Scribble Picnic - Hot Chocolate

The Scribble Picnic prompt for this week is HOT CHOCOLATE.

I usually make quite a few hot chocolate drinks during our winter months. There's just something about that mug of hot sweetness that make me feel spoiled, cosy, and warm. I never have marshmallows in mine though. I hate the thought of hot, gooey marshmallow. Ewwww!  Definitely not for me. I've never had toasted marshmallows around a campfire either for the same reason.

Marshmallows have always been a favourite but I like them nice and firm....not hot and gooey. I used to make them and roll them in toasted coconut.  They even have vegan marshmallows now so I don't miss out but — back to hot chocolate. I make mine with Cadburys Drinking Chocolate powder, a dash of vanilla essence, and soy milk mixed together in a saucepan. When hot enough, I froth it up with the electric hand mixer. After pouring it into our mugs, I drizzle chocolate syrup over the froth. OH, so yummy!

My sketch today is done with ink, watercolour, and Prismacolor pencils using a copyright-free image which I altered somewhat...

To see what other participants have put up for this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join in each week, click HERE.

The drink was actually NOT the first HOT CHOCOLATE that came to mind but I didn't get time to sketch them. Who remembers the Hot Chocolate group in the late 70's and 80's?   Songs like You Sexy Thing, Every 1's a Winner, So You Win Again, Emma and....It Started with a Kiss....

Thought I'd end off this post with one of their video clips. Enjoy!


Next week's prompt is TABLE CLOTH...see you at the picnic!

Scribble Picnic - Favourite Fiction Character

When I saw that this week's prompt was — Favourite Fiction Character — I was instantly transported back to my teenage years.

Each year, our parents would take us to the Brisbane Exhibition Show at the RNA Showgrounds and we kids always looked forward to bringing home lots of 'sample' bags.  These bags were put together by various companies and were filled with lollies (sweets/candy), chocolate, potato chips (crisps), miniature toys, and some even contained comic books. When we were little, the sample bags were the only things that my siblings and I looked forward to each year...once we had between five and eight of them in our hot, little hands, we wanted to go home and sort through our goodies. haha

However, once the teen years arrived, we were more keen to explore the show and go on the show rides. We would still buy sample bags and that was how I came to discover The Phantom..my favourite comic book character!  He was also known as The Ghost Who Walks and The Man Who Cannot Die. I have always adored wolves, viewing them as my spirit/totem animal, so that was the very first thing that drew me to this masked superhero wearing purple tights — he had a wolf named Devil and a horse named Hero. I also loved the jungle setting and the archaeological feel to the story lines. My superhero lived in a Scull Cave too! I loved reading The Phantom comic strips!

I hasten to add that this fascination was from my teenage self and, if I were to read the same comic strips today, I may not be impressed at all.

After doing some research for this post, I discovered that The Phantom was actually the very first superhero to be dressed in tights...he set the precedent for Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc.

I found the following 80th Anniversary Special on YouTube if you are interested in the origins and story behind the masked man. The Phantom was quite popular in Australia.

So, of course, I had to do a sketch of The Phantom for my take on the prompt...

To see the favourite fiction characters of my fellow picnickers, click HERE.
To find out how you can join in on the fun each week, click HERE.

Next week's prompt is HOT CHOCOLATE...hope to see you at the picnic!

Scribble Picnic 2018 - New Year

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Normally I would have written a New Year's Day post but time did not permit among other things going on. I didn't even get the chance to do a Christmas post. I've been having hip and back issues of late so dealing with a lot of pain on top of the high humidity causing breathing issues (asthma). Of course, slipping and falling in the shower did not help matters and it set me back even further. Ah well, at least I am back to sketching now...

SO...here we are at our first Scribble Picnic for 2018! How exciting!

Michael's prompt was NEW YEAR.

I did have a few ideas flitting about in my head but I caught up on a few YouTube subscriptions this morning and felt inspired by this video by Alphonso Dunn. He is an amazing ink artist! While Alphonso went with textures, I went with animals.

Can you see the '2018'?

This was the end result...not a great pic as I took it late at night under artificial lighting. I will replace it with a better one tomorrow.

To see what my fellow Scribblers have been up to for this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join us each week, click HERE.

I will be doing a 2017 recap and will also discuss my plans for 2018 in a future post so stay tuned if you don't want to miss it.