Egg at Easter

Illustration Friday theme for IF 29/03/13 - 'Egg'.

I had actually done a nice sketch of a glass full of chocolate eggs while I was waiting for my appointment at the hairdressers on Friday morning before I had seen the new weeks IF theme and I was going to work that into something more by adding a little chick. But when I started trying to draw the chick and looking at them on Google images, I couldn't get past how sad it is that so many millions of these cute little fellows will be born into a life of discomfort. Hence the composition of this little one, waiting to hatch and begin his life in the world.

Jug Illustration (&EDM #318)

I really like drawing as the first thing I do with my day, after feeding Loxie and having breakfast of course.  It means that even if the rest of the day turns out to be unproductive or not great in some way, I've always got the sense that I achieved something and did one thing I really enjoyed.  Lox wakes me up at 5am every day so tbh I could probably illustrate a book in a week with the amount of morning time I have if I really put my mind to it!!

Here is what I drew this morning with the inspiration of EDM #318 - 'Draw something with numbers'.  Clearly while drawing it developed into another visual diary of my pregnancy.
I had intended to also use the Creative Every Day B&W theme but I saw my Pink Promarker winking at me and couldn't help colouring the page pink before I'd even started the pencil work!  That might also be because I had opened the curtains just before sitting down to draw and had seen that the sun has made a reappearance after several days absence!

Materials: Baby Pink Promarker, Staedtler HB pencil, a little bit of white chalk pencil that didn't really work out I think because the Promarker ink wasn't fully dry.

Pepper, Salt, Hot Sauce! (EDM #319)

Here is a biro sketch on a napkin for EDM #319 - 'Draw the condiments on a diner or casual restaurant table'.

I thought I was perhaps going to have to skip EDM 319 as, since I have been pregnant, I never go out to eat anywhere, I'm too broke for such frivolities!  I only ever eat out anywhere when my Mum comes to stay.  As such, I've also stopped carrying around my little A6 Moleskine.  So when I was out having lunch with my Mum yesterday I suddenly noticed what was on the table 'Oh condiments! EDM 319!'  I said I couldn't possibly draw them while I was having lunch with her as that would be totally antisocial of me. But she said she thought I should definitely do the sketch and actually I managed to do it while we were waiting for the food to arrive.

I drew them with a black biro from my Mum's handbag and a napkin from the table.  I like the fact that it happened that way. It's nice to draw with/on unexpected materials. I also can't colour this as the napkin won't hold the colour so it's nice as a B&W sketch.

Swim

Here is what I have submitted for IF's theme for w/c Friday 22nd March - 'Swim'.  Today is the day I get a scanner so this should be the last of my dodgy blurry camera uploads! I've been thinking about doing a 'swimming' sketch for ages now as swimming has been really important to me since the start of 2013. It has helped me so much with feeling healthy in my pregnancy, it is also the time when I dream up ideas for what to draw, and it has boosted my confidence so much that something I thought I was really no good at I actually can do. There are also some really nice people who also go to the pool regularly who I am always happy to bump into.

This was just a preliminary sketch to try and get the composition but then I quite liked her and of course couldn't help colouring her in.  Also, she was obviously going to be a self-portrait of me but her face is definitely not mine.  I had given her a quick little sketched in face in pencil which I had planned to change later. I was tired out from swimming and cleaning the flat and didn't have the energy or concentration levels to focus on my face in a mirror. But the face I drew seemed sweet and reminded me of a friend and I didn't have the heart to erase her. 

I have been going swimming 2/3 times a week since the start of the year and I think that the free swimming for pregnant women courtesy of the NHS is just brilliant and I really hope the Government don't ever scrap it given the fact that they are chipping away at the NHS!  I spent my whole life thinking I was a terrible swimmer because school swimming lessons made me feel like I was useless. I was convinced I couldn't swim more than a length of a pool.  But I started swimming due to the free swimming and because I have some trouble with my hip which only swimming seems to help.  I found within a week that I could in fact swim 20 lengths! Then I met a man at the pool. He is retired and his name is Peter and he said that since he retired he has started going swimming and to the gym and lost 8 stone (112lbs).  He encouraged me to try swimming half a mile.  So I tried, and I did. And now I swim half a mile every time I go to the pool and sometimes I do 3/4 of a mile. I know I'm not the fastest or furthest swimmer, but I think it's not bad for a pregnant woman, who was kept in the bottom group at school!!

