Outside Of Sarah

44 The End

2009-12-12T14:53:00.001-08:00

Weirdly enough, and with no planning, I have finished posting about my sketchbook on number 44-my age! The circles on the cover are printed with my silver ring. (Outside of my finger) I was going to leave it white and red but thought it looked a bit boring, so added the colour yesterday using inks. I added some interference medium (gold) to the front cover to look a bit sparkly. So that is it! The sketch book project completed! I am tempted to join in with more arthouse projects but will wait till after Christmas now to decide. Thank you for your interest and lovely comments-I have really appreciated them all!

43

2009-12-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

42

2009-11-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

I have stuck this little explanation booklet into the front of the sketchbook. It shows how the pages were initially created from an outline of myself.

41

2009-11-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

The internet has only really been a part of my life for about four years and I am so happy it is as it has opened up so many possibilities for me-this being one of them! So thank you the internet, for taking me outside of myself!

This sketch is based on the current desktop photo of Andy, Tiger and Lily, using the internet! The cats use it to get our attention as they must have noticed the inordinate amount of time we spend sitting in one place staring at the computer. So if they sit there, chances are they will get some love! I sat where Andy is sitting to do my little painting. I was talking to my brother on the phone and I looked down to realise Lily had twisted her paw around where I had painted the tangle of wires-thus smudging them! I re-did them but they look blurry now. So Lily has contributed to my sketchbook.

40

2009-11-28T14:19:00.001-08:00

Some of my make-up-which I don't wear much of. I love the pretty colours of the products and the packaging-I am a bit of a sucker for that.

I used the make-up itself to colour the sketch-the sparkly eyeliners worked particularly well! The eye shadows are like soft and shimmery pastels.

I seem to have four blushers. Obviously none of them were the perfect shade! The eyeshadow I wear most days is in the top left of the photo and didn't even make it into the sketch! It is the one with six colours-clinique-so soft and lovely!

This is the second to last page-one more to go, the front cover and a bit of information and I am finished!

39

2009-11-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

My outfit on Saturday done in sgraffito- a technique I had forgotten about and used to love. I have a long way to go with this I think!

38

2009-11-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

My outfit last Wednesday. I photocopied the fabric so in reality the circles are much smaller in relation to the skirt. It is a Boden skirt picked up in Deptford second hand market for three pounds!
I can't draw hands. I tried though!

37

2009-11-16T14:33:00.001-08:00

Page of ephemera including photocopy of 1900s sewing magazine, Pelham Puppets broken packaging, collector's tea card, old chemist labels, old sheet music, stamp from Spain and page from a Russian language book.

I enjoyed making this page. It took me quite a while and I had a few disasters such as overdoing the black on the edge-it wiped off though as there is so much gesso and matt medium on the page!

36

2009-11-16T14:30:00.001-08:00

A page based on a very busy printed blouse. I have only worn it once. It is from the charity shop and I was drawn to its bright colours (I have mentioned this before!) I may wear it again. I like the turquoise and brown combination.

35

2009-11-16T14:26:00.001-08:00

I like this page-I used my newish chalks and my favourite pen and ink. The chalks cover the area so quickly-good for impatient artists. I have recently taken to blow-drying my fringe straight as it seems to stop it sticking up annoyingly by lunchtime. It is an extra thing to fit in the morning routine though so I work fast! I am always cutting said fringe as I leave too long between hair cut appointments-hence the scissors.

34

2009-11-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

Practising my cross hatching!

33

2009-11-16T14:18:00.001-08:00

I do love shiny things-I may be a magpie in another life I think. I am not that keen on this page out of all the ones I have done. But once I started I had to carry on! I used glitter, gold leaf, gold transfer stuff-I have no idea of its proper name-we have had it in the art cupboard at school for years-you put Pritt Stick where you want it then rub on the plastic transfer stuff-like you do with gold leaf I suppose. It comes in gold, silver, copper and other metallic colours.
'Shiny' is done in embossing powder-stamped letters made from polystyrene.

