This Week's Curiosities: Vases, Halloween Makes & a Thistle Puff

I’m back at my desk after a lovely weekend away in the Scottish Highlands visiting family. It was really nice to get away for a few days, although I’ve come home to the usual collection of ideas, half-finished things and a to-do list that apparently didn’t sort itself out while I was gone.  Really needing those house fairies to get to work...

So, before I get completely distracted by October, I thought this would be a good time for a little catch-up on some of the things I’ve been making and drawing lately. I'm hoping to start doing regular catch ups here in the journal every so often. Gathering together some of the things I’ve been making, drawing & generally getting distracted by.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might recognise a few of them, but I thought it would be nice to have somewhere I can share a little more of the story behind what I’ve been working on, along with some of the bits that don’t always make it onto social media.

And this feels like a particularly good time to start, because lately my desk has been hosting everything from painted vases and Halloween badges to a tiny witchy Thistle Puff.

So, here’s what my curiosity has been getting me into...

What could these become?

A little while ago, I picked up some plain ceramic vases with absolutely no finished plan for them. Which, admittedly, is quite a familiar way for things to begin around here.

I started sketching out ideas and wondering what I could turn them into. The square vases immediately made me think of my little clay houses, so I wondered if I could turn one into a tiny dwelling. The ribbed vases gave me completely different ideas, including simple flowers and stripes and some designs inspired by the Scottish landscape.

There’s always a point with things like this where the idea exists quite happily in my sketchbook and I have absolutely no idea whether it will work once I try to make it real. Thankfully, these ones did.

One became a little dwelling with glowing golden windows, a rustic metallic roof and door, and tiny dotted flowers around the outside. Another got bright pink stripes with yellow flowers and green leaves, while the others headed in a much more Scottish direction, with mountains, hills and shimmery colours.

And because apparently I hadn’t experimented enough, I also made a little clay trinket dish inspired by Scottish standing stones.

They don’t always turn out exactly as I imagined them. Quite often, that’s the interesting bit.

Meanwhile, spooky season arrived...

While all of that was going on, Halloween had very definitely started creeping onto my drawing screen too.

I drew six Halloween designs in Procreate: Hallo-Queen, Purranormal Activity, Boo-Bee, So Franken Cute, Fang-tastic and Hollow Inside.

I then used the WRMemory Keepers Badge maker to make some button badges & keyrings. There’s something ridiculously satisfying about seeing an illustration that has only existed on a screen suddenly become an actual thing I can hold.

I also shared a little bit of my process on Instagram, including one of my favourite creative shortcuts. Hallo-Queen started with the Frankenstein's monster illustration I’d already drawn for So Franken Cute. Rather than starting again completely from scratch, I reused that base and changed it to create the new design. 

Is that cheating? I prefer to think of it as a simple wee shortcut. 

Hello October!

And then October arrived.

Obviously, that required a new Thistle Puff.

This one began as a quick doodle in my planner: a little Thistle Puff in a witchy hat, holding a jack-o'-lantern with some autumn leaves and sparkles around them.

Nothing particularly elaborate. Just an idea I wanted to get down to welcome October. From there, I took the sketch into Procreate and started turning it into the finished illustration. The little pumpkin gained a glowing face, the leaves became properly autumnal, and eventually, my rough little planner doodle became this:

And then I decided to animate the glow from the pumpkin and the sparkles. Because apparently reaching the point where an illustration is finished doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to stop fiddling with it. I shared the glowing version on Instagram to say Hello October, along with the original sketch, because I really enjoy being able to show both ends of the process.

There’s something reassuring about seeing the scruffy little doodle that existed before the finished thing.

A little bit of everything

Looking back at all of this together is also a fairly good demonstration of why Bewildered & Gallus Unicorns ended up being what they are. One minute I’m drawing digitally on my iPad. The next I’m painting a ceramic vase. Then I’m pressing badges, playing with clay or scribbling a tiny creature into my planner.

For a long time, I thought I was supposed to settle on one thing. These days, I’m much happier seeing where the ideas go. Not everything I try needs to become a product. Not every sketch needs to become a finished illustration. And experiments don't necessarily need to work to have been worth trying.

Sometimes I just want to find out if I can make the thing that’s appeared in my head, and occasionally I can. Which is handy.

What I’m curious about next...

October has only just started, so I suspect there are going to be quite a few more spooky things appearing around here before the month is over. There are also several other ideas already competing for space in my head, because of course there are, plus the chilly months are arriving and I have thoughts!

I suppose we’ll find out where I've landed in my creative travals in the next catch-up. Until then, I’ll be following curiosity wherever it leads. 🦄