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

Last Fuchsia Of The Summer

fuchsia watercolour sketch

Hi there, how are you?

It’s September, the end of the summer months, and the fuchsia are having one final bloom.

My little plants have had a difficult year with the weather switching from fierce heat and drought to wind and torrential rain; with each change the newly formed flowers have withered or fallen then with determination flowered again.

I should be finishing off the course I’d started but I didn’t want to miss the last few fuchsia flowers.

Above, It’s quite hard to mix that pale sugary pink, it worked a little better when mixed with a little gouache mixed in with the pink but not ideal. Looks like I need to do some colour mixing exercises.

Below are the buds of a different fuchsia plant. The outside is a deep crimson red and the inside is purple. I’m hoping to see the flowers open before the flowers drop off.

I’ve been practising hatching with the brown fine liner again. It’s just the one flower drawn at about A5 size, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one.

Next I drew some in graphite even managing to sketch a few tiny cyclamen flowers. (very happy to see they are still alive) I love the way the flower curls up once the petals fall.

Once in side the house I decided to give the fuchsia a light wash of watercolour, it’s pale but I do like the effect.

graphite fuchsia sketch — Graphite fuchsia sketch

Time now to get back to finishing last weeks course me thinks.

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

Shades Of Grey: Drawing With Brush Pens

a few garden flowers — A few garden flowers

Hi there, how are you?

Sometimes there isn’t a lot of time for drawing so I try to sit for fifteen or so minutes with my two favourite brush pens and a sketch book, it gives me time to slow down and reset for the rest of the day.

Above a fuchsia, strawberry and aquilegia flower all drawn on different days with a grey brush pen with outlines and details in black.

It’s interesting just how much detail you can make with two colours.

Below, blue bells, forget-me-nots and viola flowers. There’s lots of lovely flowers around at this time of year.

more garden flowers — More garden flowers

I keep these two pens in my sketch kit for sketching out and about, they’re easier to use and less messy than watercolours and I can get the idea down quicker.

Crab-apple blossom are amazing this year and I couldn’t wait to draw them at the local gardens. They are a lovely dark pink colour that fades gradually as they age. I took many photos so no doubt I’ll be painting them soon.

Sometimes I use brush pens for doodling, I have a few minutes to kill so I make a quick sketch in the sketch book.

These mushrooms were drawn in two sessions along the bottom of a page, the little snail half drawn one day, the dragonfly drawn the next. I like the way they fit together on the page.

I don’t draw every day but if I can fit some into a small pocket of time I will, got to keep practising.

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

The Last Of The Fuchsia

fuchsia watercolour sketch — Fuchsia watercolour sketch

Hi there, how are you?

Earlier in the week I drew the last of this years fuchsia flowers. Lucky thing really as on Friday Storm Arwen blew through.

We lost a couple of roof tiles, two fence panels and all of the flowers blew off the fuchsia plant. Amazing.

I’d painted the flowers below first, the paper was unforgiving and although it was able to take the watercolour the colours looked heavy and overworked.

Trying again (above) this time I used the watercolour quite dry and painted with a smaller brush than usual, the colours aren’t as overworked and they are truer to the flowers.

I don’t often look inside fuchsia flowers, it was interesting to draw them from that angle, I’ll have to remember to do this more often.

Drawing with a fountain pen (no pencil guidelines) this was fun, just concentrating on the shapes of the petals. I always find this kind of drawing very meditative. It’s lots of different bits of the plant put together, I think it makes for a cool sketchbook page.

fuchsia drawn with fountain pen — Fuchsia drawn with fountain pen

This is one of the white roses from my bouquet of birthday flowers, it’s long gone now though I did take some photos and I’ll probably dip into them sometimes till spring appears again.

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

Flowers And Butterflies

Hi there, how are you?

The weather has been gloriously sunny this week but there is a little bit of a chill to the air. Time to take stock of what’s in the garden and think about tidying up as the autumn rolls in.

The fuchsias have tried hard this year, they’re growing nicely but every time they fill with buds the weather changes drastically and they all fall off. This week we actually had flowers so I drew a little sketch in celebration.

There are still a few other flowers remaining so I decided to make a page of little snapshots to document some of them.

1: St. johns wort, 2: poppy seed pod, 3; a rose leaf, 4: cyclamen, 5: fuchsia 6: tiny yellow tomatoes.

watercolour garden snapshots — Watercolour garden snapshots

This week I have also been Chinese brush painting. I was trying out compositions for a birthday card, so far this was the best of the bunch.

wisteria and butterflies — Wisteria and butterflies

The butterflies were a little tricky so I had a practice painting different shapes and styles. They are all blue because I had some mixed in a small dish to use up.

blue watercolour butterflies — Blue watercolour butterflies

After practising I decided orange was a happier colour and they contrast better with the wisteria.

It’s almost September people! The whole year is moving by so fast, have to take the time to paint the flowers hehehe.

