Let's hear it for the Laydeez (and a Gent)!

An On-the-Spot Sketch Report

of the Inaugural Meeting 

of Laydeez Do Comics (Ireland)

Years ago, I went to university to study science. I was a mature student (all of 23!!!) when I started, and all my classmates were 17 and 18, so naturally I had more confidence than them. I sat in the front of the lecture theatres and asked lots of questions. I got a reputation for being "that cocky one at the front" - for a while no one knew I was older, as I have red hair and apparently that is the elixir of eternal youth. 

Many years passed and I found myself taking a PhD in mineralogy. I had to present papers in European cities, all alone, which I found very daunting (even though by now I was even more mature). I never put my hand up to ask a question because I was sure it would give the game away - i.e. that I didn't have a clue what I was on about. The blokes, on the other hand, knew everything, and dominated every presentation with their questions. They would take a very firm position on their own research, and arguments would get very heated. Never once did I hear a bloke say, "Thank you for making that point - I've never looked at it from that angle. I'll have a re-think." It took me years to realise that the main difference between me and those blokes was confidence - my results were just as diligently recorded, my experiments as meticulously designed and my observations as sharp as theirs. There was another difference, of course - I was secretly wishing I was drawing, whereas I'm pretty sure they weren't.

What has this got to do with Laydee comic makers? Not a lot...but it's always nice to make sweeping generalisations.

The Laydeez Do Comics group was set up as a forum to give women a place where they could talk about what they were up to in comics, without being drowned out by (sometimes) over-confident gentlemen. It's been a huge success: it started in Britain a couple of years ago, spread to the States...and now it's in Ireland! Yay!

Last night was the inaugural meeting of the Irish branch and it was a great success. I for one learned loads. the first speaker was the ridiculously brilliant Sarah McIntyre, of the utterly fabulous Vern and Lettuce and tons of other things. If you have never read Vern and Lettuce, you need to fix this as soon as possible.

She was full of all sorts of ideas, a lot of which involved wearing wigs...but that's her way of communicating. She really is a special talent and perhaps not quite of this world...

isn't she fabulous?

The next chap up to speak was Alan Nolan. He is all smiles and twinkling eyes, so you are with him before he starts, and then you're with him anyway, because he's hilarious. On so many levels, yes, including puns. He struck me as someone it would be great to work with for the sheer enjoyment of it. I particularly loved the fact that his work has a very strongly Irish voice - and I don't mean because he has to draw lots of people playing hurling. It's not even just the humour. It's much deeper than that. He makes comics that are intrinsically Irish in every line, and I love that.

can't you see his twinkling eyes?

Finally we had the pleasure of hearing Maeve Clancy speak. This is a woman who is full of integrity and determination. Maeve has used her talent and skill to bring comics to people who might not ordinarily get a chance - I'm talking about kids who've been dealt a poor hand in life, but who are determined to have their say. Maeve spoke of young people who have no one to call next-of-kin, for whom comic making has become a real way to have a voice.

She was also pretty funny about getting the balance right between honesty and keeping a client happy: just draw then better-looking than they are and you'll get away with it!

a most knowledgeable and generous contributor and her hair is fabulous 

Three inspiring comics artists...full of ideas...rock on laydeez (and gent).

Making Felt Zombies: Family Harmony

I was so sick of the stupid screens. Stupid Minecraft. The kids are so addicted that they go donwstairs at 6am and play it with the sound turned off to avoid detection. I know I'm being unreasonable but it drives me potty to see their beautiful young brains wasting away with such nonsense. I have also noticed, and I was NOT looking out for this, that they get really narky when they've been playing the x-box for ages. They normally get on really well, by and large, but they are at each others' throats after a while on it. Even Paddy (11), who is extremely mild-mannered. His sister Honor (13) is not quite as mild-mannered so it's just an all-round disaster. They even forget to have breakfast and start shouting for it at midday, they get so engrossed (wish I'd invented it).

