for popping by and your lovely comments :)

I can show you these watercolour Christmas cards I made as a commission now they've all reached their recipients! I've been keeping them under wraps for a couple of months.

The theme is 'ladies who lunch' and they are all individually designed and painted. The holly leaf background is drawn in gold pen. The paintings are slightly raised off the front of the card with sticky buds.

Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, see you again on the other side!

3D layered watercolour painting - Sea Turtle

I'm linking this post up to WOYWW, although this time I don't have any photos of my workdesk. Evening crept up on me and my camera is not too keen on functioning in the dark!

Popping up frequently on my Pinterest feed are some beautiful examples of paper cutting which I've been safely tucking away on my pin boards ready for a flash of creative inspiration to strike. Well, strike it did at the beginning of the week and I came up with this. An 3.5" x 2.5" miniature layered 3D watercolour painting.

To give you an idea of how small (and fiddly!) it is, here's a photo of me holding it.

My main inspiration for incorporating watercolour into a 3D paper cut design came from KateCreates, an artist who I've been following on Facebook for a while. Her wonderful Facebook page can be found here and her website here. She creates cheerful pieces featuring campervans, boats, quirky houses and portraits. Her work is layered which gives a lovely feeling of depth, especially in those featuring jumbled houses inspired by Cornish villages.

As for the subject matter, since spotting sea turtles on a snorkelling trip from Perhentian Kecil in the Perhentian Islands, Malyasia, I've had a little soft spot for them. Sadly, according to www.seeturtles.org, six of the seven species of these graceful creatures are threatened or endangered by human activity. They are incredible reptiles which spend the majority of their lives at sea, the females only coming ashore to lay their eggs every 2 to 5 years.

The beautiful Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

I wanted to capture the grace and beauty of these animals and they way they interact with their environment. A quick browse on Google Images threw up many photographs of them swimming with fish around vibrant coral reefs. I combined several elements to create an original underwater scene.

I started by drawing out each layer, three in total. They were outlined in waterproof black ink, painted in watercolours and left to dry thoroughly before wedging them in a heavy book to flatten them. Then came the tricky bit, cutting out each layer with a craft knife. I began to regret choosing such wiggly corals for the foreground! An hour and a few hand cramps later, I had all the layers ready to assemble. They are stuck together with very small squares of adhesive foam tape, a couple of layers in the case of the turtle to bring it up to the right level.

 Et voilà! Now it is stuck on my wall alongside my other miniature creations :)

If you have enjoyed this post, please consider sharing using one of the buttons on the right-hand-side. I love to read your comments too! Some of my paintings are for sale in my Etsy shop if you fancy taking a look :)

Today I'm sharing this post here: WOYWW, Domesblissity, Lovely Ladies Linky, Pretty Things for You, Savvy Southern Style, Cornerstone Confessions, Paint Party Friday, Blue Chair Diary Illustrations, Handmade Harbour and Manon Popje's Illustrations.

Watercolour painting in Dartmouth and Babbacombe and some more cheeky seagulls (WOYWW and PPF)

I'll start this post by telling you how excited I was on Wednesday to learn that I had been randomly selected to win the Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge! You can see my entry here. Thank you very much to the blog's author Jenn and to Funky Hand for the prize from their downloadable collection! I'm working on some ideas for next week's theme 'Christmas in July' already!

On a separate note, I love this amazing summer we're having down here in South Devon. Apart from a thunder-stormy blip a couple of nights ago, the sun has been shining every day! It's great to be able to get out and about to do a few paintings 'al fresco'. Here are some of my recent ones. They're about A6 size, no special paper or anything - just for fun!

This is Kingswear painted from Dartmouth. It took about an hour - of course, I had to treat myself to a portion of chips to keep my painting energy levels up! I'm linking this one up to Paint Party Friday.

I really struggle with painting water. I'm in awe of artists who manage to create beautiful, realistic paintings of sparkly, sunlit seas. If anyone out there has any tips on how to paint water with watercolours, they would be greatly appreciated! In this next painting I tried to add a little more texture with some grey wiggly brush strokes in the sea, but I'm still not completely happy with it. It's Babbacombe beach painted from the harbour wall.

