Orange Quince Flowers

Quince flower sketch

Hi there, how are you?

Last week I drew the flowers of the bigger Japonica quince, the flowers are pale and look a lot like apple blossom with the flashes of pink. This week I have drawn and painted the orange flowers on the smaller quince.

It flowers a few weeks later than the other one and is filled with beautiful orange blossoms.

In the first image above I managed to capture some of the sunlight shining on the petals. Since this isn’t watercolour paper I was very happy with the results.

Finding a scrap of watercolour paper I thought I would paint another one and see what the difference would be.

I like the way the colours mixed themselves on this paper and even made a little background; unfortunately the scanner doesn’t like this particular shade of green and it just makes the paper look dirty, it’s very sad because it’s actually a nice pale shade of green.

quince flowers watercolour

This next page was disappointing, it was a duller day and the colours had changed, I couldn’t quite mix the right colours and it all looks a little muddy.

Obviously I need to play with the colour mixing more so I can find a better combination. (Learning and growing)

Quince flower watercolour sketch

On this day I took only a pencil and sketch book into the garden and made some pencil sketches. It helps to work out the shapes and shading.

Pencil sketch of orange quince flowers

I find this type of drawing quite meditative and often loose track of time sitting in the garden scratching away with a pencil.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Sponsored Post Sponsored Post Menu More Info Learn from the experts: Create a successful blog with our brand new courseThe WordPress.com Blog

WordPress.com is excited to announce our newest offering: a course just for beginning bloggers where you’ll learn everything you need to know about blogging from the most trusted experts in the industry. We have helped millions of blogs get up and running, we know what works, and we want you to to know everything we know. This course provides all the fundamental skills and inspiration you need to get your blog started, an interactive community forum, and content updated annually.

Register now

Spring Flowers

Watercolour quince flower sketch

Hi there, how are you?

Spring is here and it’s time to sit outside in the garden drawing spring flowers, whoot!

The pale quince blossom is flowering on max at the moment and the bees are buzzing around frantically trying to harvest the nectar. I’m sure they know just like I do that this weather doesn’t last long here.

Remembering the freesia drawn in red ink a few weeks ago I decided to break out the fountain pen . This was fun, there’s a fair bit of tooth on this paper but the pen moves quite effortlessly.

The ink can’t be pulled out with a damp brush on this paper so I used a small paint brush and some diluted ink to add extra colour and shading.

Normally I just draw the odd twig with flowers attached (like the first image) but for this one I drew in part of the trunk too. The texture of the paper worked in my favour here for the bark.

Quince flowers in red ink

The crocus are mostly finished now leaving a small pot of stripped leaves but I manages the last few before they wilted.

These were mainly one stroke petals and were quick to paint; I like the loose effect of them.

Crocus

The tiny daffodils (about 6” tall) are also drooping now, they were lovely while they were flowering and are now immortalised in my sketchbook.

Daffodils

Had the first jab last week. Spent the next day with a blinding headache, shivering and aching. If this is what the vaccine feels like I’m so glad I didn’t catch the real thing!

Looking forward to every one getting done so we can all meet up and hug our friends and families again. Till then it’s so lovely to sit outside again and just enjoy the sunshine.

Happy Easter everyone and if you’re not celebrating have a beautiful week end.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Pattern Postcard Challenge Manual Repeats

Manual repeat red flowers

Hi there, how are you?

There has been more fun with patterns as I try to catch up with the pattern post card challenge run by Jules Mckeown of @thepatternsocial and Anna of @oravska_house on instagram.

This week she showed how to make a repeating pattern on a piece of paper.

The design is drawn into the middle of the page, cut the paper in half vertically and stick the outsides together in the middle with masking tape.

Continue the design in the centre of the page. Cut the page in half horizontally and stick the outsides together in the middle with masking tape.

Continue the design in the centre of the page. By now you should have completely filled the paper and the pattern should repeat if you lay it next to itself (photocopies or a printed copy helps here).

I’ll link to one of her instagram videos so you get a better idea if your interested.

I started with simple flowers to get the idea (see above), it went a little Skew-whiff, obviously my measuring was not as accurate as it could have been but I like the overall look of it.

The dulled square with a blue outline is the pattern, I put them next to each other in the computer to test it out.

Next a kind of abstracted animal print in happy colours.

Manual repeat abstracted animal print

Fishes – this is an idea I seem to keep coming back to, something in my head likes drawing schools of fishes, it is long rather than square, I wanted to see if it would work on other shapes. It does hehehe.

Manual repeat fishes

After scanning the fishes I decided to place it into illustrator and turn them into colourful fishes.

Illustrator pattern from fish pattern fishes

I think it’s a fun process and a nice change from looking at the computer all of the time.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Pattern Postcard Challenge Pt. 2

Leaf collage

Hi there, how are you?

Jules Mckeown of @thepatternsocial and Anna of @oravska_house have been posting the second part of the pattern post card challenge on instagram under the hashtag #patternpostcardparty.

Last time we made lots of quick postcard sized pattern following the daily prompt. This time we are using the postcards we made in collages to make repeating patterns. It’s a very interesting process.

1. chopping up the postcards and some coloured paper, sticking them down randomly to make some kind of abstract pattern. It looked like a mess to me but I followed along anyway hoping it would all work out in the end.

1st collage

2. cutting out and collaging leaf shapes. (see top image) I didn’t stick any of these down ( I only have so much coloured paper.) I just placed down the shapes and took a photo with my ipod, this way I could keep rearranging the shapes and make lots more without having to spend all day cutting out shapes.

3. collaging plants in pots. I made the leaves a bit big so had to use four pieces of black card as a base, needled to say I didn’t scan it so the colours aren’t as vibrant as they should be.