I would like to get rid of the hatched lines and redo her so that all of her is shaded with overlaying Promarkers. You can just about see the effect of that in the top half of her body. 

P is for Pacifier (& EDM #320)

Here is what I drew for EDM #320 - 'Draw something that you will give away'. To be honest, there isn't much I'm giving away at the moment. Quite the opposite. I am having things bought and given to me for the baby.  The only thing I give away is pennies. I always put my coppers in the charity boxes on counters in shops. But having spent a day last week drawing buttons, I didn't fancy sitting drawing more small round items! So it occurred to me that pretty much everything I buy at the moment is something that I will give to my son. Apart from food, (and pens of course!) everything I'm buying is for the baby.  So I drew this pacifier...there is a reason for the fact that this one is out of the packaging already...and it does make me sound a bit odd... over the last couple of weeks I can't stop wanting to chew on the straws in my drink! But they are hurting my mouth, so I gave in and just got one of the pacifiers out.  I Googled 'chewing straws during pregnancy' and discovered that I am definitely not alone in this...phew! And my Mum tells me that my granny used to crave to chew welly boots when she was pregnant so maybe it's a family thing!

I should also point out that I might be in trouble with some of my friends if they find out I've called this 'P for Pacifier' and not 'D for Dummy'.  I used to be an English language teacher and a lot of my friends are and we are known for being sticklers for using British rather than American terminology.  But for this object I really thing the US have the better word for it.  I don't think I've ever heard a British person call this a pacifier rather than a dummy but I just don't really like the word dummy.

Materials: I really loved drawing this pacifier and I could have drawn a million of them.  Three of these are drawn with an 'S' Pitt Pen, two are drawn with an 'XS' Pitt Pen and one is drawn with an HB pencil. I thought that would make a nice comparison to see the different drawing implements on the same page. They are all coloured with Promarker, of course :)

Rainy Day Cat

Last weekend Loxie and I were rained in. Her more so than me really.  She loves going outside to play but she really isn't keen on the rain.  She also really dislikes having to use a litter tray when she needs the loo - oh the indignity!  So I felt really sorry for her last Saturday when it was tipping down and she was sitting at the window looking longingly at the world outside the window.  I was also thinking about the Creative Every Day B&W theme.  It was almost B&W but I really wanted to include the brown colour of the window blind.

I originally did this drawing with the cat just as an outline, and I think I preferred it like that. But I coloured her in with the black lines to try and disguise a bit the fact that I had drawn her in the scene after the window and so the window frame was running through her! It made her look at bit like a ghost! I'm also really sorry to Loxie that I have done her a bit of a disservice. She is not as plump as I have made her look here! 

I was going to wait until I get the scanner to post this but as I haven't done any drawing for the last 2 days due to being tired and busy (putting together IKEA furniture and sorting baby stuff), I thought I'd just post it anyway. I will definitely re-upload it though as the rain will show up better under the scanner.

Thank you to Hwee at http://hweesartjourney.blogspot.co.uk/ for recommending the White Uni-ball Signo pen. It shows up quite nicely.
My grey Promarker was running out here so the grey outside the window isn't quite as dark and moody as I was intending.

Heartburn Juice (and EDM #321 - 'Draw something that is forbidden')

It took me a while to work out what to draw for 'something that is forbidden'. The midwife provided me with a nice long list of things that would be forbidden to me, but as a consequence, my home doesn't contain them.  There's no rum in my cupboard, no brie in my fridge. Recently my Mum picked up some of my favourite juice for me...and then a couple of days later, before I'd had a chance to open this carton, the dreaded pregnancy heartburn came into my life.  It's not something I've ever had before so I wasn't sure what it was. Last week there was one day where it made me feel so sick I even missed my art class!  At my midwife appointment the next day she said to avoid fruit juice. So this delicious juice will stay unopened until my Mum comes over and she can drink it.

My light grey Promarker has totally run out now.  

Creative Every Day, Illustration Friday, and me being technically confused!

I feel a bit bad because Creative Every Day and Illustration Friday have been really helping me and I want to add the badge/link things onto my blog but can't seem to get them to work!  I've followed the instructions for both but nothing appears on my blog page.  If anyone has any suggestion as to what I might be doing wrong I'd really appreciate it.  I'm new to all this Blogger business, plus brain is muddled with pregnancy!! 

