Sketching something in the style of free-motion in absence of time to actually do free-motion!

 

Yes, I'm still alive. Not a lot of sketching going on lately and even less so with the atrocious sleeping habits of a 6 month old spending the holidays at his Grandma's. I'd heard this can happen to babies when they are away from home but it really is quite the test! 'Baby's First Christmas' is mostly trying to keep him from crawling into an open fire/pull the guard down, a lot of screaming at alien cot/highchair, and being woken every hour throughout the night. 

I was bought a sewing machine for Christmas as I've had a bee in my bonnet about wanting to do free-motion sewing i.e. drawing with a sewing machine. But I am pretty sure I'm not even going to have time to take it out of the box for 5 years until Alexander starts school - yeah, those pre-birth notions about home-schooling are dwindling faster than you can say 'mummy's just going to put you down here while she...' 'Waaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh'. Fortunately I also got something else I've wanted for a very long time, a sketchbook with squarey-paper. It's actually a notebook but it is fine for using with the V Pen I also got. So, I've managed to keep Alexander happy playing with my phone long enough to draw 'in the style of free-motion'. I don't get to do my nails these days and would never usually put glitter on my nails but, being at Grandma's I have fallen under her influence and bought this Barry M glitter varnish which I put over Rimmel teal varnish while Grandma held onto Alexander. 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We had a real Christmas miracle...Alexander's Daddy finally came to see him! I'm actually wondering now if it was all in my imagination. Also, we have sold our flat! It went on the market on a Wednesday and was sold for the full asking price by the Friday. So the new year should see some big changes for us. I am sure I won't blog again before 2013 is out so I hope all a y'all wherever you are end 2013 with good thoughts of the past year and lots to look forward to for 2014.

Dark and moody teal vase composition (or not)

Last night as I was trying to get myself and Alexander to sleep, I got a picture in my head for an acrylic painting.  Actually, it was more a 'colour composition'. I bought my mum this teal vase for her birthday last week and I really love this teal colour lately.  The vision was of it in amongst one of those old fashioned style still life paintings with a dark and moody background and a voluptuous soft pink peony spilling from it.  Whether I'll ever actually paint it is another matter. Alexander and I have a long way to go I think before I'll be able to get the acrylics out and paint a picture without Alexander deciding he wants 'pick up' and me abandoning the acrylics to dry up on the palette and the tubes with their lids off for a week.  But this 'composition that never was' situation has been happening quite often lately so, as it was still in my head this morning and Alexander was having an extended snooze, I got my sketchbook and tried to bring the idea into the world just in case...

But as Alexander kept sleeping, and as I actually had some Promarkers in the right colours, the quick composition sketch became quite involved! Had I set out to make a proper job of this I would of course have dealt properly with the stem in the water which I have completely forgotten to 'refract'. This is the problem with me...I don't learn...it wasn't all that long ago I spent ages drawing that purple straw in the glass of fizzy water where the straw was all zig-zaggy from the refraction. But I find when I draw out of my head rather than observationally, all I know to be true just disappears. I could draw a thousand relatively cat-like cats from real life but then draw one from my imagination and it look like a ball with sticks hanging out!

Equipment: Berol Italic pen (I stole the idea to use a pen like this from the fabulous Jodi Wiley (thank you for the inspiration, Jodi), A5 Hahnemuhle sketchbook, Promarkers.

IF Tail

Pretty quickly done Illustration Friday entry for this weeks prompt 'Tail'. Made quite a mess of drawing the seat!

Mr Dangly Legpeg Lion aka IF 'Energy'

Alexander absolutely loves this little lion. It is a finger puppet I bought at Longleat Safari Park when we went there when he was only a few weeks old.  I think what he must like about it is that its legs are made of string and that they are dangly because his favourite game is when I (or Grandma) hold the lion above his face while he is on his back and either jump the lion up and down or just generally shake it frantically! He gets so excited and flaps his arms and legs like he's doing snow angels. And if I shake the lion next to Alexander's ears, it makes him really giggle as he apparently has pretty ticklish ears. The other morning we were playing with the lion and I put on 'Iron, Lion Zion' and Alexander just got so excited he flapped like he was going to take off.  This lion-induced excitement really made me want to draw a lion... and then guess what happened...???...the thing I always dread...my drink leaked in my bag and soaked my Moleskine!!! Fortunately it was only fizzy water but it was very wet and very buckled so I hung it on the radiator and then squashed it under a copper-bottomed saucepan. It was finally passable for being back in action today and seeing that the IF theme for this week is 'Energy' I scribbled down a sketch of Mr Dangly Legpeg Lion. Here he is...

