More chameleons this week, I’ve decided to put one on a card.
I thought the chameleons could use some friendly little frogs and set about sketching out some ideas in my sketchbook.
Happy frog drawings
The backgrounds were all started off by splattering watercolour onto the paper randomly in various shades of green and yellow then sprinkling on a little salt. Foliage is not my strong point so it’s a good starting point for the trees and an impression of leaves.
Green chameleon background
I painted this image a couple of times trying different colours or ideas, I liked parts of both paintings but tried it one more time (maybe this is some sort of perfectionism?) anyway I liked the last one so that will be the one to make into the card. The others will probably be glued into my sketchbook for future reference.
Chameleon tests
Hopefully the teenage boy it’s intended for will enjoy it.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x
In my quest to draw better squirrels I now have many sketches and since I had some cards to make this week I’ve been putting my new found skills to work.
We all like to make each other cards for celebrations, they are fun to make and it always seems a little more personal.
Above a birthday card with a little squirrel reaching down for cake (as you do).
Below checking out the lay of the land on a tuft.
Squirrel on a tuft
I’ve been attempting simple backgrounds so they have places to live also they are not floating around on a white background.
I like the effect of the trees in the top image, they turned out much better than I thought they would.
The image below is a little over worked, less fiddling needed hehehe.
Some things I need to work on but on the whole they are OK.
Who knows, maybe some of this practice is paying off.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x
This little card was made out of one of the moon experiments I’d done in October. It’s very simple and hopefully effective, just a few die-cuts glued onto the front.
December has been a bit of a blur really. After a bout of COVID at the end of November and a short trip to London I contracted yet another nasty bug that has had me coughing and wheezing for weeks. This left me quite tired and Christmas preparations have been slow and steady as the energy allowed.
Now the time is upon us and I would like to send everyone best wishes for the season and a very happy Christmas filled with peace, love and joy.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x
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.
Moon experiment 1
Moon experiment 2
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 in watercolour.
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:
This month there is a wedding anniversary and a birthday, a good excuse to paint some cards.
The first card, daisies and butterflies, painted on posh arches watercolour paper no less.
This was the second attempt as the sizing in the paper of the first attempt had degraded and to make matters worse the masking fluid I used, tinted blue left lots of blue stains on the paper!
The masking fluid is in the bin, I wont be buying that brand again.
In the end I just painted around the petals, I don’t think it looks too bad.
The butterflies have gold shiny mica watercolour on the wings and the background looked a little empty so I painted blue swirls and drew around the swirls with a white and a sparkly gel pen.
Below is an image of me trying to take a photo of the sparkle, Can’t see it? No me neither phfftt. Obviously my photographic skill are not good enough for the job.
Sparkly daisy card
It’s our anniversary in august so I like to make himself something a little romantical. I went with love birds and drew lots of scrappy little birds in the sketchbook. These are the best of the bunch.
Birb sketches
I picked the two second from the bottom and added some cherry blossoms to give them more of a branch to sit on.
Love birds in the cherry blossom.
Thirty seven years, crikey! Seems like yesterday. Doesn’t time fly when your having fun.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. till next time, have fun
Sunday was the day we celebrate all of the dads, Happy Fathers day.
For me it’s a day of reflection, my dad passed away many years ago but I carry him with me every day. It’s also a day to show the other half how appreciated he is, and he is very much so.
I wanted to make a card and for whatever reason decided upon lemurs.
I’ve drawn many many bad lemurs this week in the hope of creating something suitable.
I’m not entirely happy with the result but it is what it is, (must practice more.)
I tried out the colours on a scrap piece of paper (ye olde printer paper), you can see here it’s very loosely drawn and painted, all pencil lines and back-runs.
I actually like the background better on the test paper than the watercolour paper.
Rough lemur colour test
The next little lemur is a quick sketch with ink brush pens. I like to sketch this way, blocking out the shape with the grey ink and adding details or refining with the black ink.
The position of this lemur was cool but it seemed like half an idea, maybe I’ll use him for something else. It’s always nice to have a few extra ideas hiding in the sketchbook for later use.
Lemur ink sketch
OK this is not a lemur, its an Emperor tamarin. They are tiny little monkeys small enough to fit in your hand and have very impressive moustaches. What can I say, I just couldn’t help myself drawing that awesome facial hair.
Emperor tamarin monkey
Maybe this will be another card eventually.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. till next time, have fun
This was the card I painted for mum this year. It is based on an old Inktober drawing from 2020.
I’ve tried several times to make a coloured version and so far this is the one I like best.
Its difficult to get vibrant reds with watercolour (I’m probably using the wrong colours) so it’s mixed media on watercolour paper; watercolour for the background, ink brush pens for the poppies and Indian ink for the cat.
Below you can see the original in black and grey ink drawn on smooth cartridge paper.
It was drawn as part of the 2020 inktober challenge. This was a good year for ideas and I’ve used many of the ideas from this year for cards.
Cat amongst the poppies 2020 inktober
Sending best wishes to all mums everywhere whether it’s an official day or not.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun
This week is number one sons birthday so I set about making a card, something we all like to do.
I wanted to draw a dragon (guess what, I’m rubbish at dragons.)
after checking out the interwebs I found some long skinny dragons made mainly from brush strokes, this I could manage and jotted some down in my sketchbook.
Blue dragons
I like them but they were maybe a bit girly for a guy?
There’s lots of dragons on the interwebs of all shapes and sizes and also very hard to draw.
After a rethink I thought about lizards, they could possibly be turned into dragons and easier to draw too. I found a crocodile skink. They’re small and with the addition of some little wings would make excellent dragons.
Back to the sketchbook and some dragons in different poses. These were painted with moonglow a granulating colour. The granulation gives an impression of texture on it’s own also I didn’t fancy drawing in all of the little scales.
Purple dragons
Trying another colour combination, green appetite genuine, also granulating.
Green dragon
After all of my little tests I settled on green. (see top image) Of course they need to be doing something enter a cupcake. The little guy on the bottom looks like he’s had one to many cakes hehehe.
Hopefully he will like it.
Happy Birthday number one son
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun
Chameleon card
Sunnyfae 