Fairies and 'Make believe Folk' is a mixed collection of some of Jan's early doodles and sketches. Some of these drawings are very old and some more recent. Jan recently gathered many of these together for cards and prints.
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Starting from top left below :-
1) Newborn is a drawing of a fairy and a new born baby (which hasn't grown any wings yet). She is holding her baby and about to place it into the centre of a large flower. Unfortunately I decided to paint this picture after I had drawn it and I cant remove the colour so it either has to remain a tonal image to be printed or it stays in its painted state. Though I can transform the colours a little bit using photoshop hues. For the purpose of the website, I have chosen to display it in its black and grey tones.
2) October was drawn this October (2012) because my daughter has recently encouraged me to go back to my early days of drawing again. I rarely spend time doing line drawings like this these days and so its quite good to re-discover this ability. October is a fairy who has a cobwebby background, rose-hips on the edges and a flurry of autumn leaves around her feet. Her dress is made from leaves too and she has a beach nut shell casing for her little hat.
3) I drew this stargazing nymph when I was only in my very early 20's and I probably had rather a whimsical view of life at that time too. I did this for a series of cards that were going out to print for a small company in Wales. I don't know what happened to all of the other drawings I did but this one has survived over 30 years and its good that its back out on show. I called this one 'Castles in the Air'
4) ' The Fall' is an autumn fairy who sits on a newly falling leaf. She is seen here holding some fine leafy material that makes up part of her own attire, perhaps a shawl or a fine soft scarf.
5) Here is 'Lilly', she is a distinctive fairy, that kneels within the centre of a Lilly flower with its dark, pollen laden, stamens. She holds onto a thin willow branch above her head. This drawing was made very recently. I think she is quite an oriental looking fairy and will make a lovely picture for a little girl to colour in.
6) This is a fairly old painting of a fairy, that I did when I was in my early forties. I have called this picture 'Raindrops' because the colours are almost translucent. A long time ago when I was only very little, I had a very very old fairy story book called The Rain Fairy. The illustrations in the book were absolutely beautifully done and it was probably made around the turn of the 20th century. The story told of a poor little fairy who had no colours at all and all of her friends were bright and gorgeous. She was a very sad fairy and often she cried because she looked so grey and drab, her tears turned to rain but when the sun shone she started to stretch out her wings and flew up towards the light. As soon as she did this, her wings turned into a beautiful rainbow of colours as the light mixed with the rain causing a rainbow to form. I loved this story so very much but have never ever seen the book anywhere since. I don't know who illustrated it but I can remember studying it for hours. Children look at pictures for a long time and imagine so many things when they see all the small details and colours. My painting shown here was done on creased paper and the lines were drawn in to emphasise the creases and these became thin grass stems and branches. Gel pens had just been invented and I used them to enhance some parts of this painting. It is a fairly small picture measuring not much more than 6 inches square.
The final 5 drawings and paintings above are more recent and I have put them together for small cards designs.
Below are some additional images that I feel fit with the whimsical theme of fairies and make believe folk.
1) Newborn is a drawing of a fairy and a new born baby (which hasn't grown any wings yet). She is holding her baby and about to place it into the centre of a large flower. Unfortunately I decided to paint this picture after I had drawn it and I cant remove the colour so it either has to remain a tonal image to be printed or it stays in its painted state. Though I can transform the colours a little bit using photoshop hues. For the purpose of the website, I have chosen to display it in its black and grey tones.
2) October was drawn this October (2012) because my daughter has recently encouraged me to go back to my early days of drawing again. I rarely spend time doing line drawings like this these days and so its quite good to re-discover this ability. October is a fairy who has a cobwebby background, rose-hips on the edges and a flurry of autumn leaves around her feet. Her dress is made from leaves too and she has a beach nut shell casing for her little hat.
3) I drew this stargazing nymph when I was only in my very early 20's and I probably had rather a whimsical view of life at that time too. I did this for a series of cards that were going out to print for a small company in Wales. I don't know what happened to all of the other drawings I did but this one has survived over 30 years and its good that its back out on show. I called this one 'Castles in the Air'
4) ' The Fall' is an autumn fairy who sits on a newly falling leaf. She is seen here holding some fine leafy material that makes up part of her own attire, perhaps a shawl or a fine soft scarf.
5) Here is 'Lilly', she is a distinctive fairy, that kneels within the centre of a Lilly flower with its dark, pollen laden, stamens. She holds onto a thin willow branch above her head. This drawing was made very recently. I think she is quite an oriental looking fairy and will make a lovely picture for a little girl to colour in.
6) This is a fairly old painting of a fairy, that I did when I was in my early forties. I have called this picture 'Raindrops' because the colours are almost translucent. A long time ago when I was only very little, I had a very very old fairy story book called The Rain Fairy. The illustrations in the book were absolutely beautifully done and it was probably made around the turn of the 20th century. The story told of a poor little fairy who had no colours at all and all of her friends were bright and gorgeous. She was a very sad fairy and often she cried because she looked so grey and drab, her tears turned to rain but when the sun shone she started to stretch out her wings and flew up towards the light. As soon as she did this, her wings turned into a beautiful rainbow of colours as the light mixed with the rain causing a rainbow to form. I loved this story so very much but have never ever seen the book anywhere since. I don't know who illustrated it but I can remember studying it for hours. Children look at pictures for a long time and imagine so many things when they see all the small details and colours. My painting shown here was done on creased paper and the lines were drawn in to emphasise the creases and these became thin grass stems and branches. Gel pens had just been invented and I used them to enhance some parts of this painting. It is a fairly small picture measuring not much more than 6 inches square.
The final 5 drawings and paintings above are more recent and I have put them together for small cards designs.
Below are some additional images that I feel fit with the whimsical theme of fairies and make believe folk.