Equipment: Pencil 2B and Moleskine

Button Tree Christening Present

Okay so I just spent ages typing out a post about this on my phone and it hasn't saved! So, suffice to say, it's a button Tree, I made it for Alexander for his christening!

Baby Update

Thought it was about time I posted an update on Alexander aka my inspiration. So here he is. Snug in his new hat ready for winter...

Amanda & Son - Making thank you cards

Alexander and I have been making thank you cards to give to people who bought him christening presents but who don't have Facebook/email. I guess I should do a card for everyone but this card making process is a bit slow going so that's just not going to happen!

I put a silver marker in Alexander's hand and let him wave it about until we had made some marks on some Bristol board. Then I do the writing and stick on a few buttons. And voila! Amanda & Son Design is born!

Drawing with a wriggly baby on me

I need to get something to wear for Alexander's christening the weekend after next and I had some crazy idea that we would be able to nip into town in the morning, buy a dress and be home by 2pm at the latest as Alexander likes a bit of singing in the afternoon. So here we were in the Caffe Nero in House of Fraser at around midday having bought nothing, me flashing at the people at the next table while Alexander who had assured me he was hungry and needed a pit stop lay on me trying to decide whether 'boobies' or the canvas prints of coffee on the walls were what he wanted to turn his attention to. I thought I'd immortalise my overpriced can of drink while I waited for him. So here is my stuff on the table drawn with my Moleskine on my knee and a very flappy Alexander across me. I have to thank him for his input to the design. I think the wobbly lines look nice.

Little Creatures Collection

The mummy and baby birds I drew for the 'Together' illustration were a bit of a follow on from some little creatures I scribbled in the Moleskine a couple of weeks ago.  Here is the whole collection... note that the thing that looks like a spider was actually going to be an octopus but I couldn't really recall what an octopus looked like. I later realised that he needed curly legs and also all the legs should've been coming from the bottom of him with a bulbous head. Oh well I will know for next time...

Equipment: Cheapo pencil and Promarker

IF Together

Some Illustration Friday themes are easier to come up with an idea for than others. Last week's 'Totem' I couldn't deal with.  But this one was easy. Alexander has been going through this '4 month sleep regression' thing, basically carrying on like a newborn waking constantly through the night and feeding every 60-90 minutes throughout the day also. This weekend he finally seemed to be coming through the other side of it and what with the oncoming autumnal weather we just snuggled up together in bed and got loads and loads of sleep and only left home really late in the day for our stroll around the park. He also has got his first cold so the poor little thing has been super snuffly and having trouble breathing because he is so congested. So more snuggling up has been required.

While he was snoozing in his pram taking in some fresh park air I remembered this week's IF theme 'Together' and it made me think of a little baby bird reliant on its mummy bird keeping it safe and protected against the world in their little nest just like my little baby boy and I.

I have to tell you also that staring at the word 'birds' while I've been scanning and saving and selecting this pair has resulted in me listening repeatedly to 'Plateau' by Nirvana... 'nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop and an illustrated book about biiiiirrrrrrrds...'

Looks like Autumn is here!

Man, I was at the end of my tether today. Alexander hasn't been sleeping well for about 10 days now and also not managing to sleep in his pushchair which is usually how I can reliably get a little bit of a break getting him to sleep so I can sit in the park for a couple of hours. We both have an accumulation of tiredness, overtiredness! Today I was pushing him along in that pushchair and he was crying and I was using up every little bit of my energy reserves. In the end I sat on a bench and cried. And then I pushed him some more and finally, finally he conked out.

By this time I'd made it around to a part of the park I really love, in fact it is the best part, a great long avenue of trees. But I've never sat down there. Today I collapsed there on the nearest bench. I attempted to read my book but had a headache, then I noticed that all around me were fallen leaves and I noticed how lovely the browny-orange colour of them looked against the path which is black. I've been teaching Alex lately about Autumn and what will be happening to the trees (obviously not today!) and so I've been wanting to do an autumnal drawing. But over on the other side of the park it is still more summery, which sounds strange now I say it, a bit Narnia-esque. These leaves just looked so nice against their black background so, of course, I drew them. How fortuitous that Alexander howled on the sunny side of the park, and how thankful am I that I had the trusty Moleskine with me! A friend of mine who is pretty fed up at the moment was saying to me this morning that she thinks she needs to get a hobby. I am so grateful that I draw. I am sure it has saved my sanity on many an occasion!