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

Shades Of Grey

Fuchsia draw in ink

Hi there, how are you?

A few weeks ago I bought a shiny new Lamy fountain pen, it was half price (we all love a bargain)

It came with a small plastic pouch, roughly 7” x 2_1/2”. Filled with a pencil, the Lamy, a water brush a rubber and a brush pen (they all squeeze in if I clip the fountain pen onto the outside) I thought it would make a nice little drawing kit.

I’ve been testing it out together with a small sketch book to see how useful it would be and honestly it’s brilliant.

There is no colour obviously because the palette wont fit so everything is just shades of grey. The brush pen Is filled with grey ink and the water brush is used for the line and wash.

This fuchsia (above) was a lot of fun to draw it’s shaded by pulling ink out from the from the drawing.

Testing out the brush pen next I drew another fuchsia sprig, it’s very subtle but I like the effect.

Fuchsia drawn with a brush pen

There are still one or two poppies flowering in the garden, this was drawn using the fountain pen and the water brush again.

Poppy ink drawing

The geranium is still flowering, I used the brush pen to draw it. It’s a lot more intricate than the fuchsia and wasn’t sure the petals would show up being so close to each other, again it is very subtle but I think it works.

Geranium drawn with grey ink

All in all I think this was a successful experiment, the kit is very light, fits easily into my bag and there is a good range of tones to keep the drawings interesting. I’m going to have lots of fun using these pens

I’ll still be using the watercolours of course but it’s good to have options.

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

Supermarket Plants And A Discovery

Geranium watercolour sketch, outlined with a fountain pen.

Hi there, how are you?

One of the few places we have been regularly lately are the supermarkets. There are many supermarkets by us, about six all in the space of about three miles.

We’ve picked up the habit of checking out the plant shelves and far too often these plants end up in the shopping trolley.

This geranium (above)was found in the plant graveyard (they never seem to water the plants) I had planned to make cuttings from it after a little T.L.C. But it started flowering again and I don’t want to pull the flowers off so I’m going to use them for drawing practice till they fall and take cuttings later.

It is painted with watercolour, I like the looser look of it without any ink lines.

In the next one below I concentrated more on the flowers and outlined them with a fountain pen.

Geranium ink & watercolour sketch

Back in early spring I bought a small fuchsia plant. It was very small and only £1. last year I found out the slugs don’t eat them so there would be good chance I’d get flowers.

Unfortunately last years plants didn’t last the winter and the cuttings I took didn’t take. (I don’t have green fingers but I keep trying.)

The plant is quite big now and the flowers are just starting to bloom.

They’re a different colour to last year and very frilly so I think they’re going to be a lot of fun to draw.

I reached the end of the sketchbook and didn’t have time to find another one so I drew on the back cover and coloured it with watercolour.

The watercolour is dulled down and looks a little vintage but on the whole I like the effect. A touch of white gel pen to add the highlights.

Fuchsia sketch on toned paper (the back of the sketchbook)

One of our many supermarkets was built next to a field. People use it as a cut through to the nearby housing estate.

I was there was to see if the blackberries were flowering, it’s a good place to pick berries away from the traffic.

I startled two rabbits as I walked around and in a small clearing I saw some small purple flowers.

I didn’t know what they were but as I got down on the ground I could see they were some kind of orchid. The whole plant was about three inches high and the small flowers about as big as my thumb.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this in the wild so I was very exited and I took a couple of photos.

I looked them up later and found out they are called bee orchids.

Bee orchid sketch

Isn’t it amazing what you find when you’re not expecting it.

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

Happy new year 2021

my favourite nine 2020 — My favourite nine 2020

Hi there, how are you?

Last post of the year I thought I would show my favourite nine of the year.

Towards the end of the year people on instagram show their best nine. It’s compiled from your own most liked images on the platform and its always nice to see what people like.

I also like to find my own favourites for fun, it’s also a nice review of the year. (see above)

Looking back over the year, I drew a lot of flowers. Sitting in the garden was a thing, poppies and fuchsias were the favourites.

I like the way the Inktober’s worked out this year. They generated lot of ideas and the colour of the inks sit really nicely together.

I used a lot of toned paper in blue and pink sketchbooks, it effects the way I think, and the materials I use so it was a very interesting exercise.

The images picked by the best nine website were all from the beginning of the year, I think there was an algorithm change somewhere after these and nothing else reached these giddy heights hehehe.

Interesting to see the walrus pattern in there and my dabbling with collage guinea fowl

Well we did it folks, 2020 is over and we got to the end of the year, phew!

I want to think next year will be better, happier but I think we still have more to work through before we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

For the next few months of the coming year I will mostly be sitting in my house staying safe; just like I have since march last year.

Happy New Year everyone I hope you’ll be happy, healthy and who knows maybe we’ll be together enjoying the company of family and friends.

Thanks so much for being here, your likes, visits and uplifting comments have been so encouraging and I appreciate you following along with my little artistic journey.

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