Autumn colours ...

Yesterday was a sunny day & showed autumn in its first early stages. I've been meaning to do a seasonal colouring exercise for some time & used an opportunity to get some pix for reference.

 ... especially for the colours of the variagated & red leaves ...

... for acorns (especially the cups) & sycamores (the twirling process) for their shape
& manner in which they form

... as well as lots of seed pods because of the unusual shapes when 'popped' open

+ the shinyness of a conker

Rainbow ...

Got this yesterday coming back from the studio ...

... brilliant rainbow, autumn colours

Multi-Rainbow

2 sunset & cloud shots ...

Collected keys to 'studio' yesterday & finally arrived at it to unlock @ 3pm. Not much time then left to do anything other than have a look properly around everywhere, unload cleaning things, measure up & travel back. BUT got these lovely shots at 8.30ish in the evening (on the way back looking across the water) @ different places!

Evening sky

Evening sky

Sunsets ...

One of my favourite scenes of London - love the contrasts of colour & shapes:

Thames Barrier at night

Back to Black ...

Black holds many memories for me & I find its entire definition another fascinating topic. It's also my favourite colour & one I often come back to working with. Last week, Amy Winehouse died so naturally a favourite track is "Back to Black". 

It also reminded me that several years ago, I went on a weekend journey & recorded everything to do withblack in a notebook ... images, words & thoughts. In sorting out, I came across that notebook & photos - here's just 2 thoughts with accompanying sketches:

Have just noticed an owl features in both!

'Cornflower & Sweet Pea' Kimono ...

Thoroughly enjoying this exercise ...

I've used the interesting 'Cornflower / Sweet Pea' colours & the 'computer-design' sunflowers to create first concept for a kimono-based garment.

Cornflower & Sweet Pea Kimono

I've chosen this style of garment because of the simplicity of its shape - it then relies on the attractiveness of pattern & colour for visual impact. According to Wikipedia, the sunflower (amongst other things):

• is one of the city flowers of Kitakyūshū, Japan
• has heads sold as snacks in China
• one species, Velvet Queen, has lovely shades of reds & blacks