Equipment: Pencil and Watercolour (Sennelier Artist Grade Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and a yellow - can't remember which and W&N Student Grade Lamp Black) on Moleskine Sketchbook. I applied the paint pretty dry as it didn't seem quite right to paint something as dry as a dead leaf in a watery way. Also, I like the way the waxy Moleskine takes the watercolours when they are quite dry.

Red Ant Black Ant

I was in the park the other day and I saw a red ant approach my blanket. 'I don't want you hanging around and stinging me' I thought and I shooed him away. Then I saw a little black ant walk up to the red ant and then they went their separate ways. I'm not sure whether red ants and black ants get on. Do they associate? Do they live alongside each other in harmony? An insectologist would know the answer to this, in fact a quick Google would probably give me an answer but I preferred to do a little illustration to pose this insecty question...

Equipment: pencil, watercolours in Ivory Black and Aliz Crimson.

Hidden - Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday 'hidden'

Equipment: Pencil and Promarker Lime Green in Moleskine Sketchbook.

Lush - Illustration Friday

It took me quite a while to come up with an idea for how to illustrate 'lush'. Here in the west of England the word 'lush' is so heavily used you could say it is part of the local dialect. It's used in the sense of 'really really gorgeous'. So that felt like a pretty broad scope! Trying to think of something to fit this definition, without drawing something I've already drawn and without drawing Alex who is of course the epitome of lush and in fact the lushest thing in the world but too lush for me to do justice to with my drawing ability, I thought about the fact that we are going on holiday to the seaside this month and that wonderful moment when you first see the sea. I remember when I was little and we would drive to the coast for a holiday and be waiting and waiting for that magical moment when you drive up over a hill and get a first glimpse of the sea. At which point shouting excitedly! 'mummy, I can see the sea!!!' Alex hasn't quite mastered language to that degree yet but this will be his first holiday and I look forward to one day hearing him say that.

Equipment: Pencil and watercolour in Moleskine Sketchbook.  I really like the way the composition of this turned out but I'm not so sure about the colouring in. I would've preferred the effect of using markers but it was on the back of something else in the Moleskine and they would've bled through.  Actually, I think it is the colour of the sea that I have the problem with. I should've scanned this before I coloured it as it looked quite nice just as pencil on the colour of the Moleskine paper.

Rescue - Illustration Friday

I feel a bit sorry for this little spider but this illustration was inspired by a true story so it was in fact his fate I'm afraid.  Loxie has no tendencies towards mousing or birding, she is not exactly the finely tuned assassin her species is known to be. That said, she does love a spider. She only ever catches them at night though and I often get up in the morning and find spider corpse on the lounge floor as evidence that she has been having some sport in the night.  On this particular night I was woken up by a great commotion 'holy cow, I'm being burgled' I panicked to myself.  But when I turned the light on I saw Lox sitting by the end of the bed with her (now dead) spider. She looked pleased as punch and was evidently wanting to show mummy her handiwork. I don't have any major issue with spiders, being in Australia got me over my fear of them. But I was very grateful to Lox for the good work she did and continues to do rescuing me from the possibility of them scuttling across my bed at night.

Equipment: Pencil, watercolours, Moleskine sketchbook. Trying to use watercolours last night with Alexander wriggling around on my knee was no easy task but this wasn't going to work if I used pens as I wouldn't have been able to colour Lox black without obliterating the spider. I managed to paint this in 5 minute bursts when I was able to put him down before he grizzled and needed picking back up again. Actually, he is kicking around on me now as I attempt to type this post one-handed. It's been a few months since I used watercolour in a Moleskine sketchbook too. I know lots of people complain about the waxy paper and how it takes the paint but I really like it.

