New Rose Shoots

A new rose shoot.

Hello, how are you?

The rose at the bottom of the garden like everything is bursting into life.

The leaves range in colour from bright oranges to deep magenta depending on the amount of sunshine and the time of day, sitting like tiny jewels in the garden.

We’ve had a small amount of snow and the fingers get very cold so after a very brief time sketching outside I decided to take photos and finish drawing later inside.

Above the sun shining through the leaves they appear in beautiful shades of orange.

Below a quick ink sketch in red ink. Too cold for anything more.

ink sketch of rose shoots — A quick ink sketch of some rose shoots.

Perched at the top of the plant is a solitary dried roe hip from last year, time to prune it off but first a small drawing to remember it by.

It was drawn with pencil and a light wash of watercolour to add a little life.

It was interesting after looking closely to pick out the colours, some faded pinks and blues as well as the usual browns and greys.

A few more small studies of new rose shoots, this time they had less sunshine so appear darker and pinker. They’re outlined with either black or brown fine liner I really enjoy the variance in colour.I really enjoy the variance in colour.

It wont be long before the reds and oranges turn to a deep dark green, then there will be buds and flowers to draw.

Not much drawing to speak of in the last few weeks due to elder care issues, the reality is that I do what I can when there is time. Hopefully I’ll get back into the rhythm of things soon.

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

Squirrel Practice

A squirrel looking out. the scrappiest and at the moment my favourite sketch.

Hi there, how are you?

This week I have been sketching squirrels.

I would like to improve my animal drawing so I’m just looking at images of squirrels and drawing them in different poses.

My thinking is if I draw one animal lots of times in lots of poses it will tell my brain a basic anatomy then I can move on to other animals or maybe I’ll draw lots of animals and I’ll finally work it out as I really want to improve my drawing skills.

The squirrel above is a quick ink sketch and watercolour.

They are all watercolour on cartridge paper nothing too fancy as I work it all out.

They all have backgrounds even if I’s only a quick wash as I’m trying to give them somewhere to live so as not to be floating around on a white page, something else I want to work on.

squirrel finds a nut — Squirrel finds a nut

I’m starting simple with green washes and splotches to imply leaves with a few twigs, grasses and even mushrooms thrown in so they appear to have an environment of some sort.

They’re all a bit scrappy and un finished but hopefully it will become easier as I practice.

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

Supermarket Tulips

Loose watercolour tulips

Hi there, how are you?

At the supermarket this week we found a small bunch of tulips in the reduced section. They were only slightly wilting and we thought with some care they may spring back a little.

They did and were still going strong a few days later; they were the muse for this weeks drawings.

I started with loose watercolour, it’s quick and gave me a feel for the shapes.

Next I drew some tulips with a fountain pen (below) and pulled out the ink with a damp brush, then used a brush pen filled with grey ink to colour them.

tulips ink — Tulips in black and grey ink

Tidying through some papers I found a toned sketchbook (it’s amazing what you find when you’re not looking for it), I was just going to use ink and a white gel pen but there was a palette of gouache by my side and I thought it would go nicely on this paper and it did,

tulips gouache on toned paper — Tulips in ink & gouache on toned paper

This last one is a combination of brush pen, black watercolour and white gouache. I like the effect of the black watercolour on this paper, especially where the paint is thin and it looks like a dark brown. I’ll have to try that again.

tulips ink & gouache — Tulips in ink watercolour & gouache

Not too bad for a small bunch of wilting tulips, they’ve kept me busy and happy all week.

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

Snowdrop Time

Snowdrops

Hi there, how are you?

There’s been more poking around in the garden and I’ve discovered the snowdrops.

These small unassuming white flowers tell us that though winter is still in full swing but spring is just around the corner. The garden is preparing for new growth and the warmer weather is on it’s way.

After snapping one or two photos and I ran back into the dry warm house.

I made lots of little studies in my sketchbook, little buds all closed up in their capsule’s waiting to pop, small white droplets hanging down as the flowers slowly open.

Snowdrop bud sketch

I found a small piece of arches watercolour paper, just big enough to paint on (roughly A5 in size). The paper is rough not cold-pressed a very different painting experience than usual.

I drew something simple because I didn’t want to use masking fluid.

The background was going to be dark green with blue and purple dropped in (left image). It looked OK whilst it was wet but once dried turned a murky grey.

snowdrow wc before & after — Snowdrop waterccolour before & after

Since I wasn’t really fussed about it I thought I’d experiment a little more, maybe a dark blue background would work?