32

2009-11-16T14:14:00.001-08:00

I used a photo for this page but the ink changed colour when I stuck it down. I quite liked the effect in the end because it changed to a greeny hue quite reminiscent of the sea! The seaweed is in a vase on the side and is from Sheppey. I have that kind, a pale leafy kind and also some crambe maritima (I think) seeds which are beautiful.

31

2009-10-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here I am again in the hallway! I am wearing my work clothes-I actually looked quite smart today-my choice of clothes must depend on my role for that week or day-this week I am indoors working in the literacy area of the nursery so I can wear skirts and boots if I like. I do tend to wear trousers most of the time as I sit on the floor a lot. Tomorrow is Forest School so I am wearing old trousers, waterproof trousers, cotton top and fleece. I will be boiling no doubt in the waterproof trousers but they are great for sitting on the grass or rolling down the hill!
I was drawing this in the hall when it was dark outside and was standing right under the light-hence the strong shadow on my nose! I had to totally rub out the head and start again at one point so this, although not much of a likeness, was my better second attempt!

30

2009-10-19T14:33:00.001-07:00

I am getting a little anxious to GET THIS FINISHED now! I can't seem to do other journals, sketchbooks or anything much while this is not finished. I have really enjoyed doing this book and I may do other books with themes as it has made me focus more than I normally do. I intend to do a few simple sketches of outfits over this week so I can send it off in my holiday next week. In this one I am wearing jeans, a grey linen dress and a stripey jersey type top. I am holding the sketchbook and standing in the hallway where there is a mirror.

29

2009-10-15T14:41:00.001-07:00

This is true. I have a wardrobe full of brightly coloured patterned things which don't go together. I buy them in moments of optimism and then wonder why. I once read that people tend to buy brighter things when on holiday-or more adventurous things than they normally would-I suppose because they feel released from the hum-drum day to day life. Some examples from my wardrobe-a bright lime green mac and a bright rainbow stripe jumper-both from New York.
Isn't this yellow headache inducing? The more I look at it, the more I think so!

28

2009-10-15T14:27:00.001-07:00

I am not a big on cosmetics or products person, but there are a few favourites I have stuck with over the years. I was quite remiss in beginning to moisturise but once I did I tried lots of different creams. Finally I have settled with clinique and I love their dramatically different moisturizing lotion. I also use their toner but have gone off their face wash as I found it too drying. Now I use the gorgeous Eau Thermale Avene-Gel demaquillant douceur-mmm!

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula in all its incarnations is my favourite all time body lotion. It smells of chocolate and really works. I can feel it nourishing my skin!

The little red bottle is a lip and cheek tint-weird liquid that you paint on your lips. I like it as it gives a bit of colour but is not cloying like lipstick can be. My favourite perfume at the moment is Allure Sensuel by Chanel. Mmmm again!

As I was doing this page the song Keep young and beautiful popped into my head! Annie Lennox is singing it in the link-who knew!

27

2009-10-15T14:25:00.001-07:00

26

2009-10-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Roads, maps, planning journeys and driving-all very enjoyable and pleasant. The collage background is a great old small atlas from the charity shop with only black and white maps-very crisply drawn. I love studying maps for the place names alone. We always buy ordnance survey maps of anywhere new we are going on holiday-they are so detailed and fascinating!

25

2009-10-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

Stripey long socks are my favourite type of socks, closely followed by the thick and cosy ones I wear in the evening.

24

2009-10-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

I got the idea for this page from the newspaper picture that was there. I have lots of woolly jumpers. I chose three that were different shades of purple and different textures. I enjoyed looking at the detail of the stitches.

23

2009-10-07T14:18:00.001-07:00

As I was doing the washing up the other evening, vacantly staring out of the window at the trees, sky and collapsed tomato plants, I suddenly realised that I was not thinking of anything apart from the job I was doing and the things I could see. I was outside of myself! I have sketched the precariously balancing results of my labours and the surrounding bits and pieces.

22

2009-10-07T13:52:00.001-07:00

Me and millions of others I know! I tend to get a bit obsessed with certain songs or albums and listen to them over and over again, before moving onto something else for a while.

Certain lyrics stick with me and get stuck in my head. It sometimes takes me a while to decipher some words but eventually I learn the whole song. On these pages I have put a few of my favourite lyrics.

