Funny feathers Jazz band at sand bar

Watched a fantastically characterful band playing in sand bar. A challenge to capture. A - because moving and B - coz i was so paranoid about people watching me!!! Doodled a fair bit first, to get to know shapes etc, then went for it. They were brill. If nothing more, I like this as a momento. The chap on right was such a dude.

Praa sands, Cornwall, sketch

Praa sands beach

Spent sunday at Praa sands beach. Sketching is a brilliant way of being a visual diary. Drawing the beach scene (from the cliff, then coloring whilst on beach itself) really makes you look and appreciate shapes, colour and life around you. It was a challenging scene as beach was very densely packed (pic not quite right) and my husband was waiting for me to hurry up! I'd love to have another go. Again, gel pen first then water colour.

Marazion sketch

We are spending a week in marazion honeymoon. Woooo. Perfect perfect place for sketching. Our terrace faces st Michaels mount. There's a boat taxi going back and forth constantly. I'm already addicted to wanting to sketch every little group of awaiting passengers. This is first sketch for ages. (months) Inspired by being back here. This is gel pen then water colour.

Edible Creativity

Inspired at Coffee break

Visited a local coffee / eating place in Larkhall - a really cute little place called Ma Cuisine - it was buzzing! Coffee was up to scratch (a rarity to find at the mo) and  the atmosphere was perfect - a little hub of busy activity and run by a french couple (singing chef and sunshine made for a v happy visit!!!) Bookcase aptly filled with french books - one of which caught my eye...

The illustrations in French Leave Favourites were so charming... and made me want to get my water colours out straight away (and also made me want to go back to France - NOW)

 The pencil illustrations - not pictured brilliantly here, were inspiring too - soft, textured, detailed..

 The feeling of sunshine and cafe culture is captured brilliantly i think! I must find out the artist.

Drawing day with Fiona from the fashion lab

This was the back to drawing day....  Lots of useful exercises used to break the ice again... drawing blind, drawing for 3 mins , drawing with wrong hand - etc etc. Fiona supplied some amazing props to inspire and lead our drawing - all along an oriental theme. Some amazing patterns, lots of floral next to geometric.  I was certainly rusty, but enjoyed revisiting drawing again.

Interesting using inks - never really got to grips with this medium. find it a lot easier to use the end of a paint brush (ie not bristles) . Some of ink was watered down. Used brush end too for filling in etc

 

The work we are doing with fiona is designing fabrics for childrens wear. Had a bit of fun on photoshop with some of the images I drew.  Used a mixture of pastels, inks and pens.