friday face off

    Another Friday Face Off is here! I still haven't completed the page spread for my ballpoint pen mermaid but I did get some more work done on her. She is pretty much completed but I've yet to add more elements to do with the sea around her. 

    This is where I left her last Friday. 

    And this is where she's at today

    To see what other Friday Face Off participants have done for this week, click HERE. Feel free to come join us each Friday over at Nicole's blog. 

    And here are a few more older ballpoint sketches. If I've done them any justice, you may even recognise a few of them. All done freehand with a BIC blue ballpoint pen.

 

    The one below was done with a Staedtler brown ballpoint pen

    And that ends my post for today. I hope you have a nice and relaxing weekend. 

Love, Light and Peace

friday face off

It's been a rough week with neck issues causing constant headaches. Unfortunately, I'm still not recovered from that fall where I accidentally slammed the side of my neck against the edge of a storage box five weeks ago. I finally got around to seeing the doctor today and he's given me an X-ray referral. It could just be soft-tissue damage which takes time to heal but, being that I have disc-degeneration in my neck, he just wants to make sure all is as it should be. 

So, I have been doing more work on my girl from last week where I only managed a rough graphite drawing (below).

As this is in a sketchbook that doesn't have very thick paper, I had a bit of a dilemma. On the backside of the paper was my giraffe drawing and I was worried about bleed-through if I were to use watercolours on the girl.  So I opted to do a very light wash of yellow/gold watercolour — no bleed-through —  and let it dry thoroughly before progressing with only ballpoint pens. I love that ballpoint pens comes in a variety of colours nowadays. 

You will notice bleed-though from the previous watercolour sketch I did which is why, with the plan to use darker colours for the girl, I didn't want to risk ruining my giraffe. I hope to disguise those bleed-through areas as I work more into the design. I'm kinda winging it as I go. 

She is still very much a work-in-progress as there is lots more to do — slowly getting there. I may have her finished for Friday Face Off next week.

 

To check in with other FFO participants, click HERE. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend whatever you're up to. 

Love, Light and Peace

Butterfly sketches completed

We've been having incredibly hot, muggy days here in Brissie. We had another violent electrical storm come through last night and more are forecast for the coming week. Two people have been struck by lightning so far from two separate storms.  I do not like our summers at all. See yesterday's post to read about our own ordeal when caught in a violent storm last Wednesday.

Just a quick post today 

I finished off the butterflies I started last weekend.

They went from this 

To this

I was pleased with how they turned out. 

They are done with a mix of watercolours, coloured pencils, 

coloured ballpoint pens and ink pens.

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches again this week. 

To see the work of other participants, click HERE.

Happy Sunday to all!

INKtober: More daily sketches from week 3

Oooooops, running a little late....no excuses 

apart from the fact that I completely forgot to do my blog post yesterday.  

So a recap on the past week of INKtober sketches. 

I post these daily on my Instagram feed is you are interested in seeing them earlier. 

I recently purchased Season 11 of Supernatural so, before I watch it, 

I am doing a recap of all the previous seasons again as a refresher. 

You may guess that I'm a huge fan! 

So I thought it fitting to sketch some of the cast for INKtober.

Jared Palecki who plays Sam Winchester. 

Sketched entirely with ballpoint pen. 

Jensen Ackles who plays Dean Winchester

Sketched entirely with ballpoint pen

Jim Beaver who plays Bobby Singer
I didn't quite get his squint right but we live, we learn, right?

Done entirely with ballpoint pen

Felicia Day who plays Charlie Bradbury 

Charlie was one of my favourite characters on the show

I loved her quirkiness!

I was disappointed that I lost the likeness with this one 

but when sketching directly with pen, 

you have to learn to live with it. 

Then I decided to sketch a little robin with coloured ballpoint pens 

and a 005 ZIG Millennium ink pen (it's extra fine). 

A quick ink sketch of a fake succulent plant I have. 

Trying to loosen things up a bit here. 

Sketched with Platinum Carbon and Lamy Joy fountain pens. 

I LOVE my fountain pens!

Another loose sketch of my left hand this time. 

This was sketched with a Platinum Carbon pen 

followed up with Sumi black ink applied with a brush.

Speaking of my left hand, 

I will be making a doctor's appointment today 

as it's been over three weeks and I'm still dealing 

with a lot of pain issues. 

It's strange because I can use it normally 

apart from certain positions.

Linking up with Sunday Sketches (a little late). 

To see the work of other participants for this week, click HERE.

INKtober: More daily sketches

It's been quite a challenge but I have been managing to keep up 

with the INKtober daily sketching this past week. 

All inked up

Thanks to Marcelo Cunha over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Splashes of colour with Dr Ph Martins inks

Sketched with Platinum Carbon and Pentel pocket brush pens, 

then a light wash here and there with Sumi ink.

Thanks to Gustavo Romano over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Sketched with Platinum Carbon and Pentel pocket brush pens, 

plus a light wash of Sumi ink.

Thanks to Jordan Shelton over at Sktchy for the reference image.

I couldn't help but smile when I saw the reference image so just had to sketch him.
Sketched with ballpoint, Platinum Carbon, and Pentel pocket brush pens. 

Thanks to Vincent Cuevas over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Sketched with ballpoint, Platinum Carbon, and Pentel pocket brush pens. 

Also some Sumi ink. 

