#24 of 30-Day Art Challenge

 

Practicing people - just a few light sketches with an idea in mind...

 

"I guess if I wanted to run a marathon I would train every day. And as I wanted to be an artist, I sketched every day." - Sam Toft, Artist

I discovered her work today - beautiful! You can see she influenced today's challenge...

#23 of 30-Day Art Challenge

Just a quick little pen drawing, then added a wash round the sides, dropped inks then blended.

 

I preferred the drawing before I added the colour, but over all a good experiment. Plus I did the pen drawing quickly without plan or pencil first.

#22 of 30-Day Art Challenge

I have loved drawing spirally floral shapes for years now... a bit of an addiction but it had to be done after I picked up a card by the talented Angie Lewin on a much loved trip to Pallant House gallery in Chichester today [yes, I know! How lucky am I?]. If I could produce stuff like her, I would be so very happy.

 

Again the colours look awful here but in real life this background is a beautiful soft teal...

#21 of 30-Day Art Challenge

 

Random, I know.

While my husband was out we got the felt-tip pens out and my daughters and I started getting creative together. This is part of my own effort, a flower, leaf and snail in sort of 'Zentangle' pattern, but I started in pale blue and had to continue. Odd psychedelic colours, but fun!

#20 of 30-Day Art Challenge

The inspiration for this came from my daughter who randomly started drawing 'mummy's make up' this afternoon, so I thought I'd take the idea. People do actually sell illustrated prints of 'Chanel no. 5' and such like, would you believe?

[The colours really do look ghastly... scanning would be better but I'm so lazy...]

 

And who doesn't love a cute little elephant with birds?

Over all a good effort.

Starting to get control of shading, colour layers, edging, pencil detail.

 

[Hey - I just realised this is number twenty of a thirty day art challenge.

Wowsers, how did I manage that?]

#19 of 30-Day Art Challenge

 

Finished this very late last night - decided to start it around the time I should have gone off to bed, but I am pleased with it - better than the balloons.

The cloud was tricky, not perfected them yet.

#18 of 30-Day Art Challenge

Took the kids to a massively overpriced theme park today - yuck. So it's still a little on my mind...

 

Not too happy with this piece, although the excuse is I was trying to watch a film at the same time.

The balloons turned out ok...

#17 of 30-Day Art Challenge

More experimentation today.

this is watercolour and water pencils, and some pen outline for comparison.

Also playing with filling with black pen i.e. dots, stipples, lines, crosshatching etc.

 

I like this soft area best:

The photos don't do the colours justice. This is a lovely deep blue sky, lots of watery texture and patchiness. Scrummy. Still love the white messy edges.

I seem to veer between neatness and messiness, maybe the technique is dependent on the subject matter.

In this particular area, I wish I had not divided the grass and sky with the black pen line, I would like to have kept the natural divide of the paint.

#16 of 30-Day Art Challenge

Hoorah! - I have succeeded in two ways today

a) Day 16 Challenge is 'A HAIRSTYLE' which I have actually followed, and

b) I am really pleased with it!

Pen with watercolour

 

 

#15 of 30-Day Art Challenge

 

 

This somehow sums-up how I'm feeling about things right now, but the 'grumpy girl' is developing...

I also wrote more of her story, so things are progressing but I need a meaty topic and the motivation to sit long enough to truly come up with something great. Everything else I produced today looked like something I would have drawn in 1994. Too embarrassed to post it here!

 

[The day did actually start out full of inspiration and wonder - I went to see the Julia Donaldson exhibition at Chatham Dockyard on my own [a real treat] one week before it closed - and the first 30 minutes I was there I had the whole place to myself. Bliss! Reading the notes and letters between illustrators, Julia and editors for each of her books, such a pleasure to see really great work. And I am a new fan of David Roberts' work [Tyranasaurus Drip] ]

#14 of 30-Day Art Challenge

Just a pair of pears today...

 

 

Watercolour pencil [left] and watercolour paint [right]

 

Sorry! I'll do better tomorrow!

#13 of 30-Day Art Challenge

13 - DRAW A ROOM

Well, my attempt at painting my bedroom was terrible - so I soon scrapped that and instead another book idea popped into my head, so I jotted down the storyline, did a few sketches, and here is a preliminary sketch of the main character [and you can see how much Photoshop helps!!]:

I just love her.

