Owl Thumbnail Sketches

Baby owl watercolour

Hi there, how are you?

This week I have been making lots of little owl doodles. Each of the sketches are about an inch to 1½ inches in size.

The first page (below) was drawn with blue fountain pen ink; I spilled water on this page and ruined it! One of the perils of using water soluble ink, still have the scan though phew.

blue ink owl doodles — Blue ink owl doodles

Learning my lesson I drew the second page with black waterproof ink. They’re all a little ski-wiff and lots of fun to draw.

black ink owl doodles — Black ink owl doodles

I wanted to see if I could turn these scrappy thumbnail sized sketches into something more finished, placed the scan in procreate and used some of the owls as a template to draw over the top.

My procreate skills are very basic but they are OK for a first attempt.

The little owl watercolour at the top of the post was also drawn from one of the little thumbnails. I placed her on top of a tree stump in a small clearing so she’s not floating around on a white page.

The sketch had a woolly hat on and since we’re in December I turned it into a Christmas hat (trying to get into the seasons spirit.)

I can see the issues but don’t yet have the skills to fix them yet, more practice me thinks.

Backgrounds are something I suck at so I’m trying to practice using them more, it’s a start.

Who knows maybe eventually I’ll know what I’m doing hehehe.

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

Sketching Magpies

Watercolour magpie sketch

Hi there, how are you?

This week I have done absolutely nothing at all. There I said it.

The week before I had planned to scan and post the few scrappy drawings I had done and then bang, I was hit by the superbug COVID!

The illustrious other half caught it at work and brought it home to share, he needn’t have bothered.

I went to bed shivering and aching and didn’t resurface until this weekend. Bleah!

So, these are the things I would have posted last week. Magpie studies.

(above)from a photo taken in the garden a watercolour painted in the sketchbook. I’m reasonably happy with the background and twiggy bits here.

Drawn in graphite pencil these magpies (below) had to be scanned in black and white as it’s not always easy to see. These are pretty much all Pinterest magpies.

graphite magpie sketches — Graphite magpie sketches

Some birds drawn with a fountain pen. It’s not easy to colour with fountain pens (I think it’s a fine nib) so I just give an impression of shading drawing the lines close together.

fountain pen magpie sketches — Fountain pen magpie sketches

Fountain pen and blue ink trying and failing to show some iridescence, it was the wrong colour blue.

By this stage the drawings are getting a little more sketchy and unbeknownst to me I was starting to get sick.

blue fountain pen magpie sketches — Blue fountain pen magpie sketches

I’m still coughing but my cotton wool head is slowly starting to clear and hopefully this week will soon be a soggy memory.

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

Doodling

Hi there, how are you?

We’ve been away this week, dealing with home helps, shopping and general elder care so doodling is all I have really managed. I’ve just been pulling up old photos on my phone in the odd moments I could find.

They are mainly drawn with fountain pens that are still filled with red and blue ink left over from Inktober, might as well use it up.

The little blue frogs (above) were masters of disguise. From the top they are the same colour and texture as the rocks they were sitting on and incredibly difficult to see. One little frog was sitting on the glass of the aquarium and unbelievably was a lovely pale blue.

I snapped it’s picture as it hopped across the glass.

The fuchsia are all but finished now, just a few weather worn flowers hanging on so I snapped a few photos before leaving. Glad I did they came in very handy.

Penguins at the zoo quickly sketched in red ink, maybe I should have used the blue?

They’re a bit scratchy but I like the way they turned out.

These were flowers in the botanical gardens they are a pale yellow and looked lovely blowing in the autumn breeze.

Here they are drawn with a red crayola pencil as that was all I could find at to draw with at the time.

These are all very sketchy and drawn mainly to occupy my mind, I find just a few minutes each day to take my mind off things, a little meditative and relaxing.

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

Inktober, All Over For Another Year

Peony brush painting

Hi there, how are you?

Inktober is over for another year as we now enter a soggy November.

I made 30 pieces of art by October 31and topped up the last day with something experimental.

1. a peony in the style of Chinese brush painting.

After trying a number of different types of paper, even rice paper the one that worked and was least annoying was painted on a piece of junk mail. It was just absorbent enough with the right amount of tooth so no fancy paper here then ha!

2. These were the make up pieces, I was experimenting with spraying, masking and transferring ink.

A die cut circle was placed on to watercolour paper and blue ink sprayed on top. After it had dried I loosely sprayed water into the centre to wet the paper and reactivate the ink then laid a circle cut from an ink painting that didn’t work over the wet circle. The red ink transferred into the blank space and bled into the blue ink.

It’s an interesting effect and I thought I could draw some little silhouette trees or something on the top but the ink activates too easily with anything wet so I left it. They look like little moons.

Maybe if I drew the silhouette first in waterproof ink it would work better, an experiment for another day I think.

This last one is a watercolour using the magpie image from last week. I needed to make a card and this one fit the bill as he loves magpies, or any birds really.

