Inktober 2019 Week 2

7 Octopus

Hi there, how are you?
Another week of inky drawings on brown paper.
It’s been interesting so far, where do the dark darks go and just how much white is too much? I used a grey pitt pen for some of the shading and hatching for other bits.

1. octopus – (above) swimming in the water, I might have gone a little mad on the white gell pen here but overall I like it

2. frogs – blue poisoned dart frogs to be exact, beautiful and deadly. They looked a little sad sitting on the page so I gave them a background and rocks to sit on.

8 Blue poisin dart frogs

3. fish – high-fin cardinal fish are so pretty in aquariums, all of the white parts glow in the tank lights.

9 Highfin cardinal fish

4. turkey – not the most beautiful birds to draw but definitely one of the more interesting. I used the official prompt “pattern” for this one with all of the fancy feathers.

10 Turkey ( prompt pattern )

5. crab – I’m not sure what type of crab this is, In the photo it was purple and very pretty.

11 Crab

6. next – (move along please nothing to see here) I made a birthday cake and card on this day and there was no day left over for inktobering  *sad face*

7. sparrow – I do love a sparrow and the photo of this one was so cute. also we had been out for the younglings birthday dinner and eating afore mentioned cake (yummm)

13 Sparrow

So that’s how inktober is going at the moment. I’m not stressing over the missed days, if I have time I may make the numbers up or not, its still good practice either way.

I’m not following prompts, unless they fit in with the things I’ve drawn but it is fascinating to see how other people have interpreted the prompts in their own interesting and out of the box ways.

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

Note: If you want to know more a link to information on inktober and what it is all about is here.

Inktober 2019

1. warthog, pig theme for pinchpunchpost and day one of Inktober

Hi there, how are you?
It’s October again, or should I say Inktober. The time we break out the pens and ink for 31 days of inky art making.

Here’s a link to information on inktober and what it is all about.

I wasn’t sure at first what parameters (goals) to set. I have to give myself something to aim for or practice, I’d probably give up halfway through otherwise.
Last year I learned Chinese brush painting and really enjoyed it.

There was a roll of brown paper (they use rolled up brown paper inside rolls of wrapping paper these days and not giant tubes) I’d been saving for who knows what so I’ve cut it into A5 ish pieces to try and work out drawing on toned paper. It seems to be better quality than the craft paper I have and up to now none of the ink or pens I’ve used has bled through the page. Alcohol ink seeps through everything so I’ll use these sparingly.

1. (Above) warthog – this is a bit if a two-fer, October 1st is pinch punch post day (a twitter monthly challenge) so I combined it with Inktober, the theme was pig, I love all kinds of pigs so I drew a warthog. He even has a little bit of scenery.

2. humming bird – a little humming bird about to fly away. I tried to add a touch of colour with some aqua pens, meh. I do like the branch.

2. humming bird

3. I’m not using any prompts in particular but I saw a prompt list called #inkredible_inktober by @plushbrush @ohn_mar_win @jendixonarts @bearbellproductions @marienoellewurm⁠ on instagram. The third prompt on the list was berry picker and I instantly thought about a little mouse eating blackberries.

3. A little mouse picking blackberries.

4. turtle – this is a black breasted leaf turtle, they could fit in the palm of your hand and they’re so cute. I drew it from photos I had taken at the zoo.

4. A black breasted leaf turtle.

5. morel mushrooms – all the holes and crevices were fascinating to draw.

5 morel mushrooms.

6. lotus seed pods – I started to play more with a white gelly roll pen here and even tried a little shading. I’m liking the effect.

6. lotus seed pods

The brown paper takes a bit of getting used to, I like the effect others are able to get.  I’m hoping that using it every day for a month will give me a better understanding of how it works.

The first week is done three more to go, let’s see if I can manage the whole month.

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

Watercolour Fish And Jellyfish Doodles

A gold marble veiltail angelfish painting on watercolour paper.

Hi there, how are you?
I’ve borrowed a different book from the library this week; it’s a DK book about aquarium and pond fish. I like DK books, they’re chock full of information and have lots of really good pictures to draw. The only problem is which one to do first.

