Sketch into Spring # 19 Close Your Eyes

I was quite wary of this one, but once I tried it first on scrap paper, I thought ~ WooHoo!  I can do this!
Believe it or not - and please do believe - I did these flowers and the butterflies with my eyes shut!

Yes . shut!  The only penned bits I did with open eyes was the details on the butterflies and the painting.  **happy, jiggy dancing**  Such fun.  I hope you give it a go, and share if you do.


Until next time...........
..............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Rubbings Take2 and A new sketchbook page

I enjoyed doing the leaf rubbings so much the other day, I wanted to do some more, and after a few folk mentioned bark rubbings, I wanted to have a go at that.  But - not being a spotlight person, I couldn't bring myself to take pencil & paper out to any local trees with me.  So, whilst on my walk yesterday I kept my eyes open for fallen bark, which I pocketed and collected a corresponding leaf.  I only found three, from an oak, a lime and a cherry tree, so I pocketed a few different leaves as well to fill up my page.

I really would like to get better rubbings of bark and think that would be better acheived on bigger bits of paper, so I've decided that the next time I go through the woods at the river, I am taking pencil and paper with me :D

My next bit of craftiness from last evening was a sketchbook page.  I had the page completed up to the orange/pink flowers, waaay back last year, and flicking through my book I decided it was the best background for a couple of my gorgeous new stamps from Rubber Dance.  ((Happy jiggy dance))  :D  I used the Robin, a seagull, the vine and some of the words from the sheet named #B3-M: A little Birdie.

They are gorgeous quality and stamp beautifully; so crisp.  I treated myself to a whole host of these new stamps and look forward to playing with them.   Psst - throughout May, there is FREE shipping wolrdwide too!  You can follow Rubber Dance here on Facebook for news, chatter and to keep up-to-date with all their new releases.

I went over some of the background with oil pastels to bring out the colours a little more, and apart from the stamping on my page, which I coloured with a mix of watercolour pencils and Neocolor 2s, I just added some butterflies from a napkin.  Oh yeah, the black leaves are stamped with black archival ink and were made using a piece of scrap rubber, from the edge of my birdie sheet, cut to shape, and then I made the veins with white neocolor and a waterbrush.  Et, voila............. I hope you like.

Well, I hope you have a crafty day, and until next time...............
..............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #15 ~ Tag Tuesday ~ A Detailed Drawing

A very busy post today, so I shall get right to it.  First of all, here is prompt #15 from Sketch into Spring ~ 'Fill a page with rubbings'. This was lots of fun to do.  Some of you recall doing brass rubbings previously but not from nature. I can reccommend getting your leaves and and textured grasses under your paper and giving them a good rub with your pencil or charcoal. I used a pencil as I don't have any charcoal.  I quite fancy rubbing some tree bark, but would rather find 'discarded' bits and doing it in the privacy of my home, haha.  I'm not a public crafter.

Next I have my tag for this weeks prompt of 'Metal', over at the Tag Tuesday blog.  I didn't have any clue what I was going to do and then after seeing the superb examples on the blog, I was even more mystified! And then, I remembered I had some left-over bits of a tomato puree tube hidden somewhere in my stash, so I dug it out and pondered a bit more on how I was going to make it tag shaped.  ((Light bulb!)) I used my Artful Dwellings die in my bigshot! Yay, me!  Sorry ~ anyway ~ I then used an embossing folder to add some texture.  After that I dripped on my two alcohol inks, blue & yellow, (tried to make green but it didn't mix very well), and once that was dry I added some more colour with alcohol markers.  Finally, I added colour to a ring pull which I fastened on with a coloured brad.

My final share for today is what my wee boy called a 'detailed drawing'.  Something they are working on at school, as he generally does not like to draw.  He was so delighted with it, and do you know, he even went outside to check on the colour of some of the plants to see what shade he should use?!  And he even used a terracotta shade for the roof tiles.  I was so impressed, I thought I would show it to you here.

He has called it, 'Granny in the Garden'.  I Love it Love it Love it! <3  It now 'lives' in my bedroom on the wall.  Of course.

Well, until next time.........

.........thanks so much for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #14 Doodle Butterflies

This was another fun prompt to do.  Well, if I'm honest, it was fun on my second page........haha.  I don't know what happened the first time I tried drawing butterflies, but they looked like anything but butterflies!  If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.  And as my dear departed mum used to say....I am definitely trying!  Haha

I won't say that I am happy with each one of these, but I am happy with the page as a whole .  The background is orange pastel pencil, fixed with cheap hairspray.

The next prompt will be even more fun to do ~ Rubbings!  I hope the weather is kind enough tomorrow for me to rummage around the garden and on my walk, so that I can collect items to use.  Have you ever done nature rubbings?

Until next time...........
.....thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring ~ 12 & #13 Play with Lines & Shapes

Doodles.  Who doesn't love to doodle?!  But Alisa's idea for giving us these prompts is that she feels, 'having a good understanding and appreciation of lines will make you better at drawing'  Well I'll take, and need, any, and all the help I can get!  Haha.  She also says, 'Lines and shapes go together like peanut butter and jelly' - 'most drawings are simply shapes filled with lines'.  I had a lot of fun creating shapes & lines and just let my pen do the work.

I think my favourite from these two pages is the triangle and rectangle line.