Left to right and top to bottom:-

Nick Cave, Lou Reed, The Be Good Tanyas, a song from the 'Withnail and I' soundtrack-not sure who it is by. Hank Williams (the silence of a falling star one) (I think this may be my all time favourite, it is just breathtaking), Tanya Donnelly(Belly), The Editors, Fleet Foxes and Fleet Foxes again.

I do love to sing. I am not sure I am any good at it but I am grateful to have a job where singing every day is accepted good practice!

21

2009-09-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

I think this is my favourite page so far-I love drawing with pen and ink, I enjoyed researching the quotes I wanted and it made me laugh. It also made me closely read the rubbish they spout on the hair dye box, which normally doesn't get a second glance. I have been dyeing my hair for so long now that I do not need instructions or tests or stuff-just tip it all out and go. It made the experience more fun somehow! The colour of the girl on the right is the colour I used but it came out this interesting shade of reddy pink on the page. I love the quote I found by Thomas Carew-it is mysterious and strange. I do not know what it is from and must research more.
"Those curious locks so aptly twin'd, who's every hair a soul doth bind"
The hair are your aerials quote is Withnail And I-one of my favourite all time films. Danny is lamenting the demise of the 60s.
I love the Kahlil Gibran quote and also what Bianca said-it is true! She was justifying the extortionate cost of something or other but still!

20

2009-09-29T14:54:00.001-07:00

The other day I was wearing the necklace in the top left corner and it reminded me of the sun. It was only a cheap necklace but there is something lovely about it-it makes me think of cowboys and buckles-it is quite heavy metal and nice to play with when you wear it. Anyway, once it had reminded me of the sun, I started to think about how much of my jewellery is representative of real things. I think this is because of my love of miniature things-I have a whole collection, not currently displayed (lack of room!) Then I thought of loosely arranging them in a scene-I suppose I could have made more of a scene of it, but got carried away recording the tiny details of the pieces of jewellery I picked.
In case you are interested, here is a list of the items-going left to right and top to bottom.
Sun like necklace
Rainbow chunky plastic ring
Star earring (plastic)
Moon necklace (silver and ivory coloured resin)
Bird earring (wooden-painted)
Grapes earring (glass)
Butterfly earring(enamel)
South American couple-kind of embroidered I think
Enamel faces earrings
Plastic moulded rabbit brooch
Lego skeleton necklace
Enamel on silver snake charm
Alice in wonderland rabbit and watch earrings
Enamel daisy earring
Turquoise, coral and silver earring
Enamel cat brooch
Tiny silver fishbone earrings

19

2009-09-29T14:49:00.001-07:00

The blackbird is a singing toy, bought for Forest school. He is sitting in a real nest. The cockerel is glass, from Whitby. The red bird is plaster I think-he has little wire legs. The swan happened to be on that piece of newspaper. I would love to draw real birds but they don't want to come in and pose!
I can't believe how dark the shadow is in this photo. I took it at lunchtime, in bright sunshine, on a white board. It looks like there is cut out black paper under there!

18

2009-09-20T14:33:00.001-07:00

17

2009-09-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

My new Rocket Dog Disco Stars boots-they are beautiful, too beautiful to wear! They are like something that children wear but for grown ups-I love them!

16

2009-09-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

15

2009-09-20T14:24:00.001-07:00

14

2009-09-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

I saw this technique in Stampington's Art Journaling magazine and really love the effect. The artist is Dina Wakley. I have done stencils before but not thought of using cut outs of people. I have been cutting out lots of people from magazines so I can use them in other books-when I have finished this one. I used acrylic inks flicked from an old brush-one of those ones that all the hairs have spread out on-perfect for this job!

13-unlucky for some

2009-09-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

I lived at a flat with the number 13 for quite some time, so have lost my superstition about the number-I think! This dress is lovely-but I always worry that I look like I have gone out in my dressing gown. It is from Hennes (a cheap yet stylish clothing chain) so I have seen lots of other people in the dress-or its rusty red version, and they look ok, so I hope for the best! I loved the bamboo patterns on it and the way it has brown on black.
The other side was a drawing of some brooches-it went wrong so I gessoed and painted, then did the nursery thing of drawing around my hand-outside of my hand, then coloured and drew-using weird souffle pens-they have to dry to appear. It has my snake ring-but next week I am wearing labradorite-for protection-look at Kasia Blue!