It made him smile do job done.

magpie pumpkin watercolour — Magpie pumpkin in watercolour.

magpie on a pumpkin — Magpie on a pumpkin used as the pattern for a watercolour card.

The goal was to use the blue and red ink I had just bought, and try to generate some new ideas because I was feeling a bit stuck. If I don’t have a goal I know I’ll procrastinate, then I wont finish, sad but true. That’s why I give myself the little tasks and by with using different tools and ways of applying the ink it keeps the interest going for the whole month.

Apart from the odd “my life what am I going to draw” its been a good month.

I’ve loved looking around at what other artists have produced, some following prompts, some making their own prompts up and some like me busking it and doing their own thing and it has been amazing. So much good work.

If you did some, all or any of the Inktober month congratulations, hopefully like me your giving yourself some pats on the back.

You can check out the previous weeks inktober’s below:

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

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

Inktober 2022 week 5

Turtle

Hi there, how are you?

Inktober 2022 week 5. by the time you read this Inktober will probably be finished but I’m not quite there yet, still a little more to do.

1. turtle (above). I quite like this one, there’s only a tiny amount of pink in some of the shading so more monochrome than the others, I think it fits the subject though.

2. teapot. Not sure what to call this really, bits of things? It makes a nice composition though.

3. cockerel. I wondered if I painted a cockerel (rooster) with two colours how it would look.

Interesting.

4. magpie. This time of year everyone draws crows, magpies are corvids too don’t you know hehehe. It looks cool standing on a pumpkin.

5. bird. This is actually based on a blue tit. It’s interesting the difference the colours makes.

6. ginkgo. I saw a ginkgo tree on a walk the leaves an autumn gold, very inspiring. These turned out a little graphic, fun to draw.

I still have a couple more left to do as I’d missed some hopefully I’ll get them sone soon.

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

Inktober 2022 week 4

Blue crab

Inktober 2022 week 4. I Managed to draw something every day this week so am patting myself on the back.

Some of the ideas worked, some are ideas for future me to work on.

1. Crab (above), this turned out a lot more graphic than I intended. The red is really dark which makes the little crab light up

2. Cyclamen, the little plant on the window sill has started to flower again and I couldn’t resist drawing it. It started off as a simple line drawing then after a while I filled the flowers in with some diluted ink.

3. Weedy sea dragon, They’re not flashy like leafy sea dragons but they are very sweet little creatures I think this name is very unfair.

4. Mushroom and a snail. I Wanted to draw a mushroom but something a bit different from the usual, then I found this elfin saddle mushroom. (had to look that up) Strange and beautiful.

Could have done with a few darker tones to make It stand out more.

snail & elfin saddle — Snail & elfin saddle

5.Flamingo, very graceful in the air, not so much on the ground but always fun to draw.

6. Emperor tamarin, tiny little monkeys that would fit in the palm of your hand with epic moustaches.

7. Guinea fowl, I love drawing these birds. This time I decided to try bleach splattering to make the spots. It’s interesting and kind of works but probably not archival hehehe.

bleach guinea fowl — Guinea fowl with bleach splatter.

I don’t plan Inktober (maybe I should) so this week has gone in some interesting directions, wonder what I’ll draw next?

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

Inktober 2022 Week 3

Ink octopus

Hi there, how are you?

It’s week three of Inktober and happily I am still working away.

Looking back through the week there seems to be a fair number of sea life drawings.

1 & 2. octopus, I always love drawing octopuses. They have lots of squiggly tentacles and make really interesting shapes.

I switched the colours the next day to see what effect it would have.

3.bamboo, a stalk of bamboo with a little bird perching on the side. Fun to draw.

little bird in the bamboo — Little bird in the bamboo

4. gold fish, I had limited time for this one so kept it simple.

This is three attempts placed into a single image to save picture space. I like the idea but feel it was poorly executed.

5 & 6. Betta fish, or Siamese fighting fish. They have such beautiful colours and the frilly tails and fins are almost like flowers, couldn’t help but draw them two days in a row.

I switched the colours each day again.

Another interesting week, for me at least.

I am liking the way the Instagram feed is now turning pink and blue it almost looks curated ha!

Hope everyone else is having as much fun with their arting as I am.

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

Inktober 2022 Week 2

05 bleach blossom 2

Hi there, how are you?

Here’s week two of Inktober 2022.

We were away for a few days towards the end of the week but I managed all of the days even if some were a bit scrappy.

1. Cherry blossom 2, (above); this was the second attempt at a technique using bleach the first attempt is in last weeks post.

2. bunny, trying to make it fluffy was not as easy as it seemed.

3. squirrel, using salt and splattering to make some texture. The salt almost worked maybe it was too dry, it looks interesting though.

4. fuchsia, a quick stylised version as we were away from home. Trying to keep the momentum going.

5. frog, another quick one, the colours ran together in places to make some interesting merges. If I’d been at home I probably would have started again but there a few good bits I like so I’ll call it done.