So yet another day of xboxing was unrolling before me. It was crap outside as usual, dark and wet, and in spite of swearing I would never subject my kids to living in the middle of nowhere, we do.
I put the foot down and told them they HAD to do some sewing if they wanted to go on the stupid computer the next day (why did I buy it then? Try putting a boy to bed every night for a year in tears that he's not allowed to get an xbox, all his friends have one etc etc.). I also promised a square of chocolate each. My friend Emma thinks I am a witch the way I don't give sweets. It worked when they were little - now they get them from everyone, everywhere - bus driver - teachers - coaches - you name it. So I'm GLAD they went without for the few years that I could control it. I can still get them to do loads of things with the promise of a square of chocolate...

I had just bought a book called Zombie Felties (can't remember the author but it is brilliant) and Liv was given one called Felties I think, in the same series, which is also brilliant. So, armed with these, we began... 

Here's the good bit: within half an hour there were three kids around the kitchen table all sewing away happily. I helped the youngest a bit (okay, a lot) as she's pretty new to sewing and she's only 8. But she's pretty confident on the sewing machine and has sewn two monsters so far! 

Here's Honor's zombie bride:

The bride has a streak of blood coming from her mouth and a bunch of dead flowers:

We told her about Miss Haversham (is that her name?) in Great Expectations. I think she liked the idea of a dusty old wedding cake, covered in cobwebs, sitting on a table for decades...Her dad and I are trying to encourage her to set up a business - she sold personalised voodoo dolls last Hallowe'en to her school pals and earned a few quid...she was very resentful that she had to pay her fabric supplier (me) and her subcontractor (also me). I agreed a rate with her at the time for piecework (sewing a zigzag around the edge) and told her afterwards I would have given her a better rate. Tough but you need to know these things!

Here's Paddy's zombie mummy:

Its left eye pops on and off with a tiny black snap. I thought it was an adorable zombie mummy but I didn't like to say (somehow everything he draws or sews has a distinctively cute look, which is very reflective of his own looks and personality...very odd).

Liv made a fellow called Messenger Bear, with some help from me...

I did loads - she was getting a bit restless by the time she'd made any progress. I think with her I would have more success if I did her on her own and watched her the whole time. The other two would be extremely annoyed if I made any suggestions!

Moral: you can get the kids away from stupid screen for a few hours if you bribe them.

Life Sock Creature Drawing

Successful authors always say the way to improve your writing is to write. I'm not sure I agree: I think that you could still be useless at writing if you wrote every day (then again I'm not a successful author). 

Drawing is different. 

If you draw every day, from life (NOT a photo), you will improve your drawing no end.  It's something I sort of knew for years but it's actually worked for me...I used to be a bit hit-and-miss with drawing, or need to look at loads of references to get figures right, but I don't anymore. It's bloody useful as I can work very fast now.

If you want to improve your drawing skills, then this is for you. Feel free to comment away if there's anything I can add to be a bit more helpful. 

Basically the message is this: drawing sock creatures is a perfect way to improve your drawing skills. They are colourful, which is fun; they aren't too fiddly, as you had to sew them in the first place so they are likely to be quite roundy; they are cute, which means the finished result is nice to look at; and they are smallish, which means they can be propped anywhere to be drawn.

The only drawback is that no one will want to buy drawings of YOUR homemade sock creatures...so it really is an indulgence.

I always use the same materials when I draw sock creatures. They are as follows:

1. Brown envelope (the inside)
2. Gouache paints
3. Waterproof fine liners sizes 0.8 and 0.3mm
4. Pencil (2B is good)
5. Rubber
6. White gel pen
7. Brushes size 4 and 8 (wriggle room here depending on preferences)

That's it.

1. Roughly draw the sock creature in pencil - softly - NO HARD LINES
2. Go over your lines with an 0.8mm pen on the outside, use the finer one for finer lines
3. Draw whatever patterns are on the sock in pencil
4. Go over them in a fine liner
5. Rub out pencil lines - if you want - they won't show up much, especially under paint
6. Mix your colours using gouache
7. Paint the coloured bits - leave white till last
8. Go around any fiddly bits with opaque pen
9. Fill in the large areas with white gouache

There you go! 