Little Squirrel

I was sitting in the park a couple of days ago and Alexander had fallen asleep and was snoring away in his pram. I had the new Moleskine on me but had no idea what to draw so I just lay back and looked up at the sky. It was my second favourite type of weather - when it's really warm but also overcast, it reminds me of being in Malaysia or Goa when a storm is approaching. Anyway, all of a sudden I heard a crunching scraping sound behind me. I wondered what on earth it was. I looked up at the tree behind me and there she was, a little Squirrel trying to break through the husk of a nut. I loved the way her big fluffy tail was curled down the branch, usually they are stuck up in the air. What a lovely little thing to put on the first page of my new sketchbook I thought. So here she is. I haven't coloured her in as I only had a grey and green pen on me. To be honest, I should've coloured her with the grey as she was a grey squirrel but I really fancy to turn her into a red squirrel as I think a rusty red would look really nice with the mossy green that I used on the leaves.But actually I quite like her in white. I can't leave her and the branch and the nut white, something needs to be coloured but I'm not sure. Open to suggestions...

For the time being, I like to think she is getting ready for the approaching winter.

Old Stuff: More Animals and Birds

A few more things I have found in the old files... and on one of my favourite subjects: animals and birds! Equipment and style is pretty varied!

My cat Flori (Loxie's actual mummy!)

Stuffed owl sketched at Natural History Museum, London

Another owl sketched at Natural History Museum and coloured digitally, YES! Digitally!! I was obviously feeling brave enough to open Gimp on that day!

My 2011(?) Christmas card design. Dip pen and watercolour on Arches paper.

'There in a wood a piggywig stood'. Illustration for The Owl and The Pussycat. Watercolour on some quite cheapy rough watercolour paper.

'They danced by the light of the moon'. Illustration for The Owl and The Pussycat. Again, watercolour on cheapy watercolour paper.

Sakura Lines...

Here are some more things that made their way into my sketchbook recently.  They are quite varied so it does feel a bit weird to compile them into one post but if I don't I might never get around to posting them!  I would say they are all sketches that are 'in progress' for various reasons... and in terms of equipment, they are all Sakura Pigma Micron 01 on the Seawhite Sketchbook (the Pregnancy Sketchbook).

Animals...
I would like to do some animal illustrations for Alexander and here's where I'm at thus far...

Unusual Things...
I realised recently that I have hit my limit on observational drawing of random objects. I've really enjoyed it and it has helped me to discover different styles of drawing and using different mediums but I am really a big believer in not continuing with something when you feel done with it. Instead I have been working on sketching things that I find unusual. This is also really helpful for me personally as I find lately that the places where I might get a few minutes of drawing time are very repetitive - the local park being the main one, so keeping an eye out for the not-so-obvious is quite helpful...

Shadows...

I noticed in the park a some interesting shadows falling across my 'blank page'. So I drew around them and I really like the scene it created I am now on the lookout for more interesting shadows. I wonder if anyone can guess what the shadow inducing objects were! :) ...

Fruity! aka Illustration Friday 'Fresh'

Filling up these missed-out pages in my Pregnancy Sketchbook I had a page free opposite an illustration I had done of a bottle of Lime Original Source back in May.  At the time I had intended to paint some limes and lemons on that page but never got around to it. So, given that I haven't done an Illustration Friday for months and months and that this week's theme is 'Fresh' it seemed like a good idea to finally draw and paint lemons and limes. And, as luck would have it, I have a fruit bowl full of them!

This was done ridiculously quickly while Alexander was still asleep in his pushchair following our walk at the park. A really quick sketch in pencil with some watercolour sploshed over the top. I then had a bit of a brainwave about cropping it square. Don't know where that came from but it reminds me now of a cushion cover!

Junk Boat 'Illustration'

I'm almost done with this pregnancy sketchbook! To be honest, I can't believe I still haven't used up all the pages in it.  It's a shame I didn't do all the drawings I did during my pregnancy in this book as the illustrations I did on bits of paper were really relevant. And this brings me neatly to my idea for my next sketchbook - a little A6 (technically not quite those dimensions) Moleskine Sketchbook who is sitting on my kitchen table patiently waiting to be dropped into my bag and become my little sidekick and be filled with 'illustrations'.  Yes, illustrations as opposed to observational drawings. I suppose everything I sketch could be classed as an illustration but what I'm talking about is more of the drawings that are more from my head. Scenes, ideas, messages, pages with more thought given to the composition. 