Collage of pot plants

4. making repeat patterns. Below is the half drop repeat pattern using the collage from day one. I like this one a lot more as as a pattern than a single sheet.

1st half drop repeat

I decided to have another go at exercise three and using some of the items from exercise two and made a few smaller plants in pots then made them into a pattern too, so far this is my favourite.

2nd collage of pot plants

If anyone is interested in pattern making this challenge is free for anyone to follow along with just go to Jules Mckeown’s instagram account to view the prompts and videos, so much fun!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Taking Inspiration From Inktober Drawings

A little bird amongst the roses.

Hi there, how are you?

It appears to be card making season at the moment, having no new ideas I flicked through old sketchbooks and drawings and came across the 2020’s Inktober drawings.

The trouble with 31 day challenges is having to think of something new and postable every day, you need lots of ideas fast. The offset to that is now there are 31 ideas that can be rethought out and used at a later date.

Not all of my Inktober were brilliant but the little bird sitting on some wild roses was just what I needed for a mothers day card.

The original inktober drawing, 22 wild rose

There was no need to rearrange it so it was traced onto watercolour paper and painted; no mess no fuss, just as I like it. (see top image)

The toucan is a combination of two Inktober day ideas; the toucan on it’s own would have been fine but for some reason I had to add a little chameleon too.

A toucan & chameleon meet

26 toucan

15 chameleon on hibiscus flowers

To be honest I like the original versions but for card I think you really do need a little colour, don’t you?

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Having A Whale Of A Time

Orca birthday card

Hi there, how are you?

This week I have been drawing whales.

I had a card to make; it’s always difficult to think of ideas for guys cards. After a quick image search I found some whale images and have a whale of a time came instantly to mind hehehe.

Humpback whales are cool but the grey wasn’t really something i wanted for a birthday card.

Watercolour humpback whales

Next I tried some orca, we used to call them killer whales, just realised I could have written have a killer birthday! Oh well, another time maybe.

Watercolour orca whales

I did use the orca eventually (see top image), they seemed more playful than the others; I painted him excitedly jumping up out of the ocean.

I didn’t use black to colour it because black sometimes looks dull, I used indigo instead.

Still in a whale drawing mood I drew the tail of a blue whale. I had typed in blue whale and loads of images of tails appeared so why not hehehe.

The tail is drawn with black faber-castell polychromos pencil and a dried out brush pen. I likes the way the texture of the paper showed through.

Sperm whale sketches

Sperm whales are so interesting, big big heads and a tiny little mouth. Had to draw one (or two) of these. They are graphite pencil with black faber-castell polychromos pencil coloured lightly over the top.

It’s interesting to see where the need for a birthday card will lead.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Freesias – Playing With Ink And Watercolour

A small digital posy of ink freesia

Hi there, how are you?

The lovely freesias are wilting now but I managed to draw them a little more with ink and watercolour.

The pink note book is finished, sad but true. I enjoyed drawing on that paper more than I thought I would and loved some of the effects I managed to create.

I’m now working in an A4 sketch pad, it has slightly off white paper and the cover says its suitable for all dry media (pencils, pastels, charcoal etc.) so the first thing I use on these pages is ink of course!

There was still red ink in the fountain pen I’d used a few weeks ago and wanted to use it up. The paper is quite porous so the ink wouldn’t pull out from the edges with a water brush, on to plan B.

I found a brush, mixed the ink with a little water on a dish and painted the ink loosely over the petals.

Red freesia in red ink

I really like the effect and decided to paint the other bunch.

I bought two bunches, one red and one purple. Its interesting to see that different colours have different shapes. The purple flowers are mush more compact.

Purple freesia in red ink

After testing the paper with ink I wanted to see how it would react with watercolour.

It won’t take any watery washes of paint but the dry brushing is nice and unlike the ink it doesn’t bleed through to the other side of the paper.

Red freesia with watercolour

Unfortunately the purple flowers had wilted by this time so no watercolour of them this time.

When everything was scanned into the computer I played around with the inky flowers to see if I could make a small posy out of them. The background is pink because I wanted to keep it in the same colour family, a kind of tone on tone effect. (see top image) I always mean to paint the like this then end up with lots of specimens social distancing themselves across the page.

I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it one day.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Pattern Postcard Challenge

mark making

Hi there, how are you?

This week I have been taking part in the pattern post card challenge hosted by Jules Mckeown of @thepatternsocial and Anna of @oravska_house on instagram.

The only things we needed to complete the challenge was lots of postcard sized pieces of paper, some markers and roughly 20 – 40 minutes a day to complete the task.

Each day instruction were given on the day and we just followed along with the prompts:

Day 1 – mark making using various black pens and markers, making patterns across the paper. It was fun trying to see what marks I could make with the pens. (see image above too)

Day 2 – colour swatching, we made colour chips to work out colour schemes then used these schemes to draw lots of stripes.

Day 1 & 2 markmaking and coloured chips

Day 3 – abstract animal prints. The point was to draw something using animal print as inspiration but not to copy it.

Day 3 abstract animal prints

Day 4 – ditsy flowers, making lots of patterns with tiny flowers.

Day 4 ditsy flower patterns

Day 5 – pattern clash. Place three or four clashing patterns onto one page. (inapparently its a fashion thing?)

Day 5 pattern clash

At the end of the week I was inspired enough to make two little flower patterns in illustrator. They’re simple but I enjoyed making them.

Illustrator flower patterns

This challenge was to help with creative exploration without having to worry about the outcome and to act as inspiration for future works. It’s also lots of fun playing with supplies I don’t often use.

Had this been a class they could have charged good money for this but they chose to make it free and if any one wants to they can go to Jules Mckeowns account, follow along with the prompts and videos, so much fun!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x