You can substitute other things for sock creatures but they all come with problems. Marionettes: how will you hang them to draw them? Flowers: how do you stop them wilting? Other folks' cuddly toys: not as cute as sock creatures! Interiors: nice but you have to tidy the room first; Landscapes: cold to be out there and too distant when you're inside; Portraits: sitter often gets restless...

So you see, you really can't beat sock creatures for life models...

Communion Dress Disaster

Five years ago I made my older daughter's First Holy Communion dress. It was very pretty. It was ivory raw silk, had a sweetheart neckline, a full calf-length skirt, cap sleeves, tied at the back in a big bow and had a big ivory rose at the waist. The bodice was lined, it looked beautiful on Honor and all in all it was a great success. I put it away carefully for Liv's Communion which would take place in five years' time. I checked that it was clean before I put it away, and it was.

Or so I thought.

About three weeks ago - actually, it was more, but that is to my shame - I noticed that there were two roundish yellow stains on the front of the skirt of the dress. I made a mental note to clean them off before the big day, which was yesterday. Thursday came, and I figured with two days to go I had better not hang around any longer, and took the dress into the bathroom to clean off the stains.

They wouldn't come off at all. I used washing powder: nothing. Soap applied vigorously to the spot: nothing. So I thought, no bother, I'll put a little dilute Milton's fluid on the spots, that should do the trick. After going at it a bit I held up the dress, but to my horror the stains had only faded a bit, but the yellow mark had spread into the surrounding fabric. Cat in the Hat or what! So I freaked out and tried more Milton. Bigger yellow stain, but maybe a bit fainter. But since it was a bit fainter, I thought I would lay the skirt part of the dress in a shallow bath of very dilute Milton (ie. half a capful in a shallow bath).

Lucky I didn't put the whole dress in.

Later that evening I had a look at progress. I couldn't really tell if the stain was still there or not. I asked Cuthbert what he thought and he said "I don't see any stain."

Friday morning - the day before the Communion, when I had five years to prepare - I had another look. I realised, to be on the safe side, I would have to go into Hickeys and buy some little roses or something to cover the stains - just in case.
When I got to Hickeys, I had a look at the dress in the strong light there.

The entire skirt had turned a horrible patchy yellow and the silk had lost its lovely crispness. I held a piece of yellow, limp rag in my hands...with some parts worse than others. Completely hideous. What could I do? No amount of roses (which there weren't any of anyway) would fix this.

I don't know how I had the idea, but idea I did have. I asked the shop assistant Bridie (who is so lovely, really calm and knowledgeable) if I could put some net over the top. She suggested tulle. Off we went to the net-and-tulle section. They had all sorts of grades and shades. She thought I should go ivory to match the dress but I needed to bring in white anyway as the accessories were mostly white - the gloves, tights and hairband were all white. The bag was ivory, covered in roses (adorable). So I bought tons of tulle and a strip of beautiful ivory roses on a lace backing to cover the join at the waistband.

Off I went, calm, knowing it would work, but also knowing I had a very tiny window to sew all this. I got cracking the second I got home. I removed the big ivory rose that was sewn onto the waist, folded the enormous piece of tulle in half lengthways and began to gather it with a running stitch. I have always found gathering net really hard and tulle is not much easier - maybe a bit, as it's a good deal finer. I did it in sections which made it a tiny bit easier but I really should have done it differently (I thought I would end up with a neat, parallel bit at the end, but I had not kept the tulle straight so it was very tricky).

It worked.

I brought it with me to the hairdressers, and sewed the strip of roses on while the hairdresser mixed an elderly lady's rinse. I must have been wired as I talked the legs off the hairdresser.

