Places and pens

Mind your spencers

Hello again friends! Do we all remember the exhortation to “Ne’er cast a clout till May is out”? I’m pretty sure I brought it up here last May. Anyway, here in the UK it is a reminder of our fickle weather, and that we shouldn’t go strewing our clouts (cloth, which we shall read as undervests) until May (the hawthorn bush) is out (in bloom??) Every year I fail to heed these wise words, and have been casting like nobody’s business, and now of course it’s cold and rainy and there’s no clout for me in sight!

Speaking of vests, my granny’s friend used to lament to my mum over the phone from South Africa that it was “freezing” (probably about 15C) in her part of the Cape - indeed so cold that she was forced to wear her “spencer”. Apparently this was originally a ye olde garment from Regency times, popular with ladies: a short cardigan or fitted waistcoat. But LO:

Wikipedia sayeth

The use of the term spencer continued well into the 19th century to mean more generally any type of short jacket or coat. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa the term is sometimes used to refer to thermal underwear.

How about that? Ne’er cast your spencers, chaps!

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I’ve been feeling a lot gratefulness lately for any time in nature. It’s a comfort that feels specifically nostalgic too - the feeling of being outside when I was little. I did this drawing on the weekend from a photo I took near the beach in South Africa. Trying to capture those feelings, the sense of being a child, is of course so elusive, but sometimes it feels so nearby when I’m drawing. The top drawing is bamboo near the sand, the middle is on the beach and the third is the view from a hill near the town we had family in.

This poster is from about six years ago, thinking about this same subject, and based on a travel poster… doesn’t really work and isn’t finished, but I do still like the idea.

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From the last almost 25 years of illustrating I can still remember a lot of my skill “breakthrough” moments - be they finding a new pencil, a new way to hold a pencil, a sudden jump in my drawing ability. But I hadn’t had one for a while, until recently deciding to start using pen again for final art - I mentioned this in my last post. I’m SO excited about it - I feel like another door has opened to me, and it’s very energising.

I’ve been trying pens, perusing pen sites, pen blogs… any tips from fervent pen-lovers would be very welcome. What are your favourites, what are your tips? Hit me up, my newly fellow pen perverts!

This is pen, therefore I love it. My friend Eve said could it be her birthday card, but I think I might save it for our 50ths and have the characters all rending their garments and looking hysterical with existential horror.

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PS. Googling “word for a pen lover” brings up plenty of hits - this blog suggests “stylophile” which makes pen pals also sound stylish, so that’s cool.

What do you MEAN there’ve been other cool icons since The Fonz??? Don’t talk absolute fustian to me.