Spectacles Illustration - IF

Here is my drawing inspired by this week's (Friday 15th March 2013) Illustration Friday theme, 'Eye Glasses'.

I really enjoyed drawing this.  The idea for this came into my mind pretty much as soon as I saw the theme.  I have had to wear glasses since I was around 3 years old I think and I'm pretty sure my little boy is going to end up having to wear them as bad eyesight seems to sprint in my family!  I have to say though, I think glasses have moved on quite a bit since I was little. When I started wearing them in the early 1980's, glasses were hideous!  You basically had no choice of style.  It was the Government-issue, plastic blue-framed National Health Service glasses...or nothing! There is so much choice now and they are much cooler these days. But a new pair of glasses still takes a bit of getting used to.  I remember even when I got the ones I currently wear a couple of years ago, I found my vision went blurry when I turned my head to the side!

Anyway, I took a bit of artistic license on these glasses, they aren't sitting flat on the table as I wanted them to look like they were closing in on this poor little boy, with his back against the wall.  I felt really bad after I had drawn him so I drew another picture straight away of the same little boy at the beach with a smile on his face (will upload later).  Doing these IF illustrations is really useful I think.  I have been hoping to create a little boy character to maybe put into some stories and by doing this and the beach illustration, he has inadvertently materialised! 

 

Materials: Pitt Pen XS, Promarkers (I finally found a use for the green one), and a little bit of chalk pencil for the glass.

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

I've been drawing buttons.  Lots of observational drawings of buttons.  After that little Bugly-Eyed Button Beast turned up in my sketchbook I've been thinking about writing a story about him. Him and a cat. Well, I've written the story now, although I still need to turn parts of it into rhyme so I thought it might be a good idea to do a few drawings of buttons.  I've done 12 sketches in total. Here are a few of them.  I'll post the rest up once I've got the scanner but these ones I had taken a picture of as they didn't come out too badly with the phone camera and, as these ones were about light and shade, I liked the fact that as I took the picture the sun shone across them and added streaks of shadow and light.

Me in the Snow at a Bus Stop

This is what I did yesterday.  I finally braved the cold and got 5 new Promarkers as my reward.  I spent over an hour choosing them! And I'm not convinced I actually got the best selection I could have.  I set out to buy one in a kind of lime/moss green shade...this illustration includes all the colours I bought, apart from a brown one, so evidently my decision making went awry at some point!!  While I was standing at the bus stop I noticed the snowflakes settling on my coat and I was amazed at how easily you can see their pretty snowflake shapes.  I realised that I've never actually looked at a snowflake up close before.  I've only ever seen them as little white blobs. I thought you needed a microscope to see their formation.  How can I have only learnt this at age 36???!

I really like the coloured dotty snow on the ground in this illustration. I chose to limit myself to using only the new colours I had bought that day in this illustration so I could see how they work together. I didn't use the brown though as I really didn't want brown snow!

The camera isn't picking up the colours sufficiently so the effect is a bit lost. I was on the verge of buying a scanner/printer today but it turns out my mum has a spare one she can bring me when she comes to stay at Easter.  Also, I haven't replaced my retractable pencil as I've decided to try and make use of a nice pencil set I have.  This meant I did lots of resharpening of a B pencil to maintain the fine lines!

I had had the idea for this illustration in my head anyway but I realised I hadn't done an EDM for a while and saw that EDM #322 is 'Draw Something Related to What You Do' I got the idea of making the bus stop sign a bit more of a life pointer. Although, incidentally, the bus I was waiting for was the number 36! I also might upload this to Illustration Friday for this week's 'Yesterday' theme.  Not exactly a concept illustration for 'yesterday' but it was 'my' yesterday.

Below are a few different composition ideas I tried for this although the final illustration turned out to be the composition I'd had in my head from the start.  

Sad Little Uneaten Orange

My Mum is coming to stay for the weekend as it is Mother's Day so I wanted to get something drawn before she arrives as we always seem to be so busy when she is here.  I also had to wait in for a parcel to arrive (although it still isn't here and I have to go out in a minute). I thought I would do the next EDM (#323 - 'Draw Something Sad').  I'm also really taken with the Creative Every Day theme for March 'Black & White' as an excuse to do lots of dip pen illustrations.