The greenery is a little more vibrant in this one as I was sitting in the full sunshine and wearing sunglasses! Notice the house (well, half a house) in the top right of the painting? Earlier this year the cliff dropped away, taking half of the house with it!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Here's what's on my workdesk at the moment for WOYWW! I've had a little bit of time to work on a few paintings which I hope to start selling in the very near future. If anyone is interested in putting in an order in advance, please let me know!

This little guy is nearly finished, just needs a bit of tidying up and a frame and he'll be ready to go. I hope these will 'fly' off the shelves!

I'm thinking of ideas for a few other challenge entries too. Haunted Design House are running a challenge to create a chunky ATC that fits a dark, gothic or halloween theme. I have in mind to use fimo or porcelain clay in some way. So much to do, so little time...

Today I'm linking up to A Creative Princess and Domessblissity.

Summer fun in Torquay - watercolour seagull painting for PPF and WOYWW

Hi folks! I've had a fantastic time this week with the students of Kaplan International English school in Torquay! We've been all over the place, doing lots of activities outside to make the most of the sunshine. An afternoon spent on the beach here, a game of crazy golf there, trips to Living Coasts (the local seaside zoo) and games of tennis and bowls at Torre Abbey - we've really been spoilt with such good weather! Some of the students at the school haven't even experienced one day of rain during their stay!

All this fun hasn't left a lot of time for creativity, but I found an hour or so one evening to finish this painting of seagulls which I started last week. Firstly I drew a grid to arrange the seagulls in, then sketched them out in pencil, taking care that each one was facing a different direction to the next. When I was happy with the combination I drew over them in a fine pen and painted them in watercolours. I had trouble getting the colour of the wings all the same as the paint kept separating once I'd mixed it (cheap paints maybe?!), but as Sam said, seagulls are all slightly different anyway! I'm linking this one up to Paint Party Friday. What do you think?

'Seagulls' - © Clare Willcocks

All it needs now is a frame! Can you spot the teeny line I forgot to draw? 

This afternoon, when I got home from work, the sun was shining and the decking in the back garden was calling! Armed with a juice, my pad and watercolours I spent a lovely hour painting al fresco! I wanted to paint my 'workdesk' for this week's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW), so here it is! I don't have a set place that I work, so my workdesk always changes!

Watercolour painting in the garden.

Same view, with a few bits and bobs added/moved!

The painting in progress...

Just a quick post today as I'm off for a barbecue on the beach! I love summer! See you soon lovely readers :) Don't forget to follow my blog if you like what you see!

Today I'm linking up at Shabby Nest, Creative Princess and Rhinestone Beagle.

A peek into my sketchbook and an overdue comic strip journal page!

I've finally found the time to catch up on my comic strip diary! Today I bring you a whole week on one page. I used my very fine waterproof pen as I had in mind to paint it in watercolour for a special colour edition. Unfortunately I didn't get around to adding colour, so it remains in black and white. Hopefully I'll have a bit of time this week to paint it, but until then...

A whole week of sunshine

This is only a brief post today as I have been working on a painting to go on our wall. At the moment, having just moved in, we have plain white walls which are just begging to be filled with lovely paintings! I have a little obsession with painting seagulls at the moment and as they seem to be everywhere here in Torquay I thought they'd be the perfect subject. I drew it out today onto watercolour paper and outlined it in waterproof ink.

'Seagulls' - © Clare Willcocks

The chips in one square are to add a bit of interest, after all, they are a seagull's favourite food!

I took the ferry over to Brixham the other day with the students and took advantage of an hour while they had free time to do some drawing by the harbour. I sat on the slipway in the sunshine and had a lovely afternoon sketching the replica Golden Hind, Sir Francis Drake's ship, which has pride of place in Brixham harbour. This drawing needs painting really, to stop it looking so busy and make the boats easily distinguishable. I may get around to it one day!

Golden Hind, Brixham Harbour, Devon

I just had time left to sketch a little sailing boat.

Sailing Boat, Brixham Harbour, Devon

I also finished my greetings cards today, but I'll have to share them with you next time as I forgot to take photos of them! See you guys soon!

I'm linking this post to Handmade Harbour and Balzer Designs.