Sunday 9 October 2016

Teatime.

A very small and very nervous white cat was being terrorised by the local farmer's pack of terriers.
Our crew don't let them onto our property so, although we're not really cat people, she lives in a ruined stable and we feed her, much to the disgust of the dogs!
Then on Wednesday she showed us a very precious little visitor, her baby.
Due to being a big fan of a certain writer and the time of day he arrived we've named him Mr. Teatime.
I'm currently doing an online course and our project is to take something that inspires us, to capture it and then do other versions of the same subject.
So here is my project page..subject, Mr Teatime!


Friday 2 September 2016

Diva Challenge #282..Spill! IAST #160


I'm not someone who normally has any problem whatsoever in making a mess..so when The Diva announced her challenge, no problem! Spill anything you like on a tile and tangle, Adele's IAST challenge was a large number 6 string plus Shattuck and Fengle designs. Just put them all together I thought...so armed with a handful of tiles I go to the kitchen to spill...
Red wine and real strong coffee, nice colours, I thought. Plenty of mess but...no colours! The tiles must contain a lot of bleaching agent because the spill was barely visible.
Take two..
I have found some watercolour paper recently that my mother bought 28 years ago for a pastels class that she did not enjoy. The paper is not quite white anymore but hey :) Red wine, Adele's string, Shattuck, Fengle and a few recalcitrant Zingers and I'm done. I've had some great advice from Eni Oken lately and feel it's helping my shading a lot.

Sunday 28 August 2016

Let's give these gems a go!


So everywhere I look I see fab gems drawn to look breathtaking..I downloaded a great book and these are my very first attempt.
This is in a small 4x6" journal as it is the only smooth paper I have. The settings are very quickly sketched as I did not expect to like the gems enough to make the effort at all but actually am quite pleased :)
This is something that will be fun to experiment with I think.

Friday 26 August 2016

Diva Challenge # 281 *ING!

Here is my Diva Challenge tile for challenge # 281 and there she is below, naked!
The Diva's choice was simply ING from Zentangle. When I say simply I'd like to say her choice was simple..one design, do your own thing however....having spent the first evening drawing it in lots of forms, willy nilly, no problem, I then lost the plot completely! My very long suffering partner, when he stopped laughing at my frustration, helped me. I talked him through the step outs and that in it's turn reinstated it back into my thick head :) I wrote out a 4 step recipe that works every time!
The reason for the naked before shot is that I have been accepted into a miraculous shading group. If I share my efforts with them they have lots of very kind people who will critique the piece. Everyone is constructive and encouraging, this is priceless to an absolute beginner like me.
So! The tile started to break down badly with colour and shading but I really enjoyed this challenge.
The ING at the top, done with curved lines, looked quite organic to me like something I might dig up in the veggie patch! The bottom one sharper and harder so I wanted the middle one to be a fusion of the two. The web and curve meet the hard angles, a louvre type pattern and then blossoming into a soft floral design (Sanibelle from Tricia Faraone). To the best of my knowledge nothing else needs to be referenced but please do tell me if I've missed something?

Saturday 20 August 2016

Diva Challenge #280 Olympics Rio 2016

The Diva and Adele Bruno both chose an Olympic theme so I'm cheating somewhat and using one tile for both challenges.
Phew! The IAST string was '16'  A challenge it certainly was, my 'taste' alarm was ringing at the number of colours in the rings but five colours it is!
The pattern Drogon from Lily Moon was part of  the IAST #158 challenge so, as that made think of the feather fans and headdresses from Brazilian carnivals, I decided to use Vicki Bassett's Showgirl as one of my 'go to' patterns. As it was already a bit of an extravaganza of colour I thought the colours of Brazil's flag may as well join the party :)
Just lately I've been reading of people passing along tiles for friends to add to then pass along again..a relay :) So Carole Ohl's Baton is the final addition that needs to be referenced I think..relays..batons..? The Baton design also reminded me of the ribbons for the medals.

