Drawing buttons

Another busy week has passed by,

with lots of visits to my Dad who is still in hospital.

Aaron (#4 son) started a new school and loves it! 

One less thing to worry about. 

During the course of the week,

I managed to find five minutes here and there, to draw some buttons.

This was homework for Andrea Joseph's klass in Sketchbook Skool.

I drew one button at a time, using various blue ballpoint pens, with no final composition in mind.

I also used a touch of coloured pencil after the main drawing was complete.

I loved Andrea's klass! 

I had drawn with ballpoint pens before 

but it was nice to focus on them once again 

using Andrea's approach. 

Linking up with Sunday Sketches and The Artist's Play Room today.

Fun with continuous line contours...

It's been a busy and emotional two weeks. 

My Dad ended up in hospital and is still there. 

His Parkinson's and physical dependency is now at the point 

where he needs 24 hour care. 

To be honest, he was at that point a year ago,

so we had to make the painful decision 

to find Dad a placement in an aged care nursing home. 

It breaks my heart but we have to put his needs first 

and we know he will get round-the-clock care in a nursing home.

We will be able to visit him regularly 

and it will be much easier for my Mum also. 

Emotions are still raw and painful;

I've shed many tears and,

no doubt, it will get worse before it gets better.

Still tons of paperwork to wade through 

and applications to lodge.

_______________________________________________________

I have managed a little bit of sketching here and there. 

This jug was my first attempt at Brenda Swenson's 

Sketchbook Skool klass. 

We had to pick a still life subject and, with a pen only,

draw a continual line contour without lifting pen from paper.

Certainly not easy but lots of fun. 

This exercise is very good for hand-eye coordination. 

After I did the initial lined shape, 

I added some extra lines to suggest shading and shape.

In the next exercise, 

we had to do a continual line contour of, not one, 

but three still life subjects of our own choosing. 

Note, that all three subjects are connected by one continual line.

Then we added watercolour.

I plan to play a lot more with this continual line contour exercise. 

The result may be loose and wonky but I quite like that. 

I bought a couple of Schmincke metal palettes recently. 

This is the larger of the two.

I also bought empty half pans and full pans 

so I could add some of my own tube colours. 

I LOVE metal palettes!

I am linking up with Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room today.

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.

Sketching raisin toast

Happy Sunday to you! 

Today actually felt like Saturday to me for some reason. 

I guess I always lose track of days when Aaron is on school holidays.

I did a bit of homework for Sketchbook Skool today. 

Danny Gregory is teacher for this first week of second semester. 

Yet another awesome klass!

My homework - A slice of raisin toast. 

I used PITT pens in various widths and colours -

 dark sepia, black, raw umber, green gold and sanguine - 

in my Moleskine A5 sketchbook.

Linking up to Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room this week.

Recuperating and sketching....

I've been recuperating after coming down with a terrible bug 

in the wee hours of Thursday morning.  

Vomiting, massive headache, and intense aches and pains all over. 

I was pretty much bedridden or couch-ridden. 

By Friday mid-morning, I managed to do some sketching in bed 

and, as luck would have it, I was able to stomach green tea again, 

but still no coffee or food....even a sip of coffee would make me feel nauseous. 

This is the extra large mug that my daughter bought for me some months back. 

I had accidentally broken my previous mug and

Michelle knows I love BIG, endless mugs of tea or coffee. 

That's my girl! 

This was sketched directly with pen and watercolours 

in my pocket A6 Moleskine sketchbook.

On Saturday, I was eating light meals but could only cope with coffee in small doses. 

I did some more quick sketching....

keeping Roz Stendahl's Sketchbook Skool klass in mind, 

I sketched some of my granddaughters' animal figurines 

which I had borrowed for this very purpose. 

These were sketched with pigment liners 

in my large A5 Moleskine sketchbook.

Some lounge room sketches below...
Brad dosed and I sketched him
while the Buddha looked on....
his turn came around too.

Sketched with a Uniball Vision Elite .5 blue/black pen 

in Moleskine A6 sketchbook.

You may notice that the sketch below was in the very last page 

of my pocket A6 Moleskine sketchbook 

again sketched with a Uniball Vision Elite .5 pen in blue/black.

Another one completed...YAY!!!   

OH, this is one I forgot to post the other week....

another animal figurine sketch, 

this time trying out a PITT Calligraphy pen to sketch very quickly 

in my Moleskine A6 sketchbook. 

I'm linking up to Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room this week.

I'm feeling much, much better now
and I certainly hope I won't run into that bug again 

any time soon.
It was downright nasty!

Sketching budgies

Roz Stendahl's Sketchbook Skool klass encouraged us to sketch animals, 

whether they be model figurines, animals toys, or the real thing. 

I did some quick pen sketches of Aaron's budgies,
not looking for perfection but rather loose and messy. 

Budgies are not an easy subject being that they don't stay in one spot for long at all.
The reason we practise sketching fast is because animals in the wild
don't strike a pose for us so it's handy to quickly note gestures etc.

Maelik is the blue budgie in the background.

Bella is the yellow one and Jacob, the green.

Blogger is misbehaving something terrible tonight! 
It's taking forever to upload just one photo. :(
I only hope that it allows me to publish this post when I'm done.

A splash of watercolours to give it a bit of a lift. 

I sketched this one back in 2012 and obviously took a little more time with it.
You'll note that Surya has had a name change since then
and is now known as Bella.


Linking up today with Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room.

Doggies in jumpers and a couple of sketches

It's the time of year that I love  here in Brissie

WINTER! 

The boys are already enjoying their jumpers.

As part of my homework in Roz Stendahl's Sketchbook Skool klass,
I loosely sketched Cody

while he was curled up beside me on the couch yesterday. 

