Wednesday 29 December 2010

One Eye Open

Watercolour and Coloured pencil

You never know what's going to happen, so it's best to keep one eye open at all times!
A little birthday card (ssshhh don't tell).

Tuesday 28 December 2010

Slow Motion


Something in Motion was the challenge for Edm 302 and this tiny snail was moving I promise,  but he was a little slow.  I found him in amongst some broccoli I was preparing.  I love the way his shell is the same colour as the broccoli, a really good camouflage?  I left him in with the discarded leaves and forgot he was there until I found him making a dash (?) for freedom across the kitchen floor.

Friday 24 December 2010

Merry Christmas!


A very Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends around the world, I hope it's a happy one!
Thank you to you all for your company in 2010, it has been much appreciated.

This  'online' Christmas card was inspired by a photograph by my friend Anne on her blog Frayed at the Edge up in cold and snowy Scotland.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Bookmarks


I wanted to make a few little gifts for Christmas so I decided to paint some bookmarks.  The hole at the bottom is where I will thread coloured ribbon through.


I used mainly watercolours then added a few details with coloured pencil.  I really liked the tall thin format, I'd like to try something slightly bigger using the same shape.
My favourite is the tree because of the way the colours flowed into each other, entirely accidental, it's all hit and miss when I use watercolour, but then that's one of watercolour's endearing qualities(?)


Friday 17 December 2010

Christmas Cards


It's that time of year and  I've been busy making Christmas cards, I'm all behind as usual!  This is my design for this year, although I had to turn it into black and white then colour them slightly by hand as there wasn't time to get coloured prints done.  But I think they turned out ok and certainly a lot nicer and cheaper than bought ones.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Sketchbook Cover (Sketchbook Project)


Here's the final product, complete with cover.  I used an acrylic pen to draw in the shapes then I coloured over that with coloured pencils. 


They look almost like transfers as the faces are shiny compared to the softer feel of the cover material.




In the end it turned out quite thick, I think if I was doing it again,  I might just glue every other page together to get a thicker type of paper and use pen directly on that.





But all in all I'm satisfied with the end results and pleased that I managed to finish this quite big project.
Now it's time to post it off to New York to start it's new life.  Buon Viaggio!

Sunday 12 December 2010

County Clare

Coloured pencil and pen



Lisheenfurror, Co. Clare, Ireland  -  Virtual Paintout December 2010

You have to imagine that I was sitting in the road drawing this old farm...the Virtual Paintout visits a different location every month using Google Street maps and artists from all over the world pick somewhere or something to paint or draw.
County Clare is full of wide open spaces, with big skies and beautiful coastlines, but I chose the farm because it reminds me of what I imagine Ireland used to be like.  A lot of the buildings I saw in this area seemed to be fairly new and many places were advertising holiday homes, the price of 'progress'?
See other virtual sketches and paintings from the Virtual Paintout here

Friday 10 December 2010

Soaking up the Morning Sun





Everyday Matters 300!  Something bright...this is my little girl cat lying in the bright morning sun.
This is how I find all my cats in the morning after the school run, stretched out soaking up the warmth.  They wake up when I arrive and after a long yawn, the morning wash and grooming starts.
My apologies to my little cat, I've drawn her a little bit fatter than she actually is!

Tuesday 7 December 2010

A Happy Ending

Here are the last pages of my sketchbook for the Arthouse Sketchbook Project.  The one above is Mr 'X' who started this sketchbook (see here),  but here he is cloned over and over again.
So who is the 'face in the crowd?
We are all faces in the crowd, each face is different and has it's own character, but in the end we are all part of a crazy mixed up world of faces.  Mr 'X' is anonymous, a clone and a copy, he doesn't exist!



Finally the very last page and all my characters, real and imagined wander off into the sunset, just like in all good books and films.  I do like a happy ending!

Now all I need to do is complete the cover and send it off.  Pheewww!

Saturday 4 December 2010

Frozen Faces (Arthouse Sketchbook Project)


These little chaps look so cold, dedicated to all my friends freezing under the snow in the UK!

Looking at some photo's from the film 'The March of the Penguins' I found some lovely little faces in amongst the crowds of penguins.  I just couldn't leave them out!  Thank you again to Martine Pittet for her suggestion.

I've started to think about  what to do with the cover of my sketchbook.  It's red and cardboardy so I need something that won't disappear into the paper and it also needs to be fairly hardwearing as the book (hopefully) will be handled quite a lot.  I  was thinking about using acrylic paint and pens but I wish I had something to practice on first!

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Choose Your Mask (Arthouse sketchbook project)


A beautiful mask from Venice for Carnevale.  I enjoyed drawing the dress on this one, it reminded me of when I was at school and I used to draw 'princesses' in class instead of studying.  My school reports  were always the same...'Cathy would do well if she would just stop dreaming'.  Story of my life!

I'd love to wear something like this, but I can't say the same about the next mask.....



A rather frightening idea that we might all have to wear surgical masks one day.  Suggested by blogger friend Debra Morris, she sees a lot of people wearing them in Hong Kong and it seemed to fit in well with my ' face in a crowd' theme.
There are masks and there are masks, I know which I'd rather have.
Both of these drawings are for my sketchbook project, just a few more pages to go!