12

2009-09-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

From left to right, top to bottom:-

Tiny Red (Vanessa Valencia-A Fanciful Twist), Mother's Day Doll(She has bird children) (Beth Robinson-Strange Dolls), Violet (Mealy Monster Land), Titania, (Me!) Broken Hearted Doll (Beth Robinson), Gothic Lolita (Beth Robinson), Susanne (Du Buh Du Designs)

I have a collection of old dolls-not valuable old dolls, just old. They are beautiful to me. (I would like to clarify-they are not the porcelain type Victorian dolls, or the baby doll type-they are costume dolls from different countries mainly)

In the past, I have made papier mache figures-just three-two of them were Frida and Diego Kahlo. When I became involved in blogland I realised that there are so many Frida fans out there and many of them feel drawn to make a representation of her so I am not alone there! Then I discovered the world of art dolls-did I know about it before? I can't remember, but I am so glad I do now. I have a growing collection which I love. I love to look at their faces, and, as someone who is learning to make them, I am inspired by and in awe of the artists that make such beautiful things. Their little faces do really take me outside of myself-I stare and stare at them. They are, logically, inanimate objects, made of clay or cloth. But to me they look real and I read many doll artist's writings and they all say the same thing-that their dolls start to take on a personality of their own as they emerge.

11

2009-09-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

I tend to have favourite clothes or jewellery-or music actually. I wear/listen to it over and over again and then one day-that's it-I forget about it. (Am I fickle?) This is one of those pieces of clothing. It has a lovely blue and white pattern, is cut well so as to disguise my stomach, and looks good ( I hope!) with either a short or long sleeved t-shirt worn underneath.

10

2009-09-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

These were both Tiger, but actually, one looks like Lily-looking slightly mad at the back!

9

2009-09-03T15:08:00.001-07:00

8

2009-09-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

7

2009-09-01T13:49:00.001-07:00

6

2009-08-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

Self-explanatory! I am not especially impressed with the faces but the sketch makes me smile! It is taken from the booklet that came with the film.

5

2009-08-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

This page had two flaps to lift like doors and I thought of the icon idea when I got to it. I have always loved them.

I have done a lot of display lettering over the years at school and I find making letters with paint incredibly relaxing.

4

2009-08-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Page inspired by Richard Long and a loose interpretation of my favourite dress.

3

2009-08-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

I am not entirely sure what is going on on this page-so far it is a distressed photo of me. I may do more to it but don't know what!

My favourite nightshirt.

2

2009-08-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Detail of my shirt, necklace and lips, on collage background of colours I was wearing.

1

2009-08-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

This was my first idea-that I wanted the outside of myself to literally be in the book. So I laid down here and got Andy to draw around me. What a funny shape I am!I numbered the pieces.Then pasted them into the sketchbook in order-after a bit of trimming-I had cut them all too big even though I thought I measured them by the page size-measuring is not my strong point! So I am divided through the book. If you cut it all up and put the pieces back together then you would make a paper me!

The Sketchbook Project

2009-08-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

I am going to put all of my work for this project on this blog so I can keep it all in one place and it is easy to add to or to view.
My topic is Outside of Myself. I have been thinking about it for some time, deciding on approaches and then rejecting them. Now I have mulled it over for a while I know what I want to do.
One part of the sketchbook is going to take the title quite literally-as in how I look-what I wear, aspects of my appearance-maybe a fabric, an eye, a piece of jewellery. I like considering what I wear and how I look-some of the time and the things that make my appearance more interesting-such as pattern, colour and adornment are the things that interest me about it.
Secondly the sketchbook will contain things that can take me outside of myself-take me away from considering life from a self-centered point of view and transport me to another place or feeling-they might be happy, joyous things or they might evoke other emotions. This finalising of my approach to the sketchbook came to me today while I was hoovering!