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

Happy Christmas 2022

Deer Christmas card 2022

Hi there, how are you?

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, 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 1

01-yin yang fish

Hi there, how are you?

October again, already! Time to play with ink again and participate in Inktober.

I bought some new ink (seriously, like I need more ink!) had to make up the postage and they found their way into my basket hehehe.

Hopefully his year there will be experimentation as I play with the new inks, and maybe some old ones and this will lead to generating a few new ideas

1. yin yang fish. (above)

2. cosmos flower and a butterfly, blew the background with a straw.

3.daisy and a bee, a little asemic writing around the edge. A fancy way of saying it looks like words but it doesn’t mean anything, just squiggles.

4.cherry blossom, a wash of ink with bleach painted onto the surface. I’d seen other people do this with fountain pen ink and wanted to give it a try. It’s a bit messy and smelly but it’s an interesting effect.

I’m not following prompts, unless they appeal to me, I’ll just be plodding along at my own speed to see what happens and if I’m lucky I’ll manage to finish the whole month and have some fun at the same time.

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

Cat Amongst The Poppies

Hi there, happy Mothers Day every one.

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.