Puffins (Surely the best of birds)

Here are some puffins.

Equipment: Pitt Pen 'S' and Promarkers.

Alexander Sleeping & Eating (Not at the same time)

I have been making attempts to get over my fear of recording my son in ink. I like drawing his long curly eyelashes. This mainly happens when he is sleeping although that does involve me trying to draw while holding the old Moleskine at some strange angles. He's been so congested lately with the croup virus that he breathes through his mouth while he sleeps and I could feel his little hot breath right over my heart. I managed to capture him eating his favourite food - broccoli. The look in his eye here is exactly the look he gives me.

Croup

Here are the latest pages, a collection I call 'Croup'. The clue is in the title as to why I haven't done much in the way of art/posting for a while!

In the Pines, In the Pines

We've been away on holiday for the week at Center Parcs (courtesy of Grandma, thank you, Grandma) - a week of pretending to be in another country without actually leaving the country.  I was completely in love with the 'cabin' we stayed in. Not a cabin at all but to my mind the perfect house, open plan living area, lots of glass i.e. glass walls, totally minimal i.e. babyproof! Alexander loved the expanse of floor and lack of doorways allowing him to go crazy in his walker car and to crawl all over the place. It is right in the middle of a forest so I was able to delude myself that I was back in Austria...until you get inside the 'Plaza' at which point you can delude yourself that you are somewhere tropical, although it is a bit of a shock to the system if you accidentally leave the safety of the dome in your wet swimming costume and shorts (cue: me).

Anyway, Alexander had some really good snoozes I think as the result of all that time in the 'lazy river' and I was able to take advantage of the big wall of glass and draw nature in January without getting cold.

 

I really dislike that I used green for the background but I didn't have anything else and leaving it white looked odd too

Surely the perfect home for an artist. Wall of glass!

Alexander driving his car on the patio

I really like how the colour came through the back of the page

Close Up

Colour block leaves - not finished as Alexander woke up!

Real palm, artificial sunshine

Equipment: A6 Moleskine, Faber Castell Pitt Pen 'S', Promakers 'Vanilla', 'Cool Grey 1', 'Moss' and 'Lime Green', Cheapo retractable pencil.

Tealy, Tealy Badgers

 

I sketched this about a month ago after encountering one of the Anti-Cull demonstrations in the city. The Government have, despite much petitioning and support from famous names including Brian May of Queen, introduced a badger cull. Here is my drawing of badgers. Look at them. I'm sure there are other creatures doing far more damage to this country/World than badgers that aren't getting culled for it. Just sayin' *cough*humans*cough*corporations*cough*politicians*.

Equipment: A6 Moleskine sketchbook, Cheapo Papermate pencil, Promarker in 'Marine'.

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...'

Hidden - Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday 'hidden'

Equipment: Pencil and Promarker Lime Green in Moleskine Sketchbook.

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.

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.

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!

My Hiatus Pt2: 'Harbourfest'

For those that don't know Bristol, it has a lot of water running through it and a lot of boats so the city holds this Harbourfest event. I was hoping to do a couple of sketches of boats to use for some art for Alexander's wall as he seems to like looking at boats. But in fact I ended up paying more attention to the other stuff going on - like the dance stage which had some amazing dance crews and Bristol breakers and poppers. Something else I really liked was this tree in the 'Happiness Project' area. It is a tree and you get a coloured paper leaf and write on it what you are grateful for and tie it to the tree. I wrote a leaf on Alexander's behalf and wrote 'Grandma' on it because we really would be lost without her.

To sum up the day I did this little illustration. It looks like I have loads of time on my hands doesn't it?! Actually it was the kind of repeated pattern drawing that was quite easy to do one-handed while Alexander was on my lap.

I don't really like that I coloured it black. In hindsight I would've coloured it all light grey including the leaves.

Equipment: Sakura Pigma Micron, Berol Fine, Promarkers (I forget which colours)

My Hiatus Pt.1 'Two girls and a dog having a picnic'

i have scanned! alexander was asleep and let me put him down for long enough to scan a few bits from my sketchbook. i'm so tired, i should have taken the opportunity to sleep but i felt an overwhelming desire to post something. of course he 'waah lahhed' before i finished and he is now across me feeding hence the one-handed-sorry-about-lack-of-capital-letters post! i don't know whether to put all the sketches i've done since alexander was born into one post or to split them. one thing i can say is that they are really not brilliant. i get this desire to draw but my mind is so much on alexander, especially when we are out, that i don't focus on the sketch. i'm not someone who is able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time and that applies to drawing too. even the loosest, simplest stuff i do like the continuous line drawings i have to put 100% concentration into!

