What do you do when you've got goodies?

Draw them of course!
Here's my yummy apple and raspberry pastry-thingy..

I started off with my Micron pen, it's waterproof so perfect to use with water colours:

: Then I added a bit of shading:

I got my Koh-i-Noor paints out:

(as you can see, I use one of those 'breakfast in bed' tables to work on. I've got non-existing studio space and this table is a life saver. Also, I love arting in bed!)
First layer of colours:

I added some shadows:

And then I called it good. Time to eat! (sorry, I didn't save you a bit....)

Sorted

Sometimes Tye goes into the Tesco supermarket around the corner on his way back from (night-)work. He did again this morning, and surprised me with the Sorted cookbook!

I'm not sure when I first discovered Sorted on Youtube, but I know it's been well over a year since I started watching their cooking videos. The Sorted crew - Ben the chef, Barry who took the amazing pictures in the book, Jamie, Mike and I'm sure there are others - have a new recipe on their website every day, and every week they will have a so called mealpack, a couple of videos using the same ingredients so you don't waste anything.

Sorted started as a way for Ben to get the other boys interested in cooking, became a huge hit on Youtube where they show you how to cook amazing recipes and have a great time at the same time, although I'm not sure if I could do any cooking at all with Jamie poking fun being my back. Ben, you're a star for not getting your fingers chopped off! (although, I do remember that blue plaster on your finger in the early videos....)

Now, I know it's too early to start talking about Christmas, but this book would make a great gift for someone interested in cooking, or needing to learn to cook for the first time because they're moving out (hellooo new Uni students off to campus!) or even those of us who are a bit older *cough* but want to get out of the rut of preparing the same meals over and over again.

Time to get Sorted, so I will leave you with their latest video on Youtube:

Doodle time - trying out different colours

You know how you can sometimes get 'stuck' using the same colours over and over again? I noticed it in my doodling and decided to try something different. A darker yellow mixed with greys. I love the results!

I used both the waterproof Micron and a thicker waterproof marker, but also a watersoluble fineliner, giving a subtle grey wash.

Cleaning my palette -- fortune cookies!

After using the reds from my Koh-i-noor watercolour set in my previous doodle, I again had a lot of left over paint on my palette. Time to clean that, without wasting any paints!

Thinking of what to do on top of it, I suddenly remembered the fortune cookies we had with our Chinese take away the other day, so I doodled some very simple shapes, using a permanent black and a watersoluble black:

Going over them with my waterbrush, but ooppsss, used far too much water:

I cross-hatched the background with watersoluble pen:

And added a little white in the fortune cookies and a darker mix for the shadows. Another palette-cleaning-doodle done!

Doodle time!

I first doodled in permanent ink, using a Micron pen:

I then added some bolder lines, in watersoluble pen:

and then filled in these shapes:

Using my Koh-i-Noor watercolours, I filled in the shapes with reds:

then I cross-hatched around the doodle, using the watersoluble pen again:

using a bit of water, that gave it a nice grey wash, finishing the doodle:

Cleaning my palette

After doing my lunch time drawings, I still had quite a bit of paint on my palette that I did not want to just wipe off and throw away. I decided to use it for a background, maybe.

but as I looked at what I had on my page, I opted for tracing them instead:

I added some background colour:

and gave the shapes a bit more definition:

With the background colour, they reminded me a bit of giraffe spots. Another very simple doodle done:

Come bloghopping with me...

Every now and then, I find myself following a link on a blog, and then following a link on that blog, and then that one and so on and so forth. I love these little treasure hunts, as often I find blogs I end up following, or videos that inspire.

Today was no exception.

It all started on Danny Gregory's blog. I love his books, I love his blog. His drawings are a huge inspiration as is his 'Everyday matters' movement that inspired people to draw even the most mundane objects in their lives.

The other day, he posted a introduction by Stefano, a new member to his Everyday matters group. It was a lovely and touching introduction, which rightfully made a lot of people curious to see his artwork.

Danny posted the link to Stefano's blog later, which turns out to be a fairly new blog, going back to April of this year. Stefano's drawings are similar to Danny's, in the sense that he draws anything and everything that's around him, sometimes quite literally. From his cat to the rubbish bin, from food to bull clips on his desk at work. Great stuff!

On Stefano's blog, there was a link to Herzkönigin, which, if I'm correct, translates as Queen of Hearts. Clivia says being creative makes her happy and it helps calm her down. I can related to that!