Top of the post is a gold marble veiltail angelfish, (that’s what you call a name). There are a few angel fish but this one is so pretty and I wanted to see if I could make the tail and fins look as delicate as the ones in the photo. They didn’t come out too bad although I did have to paint them twice because they were far to pale to scan the first time.

Below is a paradise fish; I love the colours of this one. It seems to look more brown than the brilliant orange in the book but overall I was happy with the way it turned out, especially the fins and tail.

A paradise fish painting on watercolour paper.

The last two are what I call “envelope doodles”. When I’m in the kitchen and have just a minute or two to wait whilst things cook I grab an envelope from the recycling box and practice a few brush strokes, nothing grand just blobs and lines, then later sometimes if I like the marks made I turn them into things. Sometimes roses or butterflies, this time they are jellyfish. It’s all good practice.

Jellyfish 1 painted with watercolour on the back of an envelope.

They were finished off with some jelly roll pens whilst watching the TV.
Jellyfish have been floating inside my head for a while now (was that pun intended hmmm) now they’re on a page so there’s more room in my head for other things.

Jellyfish 2 painted with watercolour on the back of an envelope.

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

Sketching Three different Quince Fruit

The one and only quince fruit.

Hi there, how are you?
In our garden we have three different types of quince.

We have a small tree growing the real quince, they’re pear shaped with a fuzzy skin, we also have two types of japonica quince. They’re all edible sour and very hard, all need to be cooked and sweetened before they can be eaten.

I love to draw the flowers in spring then forget to draw the fruit in the autumn. This year I have rectified that and tried to draw the fruits of our entire quince family.

The quince tree has lots of white/pale pink flowers in spring; one or two fruits start to form then usually most fall off.
It maybe me or the weather who knows but it normally produces one single fruit. Last year we had a bumper crop of two whole fruits, this year we’re back to one.

I’ll cook it slowly in the oven and we’ll eat it with ice cream, one fruit will easily feed four for a dessert yum.

The small japonica bush as loads of orange flowers and looks so beautiful in spring. It gives barely any fruit and when it does they are small, possibly the size of a ping pong ball. This year it has four fruits on one of the branches. Best crop we’ve had for many years, something that needed recording in my sketch book for sure.

Four small japonica fruit. A bumper crop this year.

The third quince is a cross between a tree and a bush. It grows tall and is mainly branches and stalks. It has lovely white flowers that blush red and pink in spring, almost like a blossom.
The fruit is about the size of an apple.

The last few years they have given us lots of fruit. The fruit grows close to or even on to the branches and don’t have much in the way of stalks.

I leave them on the bush well into autumn till the first one drops off then try to prize them from the branches. Again they are very sour, more so than the pear shaped one and need lots of sugar. I use the japonica quince to make my favourite quince, rosehip and apple jam. I like to grate anything left over and freeze the pulp; it can be used with other fruit through out the year and tastes really good in muffins.

Large japonica fruit

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

Painting Interesting Chicken Breeds

The Malaysian Serama spangled male

Hi there, how are you?

“#Chick, chick, chick, chick chicken, lay a little egg for me”
I’ve been singing this to myself all week as I was looking through the chicken book, so many different types to choose from.

These are a few of my favourites, I also love some of the black chickens but painting black watercolour is not easy and they all turned out looking pretty miserable.

The spangled Malaysian Serama (above) is a very beautiful bird. The few I looked up on the internet weren’t as colourful so I imagine the blues are iridescence on the feathers.

Disclaimer: some of these chickens have been beautified in photoshop hehehe. White chickens on a white background is like polar bears in the snow, invisible so I took the white of the paper off and inserted a few puffs of grey to help them show up better.

Had I been a better artist I would have painted the paper but this paper doesn’t take wet washes well and I didn’t want to spoil the pictures.
Maybe I’ll do some on watercolour paper now I’ve seen the effect and quite like how it looks.

The white Wyandotte hen on the left and the Silkie on the right. the Silkie has very fluffy feathers and little fluffy boots

The white Wyandotte hen on the left is just a quick pencil sketch, I liked how it turned out and left it at that.

