Drawing Lab lessons 4 and 5!

So lets be honest, I've not drawn for like a million years :-P I really meant to draw every day but I guess drawing a little bit is better than not drawing at all!! I finally, FINALLY got around to following the next lesson on Paint Myself Pretty. You're supposed to go to the zoo which would have been soooooo good as one of my fave things to do in the summer is go to the zoo!! BUT I haven't really had time and up until today the weather hasn't been that great round here! Cameron (from paint myself pretty) used video footage but this just didn't work for me :-P I'm not very good at sketching and moving animals present waaaaaaaay too much of a challenge for me right now!! So I used photos of animals I've seen in the zoo in the past!!

As I say EVERY time I post a photo......I really need to get a scanner ha ha!! So there you have my attempts! I only managed two but I plan to do some more later on (after me tea ha ha)!! I picked the fish because I've never drawn a fish in my life.  On the photo its a lovely blue colour! It was going quite well until I had to draw the scale pattern on the fins etc......I kind of lost heart then :-P

I picked the frog because I love poison arrow frogs! They are so small and cute and the colours are amazing! As with the fish, I've never drawn a frog before and I have to say I'm quite pleased with this!! I wish I could get more detail with shadows etc but for someone who really finds this sort of thing SO hard its not gone too badly!! My fave animals are monkeys so I'm hoping to attempt one of them next!

I'm hoping the lovely weather we are having here will stay as I always feel way more motivated when there is a nice blue sky :-)

Just for fun I have a funny photo of my cat Lupin! We are having to mind some Roberovski hamsters for a bit and as I suspected my cat is VERY happy about this! She sits watching them pretty much all day! I have to say I'm a little worried she will attack them but so far nothing too bad has happened!!

Ha ha so there you go!! I hope you have all had a lovely weekend :-) I will be back soon!!

Sugar Skulls and other delights!

OK so I have to be honest, I haven't been very arty or even very crafty recently :-( I'm just in one of THOSE moods where everything seems like its not going well but you can't think why.......does that make sense?? I haven't even done the next couple of lessons on Cameron's Blog Paint Myself Pretty yet :-( I WILL get around to that at some point!

So why the Blog post you ask? Well I have some older drawings I thought I would share with you for now!! The first are some little Whimsies I drew whilst following the Art, Heart and Healing over on Willowing's site! She also has a Blog here!! I had fun doing these, they came out way better than I was expecting! I can't decide if I should colour them in or not....what do you think??



I hope you can see them OK......I really should get a scanner! I actually have a scanner but it's A3 size so doesn't seem to scan smaller things in that well :-S Don't ask haha!!

The second thing I wanted to show you was my Sugar Skull! I absolutely love these! They come from the Tradition of Dia De Los Muetos or Day of The Dead.  Some of them can be a little odd looking but some of them are amazing! So colourful and interesting!! You can find out more about them online, you only have to google to find tons of stuff!

Here are some examples.....

And here is my effort!

I thought he was quite good until I looked at those examples I put on here :-S :-P oh well maybe he will look better with a bit of colour on him?? And maybe some more pattern? Eek!

And before I go here is a picture of my Craft room wall, it's a blank white wall that I plan to fill up with paintings etc.......

The calendars are a vintage travel posters from 1930's one and a Year of The Dragon Chinese scroll thingy! The painting is by my good Friend Carmen over at whoopidoo.....ings :-) He is taking pride of place up there!!

Anyway that is all for now, see you all soon!

What I wore today......

hello lovely people of Blog land :-)

I totally intended to do lots of blogging and lots of arty stuff this week but well you know how it goes.....life happens!! I was called in to work on one of my days off and work has been quite busy with various beginning of the year things!! Anywho I have to get myself back on track soon!!

I'm hoping to do the next lesson on Cameron's Blog tomorrow so I will be able to Blog about that soon! I'm quite intrigued as to what that will all be about!! It's been fun so far and completely different than anything I've ever tried before!

My lovely and amazing friend Carmen sent me a surprise gift the other day (thank you thank you thank you!!)! I was well chuffed, and slightly confused at first as my Mum txt me to tell me I had a parcel from Amazon......I thought to myself "But I haven't ordered anything from Amazon, god I hope no one is using my account....." DUUUUUURRRR! Anyway my surprise was a lovely art journal book called 'What I wore Today' by Gemma Correll.

It's such a sweet little book! I didn't realise it is actually like an art journal that you can draw in!! I wasn't going to draw in it at first but now I'm thinking why not!! You can follow Gemma on Facebook (Just search for Gemma Correll Artist) and she has a website (Here)! So if you want to learn more about her and her adorable drawings check those out!! I love her style, its fairly simple but so cute!!

Anyway that is all for tonight! Take care and I shall see you all soon, Hopefully with some new drawings to show you!!

Blind Contour Drawing!