Wednesday 17 August 2016

Joey's Challenge #126 finish my tile..

Yet another first for me..this time an entry for Joey's Challenge. I was not aware of this one until this weekend so thought I would have a go.
The idea is that Joey starts a tile, this one with a Paradox triangle, then we finish off the tile.
What a fun idea, I've really enjoyed the concept and the process.
So..to Joey's Paradox I abutted some of Kate Ahren's Tropicana and surrounded the whole lot with Tricia Faraone's Sanibelle. I struggled a little with the Paradox shading (as ever) but decided to leave the little highlight in the very centre, Tropicana and Sanibelle were both totally new to me but an utter joy to draw..thanks to those ladies :)

Monday 15 August 2016

Beads and a feather...for The Ragged Ray

A page from my sketchbook from a few weeks ago.
The beads were for a Diva challenge but I didn't have the courage or 'know how' to send it in.
With help from a very kind person I not only started this blog but also now submit pieces to the challenges!
I need to find out how to do those wonderful drop shadows on smaller details. Most things I just look at other peoples fab work and teach myself but the shadows are beating me..  :/

Friday 12 August 2016

Diva Challenge #279

Meer and Auraknot duotangle for the Diva's Challenge #279.
These are both new to me but then I'm new to it all! I found the woven design to be really fun once I got my wooden head around how to construct it...doh!
Meer had me cross-eyed, I thought I had where to shade then lost it..then found it I think. Not entirely sure that I pulled it off but the practice is very therapeutic.
I used a little watercolour behind because when it was finished it brought to mind looking through a dreamcatcher..so my thought is a sunset through the dreamcatcher. No laughing now..I will improve I sincerely hope lol!


Tuesday 9 August 2016

IAST #156

Adele's third birthday challenge and it was our gift to her for all the effort she goes to for us. For the love of encouraging art she gives us inspiration and a stage. I have only been doing this for a few weeks and love it already.
The colour on this image is slightly different in reality, all listed as greys, one looking quite blue.

I have an unmentionable vision in my head as to what this resembles but you'd have to know me well for me to tell lol!

Tuesday 2 August 2016

IAST #155

I wrote down the challenge details, picked up a sketch book and drew this. Then I designed three more, taking time to think about them, planning them.
But! I like this one :) the one that just popped out of my pen on to the paper..more instinctive I suppose.

Tuesday 26 July 2016

# DC277

Since spending time in New Zealand I have been inspired by the culture, fauna and flora.
They have a magnificent tree named Pohutukawa which is smothered in scarlet puffball flowers. My circles are to suggest the flower closed, from above and then opened.
I think Pixieoze from Margaret Bremner is the only design I have borrowed but apologise if anything else is taken :)

Exchanging "I should" for "I want to".

Exchanging "I should" for "I want to".

 I have collected quite a few brush pens and fineliners now. I kept telling myself that I should make a colour swatch chart as the ink is not always anything like the pen caps. Should, now there's a word, along with 'must' they are guaranteed to make me prevaricate!
After yet another wrong grey I decided to change the should for want :) Then it seemed like fun and not a chore.
I used Helen Williams' Bloom and now have most of my colours for easy reference. When my new inks and watercolours arrive I will think of a way to do a similar thing..very exciting!

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Inspired by the red moons we have in Spain. This was my entry for IAST #153, it was in the rubbish bin for a day until a very kind person suggested I revisit it. A dig through the trash and a little bit of fiddling and it grew on me :)...

Thursday 14 July 2016

Diva Weekly Challenge #275

This week's Diva Challenge calls for artwork using PEACE as a theme.
I chose patterns whose initials can spell out the word.
Pais by Mikee Huber
Echo by Sue Clark (twice!)
Africanartist by Tina Hunzinker
Ciceron from Mariet Lustenhouwer

It's a String Thing #151






It's a String Thing #150