Her blog is written in German, but even if you don't speak or read that language, you can still enjoy the amazing pictures. Clivia seems rather obsessed with Polaroids, she's made some very cute Polaroid inspired stamps. (Click on Ältere Posts, it translates as 'older posts'.)

And then to make this blog hopping session complete, I found inspiring videos on Vimeo:

New Orleans Artists – Kaki Foley from Anthropologie on Vimeo.

New Orleans Artists – Rebecca Rebouché from Anthropologie on Vimeo.

Don't you just love evenings like this?

Illustrated Journal -- Lunch time drawings

Doodle!

Sun shining on my back -- check! Ice tea with lots of ice cubes -- check! Nice big palette of W&N watercolours -- check!

Let's doodle then!

More drawing in the garden

There were even more weeds for me to draw in the garden, I'm surprised Keesha had not taken them out yet -- lazy dog!

Summer time!

So it was finally Summer here last week. I'll spare you pictures of the grey and rainy sky we have here this morning, but it was actually hot enough to sit out in the garden last week - imagine that!

What better time than this to do a little sketching and painting? Weeds may look horrible in the garden, but they make great examples to sketch from:

Challenge!

As you may or may not know, Artjournaling-dot-ning-dot-com has a biweekly 'Challenge!' run by different people. The idea is to get your Art Journaling juices going (again), trying out a technique you may not have thought of, using colours you might not normally use, trying out something new or something you had forgotten about.

At the beginning of the month, it was my turn. And today, I added my second Challenge! If you want to go see it, you need to sign up for the Ning site, and then sign up for the free(!)Challenge! workshop. Yes, you read that right, it is free. But if you like what you see there, there is a donation button to show your appreciation.. *hint, hint*

Please be sure to add your pictures if you've joined in on the fun!

Put it on Paper - a new 'zine!

A while ago, I was talking to Leslie of Comfortable Shoes Studio about this new project she was working on: a new 'zine on Art Journaling. When she asked if I would like to write an article for it, of course I was up for it!

Unfortunately, that was around the time Tye's Nan passed away and the start of my Creative Bleehhhh, and I ended up feeling I had nothing to write about, until Leslie said, why not write about what that feels like. So, I did.

Behind the scenes, Leslie and her friend Jane, who is an artist and graphic designer, were working hard to get the 'zine finished, and on June 1st it went on sale. It includes articles by Jazmine aka SirensIdyll, An'Angelia Thompson and me, an interview with Ted Micu, a book review and lots more, and of course tons of pictures.

It looks amazing and what is even more brilliant is that you can order a digital download for $7, or a printed version for $14 + shipping, which comes with a free digital download so you can already read it while you wait for it to arrive on your doorstep. How cool is that!

Go here to read all about Put it on Paper, and order your copy today!

The Promise

When I bought Springsteen's The Darkness on the Edge of Town I was about 12. Born in the USA had just come out, I was in love with his sound and wanted to hear more. I actually bought the album from my pocket money at my parents' book club, and could not wait to get home and play it.
Darkness was quite a different album. Dark (duhh!) gloomy, rough. Not something an early teen would normally listen to. But I loved it, even if I had no idea what Candy was doing inviting so many boys to her room... ;) Gradually I learned English listening to Springsteen albums, dictionary in hand to figure out line by line what he meant.

Today, Tye bought me a copy of The Promise - 21 newly released recordings from the Darkness session. It's all those songs that didn't make it to the album, or slightly different versions of songs that did make it. It's so strange, to hear familiar lines used in other songs, or combined with ones that I haven't heard before. It's like they're brand new and I'm 12 years old again, trying to figure out what it all means.

And Clarence's sax still makes me cry.

Life

And then, Tye's Nan passed away. And there was the arranging of the funeral that was to be held about an hours drive away from where we live, and the emptying of her home, and all the emotions that come with dealing with things like that.

And then there were health problems. Nothing too serious, but serious enough to go see my GP. And then there was the being oh-so tired, partly due to new meds, partly due to all the emotions coming out.

And then... there was new life. Two brand new nephews, born this Monday. Meet Alfie in blue and Finley in yellow:

They are still in hospital, they were born via c-section and Finley is jaundiced, but that's all being taken care of. Hopefully they should be home this weekend.

And hopefully, my creative spark will come back and I'll finally do something other than gessoing pages only to leave them white because I just don't have the 'oompf' to do anything else...

Illustrated Journal (3)

Let's play catch up..







More drawings can be found here.