Sadly, endometriosis ate up a bit more of my month than usual this October. Maybe my haunted uterus was just getting in the Halloween spirit? Then where was my treat?! That was all trick!!

Well, I still managed to get some painting done. This trio of A2 florals is preparation for my next portrait series and was very helpful to make. One is gouache, one is watercolour and the last is acrylic, all with India ink backgrounds:

I also did an illustration to be used for the cover of an upcoming poetry compilation, Kaleidoscopic Minds. Here's a photo of my finished piece and you can find out more about the book here. This was lovely to paint and hopefully counts as enough vitamin C for the coming winter!

I did a few more little gouache still life pieces, still cracking on and working out how I want to approach both this paint and still life in general. Click the composite to go to the whole gallery so far:

After being ill I needed a palate cleanser and made this A3 portrait as a gift. They're a Drow, a kind of elf from the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons fame. It was so nice to paint something fun and magical and I'm now revved up for more portraiture next month! I also took some in-progress photos as I'd gotten out of the habit of doing that.

Galashiels Studio Club has started up again, meeting through the autumn and winter and you can follow us on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM. One of our sessions was on eyes and I put together a few examples, enough that I've actually made them their own wee gallery. Click the composite below to check it out:

And here's a few more bits I did for and from Studio Club sessions:

Our next session is actually about sketchbooking so I've been gathering up my recent sketchbooks to take in, always a useful exercise to go through older work.

Well, that's me for October. I've ordered some new biiiiig paper for new paintings in November so I'll update you on how that goes. If November's journal is already up I'll link it below, otherwise thanks for reading and have a great month!