ONLINE ART COURSE - THE FINAL PROJECT - CHERRIES... AND MORE! I'm feeling quite sad. This is the final directed challenge of the whole year-long course, and it's hard to believe that it's finished, apart from the self-directed challenge which will be anything you like - totally open ended! I think Phil, our…
A BEAUTIFUL NEW DRAWING TOOL My latest drawing tool - a real treasure Some time ago I bought a cheap proportional divider to help with my continual problem of getting size and proportion correct in my drawings. I am improving in this direction, but sometimes it is extremely helpful to use this tool,…
VINES AND TRELLISES IN UFO - A NEW ZENTANGLE I am currently working on some interactive elements - pop-ups and pop-outs, and decided to decorate one of them with Zentangle. Browsing around I came across a very attractive new (to me, at least) grid pattern called UFO by Ginny Lu, and thought I…
ONLINE ART COURSE - PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY The portraits module We are rapidly approaching the end of this course, with the penultimate module which is on portraits. Hard to believe we are now at this stage! The time has raced by. Introducing portraits We have done some portraits earlier in the…
WATERCOLOUR PAINTING - MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT NEGATIVE STENCILLING While I have done negative stencilling on various mixed media projects, I have not attempted it with watercolour painting until now. I am working on a collection of negative watercolour paintings and thought that some negative stencilling would complement the theme. Eventually all these…
ONLINE ART COURSE - A GROUP OF CYCLISTS IN PASTEL PENCIL Warming to pastel pencils After completing my recent nude figure study in pastel pencils, I found myself definitely warming to the medium. I've had good success with it, but didn't really want to pursue it. This was mostly because the pencils are…
STENCILS FROM ALI EXPRESS Recently I was searching for some suitable lids for the new cat food tins we are getting, and the only place I could find where they had them of the correct small size and not in multi-sized sets was AliExpress. I duly ordered two packs of eight, and they…
NEGATIVE WATERCOLOUR - KOI CARP, OUR FIRST PLUM CROP, AND A HEALTH UPDATE Negative Koi Carp This is a negative watercolour I have been wanting to do for some time. I used several unrelated images of koi carp from the internet as inspiration, and made my own composition and colouring. Every picture goes…
Today is my 71st birthday (eek... I haven't even managed to get my head around being 70 yet!). The day started badly with my waking up at 7.00 a.m. so I thought I'd get up, but I'd only started to get ready when I felt so tired and in need of more sleep…
SHOSHI'S LITTLE BLACK BOOK, AND SOME GOLD MANDALAS Little Black Book lost and found What I used to call my Rhodia drawing book has now been renamed. Shoshi's Little Black Book. Foz, a member of the art forum I am on, called it that and it's stuck! It doesn't contain naughty stuff though,…