Now, I had a bit of an issue with Draw Something Sad.  Ever since I've been pregnant my mind has been too aware of things around me that are sad.  I worry constantly about the evils of the world and have a lot of pregnancy induced nightmares about terrible things that might happen to me and the baby.  I think I've already covered 'sad' as much as I want to in the 'Whisper' drawing I did a little while ago (previous post).  So I decided to approach 'sad' in a different way. In one of my illustration classes a while back we did an exercise that involved choosing an inanimate object from a table of stuff and then 'lucky-dip' picking out an adjective written on a piece of paper from a bag of them that the tutor had.  We then had to draw our object with that adjective in mind.  I decided to sort of use this for my 'sad' drawing and just pick up any old random object from around my flat and draw it in a sad way.  I chose an orange and I thought a Gorey style illustration might work for making him look sad.  The black and white takes away all his spectacular orange-ness and the monotonous background makes him look quite lonely.

I have to say, I'm not 100% keen on result as, being Gorey-esque I started off using my dip pen, but I cleaned the pen the other day and it won't work now! Not sure pencil has quite the same effect.  Also, he needs to be surrounded by more background to emphasise how lonely he is but as well as the dip pen not working, my beloved retractable pencil that I've had for ages finally ran out half way through so I picked up with another one but it made my my hand ache!!

What I do like about this drawing is that, while I had initially thought of the orange as a random object, as I drew him I felt more and more sorry for him that of all the fruit in the dish, he was the last piece left.  A sad little orange going to waste, all on his own in the big wide fruit dish. Wasted food is something I find very sad and not something I am usually guilty of. I never overbuy food and I really don't ever need to throw much away. I'm always surprised by how little I have put into my food waste bin when it comes to bin day.  So now, I feel super-guilty about this orange. He's practically solid now so has no chance of being eaten.  I'm trying to think of a use for him.

Rainy Day Drawing

It has been raining all day today - even Loxie hasn't wanted to go outside, so here is a rainy day drawing, which I think really fits with the day.  I actually quite like the odd rainy day.  

This watering can reflects the day. I really like how droopy the spout looks. Sitting on the kitchen bench on an old newspaper, he makes me think of some poor bedraggled little creature that has been rescued from the elements.

I have given myself a break from drawing for the last couple of days.  I don't want to feel like I'm churning out drawings like I'm on some kind of illustration production line!  I wasn't going to draw anything at home today either but illustration class tonight was cancelled which I was disappointed about, so I decided to do the next EDM on the list - 'Draw a gardening tool'.

When I moved into this flat, there were lots of bits of broken old gardening implements outside the back door - forks without handles, handles without whatever had been attached to them etc. - and I haven't done anything to tidy them up yet.  Among them, a big green watering can had caught my eye yesterday as something I could draw, really as an excuse to use the bright green Promarker that I never use.   So I was going to draw the watering can with the adjective 'Spring' in mind.  The plan was to do a really loose and light sketch with the dip pen and ink and then colour it in with the green marker.  The rain on the window must have got into my head though because I've ended up doing some pretty heavy, dark ink wash instead. The top of the handle has lost a nice white streak of reflection by my accidental wielding of the brush. I might try and put it back in somehow (white acrylic maybe??).

S is for Sky and Sea

The sky is blue! Totally blue! And it is that sort of weather where there is a hazy feeling over everything, which is the best blue of all I think.  By coincidence, today I had reached EDM  #325 - 'Draw something that is blue'. So I couldn't help doing an 'S is for Sky' drawing. But as it was the hazy blue that makes me think of holidays, I wanted to make the drawing about the bluest best type of blue that exists and that for me is when you see blue sky from a plane window. And as it gets even bluer when it blends into the sea below, I added 'S is for Sea' as well.  So the composition is the view from a plane window.  I really hope that heaven does turn out to be like being in the sky because that will be just perfect.

What is written around the edge of the frame is something that the Captain said in his descent announcement when I was on a flight into Key West.  I'd never heard a captain on a plane give out inspirational messages before! And, as this was my first day in the USA, it was perfect and totally lived up to what I thought the US would be like.  For the record, over the remainder of my trip, the  USA became my favourite country of everywhere I've travelled to.  I heart it. Lots!

I dug my watercolours out for this one. They didn't take too kindly to the sketchbook.  But as I wanted to get a hazy effect it wasn't really an issue as I went over all of the blue areas lightly with a chalk pencil and ended up with exactly the effect I after (a rare occurrence!)