Ultra marine blue and a touch of indigo, the flower shows up better not sure it’s an improvement though, but it was fun trying.

As more snowdrops pop through I’ll take more photos if for no the reason than I really enjoy looking at them.

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

Iris Seeds Heads

Hi there, how are you?

Watercolour iris seed heads

Spring is about to spring so I thought I’d go out into the garden and tidy up a bit.

One or two of the spring bulbs are starting to show tiny green shoots and it’s all looking very promising, then in the corner of my eye I spotted last years iris plants.

Of course there aren’t any flowers but there are some very beautiful seed heads, the pods have burst open revealing the lovely colourful seeds ranging from red to purple, absolutely stunning.

It’s too cold and wet to sit out side and draw them so I snapped a few photos and drew them in the house.

The first two are painted with watercolour on cartridge paper, layering one light wash on top of another till it became the colour I wanted.

watercolour iris seed heads 2
The photo for this painting was taken from the top which is why the leaves are is a strange angle

The next one is drawn with a fountain pen as I try to draw in the tones. It’s not too bad, I’ll keep on practising though.

Another ink drawing. I was going to leave it at that but in the end added a quick wash of watercolour over the top.

I really like it now, it reminds me of illustrations from vintage books, definitely need to do this more.

These little seed heads really cheered me up this week, it’s nice to find something unexpected in the garden a this time of year.

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

Bunny

year of the rabbit 2023 — Year of the rabbit 2023 watercolour.

Hi there, how are you?

Chinese new year this year is “the year of the rabbit”. Both the youngling and I apparently were born under this sign although in different years obviously.

I decided to draw and paint a little rabbit to celebrate.

This little bunny is jumping into a puddle because my year is also a water element, the youngling is under the fire element, explains a lot ha!

According to my research every year has a different element attached to it, something I didn’t know till recently.(Learning and growing.)

There’s a possibility this small watercolour may end up on someone’s card soon, wonder who the lucky person will be hehehe.

A very happy and prosperous new year to anyone celebrating.

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

Turtle Card

Hi there, how are you?

This week I’ve been making a birthday card using the turtle from Octobers Inktober ideas as a starting point.

Sometimes I use the actual Inktober art and adhere it to a card base but this time I wanted to see how it would look in a more realistic colour.

The original (below) was OK, there were a few things I wanted to change with the drawing. Most of the Inktober are drawn and completed in a day, getting it drawn quickly and posted is as much as I can deal with. Details get missed or glossed over.

I drew the original image out again in a sketchbook and painted it with watercolour to test the colours. This gave me a rough idea what colours I wanted to use (and the ones I didn’t).

After a quick sketchbook re-draw I tweaked the colours a little and was happier with these choices.

This is cartridge paper, the colours are not too vibrant on this paper but it’s enough to work things out.

turtle sketch 2 — Turtle sketch 2, a bit scrappy but it does the job.

As you can see the colours on the card at the top of the post are a lot more vibrant. This is in part due to me using a photo (the scan looked very washed out which can sometimes happens with blues,) and the use of cotton watercolour paper. Cotton watercolour paper always makes the colours sing.

The lighting is the sun shining low in the sky through the trees behind me.

The thing I like about Inktober is (given a good month) I have lots of ideas, admittedly not all good but enough to spark lots of other ideas to use throughout the year.

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

New Year Orchids

red orchid watercolour — Red orchid watercolour.

Hi there, how are you?

This week two of our orchid plants have flowered, a red one and a new flower with a bucket shaped flower.

The red orchid has small angular petals and the leaves seem to grow out of vertical flat bulbs.

I haven’t yet drawn the bulbs but maybe I will if only to document the whole plant.

(Above) the whole flower stalk is painted with watercolour.

The flowers are a deep burgundy colour not the purple you see here. Have tried and failed to produce this colour with any medium so far, so obviously I need to keep trying.

Below are two sets of three flowers drawn with coloured brush pens, the top three using a deep wine colour and the bottom with magenta underneath the wine colour.

For some reason the scans all look purple?

red orchid brush pens — Red orchids drawn with brush pens.

The other orchid was a mothers day gift last year. The youngling handed it to me in two parts as the flower had dropped off in transit, hehehe. I was very exited to see it bloom this week.

As I said it has a kind of bucket flower in green and pink and small green two toned leaves, very exotic indeed.