To write here again

Dear friends,

I am so happy to write here again ! 
I am sitting right next to the window ; I always push a small table next to the window in this winter-y period, so I can get more light (and be closed to the heater which makes it even better) ! Let me show you : 

So, here, warm and happy, looking at all the yellow leaves in the garden outside, I wanted to write a few words for you who take the time to visit this blog. Yesterday, I realised that some of my illustrations on Instagram did not have as much interactions as they used to a few weeks/months earlier. So I posted a poll in one of my stories, asking people if they still saw my illustrations in their timeline. Most of them did (about 70% of them), but some did not. And some people even took the time to send me messages (thank you ! I am always happy to read your words ♥), saying that Instagram might be slowly dying, and that blogs are also very convenient to interact with people. I have no idea, I thought for a really long time that blogs were kind of "dead" now ! Is that true ? Please give me a sign, something, if you think the contrary :-)

A flower a day - Une fleur par jour

Bonjour les amis,

J'espère que vous allez bien ! La semaine dernière (ou celle d'avant, je ne sais plus trop, j'ai mis un peu de temps à monter tout ce que j'avais filmé !), comme le soleil s'était caché (bon, d'ailleurs, il n'est pas encore vraiment revenu), j'ai décidé de contrer le ciel tout gris en couvrant une page de mon sketchbook de croquis de fleurs !

Pour cela, je me suis aidée du livre "The concise British flora in colour" de W. Keble Martin, un joli livre que j'ai trouvé chez un bouquiniste la dernière fois que je suis allée à Edimbourg. Et puis, comme il y a quand même eu un jour ou deux de beau temps, je suis aussi allée dessiner un peu des fleurs de la vraie vie dans le jardin ! 

Il m'arrive de culpabiliser lorsque je passe du temps à gribouiller dans mes carnets au lieu de travailler sur mes différents projets ou commandes, mais je me rends toujours compte par la suite que cela vient en fait enrichir mon travail - maintenant, j'ai un peu plus de genre, formes et couleurs de fleurs qui me viennent instantanément à l'esprit lorsque je dois en intégrer dans une illustration (c'est-à-dire, très souvent, puisque je ne peux pas m'en empêcher, et qu'à moins qu'un client ne me l'interdise expressément, il est probable que je continue d'en gribouiller absolument partout jusqu'à la fin de mes jours).

Bref, trêve de blabla, j'espère que ce petit aperçu de mon carnet vous plaira !

Belle journée et à bientôt,

Cécile

Dear friends,
I hope you are well ! Last week (or the week before, I do not remember actually, it took me so much time to edit everything I filmed), as the sun was hiding behind some moody grey clouds, I decided I would cover one of my sketchbook page with colourful flowers !
So I used a very pretty book I bought in a second-hand bookshop last time I went to Edinburgh, called "The concise British flora in colour" by W. Kebble Martin. And, as the sun was coming back little by little, I also decided to go to the garden to sketch "real life flowers" !
I always feel kind of guilty when I doodle in my sketchbooks instead of working on my projects or commissions, but then I always realise that it actually helps my work quite a lot : now, I have so much more shapes, colours and type of flowers coming instantly to my mind when I need to draw some in an illustration (which means, almost all the time, because I cannot control myself when it comes to flowers - if a client does not explicitely forbidd me to add some, I will always do so !).
But enough talking, I hope you will enjoy this little insight inside my sketchbook !
Have a lovely day,
See you soon,
Cécile

Zodiac

(Peindre les signes du zodiac pour l'horoscope de Spur Magazine)

Cliquer pour agrandir - Click to enlarge

Last November, I received an email. It was coming from Spur Magazine redaction, and I was asked to illustrate the two pages horoscope of the magazine - I had to draw the twelve signs, plus a larger illustration per month during a whole year. 
The very first issue where my little guys are printed came out in January, the 23rd precisely.

En Novembre dernier, j'ai reçu un mail. En provenance de la rédaction de Spur Magazine, on me demandait d'illustrer leur page d'horoscope - je devrais dessiner les douze signes du zodiac, et peindre une illustration-bannière par mois pendant douze mois. 
Le premier numéro imprimé avec mes petits gugusses dedans est paru en Janvier dernier, le 23 très exactement.

"The little green van" - Process

Hello dear friends !

Can you believe I am actually writing two articles consecutively ? I know, it seems insane, it probably never happened before.

But I feel like this blog deserves a little more than just one article every three months !

So I want to try to take better care of it. What do you think ?

Anyway, enough chatting, I am here today to show you a little bit of process behind a (simple) illustration (yes, simple, because for the moment I do not have a good camera or anything I wish I had to be able to show you more process behind bigger things... but one day will come when I will !).

Last year, when I was living in Edinburgh, I went to the see the sea for my birthday. It was very beautiful. And I felt so happy, despite of the grey, cloudy sky. That day, we saw a green van there, selling food to people around - warm soups, sandwiches, tea, cakes, coffee. Everything you need to be happy ! Right ?

Mr Fox

Hello dear friends !

Here is a little Gif I made from an illustration I posted on Instagram yesterday. As my phone has been really stubborn and did not want to download it properly, I decided (thank you lovely people who sent me a message to suggest it ♥) to post it here, so people who wanted to see this little guy moving could have a look anyway. 

And I thought, as a little extra something for those who take the time to come here, I would also post this little Photoshop sketch I did beforehand !

 

Oh, and, it is kind of inspired by my own experience with fairy lights indeed. I bought some few days ago, and kind of found myself tangled up when I tried to hang them on the wall above my bed. I might be the clumsiest person ever, so that was not really a surprise !

I hope you have a lovely day,
And see you soon !

(Cliquer sur "More" pour voir la traduction française) 

La fille qui sentait le citron

Dimanche 26 Mars 2017

S A I N T  A N D R E W  S Q U A R E - Edinburgh

Ces dernières semaines - depuis Février en fait - ont été je crois, les plus froides depuis que je suis arrivée ici. Il y avait du vent, de la pluie, des nuages, un air gris qui se baladait dans toute la ville. Elle était toujours aussi charmante, oui, mais elle le fut encore plus ce week end, lorsque le soleil a enfin daigné apparaître, sous un ciel bleu comme les eaux du Loch Ness.