elidillonart

Hello! Well it's nearly the end of November and my oh my the weather has turned! Dark nights beginning at 3pm, heating on at 6am. Tea on an endless loop to keep warm, always wanting to just order groceries online but forcing baby and myself out into the drizzling rain to trudge around two supermarkets (trying to stick to a budget means a cheap supermarket and a treat supermarket, such is life). On the whole however, autumn has treated us very well. I am always thankful for being able to work from home nowadays instead of rushing out on a dark morning for a hair-raising ride to work down Yorkshire's twistiest 60mph country lane. I spent this month opening my new online shop (hurrah!) and reading back through my diaries realising this was a New Year's resolution of mine for the past 3 years running but also happy in the knowledge that most artists are expert procrastinators. Incidentally you can find my shop here - www.etsy.com/shop/elidillon  It inhabits a quiet cor...

Hello! It's been a busy few weeks with birthdays and babies and houses and drawings and commissions and hot weather and lethargy BUT I did manage to finish the Hook and Ladder drawing that is now up on the website and part of the New York Project! Hurray for personal work!

Happy Monday morning! This morning the baby has been sleeping for hours as we had a busy weekend so I've been able to begin work on updating my portfolio (www.elidillon.com). I have a personal project called The New York Project. As I've been drawing York architecture being a local York artist I thought it might be nice to pair those pictures with famous locations in New York City. I started with the set from Rear Window - an Alfred Hitchcock film starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly (and my all time favourite film). Though this isn't a real location, it was an epic set building on a multi floored stage, it was designed to be in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. I'm updating that project with 3 new pictures - Katz's Delicatessen - the famous location seen in When Harry Met Sally Hook and Ladder Company 8 - the fire station seen in Ghostbusters Holly's Apartment building - from Breakfast at Tiffanys There are others on the horizon, perha...

Now that the ol'baby is getting into a slightly predictable napping routine I can plan my day a little more and be a little more creatively productive. I have finished a portfolio piece for the Food Project and a couple of buildings in York - my usual go to sketchbook work. I have a couple of commissions of people's homes and families to draw in the upcoming weeks so all the nap gaps have pretty much been filled with drawing. This is good as I was a tad worried that a baby would change absolutely everything and though life is definitely different - baby is so chill that I can still retain bits of life pre 4 weeks ago!

So #mermay did not work so well for me. I did birth a baby in May though so that's my legitimate excuse. I managed the grand total of two mermaids and one was pregnant as that's pretty much all that was on my mind towards the end. Oh well! Now that mini-me is here and sleeping soundly for a couple of hours each day I have started sketching again. I keep one of mini's naps for napping myself and then the following nap is drawing time! It's part of the day I love because it links pre-baby and post-baby life, no matter what there is still a pencil and a sketchbook and 100 drawings before you get to one you like. So this week I picked up some magazines and scoured the internet and sketched some food. Most of it is vegan or I adapted them to become vegan because I'm all about saving the animals. The desserts are inspired by one of my favourite youtube channels and blogs @hotforfood by Lauren Toyota. Some of the other food ideas are from the free Tesco magazine (wh...

I thought I would share some of the pages of my recently finished sketchbook. It is part of the sketchbook project which is based in Brooklyn, New York. Once you complete the sketchbook it is added to their library and people can look through it and buy prints from it. I was gifted the book by my sister and it has taken a while to get around to finishing with other work commitments but I'm so happy it's now complete and ready to send across the ocean! The theme is 'Home' and I've used a range of media: ink, digital art, paper cuttings and paints. I have now started a new sketchbook that is much bigger (this one was A5) to do with food puns and children's illustration. You can see more pictures on my instagram @elidillonart or on my website www.elidillon.com Enjoy!

So it's still dark. It's no longer festive and you have to go back to facing the daily grind with a lot less money. However! January is also a great time to set intentions for the coming year, resolve to do something better (for me it's tidying up after myself) and focus on bringing into your life those things that will make you feel happy and purposeful. I have set 4 intentions for 2018. Last year I set a lot more and quite a few went on the back burner or I just didn't have the time or energy to focus on them enough. This year is the year of change in our household so it's a great time to focus on bringing positive change and actively seek new challenges and opportunities. I miss the city centre and our nightly walks so here is a doodle of St Michael Le Belfrey next to York Minster as seen at night. Happy January!

I made a picture for my sister's birthday. She's likes a good food themed pun. 'Beetroot to Yourself'.

I missed posting on National Relaxation Day! I started drawing a picture about relaxing but then I had to make dinner (a roast) have a drink (red wine) and watch a film (How to Catch a Thief) and after all that it was too late. So I got up early this morning and made some tea, put on one of my favourite background films - Julia and Julia - and finished making a picture. I am normally so busy that relaxing is tricky. I run from the car to work to the supermarket to the gym to dinner, to my desk back to work but sometimes I have these weeks where I can fold all my happy relaxation things into a melting pot of loveliness and calm. These are the top 10 things I do to relax: 1) Sit with a cup of tea in a clean house. Clean is the word, it has to be clean and tidy and possibly sunny, or at least cosy and softly lit. And my tea of choice is posh fancy tea from a little shop on the Shambles in York. There is a space in my apartment, out the back on the fire escape, that gets the best s...

I haven't posted for a while as it's been a hectic month at work but I've finally had some time to decompress and reflect and make some personal art. I love a sketchbook and have been working on an A5 and A4 sketchbook focusing on drawing the city of York and my connection to it. Here are some of the pages. I've been carving rubber stamps, using acrylic and playing with mixed media. It has been great to get back to the UK and use a range of materials that weren't available last year. I have also been updating my website and have just added these as a project. You can find my portfolio here  

Today I finished a drawing where I added some people! This is a new one for me. Usually it's buildings or people. A set or a character but this time I was drawing a bar/restaurant and felt that it needed some life as it's always so busy. I really enjoyed this process, it was obviously more time consuming but I limited my palette of colours and kept the people super simple though tried to give each a small story within the picture. Judge's Lodging - York Here is just the building itself.

I like lines. Mainly black lines. Lots of ink and felt tip pen. I also like drawing buildings. At the moment I'm working on a few personal projects alongside normal work. One is a poster of York's architecture; a sort of trail of old buildings to take you on a wandering path inside the walls. I think one of the posters will focus on places of worship as there are so many beautiful buildings in York that are either still in use or converted for another purpose. One poster will just focus on brilliant buildings; giving a bit of history and information about them. Here are some of the pictures and sketches I have been working on.

After finishing 'Rear Window' yesterday I had a little bit of spare time so I drew my very late breakfast. I like it very much. It's fried tofu with avocado, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. This is quite a busy week but I have high hopes that project 'Films of New York' of which the first is 'Rear Window' will make some progress. I have also bought some new pens and drew a lovely old cinema in York which I need to colour. I love colouring. It's my favourite part. I also made a very successful vegan bread and butter pudding last night, with butterscotch sauce and ice-cream. It was dreamy. So dreamy that it may be my full dinner tonight because it's Monday and something has to set me up for the stressful week ahead. May as well be fake butter. Onto the rest of the evening I go! Bye, come back soon! Doorway to my instagram