well, here is what i did yesterday in the park. i go to the park nearly every day. this was right before alexander woke up in his pram and before a random jamaican guy tried to get my number.

i have for a while been noticing that some people when they sketch combine black pens of various nib widths. i really like this as it gives something similar to the line variation you achieve with a dip pen and so is an out and about or baby friendly alternative to a dip pen! i was a bit scared about doing this, i've never really known what to do with my 'M' pitt pen. but i've tried it here and i really think it has turned out okay. i have also gone back to my sketching roots and used my beloved grey and vanilla promarkers. they are the first colours i ever used and also really what got me into sketching regularly. it is my favourite way of sketching to just have one or two simple colours and a lot of white space. i don't know whether this sketch means i have gone back to square one though! i hope not!

Equipment: Sakura Pigma Micron 01, Pitt 'M', Promarkers Cool Grey 2 & Vanilla

Sketching on the way to class

I sketched a girl on the bus, a lady in the cafe at the Bristol Folk House while waiting to go into my new portraiture class, a lady on the bus on the way home, and the girl who took her seat when she got off the bus.  I was so pleased when I saw the lady with the bright orangey-red hair sit down in front of me. What perfect providence for a spot colour sketch! At the point when the girl took her seat I only had another 2 short stops before it was my stop and I didn't think I'd have enough time to sketch her but I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to get that bright pink pen out. I sketched her so quickly I started to draw in the knitted lines of her hat which I actually think really makes the sketch!  I need to get a pen for colouring in black skin tones.  I've got a few pens I use for skin tones but none that are anywhere near right for black skin. All of these were drawn with the Pitt Pen, skin tones are done with Promarkers, and the colours are the Berol Fine Markers and Triplus Fineliners. The Berol and Triplus are great because they don't bleed through the pages.

Watercolours, dip pen, Seawhites sketchbook

I've been getting back into using watercolours lately. The 'colour' theme for April at Creative Every Day has made me think about using new, stronger colours and, as much as I love Promarkers, I don't really like using the stronger colours in their range as I just find they swamp the illustration a bit. Plus, I really can't afford to buy any more of them! So I've had these watercolours out. But I haven't had a lot of success with them in the sketchbook I'm using at the moment. They go fluffy. They lose all their lovely translucent wateriness. Also, I want to use the dip pen at the moment and this sketchbook most definitely won't have any of that dip pen business. So I dug out a Seawhites sketchbook that is only about 2/3 full. I was using it for a project and for an illustration class I did so I never finished it.

So I was really just trying out how the watercolours would turn out on this Seawhites sketchbook (I already knew that it is very happy to have the pen and ink on it). I started drawing the nearest colourful thing to me, this Chapstick tin.

I've been thinking about converting this tin into a little tin for watercolours as I have a couple of pans with no home and some tubes of Sennelier colous which I would much prefer to have in a tin. Apparently you can just squeeze them into an empty pan and let them dry overnight. Now I just need to get some cheap empty pans.

The verdict is that the Seawhites sketchbook is really good for dip pen and watercolours. Also, it is really cheap compared to a lot of sketchbooks. I definitely recommend it. I think I paid £5.99 for it at Cass Arts -  I wish Cass would open a store in Bristol! The only minor thing is that it doesn't flatten down in the way that Moleskines and some other sketchbooks do. I mean, it does flatten but it isn't quite so flexible.  It says in it's blurb though that it is 'sized for extra wet-strength' and it really is because I like using a lot of water! I will try it with some ink washes next.

Sketches of people around Bristol today

I had quite a few things to do today and sketched a few people during the waiting moments. These sketches are in the order that I drew them. I was almost disappointed not to be kept waiting at a few more places!

Equipment: I only took a pitt pen and a blue, grey and sandstone Promarker.

Reverse Colouring In

This was an experiment. A couple of people who have looked at my sketchbooks, including a previous art tutor, have said that they like the effect the Promarkers produce on the reverse of the page.  It's true that they do bleed through paper a lot. They even make it through to the following page! So I always put a napkin or piece of kitchen paper between the pages to prevent that and I just use the reverse of any Promarker coloured pages for very rough sketches. But quite often the 'rough sketch' turns out to be something I quite like, and oddly enough the colours on the reverse of the page have worked really well with them.  There is one I have done which I keep meaning to blog that in my mind I've labelled 'disco cat'.

This morning I just started doodling my cup of tea and coloured it in but felt the colouring was a bit rubbish and too heavy. So I decided to work with the bleed through of the Promarker by resketching the cup on the reverse of the page  making the most of the colour that was already there. So technically the sketch on this page is only pencil and white pen.

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.