Thanks to Hannah Chaffee over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Sketched with ballpoint pens in various colours plus a little white ink.
Oh, and some SUMI ink for the black.

The green base is watercolours. 

My own reference image.

Sketched entirely with a Staedtler brown ballpoint pen. 

I like the softer look of this one. 

Thanks to Marcelle C over at Sktchy for the reference image.

I'm linking up a little late with Sunday Sketches this week.
It's actually 6:30 on Monday morning here.
To see the work of the other participants, click HERE,

Aaron, my son, graciously passed his Spring flu over to me
 so I woke up feeling miserable with a clogged head and
a sore throat that is very painful when I swallow.
I'm still dealing with hand pain from my fall.
It could be worse but maybe
I should see about trading myself in
for a newer model?

Life goes on.....

366 Daily sketch challenge was an epic fail...

...considering we are now nearing the end of February. 

However, I have a darned good reason,  

Something that was out of my control.
More on that further down...

That said, I AM very happy that I did complete 

31 portraits for January! 

The last two January portraits below....

30/366 daily sketch
Hahnemuhle D & S sketch journal - A5 size, 140gsm, landscape format 
BIC Cristal ballpoint pen
Highlights are done with a POSCA white acrylic pen

31/366 daily sketch
Hahnemuhle D & S sketch journal - A5 size, 140gsm, landscape format 
BIC Cristal ballpoint pen
Highlights are done with a POSCA white acrylic pen 


I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches this week.
You can check out the other participants HERE.

**********************************************

My big excuse for stopping the challenge so early....

I had carpal tunnel release surgery on Feb 4th
on my right/dominant hand. 

The theatre nurse only called me less than a week prior 

so I knew that February would be out of the question 

as far as my sketching and other hands-on activities went.

I came out of surgery with a bright pink hand and forearm right up to my elbow.
It's the solution they paint your hand/arm with before the procedure.
I had open surgery done with local anaesthetic using a tourniquet block.
It felt SO weird being awake for it all.
Thankfully they covered me with a tent so I wouldn't have to see it.
Watching a procedure done on YouTube was enough to turn my stomach.

Day 9 after the surgery
That bruising mid-forearm was actually individual finger marks
that were merging into one big bruise.
I'm not surprised because I could feel my arm
being forcefully pushed and pulled around
during the procedure.
It looked pretty gruesome under that dressing
so I've spared you the photo.

I was able to drive again at two weeks thanks to power-steering,
however, sharp turns and reverse-parking can be a little awkward
as my hand is still healing.
The surgeon said it can take up to three months
for it to be fully healed.
I've read some horror stories on the net
where some people are still not healed after seven months.

The stitches came out at the two week mark and
a couple of them were very painful. OUCH!
Obviously, a lot of healing still going on under the skin.

I'm now just past the three week mark and things are going pretty good.
I can touch-type again and I can write,
both for short periods of time.
I can't lift anything heavy though,
nor can I do things like open heavy doors
that require pushing or pulling.
My hand lets me know when it's had enough.
It feels very tight at the suture site
and the surgeon said that will be due to
the healing and scarring process.

I am also on the waiting list to have my left hand done next.
It was actually worse than the right for carpal tunnel syndrome
but I noticed the right hand more being that it was the dominant hand.

At least, I'll know what to expect now
so I'll be better prepared at home
by making some freezer meals prior to surgery.

SO!

In light of the fact that my 366 Daily Sketch challenge
was abruptly interrupted by hand surgery,
I have decided to just go month-by-month
as far as challenges go.
I'm hoping to kick it off in March,
my birthday month.

On another note, I was so limited and bored while waiting for my hand to heal,
I bided a lot of time in the first two weeks watching YouTube videos.
 I came across some great home organisation channels and caught the bug!
I've been crazy busy following through with some of the ideas/tips
so will share more on that in a later post too.

Stay tuned.....

Sketches, pens and pencils...

No urban sketches this week but I have been sketching other things, namely myself. 

I have fallen woefully behind with the Sketchbook Skool klasses 

so I'm desperately trying to catch up.
Back in Week 2 of this semester,

Koosje's lessons encouraged us to do some self-portraits.

I sketched this one with a Derwent coloured pencil 

while looking at my reflection in a mirror. 

A couple more sketches below.

Top right - Sketched from a photo of me using mechanical pencil.

Bottom right - A contour sketch done with a continuous line 

in pen.  We weren't allowed to lift the pen from the paper 

until the sketch was finished.  

I did mine very fast while looking in the mirror. 

I had so much fun with this particular exercise.

Jumping ahead to Week 5,
we have Andrea Joseph as our teacher.
Andrea is Queen of the Ballpoint Pen!
A quick way to loosen up -
write a favourite quote in various ballpoint pen colours.

Speaking of pens,
I wasted a lot of time the other day
searching high and low for my PITT calligraphy pens.
I eventually found them but
I realised that I needed to do something
to make it easier to find particular pens.
These are just some of my pens.

Now they are categorised into this small drawer unit
which I've yet to label but at least I now know where particular pens are
when I need them.

I still have homework to do for part of Danny Gregory's klass,
as well as for Brenda Swenson's and Cathy Johnson's klasses.
Wish me luck!

Lastly, a couple of quick pen sketches in my A6 pocket Holcroft quad-rule sketchbook.

Linking up with Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room today.