Especially the hair - it's worked really well.

6B pencil, and watercolour pencils to fill colour [although I haven't actually wetted this drawing yet!]

#12 of 30-Day Art Challenge

Just experimenting today with watercolour pencils.

Scribble lines, blending, shading, and all different ways of wetting i.e. before, after, wet on wet, wet on dry...

I still love my houses from yesterday best.

 

Today's challenge was meant to be 'a room', maybe I'll tackle that tomorrow.

#11 of 30-Day Art Challenge

More experimenting today, and quite successful!!

 

Firstly, following the huge craze for 'Zentangle' ink drawings on Pinterest and Etsy, I had a go myself...

It does take a lot of time and care, but it's quite effective.

This is the beginning of a long dress on a woman.

 

Then I had a go with more watercolour, adding and blotting...

I'm really pleased with the shading, and some of the leaves look good [better in real life]

and I added some brush flicking at the end!

This is a lovely haphazard method, I enjoyed it so I had one final go at something... 

 

Houses in the rain

I'm pleased with the windows, how the white is left as an outline in some places, and I've gone denser with colour and merged round other outlines.

 

 

...so this is the nearest I've done to a book illustration:

 

 

Phew!

 

#10 of 30-Day Art Challenge

10 - 'FABRIC'

 

Well, with plenty of time today, I had no inclination to sit and draw fabric...

dull, dull, dull.

So! I played around with watercolour, practiced, watched more YouTube clips, went to an art shop, learnt about paper, learnt some new techniques...

I am still trying to find a 'look' that I love, and that I feel confident in. How do I want to draw people? How do I want to shade?

It will come, I hope...

 

I did these little guys with watercolour and pencil.

Not happy with the outline.

 

So I tried Doris with no outline.

Better...ish

 

Then I did this one with no outlines too...

I could ramp up the colour in Photoshop for intensity...

 

And finally I tried an alien on Hot Pressed paper (as opposed to Cold Pressed)

which means - I learnt - that the flatness of the paper means it will hold the water on the surface for longer, stay wetter, and allow more time to play with the colour.

This being my first attempt, it didn't really work for me.

However, I also tried my other new found technique - adding coloured pencil for a softer outline, giving a softer edge than pen or lead pencil, but still adding definition.

Now I need to look in the attic for my watercolour pencils, if I still have them!

 



#9 of 30-Day Art Challenge

9 - 'SOMETHING YOU LOVE'

 

The peonies are out in full bloom now it's May, and there's a bank of them growing along our road, plus many of my neighbours have them in their front gardens. We don't have any!! The ones in our road are deep pink, so I thought I'd have a go...

 

 Pencil and watercolour, A3 size

For some reason my blog wishes to show the images at 90 degrees!!

Anyhow, I enjoyed this challenge. it was a bit daunting, and I took ages picking an image to use as a basis for ideas. I watched loads of YouTube videos last night on  Watercolour Techniques so I tried to use some of them, but it was very tricky; the paper still went bumpy, the colours still bloomed, I still created water pools... etc etc...

What I do like about the painting is this area: 

 



 

The white left round the edge is actually quite effective and the petals have a good soft gradient.

 

Areas I still want to improve:

-outlining effectively

-mixing colours in the palette

-preventing too wet / too dry

 

Well, onwards and upwards!!

#8 of 30-Day Art Challenge

8 - MINI BEASTS!!

So how am I doing?

Thought I'd pause here, on day 8, and reflect a little on what this week has brought.

One. Whole. Week. That is how long I've kept this challenge up... which is quite remarkable, since I have 2 small kids, and all the stuff that comes with house, hubby, school run. But it's been a real discovery to see that, with one small commitment made on a whim, I CAN produce something each day, and I can make it a priority.. which I hope leads to me taking it more seriously. And if I take it seriously, maybe others will!

So today I was meant to do 'something in water', but I really didn't fancy that. So I went a bit left-field and tackled mini-beasts instead. Random, I know, but all the lovely creepy crawlies that have come out in the rain and sun of late are just fascinating to my kids me. And I have an idea swimming around inside my head to do with mini-beasts, so I had to practice them:

(Pencil, watercolour and a little bit of ink for detail)

I think wormy is my favourite... snail is good too.

