Drawing - A Geranium

The drawing lessons continue.    This time it is a geranium - not too happy with the stalks for my leaves, but at least you can tell what it is supposed to be.   I never, ever, thought I would be able to draw flowers, but thanks to Lou Withers, I have been able to achieve reasonable result.

Many years ago, in my youth, I inherited a very old book full of botanical drawings of flowers. (It's  well over 100 years old - I have had it for at least 60 years and it was very old then!)  It is one of my treasured possessions.   I love it, and always wished I could draw like that.  I love flowers, and of course I have made many in sugar over the years.

I am even considering using the techniques I learned from this drawing of the geranium, to try and draw a hydrangea, as it is basically the same shape of blooms, the petals just being in fours rather than fives.

Drawing - A Rose

Having been inspired by the flowers I have drawn following videos by Lou Withers, I decided to try and see if I could draw a rose without any guidance,     To my surprise, it didn't turn out too bad, and I must apologise for the dirty marks on the paper, but not expecting to produce anything resembling a rose I used a dirty page of my art journal - lol!

My next attempt (under guidance) is going to be a geranium - which I may or many not share, depending on how good it turns out!

Train Card

Men's card are so difficult sometime.   I used some IndigoBlu stamps from my stash for the train and rails, and coloured then with polochroo pencils.   I added a bit of background with versamajic and a soft brush.  I then created a sentiment in Craft Arist.

Birthday Cake Topper

 As mentioned yesterday - here is the cake topper I created in Craft Artist to go with the birthday card, and this is the topper on the cake.   (Just a single layered Victoria sponge, as they are not great cake eaters. (gluten and dairy free)

 

A Bit Different

I created this card in Craft Artist for one of my grandchildren, using an image of their favourite singer.

I then decided to "bling" it up slightly, as they are currently very into the Goth trend, by adding some strips of glitter ribbon that I have in my stash.   Hope they like it!    (My eldest granddaughter said it was "perfick" !

Tomorrow I will share the picture of the cake topper I made for their birthday cake.

Floral Birthday Card

I confess I was very pleased with this little experiment for a friend's birthday card.   It was a simple stamped image from the range by Lynette Jasper called Bloom Baby Bloom,   The images are so pretty, and you don't need a lot else.   However, I also had some stencils called Gritty Dots Pen Guide.   The idea is that you use the dots or shape to outline/enhance your stamp.    I had practised using a pen through the guides, but I wasn't too brilliant with that and would miss some dur to my eyesight, so for this card, I just lightly brushed through the stencil with some versa magic, and loved the delicate effect.

Knowing I struggle with seeing to colour these days, I applied some colour to the stamped image, and then blended it out with a blending nib, thus avoiding the risk of colouring outside the lines!  A quick sentiment was all that was needed to complete the card

Drawing a Begonia

 

Following on from yesterday's post, I caught up with another drawing lesson of Lou's whilst "listening to the Eurovision contest on Saturday.    This time she was teaching us to draw a Begonia.

Mine is a little different to hers as I had a lot more layers in the middle - so not sure if it is a Begonia (maybe its a double Begonia!), but whatever it is - it is a flower.   Lou's demo used the dot method for shading, but I knew I couldn't do that, so I did my own thing: and having penned in the outlines, I just used a pencil and a blending nib for the shadows.    I am really quite pleased with the end result.   I think I am getting the hang of this now.

I may try again, and this time colour the petals etc in and practise shading that way as well with polychromo pencils and a blending nib.

Drawing a Poppy

 

I was watching a demonstration on Facebook where Lou Withers was teaching us to draw a poppy.  Well I though I would attempt to draw one in my art journal.   Not a bad attempt, although I struggled doing the dots (pointalism) shading with my stupid eyesight, but at least you can tell it is a poppy.

She then went on to show us how to draw a poppy in a different way.   I found this much easier, as no "dots" were involved, just pencil shading.  So I was pretty pleased with the result.   I can now say I am not the only person in the family that can't draw (although I am note sure I could do it without a bit of guidance.

Lou is a fantastic teacher and really breaks down the way to draw something.  (These poppies all started out being scribbled circles as a guide, and then we drew the petals, and finally inked them.  I wish I had had an art teacher like her, and discussing that fact with my daughter, she said the same thing - they were never taught to draw!

Another play with Gouache

I decided to have another play with Gouache, and as I love Clarice Cliff Designs (although I will say that William Moorcroft is my absolute favourite, and I have a few pieces I inherited from my mother).  I did a quick search on the internet and found this inspiration, which was a Clarice Cliff inspired fabric wall hanging. 

I am not very good at drawing but I I drew the outlines freehand in pencil in my art journal, and then painted the different section,   Finally going over the pencil lines with black paint.

I then took my white and black posca pens and added a few dots adjacent to the lines - mainly white ones, but a few black ones on the lighter area so they should up better.

 

Playing with Gouache

 

I was watching Lou withers on The Craft Store yesterday, and she was demonstrating using Gouache. Well I have had a cheap set from the Works for a few years, and never really got around to using it in earnest.

One of Lou's demos was a Clarice Cliff inspired piece.   Well in turn this inspired me to grab my tubes of gouache, and my art play book, and have a play to reproduce a similar piece.

Lou then said to doodle on it with Posca pens etc. ; which I did.   Not perfect, as do struggle with seeing the smaller elements, but not a bad effort.   I think I will look up some more Clarice Cliff designs and have a further play, and discover more about using gouache.

Finding my mojo - Owl Dreamcatcher - WIP

 

The painted elements so far

Work in progress on a dreamcatcher.   I have more flowers to add, as well as ribbons and beads.   I think I am also going to change the colour of the feathers slightly to reflect the colour of the owl.

Close up of the owl

close up of the tail and branch ring

Missing Mojo

As you will have noticed, I have been very lax over the past month in posing anything creative.   My mojo has completely deserted me.    I have lots of projects to tackle, but no enthusiasm.     OK, when the weather has been kind I have tackled the garden, but the rest of the time when it has been too cold or too dark for my dodgy eyes to cope,  reading a book has been the answer. when normally I would be dabbling in some "messy" crafting.   I do have one particular project on the go - but am waiting for a replacement piece for it, before I can start the painting.

However, I did attempt a bit of "clean" crafting the other week, mainly to see if my eyes could cope.  I started a little sampler of chain stitch embroidery - it's a while since I have done any of that.   It's not brilliant, but I improved as I went on.  So here it is :   (It does need a bit of a press).   The lavender was stitched with 6 threads, as I wanted some dimension, but the words were done with less.

Matching Birthday Card

 

I forgot to take a photo of the finished card, but this was the topper I created for it to match the cake I posted yesterday.

The image was matted and layered onto red card, and then onto a white card blank.   I also added some pen detail (dots) to the circles by hand

Birthday Cake

A cake for my son - it should have been double the height, but I managed to drop one of the layers of Victoria sponge on the floor just after it came out of the oven!  (I now have a lot of buttercream in the freezer to use up at some point!)

I designed the edible topper in Craft Artist, and had it printed at our local cake decorating shop.     For those of you that don't know the inspiration comes from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question - of Life, the Universe and Everything.   Unless you are keen on sci-fi, you might not realise the connection.