The idea behind blind contour drawing (from what I could gather) is to find a picture/photo that you like and you copy it, the difference being that you don't look down at your paper and you're not supposed to lift your pencil off the paper!! In all honesty I really thought I was going to HATE this! I can barely stand my drawings as it is so to do something that is going to so obviously (in my head) not be great was not what I wanted to be doing!

But I gave it a go and you know what, it wasn't that bad!! The lessons I'm following on Paint Myself Pretty say to do this particular lesson with Giraffes so that's what I did! I do like Giraffes and it was fun trying to find cute pictures to use!



I honestly can't believe they came out so well! I know I haven't put any detail on them but I thought that was a step too far haha! Also I did take my pencil off the page to do the eyes etc of some of them which I know was cheating a little but we can keep it our little secret right?? ;-) I'm glad I gave it a go! I suppose it just goes to show that you just don't know how something will work until you try it for yourself and i should stop being so scared :-P

I enjoyed it so much that I plan to use the technique on some other animals I like......I'm thinking Panda's next! Who doesn't love panda's?!?

See you all again soon :-)

It's raining cats and........cats??

Recently my friend told me about a Blog called Paint Myself Pretty that was doing the 'lessons' from an art book with the intention that you can follow along and, post about it and link to the original Blog! So i thought why not?? (By the way you should check out the Blog as it's very pretty!!)

The first lesson was drawing cats..........

Yeah......If you ever needed proof I draw like a 7 year old this is it!! My cat has a giant head and looks like he might kill you if you met him in a dark alley!! I only did two as I got very disheartened by my efforts! That is the usual course with me and my drawing!! I have been known to childishly scribble on pages that aren't going right *the shame* Trying to be positive......I kind of like the body I did!! The page on the left is supposed to be what I wore that day........I'd rather forget that drawing happened ha ha!!

It occurred to me that I had once drawn a cat that I liked! He is more a character than a real life cat but I'm proud of him and that is VERY rare!!

I haven't finished colouring him in but here he is in all his glory!! I actually got the idea from a Digital illustration magazine I used to buy! He appealed to me as he has a moustache that reminds me of my fave detective Poirot ha ha!! I think it's safe to say I'm better at colouring than the drawing bit!!

So I'm afraid that is all I've had a chance to do this week!! It's not that I don't have the time, it' more that I don't know what to draw when I do have the time!! I still haven't completed the face on my little wooden doll either!!  I've tried out eyes on a piece of paper trying to find the best ones! I want them to be simple yet striking!! Hopefully I will get around to that this week.....wish me luck!!

Picking up a paint brush....

For a little while now I've been quite interested in the whole customised doll world! I've only really dipped my toe in but I've found some artists that I really love! One is Zombuki.  I can't remember how I stumbled upon her stuff but I'm completely fascinated by her dolls!!

This photo is taken from her website which is linked above! Isn't she beautiful? Then I discovered she also customised wooden dolls that are similar to Kokeshi Dolls! I love Kokeshi Dolls, ever since my boyfriend bought me one for my birthday (she was called delicate flower). Kokeshi Dolls are Traditional Japanese wooden dolls that are hand painted....

This is 'Delicate Flower' and she is from The Japanese Shop.  There are many designs and styles which have different meanings!! The idea of customising one of these really appeals to me! The dolls that Zombuki customises are smaller but very similar is style...

You can buy this little lovely from Ms Brigitte's Mild Ride. So armed with some wooden dolls that I purchased from Zombuki's store and some acrylic paint I gave it a go!! I should have taken more photos of the actual process but i took the photos before I decided to do this blog :-P Oh well!!

Here is my little doll body!! I haven't actually painted the hands or the feet yet but there it is :-P

And here is my little doll head!! As you can see there is no face.....I am scared stiff of messing the face up so I haven't even tried yet!! I want to do little simple eyes nose and mouth but I don't even know where to start! I've googled pictures of eyes and I think I've decided on a shape.....yet still she remains faceless :-P

And here is the doll all together! It's not exactly mind blowing but i don't think it went to badly for my first ever go!! Hopefully one day I will get up the courage to add her face and she will be complete!!

Acrylic paint is fun to work with, but I had no idea it was so hard to blend with! I don't know how well water colour would work but maybe i can give it a go!! So does anyone have any idea what or who my little dolly is supposed to be?? Let's see if anyone can guess :-)

Thanks for stopping by!!

My first ever Blogger Post!!

So this is my first post on Blogger!! I've spent hours (and hours) sorting it out and trying to make a nice banner for it!! I feel like I've lost a day haha!!

This Blog will (hopefully) be about my sad little attempts at Art! I've always wanted to be an "artist", ever since I was a little girl! Somewhere along the line I got a little lost and developed a fear.....a fear of doing it wrong or it not being good! I want to change that, i want to draw or doodle or just throw paint at a canvas and be proud of it because I did!!

So anyway here I am, I don't have any pictures or anything to show just yet but bear with me, I just need a little time!! So stay with me Folks.....it's going to be a bumpy ride :-)