To start me along that route I've filled two of the final pages in the pregnancy sketchbook with this little scene of a Junk Boat sailing off into tropical waters. From as young as I can remember I have been enchanted by the idea of travelling. For me, dreams of travelling have always given me the same feeling as the belief you have in magic when you are a child. The beauty of travel is that when you grow up you can really go to these places. So anyway I drew this little scene for Alexander. It isn't brilliant in terms of the shockingly bad application of my watercolours but I hope that Alexander will find it enticing when he is a little bit older and fancy to imagine himself in this little boat setting off to explore these islands and beyond.

Feeling your baby's pain...and using the red pen I'm always scared to use!

We went to get the 8 week jabs done and it was horrible. I felt so guilty taking Alexander to the surgery knowing that something horrible was going to be done to him. Then when the injections were put into his legs and he stuck his little bottom lip out and started to cry I couldn't help crying too. It was awful.

I decided to do a little illustration of this in the sketchbook (which is still by the way the pregnancy sketchbook) because I've been wanting to do a page that is personal to us again. Pigeons in the park are fine but I really like trying to document things that are relevant to this time in our lives. Also, as with most of these type of illustrations, the composition for it had just appeared in my head and I wanted to get it on paper. I love it when that happens, when a composition just pops into your head.

I really love how this has turned out. It reminds me of a screenprint. And I LOVE the red background. I knew as soon as I saw the composition in my mind that the background had to be red but I really struggled to put that 'Lipstick Red' Promarker onto the page and I even messed about looking at all my other colours wondering if I could use a different one. I am SO terrified of this red pen. It is so fierce and has the power to obliterate other colours on a page and destroy a drawing, not to mention the next two pages of a sketchbook with the bleed through! 

Unfortunately, the blue of the tears isn't showing up too well from the scanning. I don't know if I will ever work out how to make my scanner scan with clarity!

Birds. Birds, Birds

I seem to have sketched quite a few birds at the park. These all actually came from pages containing other things - people sitting on benches etc. And those were often pages that I didn't really like as I felt like me dip in concentration had meant the drawings on those pages were just hideous! But out of the hideousness some little gems emerged, well I think so. These little birds all moved so fast I was forced to draw at warp speed and so didn't run into the concentration problems I had with things that were more static.

My Hiatus: The First Thing I Drew After Having A Baby (and what followed)

This was the first thing I drew after my son was born. I just really wanted to draw something again and unsurprisingly what was to hand was a toy. I sploshed a bit of watercolour on at a later date. I have no idea how I had the time for watercolour! I guess he must've slept in the daytimes more back in those early days. I also drew his other favourite toys in the days that followed..but gave up on watercolour for pens instead as you can use them while holding a baby!

Other things that were convenient to draw...(these sketches all remind me why I always write the time on my page)!

I've also found I do a fair bit of sketching in the park as the walk there usually sends Alexander to sleep in his pram.  It gives me a bit of time to sketch but to be honest I generally think it looks a mess because my mind is so focussed on him in case someone comes along and steals him.

Drawing Perfection aka Drawing the Ones You Love

I think it will be many years before I pluck up the courage to attempt to draw or paint my son. He is just so perfect I have this weird fear of drawing him in case I don't do him justice.  I wonder if this is how painters of royalty have felt, especially the ones from centuries ago when a king or queen could chop your head off for treason, not that my little one would chop my head off I'm sure. I have also refused my mum when she asked me to paint her and I've freaked out and declined when friends have done that thing where they say to you 'ooh, can you draw me now?' when you are sitting in the pub.  Its funny. I don't have any nerves about drawing a stranger in portraiture class or on the bus though, and I think my portraits turn out looking pretty true to the sitter. I wonder whether actual portrait artists who take commissions always felt comfortable with the idea of declaring themselves portraiture artists or whether they also had to get over a fear of making their sitter look like Shrek. On another note, my baby wriggles a lot! So I would have to wait til he is asleep, which I guess I have to do anyway in order to have some time for drawing!

But, he is growing so fast and I know I will kick myself one day if I didn't draw him while he was little. So I have drawn his back while he was asleep on his front...yes, I know babies aren't supposed to sleep on their front, but I reckoned that drawing him meant I was keeping a pretty close eye on him!

I really messed up the left arm. Also, I drew this on the back of the Happiness Tree page, ergo Alexander is covered in colourful leaves...

My Hiatus Pt3: While you were sleeping

Don't worry, he does have all his limbs, I just didn't get time to draw his left foot!