Well, until next time............
...........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #9 Capture the Weather

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this prompt.  Alisa, our teacher, lives across the street from the beach and so spends time down there, watching the ocean and the skys and their ever changing colours.  She advised taking photographs so that we can study them later, as obviously they don't move about and change, (unless you live in the wizarding world with Harry Potter of course).  I took my photos on Monday when the sky was changing minute by minute.  We had sun and light clouds, then dark clouds and rain; the sky was beautiful.

Now, I have no idea what colours to use to get different shades of greys and the blues in the sky and the whites/greys of the clouds, so I just played about with my paints until I got what I thought were the colours I saw in my photos.

I just made simple paint patches on my page and did some writing.  I enjoyed this and think I may explore colour mixing further at some point.

Well, until next time............
.........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #8 Thumbprint Birds

Now this was as much fun as I'd hoped it was going to be :-D

Finger prints made with watercolour paints, with fineliner doodles to make them into little birdies.
Great fun.  Why don't you have a go?  Remember to share, if you do won't you :-)

Until next time.......
.........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #7 Go buggy

I did it! Phew!  I'll be honest here, I nearly skipped this one.  I'm really glad I didn't but I do wish I wouldn't keep making things hard for myself!  I tried drawing from memory ~ very bad idea!  I tried drawing from images in a book ~ another bad idea; waay too many shady bits and sketchy lines = frustration.  In the end I made the sensible decision to google, easy to draw insects.  Et voila!  Simple enough for me and I enjoyed myself............WooHooo! ((high fives self)) :D

First I sketched my bugs in pencil, went over them with a fineliner then erased the pencil.  I coloured in with my watercolour pencils and aqua brush and then did the background with a pastel pencil.  I went over the bee and dragonfly wings with my clear Wink of Stella brush. Love!  And finally I sprayed over it all lightly with a cheap hairspray so that I don't smudge the pastel by accident.

The next prompt is thumb print birds ~ here are some very cute examples :D  Now surely even I can do that?  Oh dear, I do hope I haven't just jinxed myself *yikes!*  lol ;)

I've a long way to go with this class yet, and the new one Online Card Class starts today; oh my. Wish me luck with keeping up won't you?

What are you working on just now? Do tell.......;)

But, until next time..........
............stay well, and thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #6 Fill a page with pattern

I had lots of fun with this one.  So much so, that I ended up doing four pages!  Yaay!
Very simple patterns, coloured with watercolours.  Perfect for 'in front of TV' play, using a waterbrush.  No muss, no fuss.

#7 will definitely be a challenge for me ~ go buggy ~ 'Representational' will be the watch word for my attempts me thinks, Watch this space.........

Until next time.........
.......thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #5 Get loose

Well I was looking forward to having a go at, 'Getting Loose', but boy did I find it hard!!  I'm not delighted with what I ended up with, but it's better than the three efforts that are now assigned to the collage box, lol.  It is better with some black pen on it, but, again, I don't like the yellow 'flowers', (very loose interpretation there).  But, (gosh what a but-head I am today, lol :O), I'm glad I had a go, and I will try it again - behind closed shutters that is.
The prompt was to wet down the paper, drop on watercolours so that they bleed around the paper and then when it's dry, make something of it with markers/pen.  I ended up having to cheat a bit and kind of 'draw' some flower type shapes in order to get anything at all that I could work with when dry!  Anyhoo, here is what I did :-

I'm grateful that the next prompt is to 'Fill a page with pattern'.  Yay!  Nice relaxing doodling. Thanks Alisa ;)
I think I may need to get some new watercolours.  I love my pencils but they just aren't adequate for some things (or that could just be me of course), and the wee pans I've got are almost done. Now do I go for pans or tubes? Hmmm.....what do you think?  Bearing in mind I have 20+ more prompts for this class and a new watercolour class starting on Monday.  Thanks in advance for your kind thoughts, *hugs*

Now until next time..........
........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring: #4 Illustrate the stages of growth.

When I first saw this prompt, I thought, Whaaat!? And when I saw what other people in the Flickr group had done, I felt very intimidated. In fact, I nearly skipped this prompt altogether ((hanging head))
But yesterday was a beautiful bright day and my hubby had just potted up our tomato plants when I saw the buds and some wee flowers and some immature fruit and remembered I had some tomatoes on the vine in my kitchen. *Light bullb!* Lol. I took several photos and then took more photo's of my strawberries that are also just beginning to flower and produce immature fruit there too! Hmm, maybe I'd do both!
I didn't. But I may have a go at doing the strawberries this evening; I don't know yet.

I used a pencil to lightly sketch, then went over it with a fine liner pen and then coloured with my watercolour pencils and an aqua brush. 

I am quite pleased with the results. Whodathnunk?! Lol. I'm really looking forward to the next one, which is, 'Get loose'. Intrigued? Well you can either join in and check it out, go through the flickr images or wait and see what I come up with, hehe. 

But until next time............

.......thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring

I've joined an online class by Alisa Burke called Sketch into Spring. It's a mini class over 30 days with simple ideas, prompts and lots of inspiration. I love Alisa's work. I have only been following her for a short time but have been inspired enough to want to try one of her classes and as my creating time is quite limited, a mini class seemed ideal. I'm late to the party, as it started in March, but the class is available indefinitely once you have joined, which is great for those with limited time.
Anyhoo, the first prompt was to use as many different words as you can that describe Spring. I've just used a few and drew around a word stencil.

 The rest is doodling with various pens and daubers and I went over the background with pale blue chalk pastel. I really enjoyed creating this.

Until next time............

..........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*