L is for Lipbalm (and EDM #326)

Here is the masterpiece for today, drawn with one eye on See No Evil, Hear No Evil.  I love that film. Richard Pryor is (or I guess, was) so funny.  He had a horrible start in life though.

After enjoying drawing the fast moving cat yesterday, and seeing a big bright sunshine for the weather forecast for today, I had intended to go to the park and try and do some bird sketches - there is a pond in my local park with swans and ducks and things.  But the forecast was a lie as usual. I don't know why I look at it, it's always wrong.  And then they just change it on the day to make it match up to what is going on outside the window, and even then it's often still wrong!  So I stayed in the warm and did EDM #326 - 'Draw something you can keep in your pocket'.  I suppose you could be very creative with this and think of all sorts of obscure things you CAN keep in your pocket, but I chose to draw something that is in fact always in my pocket.  I also have counted 12 pages into the sketchbook and made it a 'Letter L' page.

It's cherry flavour of course. I've put one into my hospital bag as I can't be without lip balm, and it has to be Chapstick.  A lot of the other brands irritate my lips and dry them out more. 

The pen I was using since my Pitt Pen ran out wasn't as waterproof as I had thought and so the ink ran a bit when I put the colour on. For the colour I used drawing ink, not watercolour.  I had to make a guess at the font for the title of the page as Chapstick use their own in-house font which I didn't manage to track down.  The jury is really out still on this sketchbook.  The ink bleeds on it quite a bit, although it isn't really noticeable in this photo, only up-close in real life. 

C is for Cat (and EDM #327)

The sun is shining into my lounge through the window and I decided to move on to EDM item #327 - 'Draw something that is super'.  If you look closely there is some blurb to self about why I chose to draw her.  I really really enjoyed doing these sketches.  The bit of the blurb that isn't quite visible says 'you just need to get over the artists anxiety that you may end up with unfinished drawings on your page'.  There's something a bit daunting about knowing you're about to put pen to paper and that you're going to have an unknown amount of time to draw the subject. It makes me feel the same as sometimes when I have to step onto the top of the really high, fast-moving escalators in the Tube!  But the result is that you really do capture the essence of cat nature, rather than what you think a cat is.  I also love how these drawings make me think of Japanese art, although I don't know why. 

It isn't intentional that these EDM drawings are running in alphabetical order so far, but it is intentional that they are in alpha order in this sketchbook.  I've been thinking a lot about A-Z books and so thought that I might as well run the EDM list concurrently with an AZ in this sketchbook.  So for example, if for #326 I decide to draw something that begins with 'Z', I might draw it on the 26th page of this sketchbook.  I struggle with lists and collections that are ordered numerically or split into categories. They make me feel a bit nauseous. But alpha order makes me feel comfortable; ergo, A-Z sketchbook.

I also should add a note that I was maybe a bit harsh on this sketchbook in my last post.  Drawing on its paper today with a Pilot V7 Hi-Tecpoint waterproof pen, it was very nice with no skipping.  So it was possibly just the fact that the Pitt Pen yesterday was dying that made it such a cringy drawing experience!

B is for Button (and EDM #328)

So, this was the start of me using the Everyday Matters Challenge List to get ideas of things to draw.  I had half an hour to kill at the Leisure Centre while waiting for the 12 noon lane swimming to start, and as I had a sketchbook and pen with me, I thought I would put the time to good use.  But the only thing I could remember from my quick glance over the list (obviously I wasn't carrying the list with me) was the final item: #328 - 'Draw something that has buttons'.


I didn't want to draw keypad type buttons so I fixed on the one button on my cardigan - it only has one button on it.  I started drawing it but at the first swoop of the pen to get the shape of the button I realised my beloved Pitt Pen is running out!  Also, this was my first time using this sketchbook and I don't like it. It feels spongy!! I persevered but as the pen shuddered and scratched it's emptying self over the lino-like paper it wasn't looking too much like the button, it seemed that a little creature with 4 eyes was appearing on the page instead.  And a little rhyme popped into my head to go with him.  I hatched him with what ink I had left and when I got home added the puddle of ink and the writing.  As his tongue was an afterthought to the rhyme, he could really do with having the lines through it erased but as I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm not really into correcting things.