I really like the way the purple colour turned out on the Silkie (right), we saw chickens like these at the animal farm and they look just like balls of fluff on legs. They also come in black but painting black beaks, combs, feet and fluff needs a lot more skill than I currently have.

A white Wyandotte and a Silkie chicken

The Seabright has laced patterning on its feathers, which apparently means they’re edged with another colour. I’m using a brush pen to edge the feathers. With its tiny comb and puffed out chest it looks a bit like a pigeon.

Seabright hen, using a brush pen for the feather pattern

The Appenzeller Spitzhauben chicken has a horned comb and a feathered crest he’s quite a fancy looking bird, and he knows it.

Appenzeller Spitzhauben Male

The book has to go back to the library soon but it was a lot of fun drawing and painting chickens.

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

Nasturtiums

2 watercolour nasturtium flowers front and back.

Hi there, how are you?

I planted nasturtiums in the garden in late spring, as they started to grow they were promptly eaten by the mollusc hoards. Tried again early summer, eaten again pfft! Nasturtiums are so easy to grow, you just poke the seed into the soil and they grow but it wasn’t working so I planted them into pots and placed the pots on the window sill (along with other plants that should be easy to grow but were eaten).

This worked beautifully

A nasturtium seed & small shoot.

Once big enough they needed to go out into the garden, the mollusc hoards struck again and ate a third of my plants to stumps. So for the past month or two I have been going out in the dead of night with a torch and a pot, picking the slimy visitors off my precious plants and taking them over to the nearby woods.

I now have six lovely healthy nasturtium plants.

Watercolour nasturtium bud

They’re looking fine and I decided to celebrate their beauty by drawing some of the flowers.
I’ve drawn some flowers, buds. seeds and spent some quality time in the garden drawing and painting.

Nasturtium plant painted with watercolour. the second seed down is from a different plant, I included it in the sketch because I liked the way they twisted around each other.

Tonight I will be seen once again in the pitch dark picking slugs and snails off the plants by torch light, fun times.

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

Pitcher Plant Flowers

Green flowers of a pitcher plant from the front and back.

Hi there, how are you?

I went to the zoo this week and spent the time fascinated by the plants. We saw lots of animals but at this time of year there are some very beautiful plants in the gardens dotted around the zoo too.

One little garden is full of ferns, grasses and pitcher plants. I’d seen them last year and assumed they would change the plants for something different once the summer was finished but no, they seem to be quite hardy and survived the winter unscathed.

A pitcher plant. flower and bud. The petals hang down over the platform in the centre.

The flowers are very strange. The petals hang down over a kind of little platform in the centre of the flower. There are a few different species; some have green flowers and others red.

A pitcher plant with red flowers.

They’re in a long raised bed so I sat on the wall next too the plants and drew them. Most people are looking at the red pandas in that part of the zoo (I had seen the pandas first) so it’s reasonably quiet.

This is a photo of the green flowers of the pitcher plant. it shows them a little more clearly.

I drew them from different angles, each pitcher along with its corresponding flower and spent a very enjoyable time in the sunshine.

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

Chicken – Some Interesting Head Wear

A Sussex chicken with a single comb

Hi there, how are you?
Recently I borrowed a book from the library about chicken keeping. The other half was a little worried when he saw it, nudged the daughter and said “we’re not getting chickens are we, where will we put them!” she reassured him that there would be no chickens in our tiny garden, mum just wants to draw from the pictures hehehe.

A Bantam chicken with a rose comb

It’s true, this book has loads of good chicken pictures with chickens of all different breeds plus ducks and geese too! I may have to renew it. It’s quite interesting and informative.

A La Fletch with a horned comb

It would be easy to type chicken into google, lots of images would turn up in the results but I don’t always want to be stuck in front of screens and devices, books are a lot easier on the eyes.

A Sumatra chicken with a pea comb

I had planned on drawing whole chickens but there are several pages concerning their combs, feet feathers, and bird anatomy. There are so many breeds and differences.

A sicillian chicken with a buttercup comb

I think this book will keep me busy for a while.
Chickens are fascinating birds.

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