Mrs. Primrose and Mrs. Periwinkle's house

The prompt on Doodle Day this week was Tree House. Helen S who sets the prompts referred to the Brambley Hedge books. I love those books. The drawings were far more important than the stories.

Disclaimer: The following post has become rather philosophical/long.

Before Brambley Hedge came out and my son was rather small, I wrote some children's stories (which, I hasten to add, are still only on notepaper in a drawer.) They were about Mrs. Primrose and Mrs. Periwinkle, 2 elderly rabbit sisters who "did things" with the children in their village. They got up to some interesting adventures.

I never thought I could draw their house. If I did, it would begin to look a bit like Wind in the Willows or The Hobbit. However, as I have started doodling, I have discovered I can draw...a bit.

One of the websites I found about doodling said something about it being easy as it is only one line at a time. And you know...it is! And, too, since I have been using a drawing pen, rather than a pencil, for some reason there is a bit more freedom about it. If I use a pencil, straight away I am rubbing out, correcting things. With a pen, you have to go with the last mark "good" or "bad" and make it work. Suddenly it is like making art. (Well it is isn't it?) It tells you what it wants to be... this line becomes this and that line becomes that. That is the way I work in other mediums (media?).


This for me is an exhilarating feeling. I have so many pictures in my head and things I would like to depict in one way or another. But often there is a bit of disappointment because I can't find existing things that really work to show what I have in my head. There is always some sort of compromise. Sometimes with fabrics and stitch I can get it rather near and I am content. But wouldn't it be better if you could really do it like the vision?

And, too, because I am working in a small book there is actually more freedom, since I don't have to fight the spaces. (I don't have to conquer the world, just a small part of it.) I am also only working one side of the page, because the number 5 drawing pen I started working with goes through the paper a bit if you are doing a darker spot. I have a number 1 pen, but it was too much different to the number 5, so they didn't really work together. I probably will leave things as they are for now and then find a book with paper that doesn't let the mark through. I have found my number 2 pen though, and I used it alot for this sketch.

It is also a bit freer not to use colour. Having to depict what it is with black and white makes your really think about what things look like. To use your observational skills. There will be a time for colour one day, but for now can I make it look like it with pen alone?


What I loved about doing this was the way I could start imagining the story as you drew. To start thinking of the characters and how they live. Where they would put things? What kind of bits and pieces they'd have round the house? And so on.

So, here is a start at realising a picture in my head, but the fact that I can draw something that can be recognised as something else without making a lot of allowances brings joy. One of the most joyful bits of this sketch was getting the flagstones right!! small pleasures, right?

What have you discovered lately that brings you joy?