This is a self portrait of sorts.
I sketched my own foot in pencil to while away some waiting time, then inked in the outline later.
Waiting
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Author Archives: kathrynhockey
Anthurium
I drew this beautiful anthurium while I was staying with friends in London this month.
I love the contrast between the red of the flowers and the green of the leaves and the elegant sweep of the stems.
I started with a pencil outline which I went over in waterproof ink (below) before adding the watercolour layers.
Tomatoes
I made this quick pen and watercolour sketch of cherry tomatoes on the vine as they were growing in my mum’s greenhouse.
As always…they were so sweet and delicious!
Portrait of a Lady
I was delighted to be asked to make this charcoal portrait of a photographer taking a photograph of a photographer.
I worked from a photograph…
…the stages are shown above.
And here she is resplendent in a frame.
Bar Día – A Love Story
I was asked by José to make this pen and watercolour drawing as a wedding present for Blaise and Letitia, to celebrate their first ever meeting.
José wrote this poem to go with the drawing
Se dice que fue como un relámpago,
en cosa de un segundo,
segundo y medio a lo sumo,
un estallido de rosas cayendo de su pecho
al albur de unos ojos,
un traqueteo de piernas,
el suspiro de un miedo
y un miedo vencido con solo una palabra.
Se dice que alguien se enamoró aquel día
como tantas otras veces otras gentes
pero yo que he visto conozco esta historia
puedo dejarla escrita en estos versos
puedo decir seguro
que mereció la pena.
Which translates as
It is said that it was like a lightning bolt,
a matter of a second,
a second and a half at most,
an explosion of roses falling from his chest
to the fate of eyes,
a quiver of legs,
the sigh of fear
a matter of a second,
a second and a half at most,
an explosion of roses falling from his chest
to the fate of eyes,
a quiver of legs,
the sigh of fear
and fear overcome with only one word.
It is said that someone fell in love that day
like so many other people at other times
but I’ve seen, I know this story
I can leave it written in these verses
I can say for sure
that it was worth it.
Obviously it was impractical for me to travel to Mallorca to draw the bar so I worked from a photo that José found on the internet, rendering the outline first in pencil then in pen (above left and right) before applying the watercolour (top).
Tap
I had a lovely outing to Lassco salvage yard in Bermondsey the other day; not only do they have many interesting and beautiful objects which have been rescued from old buildings but there’s a splendid café there too.
I was particularly taken by the tap collection and immortalised this example over a nice pot of green tea.
My companion made a beautiful pencil drawing of another tap, both our drawings along with our models are shown below.
English Rose
This gorgeous specimen from my mum and dad’s garden smells as good as it looks!
Chumbera!
I’m delighted to have finally found a chumbera (prickly pear) with some lush new growth; the once ubiquitous and beautiful cactus is suffering an infestation of insects and slowly dying out here in Andalusia.
Moi from the gorgeous Ecléctica Deco shop in Vejer suggested that I sketch a chumbera a good while ago; he told me he’d seen a good one in La Breña national park so I set off for a hike on a really hot day search of it…needle in a haystack situation ensued. His next sighting was luckily closer to home and much easier to find.
I missed it in flower but hey-ho…the heart shaped leaf was a bonus…promise it was actually like that!
Dragonfly Tunic Dress
So this little number is the result of my third dress making adventure; using a black on beige version of my dragonfly fabric design which I had digitally printed in the UK by Woven Monkey.
I find the boat neck / empire line combination really comfortable and flattering so I’ve continued it here but by cutting the hem straight and splitting the sides I’ve converted the dress into more of a tunic which allows for much more movement below the waist…I can run in this one but long undergarments are essential for the preservation of modesty!
I wanted to make the bodice of this dress more closely fitting which meant putting in more darts and a zip. I opted to put an ‘invisible’ zip in the side seam (right) and thanks to guidance from several YouTube tutorials my first ever attempt worked pretty well.
I also decided to sew on a long black ribbon to accentuate the empire line and add a bit of flounce round the back.
While making my first two dresses – from my Dragonfly (white on grey version) and Horse fabrics – I’d come to love bias binding so I decided to use it to make a contrasting trim around the neck, arm holes and hem on this dress. I was also inspired (by a pair of black, beige and orange shorts I own) to add an orange top stitch to jazz up the black and beige combination.
Feels jolly nice on and washes well! Yay!
Skull and Flower
I have a collection of bones at home, a few of which are on display, including this sheep skull with its barbed wire crown.
I’ve been meaning to draw it for a while and this was the week…
The text translates as “…your poetic essence is still in the neighbourhood…” and is dedicated to a lovely chap from Vejer who lived just round the corner from me and who recently died.
I didn’t know he was ill.
If I had known that his presence was not a ‘for granted’ thing I would have made time to stop and chat over a coffee more often.
His observations were cheery, wise and gentle…his poetry is timelessly mysterious and beautiful.
Encantada de haberte conocido José Luis.