Love love love

After a lot of Internet-drama that I don't want to get into right now, a few lovely ladies on Twitter decided that it was time for LOVE.


And so, last night, we had a Ustream-a-thon, going from one show to the other, watching each other do pages inspired by LOVE and the colour PINK, which I don't use that often but yesterday was using more than ever.

So here you go, my PINK(ish) pages...





(Please be sure to check out The Loving Kindness Project on Flickr, where you'll see other people's LOVE inspired work.

Link Love Friday (4)

Now the last couple of Link Love Fridays have been serious stuff. Diseases are no fun, but getting some awareness going is a good thing and that's what my Link Love Fridays are for.

But, to balance things out a little bit, I HAVE to show you this..

OK, so the kids are on the annoying side, but still.... can you believe that!!
Who knew you could train a goldfish to play fetch? I mean seriously, a goldfish!!

When I first moved out of my parents' house I had some hamsters because my then boyfriend used to have them when he was little. I did not take to the hamsters at all. Sure, we bought them the Sam cage and the labyrinth and the ball, but still.. Not for me.

I did have a few fish, those black ones with the huge eyes, and yes, they are relaxing to watch and I used to sing to my one fish because his name was Mickey and I could never pass the tank without singing 'Oh Mickey you're soooo fine....' but had I known that I could have trained him... mannnnn!!

I wants a goldfish now. I wants one I wants one I wants one. And the training kit, of course...

Try It OutThursday ; stamps

It's been a while since I last did a Try It Out Thursday post, but, inspired by Traci Bunkers' 30 days of carving I decided to try out stamp carving.

Well, that's not completely true. I have done some stamp carving before, but I did those using a silly little knife that did not cut properly. I bought a woodcarving set and I can tell you, that makes all the difference!

I got some cheap, soft erasers that I knew would not be any problem carving.
First, I sketched out a design on a piece of paper, and then on the stamp. I put some markings on the pieces that needed to be carved out, because knowing me I would cut the wrong bit...

Then I started to cut:

and tried it out:



I carved three more stamps:







And these are all of them together:



It's such a fun little project that did not take up a lot of time but had maximum results as far as I'm concerned. I can't wait to do more, including different shaped stamps. I'll be keeping an eye out for stamps!

....ohhhdearrricanfeelanewaddictioncomingon.....

Water colour Wednesday (4)

When I got my water colour set and water colour Moleskine from Father Christmas, he also brought me a water colour brush multi-pack by Royal Langnickel.

I had tried them out previously, but unfortunately, I am not enthusiastic about them. The lids keep popping off, you have to squeeze reallllyy hard to get water out of them, and some of the pigment in the paints will even get into the water barrel, which effectively means that you're working with dirty water.

Thankfully, I also have Aquash from Pentel, and I love them!


I started my water colour session today with putting some of that mucky water from the Royal Langnickel brushes on my pallet, to see just how bad it was.
Adding some greys and oranges, and I was painting away...

Now, what are one of the first things a child will draw? A house! Or even a whole street...



Adding more layers:


And some outlining:


So here you go:





(And no, I haven't decided yet what to do with last week's water colours. I guess I'll leave them as is for a while and decide later.)

Sketch Tuesday (4)

I've been sketching more this week, but somehow it felt like I've done less.. How strange.

First I sketched with niece J. (10). She got to use my pencils and loved it.
She made me draw an apple, using Derwent 'wash' pencils, which as the name suggests are watersoluble. I had not really used them that way, and I found out that the paper in my sketchbook isn't exactly made for water colours...


Then back to the Daily Drawing Challenge:


I really like the brush:








I find it so weird that the drawings look better on camera than they look in person.. but maybe that's just me.

Link Love Friday (3)

I don't normally talk about the subject here on my blog, but up until about 12 years ago, I had an eating disorder. I suffered from binge eating disorder (BED), which meant that I was addicted to food like a junkie is addicted to drugs.

After some group and individual therapy and lots of help from people on a Dutch website especially for those who suffer from eating disorders, I beat my BED, and have since been a moderator for that very website, trying to help others who are now in the position I once were.

Now because I know most of you who read this do not speak Dutch, I want to give my Link Love this week to Something-fishy.org, a website where you can find an incredible amount of information on different eating disorders as well as healthy coping mechanisms, online support and links to sites and organisations that might be able to help you deal with your problems.

If you are suffering from an eating disorder, or know someone who does, please check out the site. And remember: you are not alone!

Water colour Wednesday (3)

Week three of Water colour Wednesday!

Can you see what I see?



I did a quick sketch of what I saw in the curtain:



and then I got my water colour Moleskine out and my water colour set and started drawing and painting:



I kept track of the colours I used, not only because I'd like to remember what I used, but also to start learning all the different names and what effect mixing them with more or less water and with other colours will do.





I'm not sure if they're finished yet. I might do an outline, but am not sure what to use. Do I use Inktense or other (water colour) pencils? Or maybe ink? Or pen? I'm slightly worried it will ruin the work. But then again, I'm learning to see what works best.


Guess we'll find out next week!

Sketch Tuesday (3)

Ohhhh yes, it's Sketch Tuesday again!

This weekend I've been trying to catch up with category/daily"Artistic Biker's Daily Drawing Challenge and managed to get up to the Candle, for those who are following along.

I have to say, the sofa was verrry difficult, and my plate does not look anything like a plate, and the candle was hard because both colour and black/white picture were not as clear as I'd like them to be, but hey, here are my pics:











I have come to the conclusion that it works best for me to look at the full colour picture first, study it, and then use the black/white one to draw from.
And when drawing, I like to do the pencil one first. That too feels like a study.
And then the pen one is a stripped down drawing, for lack of a better term.

Are you taking Blade/Artistic Biker's challenge? Have pics? Let's see them!