I snapped this photo today when he wasn't wearing his jumper.

Medium - Pentel Pocket brush pen, PITT pens, gouache and watercolour
Paper - Moleskine A6 pocket sketchbook

I attempted this sketch using a Pentel pocket brush pen 

which wasn't too successful as it's very difficult to get fine lines. 

I rescued the sketch as best I could using gouache and some finer PITT pens. 

His ear looks a little pink in this photo but it's not in the actual sketch.

I LOVE GOUACHE! 

More on Roz's klass later.....

This is a sketch I did in April that I forgot to post at the time.
Medium - Faber Castell PITT pens 
Paper - Moleskine A5 pocket sketchbook 

 Today, I'm linking up to Sunday Sketches.
To join in each week, check out this link for more info.
I'm also linking up to this week's Artist's Play Room.
To join APR, check out this link for more info.

Bags and life...

Hey everyone, 

I hope you've all had a pleasant weekend so far.
It's been very warm and humid Sunday here.

I managed to do a pen sketch yesterday and then,
splashed some watercolours on it today (Sunday).

This is my bag of the moment 

until I get tired of it and 

swap it over for one of its friends which are
waiting patiently on the wardrobe shelf. 

Yes, me thinks I have a bit of a 

bag and wallet fetish.
What can I say,
they make good sketch subjects.

Pencil-free sketch in large Moleskine sketchbook using 

a Uni Ball Vision Elite in blue-black to draw in the initial sketch. 

Followed up with watercolours and then my Faber-Castell PITT pen to emphasise.

I'm linking up with this week's Artist's Play Room and Sunday Sketches. 

To join in on the fun,
Click the graphics below -

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 More daily pics for the Facebook group

Life on the Go

All pictures were taken with my mobile phone -

Samsung Galaxy S3

Day 11 - Shoes

These are the shoes I bought to wear at 

Michelle's and Alex's wedding in 2010. 

I felt so honoured to be able to walk 

my beautiful daughter down the aisle on her special day. 

It's the only time I've ever worn these shoes too. 

I'm definitely a 'flats' girl. 

Day 12 - Fire

My chilli plant/tree is currently bearing 

lots of red, hot chillies 

guaranteed to set your mouth on fire! 

I LOVE the flavour and heat of chillies.

I missed day 13.

Day 14 - Hair

I'm sure you will remember Bess 

as she has featured in earlier posts. 

 Here and here.

Bess was my first Christmas present 

so she is now 54! 

With a head full of thick, tight curls, 

I figured she would be ideal for the prompt.

Day 15 - Circle

My Mexican Circle of Friends. 

Day 16 - Table

This small table and chair set 

sits out under the pergola. 

A perfect spot to enjoy a cuppa 

in the early morning. 

Day 17 - Recycle

Never thought I'd see the day our wheelie bins 

would feature in a post on my blog 

yet, here they are!

The one with the yellow lid 

is for the recycled stuff.

Have a great week!

My favourite cereals and cupcake heaven.

I'm finally finding time for some sketching
albeit a very quick sketch.

This one is for this week's Artist's Play Room challenge. 

"What's in the pantry?"

Pencil-free sketch in A5 Holcroft sketch diary using
BIC biros, PITT pens and Derwent watercolour pencils.

To join us each week 

click on the graphic below.

Now I am off to bake some delicious vegan Coconut Heaven cupcakes.
I made a double batch a couple of weeks ago
'cos they are THAT good!
Needless to say, they didn't last long at all.

I used the recipe from this book

Day 31 - Blogtoberfest - Goblet

A post and run night, I'm afraid.

I have a tension migraine.

#31 of 75 pen/ink sketches

A ceramic goblet.

Pencil-free sketch in A6 pocket Moleskine sketchbook
using ZIG Millennium, PITT, and Micron pens.

I just realised that this sketch
with its dramatic shadow would
qualify me for the 

Artist's Play Room challenge this week 

which is - SHADOW.

~ Love, light and peace ~

Day 23 of Blogtoberfest - Shells

I'm doing a post and run tonight.

#23 of 75 ink/pen sketches

A pair of shells!

Pencil-free sketch in A6 pocket Moleskine sketchbook 

using ZIG Millenium and Micron pens.

I think this also qualifies me for the 

Artist's Play Room challenge this week 

which was - PAIRS.

~ Love, light and peace ~

Day 3 - Succulents

Check out this gorgeous, plump, shiny succulent.
I don't know it's name but
I love it.

To think it started out as a little baby that hitch-hiked its way home
with a different succulent I bought back in 2009.
This one is obviously a slow-grower.

I've had vertigo hanging over me all day today.
Such a weird, woozy-like feeling.
It's a wonder I managed my daily sketch at all
but I did.

Sketch #3 of the 75 sketches in 75 day project.

Yet another succulent.

Pencil-free sketch using Faber-Castell artists PITT pens in
pocket Moleskine sketchbook.

As luck would have it,
this sketch also qualifies me for this week's
Artist's Play Room.
The theme was 'BOTANICAL'.

Have a great day !!

~ Love, light and peace ~

My favourite colours

This week in the Artist's Play Room group, Jenn asked us to share our favourite colour/s.

When I was a young girl, my favourite colour was lime green.

As a teenager, my favourite colour was purple.

As the years went on, I never lost my love for lime green and purple and,
between my teenage years and adulthood, I fell in love with turquoise blue too.
So that is my favourite colour combination.

I use them in my studio

Throughout my home and in my art.

Unfortunately, I've had a very busy week and time got away from me so I only have a work-in-progress to show for  the APR weekly art challenge featuring my favourite colours.  A partial layer with lots more to do.  I plan to finish it over the weekend and will post the finished page soon.

~ Love, light and peace ~