As I drove up the drive to the house, it was really sunny and Liv was messing about outside. "Why is my dress in the car?" she said, through the open window. "Look," I said, holding it up for her. She gasped. "But...where's my dress?" she said. "That is your dress," I said. "I put this on to make it even nicer." I wasn't sure if she liked it...she was certainly surprised.

A few minutes later, Cuthbert came in from doing the lawn. "Dad! Wait till you see what Mum did to my dress! It's soooo beautiful! Let me try it on for you!" "I'm so glad, darling!" he said, "Let me wait till tomorrow! I would like to be surprised!"

Not half as surprised as I was by the recovery.

She was beautiful, of course. The dress looked far nicer than it had before the accident.

In the cinema, after the ceremony, she leaned forward to me in the gloom. "Mum!" she said. "Look!" The entire front of her dress had a huge dark brown mark on it - I had bought her a tub of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Whatsit and at least a fifteenth of it was now down her front. "Don't touch it!" I said. "Don't rub it, don't wipe it, just forget about it for now!" and back we went to the movie.

After the film, I took her to the ladies. She was mortified by the chocolate stain - there were lots of other little princesses in white there too - and clutched her little fur jacket to her chest with both hands, clearly at a loss. But I had planned the rescue. I put her in a cubicle, stripped off the dress and told her to wait in there while I sorted it out. I washed out the stain with plenty of soap and hot water and spent about twenty minutes drying it under the hand dryer. Thank God raw silk dries super-fast (especially once it's limp)!

I put a clean, warm dress on my little darling, and no one was any the wiser...

HOUSEWIFE

KING PUCK

Hello everyone! My name is Puck, King of the Stupid Sock Creatures, at least the ones that live in my house. They don't know I'm their king but I don't care.

Wild Flowers Prints

Wild Flowers 
a series of watercolour limited-edition prints

 Apple Blossom

This apple blossom wasn't wild - it came from my garden. I felt bad for the apples that would never grow on the branch I snipped but the petals were flying off anyway so I thought it better to paint them while I still could.
It wasn't too tricky - although I did make a false start and had to begin again as I made three mistakes on the first attempt with my waterproof, indelible pen which would have made the painting less than up to scratch. The cloth under the jug belonged to my great-great-grandmother, who came from Madeira. My great-grandmother left Madeira for England (with her manservant!) and this, and many other cutwork cloths, came with her, so they must have meant a lot to her.
The jug comes from a large discount retailer, so although it's lovely (I bought the big one too, see an earlier post with hyacinths and white tulips) it was probably made in the thousands in China somewhere. Then again, some Chinese person may have carefully wrapped it and sent it off on its journey to a far-off land...

Bluebells

These bluebells, or, more accurately harebells, were growing on the roadside along a country road near my house. There is a most incongruous car sales place next to the little clump of bluebells, which seems very wrong in the setting. Anyway I felt bad pinching the flowers but I figured the pouring rain would deter anyone from gazing thoughtfully out the window, never mind making an appearance.
Again, the cloth belonged to my great-grandmother Florence. She was a watercolour painter too. Her work was exquisite. She painted many views of her fabulous house and its beautiful gardens in Nursling, Hampshire, which is now a boarding school. I wonder did she have the ambition as a painter that I have? She would never have had the chance to do anything or go anywhere with her painting, in spite of her privilege. Thank God for less privilege and more opportunities.

Cowslips

These were truly wild. We did not invite them to live in our lawn, but they have made themselves very much at home. I can't even say they are domesticated as we try and chase them off whenever possible - with the lawnmower. But they are so pretty. The lace came...from Madeira. It was tough to paint but I quickly got into the swing of it and discovered the trick (which, obviously, is to paint the holes and not the lace). Most of the clumps of cowslips I found had sedge growing right beside it. They are obviously bosom pals so I decided not to separate them and to paint them together. I think the sedge is cute too.

My brand-new e-commerce website, www.roisincure.com, will be up and running in a few days and you'll be able to purchase prints from there. I'll make updates on progress on this blog.