Happy Birthday!

xx

Doodle Swap Project

Well I recently took part in the latest round of the Doodle Swap Project, where you produce a small amount (usually no more then 10) doodles of trading card side and swap them. This time round there was no theme so I just randomly drew whatever came to mind or happened to be in front of me at the time.

Most were done just using my HB Steadlier mechanical pencil, that I can't live without (seriously lost one in Birmingham and lost all ability to draw). Really enjoying just using pencil again, maybe I should just give up on colour altogether, and concentrate on binding my work together (no two things I draw ever look like they were done by the same person).

Well hopefully I'll manage to keep this blog a little more up to date now that I'm back in the swing of things (I'm always more productive when having a rough time, sod's law really isn't it?). In the meantime I fully encourage you to go sign up for the Doodle Swap Project between August 8-15 for the next round; you can find them here http://doodleswap.blogspot.com



A Long Overdue Update (with chocolate!)

Well I've been quite quiet for a while now so I thought I'd share a little bit of what I've been upto. Firstly I've been down to the 'Life' Centre in Newcastle to see the Wallace and Gromit exhibition, which is totally genius! Well it's clearly aimed at very young children (not that it stopped me from enjoying it, or going down the slide) and sadly I am too old to play in the under 7's area (including a giant squidgey Gromit doghouse and bowl). Perhaps I'll have to visit during school hours when all the kiddies are away to make the most of it. But it was great to see a few of the models and the detail that goes into them is remarkable, and well worth a visit. Plus if you're like me, creatively/inventively minded, then all the information on copyright and patenting is an added bonus.



The other place I've been to this week is Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle to see Vivienne Westwood's shoes! It was incredible some of her designs are so unique, my favourite were the shoes made from used coke and beer cans; who said recycling can't be glamourous? Might try and make a pair later...although that would just be another thing to add to my to-do list that I'd never get done... But seriously if you have never been to Bowes then you really should go the house is beautiful and it always has fantastic exhibits, as well as the famous 'silver swan' (which only runs once a day now at 2pm should you decide to visit, which you must!).

And now for the chocolate!

Well I've been trying my hand at baking recently and have had some small successes (and huge disastors) so I thought I'd share, it's sort-of creative isn't it?

As you can see I have been baking Florentines. The first batch was a bit of a mess, they all stuck to the grease proof paper and the mixture spread out far too much; they were huge like giant cookies! But after a small stroke of genius (if only I got those whilst drawing) the second batch was a success.

Intsead of putting them onto the paper i spooned small amounts into silicone bun cases so they held their shape and just pressed them out when they had cooled...and then smothered them in chocolate!

Oh well sadly there are none left now or I'd have offered you one, how about a nice cupper tea instead?



All the Colours of the Rainbow

So here are the coloured versions of my most recent doodles; both were done with a mixture of quink, inks and pastel pencils.

 'Alice' is pretty much done but I'm not happy with the second one.

The paper I used was far too thin and wrinkled up with the application of the ink. Other than that I just feel the colours are wrong...
I might try using some watercolours or acrylics on it instead; it just seems to have lost something that it had whilst it was still line work. But how do I keep the original essence of the sketch?

Brush and Ink

Okay so I haven't just been sitting around resting on my laurels since the last post, I've been busy inking up some of my sketches. It's a pretty painstaking process for me as I can't stand using pens so I have to use a brush and a pot of black ink.

First was my 'Alice in Wonderland' sketch, it got a little muddy round the face especially the eyes and I had to correct quite a bit of it with white opaque ink as a kind of tippex. All in all it didn't turn out too bad though it's still very much just an idea.

Again the white ink had to be used as a band aid on this sketch, but once it was photographed and uploaded it is pretty hard to spot so it isn't so bad. Just have to wonder how well other colours/types of ink will cover it. I would try colouring it on the computer but sadly all my free trials have expired, going to have to start saving some pennies I think!





New Notebooks

Books, books, books...I have serious addiction to books! Thought I'd share these two little beauties that I picked up the other day from TK Maxx. I absolutely love that store for interesting little sketchbooks; I just now have too many to fill! Both have lined paper in them (not that that will stop me from doodling all over them). And both are smaller than A5 (perfect handbag size).

One of my other huge loves in life other than art and books is fashion. So I wanted to share my excitement for an exhibition of 200 of Vivienne Westwood's shoes that is going to the Bowes Museum in County Durham. It's going to be the only place in the UK that the exhibition is showing at before going on to Japan and America. The Bowes Museum is beautiful place and always has fantastic exhibitions on as well as it's own collections, and is well worth a visit should you be in the north east of England any time soon. As a child I always remember being amazed at the clockwork silver swan that magically appeared to eat the fish. It use to run on the hour every hour but to save it from wear and tear I believe it only runs twice a day now, so if you do visit be sure to time it with the swan's performance.

London Sketches

So i went to London a couple of months ago now, and have finally found the time to upload some of the sketches that i made whilst there. The first two show my nail varnish (i had barry m's specail effects on) and a figure that i sketched from a photo in a magazine after having been to the Design Museum (see ticket and flyer below). It was the 'Drawing Fashion' exhibition that impressed me the most particually the hand drawn, inked and painted old covers of magazines such as Vogue, if only they still made them like that!

I also took the time to visit the Tate Modern, it wasn't the first time i'd been and had seen much of it's collection already.

I always favoured the surrealists when i was younger and a piece by Roberto Matta Echaurren was my favourite this time, once home i tried to create some of the textures of the paint with gouache. This is the first time i've used paint in a long time (usually sticking to pencils and ink) and it's encouraged me to use it more in my work.

And finally a small sketch of the delicious cupcakes we ate whilst there!