So if you have an idea buzzing in your head, get it down... practice it... break the rules...

and have fun.

Last night I also worked on another idea, so here's a lovely little hen,

just to cheer us all up.

I think I'll call her Doris.

 

#7 of 30-Day Art Challenge

7 - (A FLOWER)

I ignored today's Challenge - since I did a flower on Day 3 - and instead drew...

BIRDS!! (and anything I fancied...)

 

I started with this handsome little guy, outlining in pen and colouring in watercolour. It was really good to return to the watercolour after a few days away from it, I have missed it. I love the speed of it, the fluidity, the way you can reduce and increase the pigment, yet it seems to retain a history of what you did on the paper... all the mistakes, the changing mind...I love it!

 

 

So this ended up very neat and pretty, but a bit dull and formal. I like rules, it's just in my nature, so this is my struggle when it comes to being creative; how do I break away from doing what I think I should be doing, to trying something I feel I want to do?

 

 

I got out my Indian inks and tried colouring with those, but again I really have no idea of the rules working with inks, and without knowing the rules, I cant' experiment by breaking them!

 

So at last (despite a small detour into trying to draw people - awful failure!!) I drew another bird...

the FLAMINGO!!

 

Isn't he gorgeous? I love him!!

Pencil and water colour. Simple.

 

 

And here's a close up...

 

 

I am really quite pleased with the lines, colour, blending, shading...

Beautiful!

 



#6 of 30 Day Art Challenge

6 - AN ITEM OF CLOTHING

 

Pencil - my new jacket

 

Feeling poorly, was not in the mood to do this, and I'm very tired.

Hoping that soon I can find the energy to work on some more exciting stuff, but for now this is good basic year-one type stuff, and that's ok by me...x



#5 of 30 Day Art Challenge

5 - YOUR FAVOURITE QUOTE

 

Here's one of them, anyway...

From Shakespeare's Sonnet no 116

Completed quickly while the little one slept... shh!



#4 of 30 Day Art Challenge

4 - A PLACE OF REST

 

Acrylic paint on board 

(Quite an emotional piece to complete today, head spinning, lots going on, but I managed it...)



#3 of 30 Day Art Challenge

3 - WHAT INSPIRES YOU

 

I took a little while to think this one through - inspiration comes from various places, and at unexpected times. I wanted to draw people - the people I love, including my church family who inspire me greatly - but due to fear, and laziness, I settled with 'nature'.

Truly, I do get inspired by the shapes of nature [I love the Art Deco era for this reason]...

I love being surrounded by tall trees, the beautiful shades and hues in just one leaf, and I love the colours of the flowers in my garden right now - which was the inspiration for this piece...

...of which I am not very proud. It is quite rubbish.

It looked much better before I went over it in pen.

The detail and delicacy was lost - but I cracked on anyway, and then when I had finished, I turned a page and did this...

Much better!

 

I did intend to be a bit more 'free and easy' with my style today... got there in the end.

Watercolour and Pencil.

 



#2 of 30 Day Art Challenge

2 - 'A PET'

Well, we don't own any pets, so I took inspiration from the pets my children often wish to bring home. This morning, while waiting to go into pre-school my 3yo daughter and her friend found a couple of ladybirds. My little girl was in hysterics, thinking this ladybird was going to the toilet! They were so captivated by what these little creatures were doing - and some of the kids were trying to pick them up... so here is today's creation... a pet!

 

Pen and Watercolour

This was done in under an hour, just before the school run. And yes, she really does have mad curly blonde hair.

#1 of 30 Day Art Challenge

1 - WHAT'S ON A TABLE

 

Inspired by the lovely people at Unravel and Unwind in Chatham (I'm sure I'll be seeing more of them soon...) I decided to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. How can I aspire to be call myself an 'artist' or illustrator if I don't ever produce work? So to make it a priority I found a 30 day challenge on Pinterest and here is day one: 

 

 

Pen and Watercolour

One of two pots I love, we keep the kids' felt tip pens in one and random pens and pencils in the other. It had a lot of colour, not too taxing for day one... x