Monday…

Well its definitely been one of those days! The gorgeous weather of yesterday gave way to a morning of horrible rain. We went out for our morning walk and got drenched! Once we were home and sorted out, I settled down for a morning of artwork. Catching up on my Karen Campbell floral acrylics. We should have been painting weekly, a series of 9 Acrylic Tulips and I finished off the last 3 today. I have to say I enjoyed this series immensly.

  • Pink Tulip
  • Yellow Tulip
  • Purple Tulip
  • Strawberry Tulip
  • White Tulip
  • Orange Tulip
  • Blue Tulip
  • Black Tulip
  • Dark Purple Tulip

I didn’t realise until I saw them all together here, but this is a really good example of the homework I was doing from last weeks college class, using complementary colours!

Now I’m caught up on this series I plan to get going on the Celtic Collective set, ive been so eager to start it, but didn’t want to until I was caught up on the other two clubs.

Tech has been a bit of a pain today. Our daughters Chromebook power-washed itself whilst she was trying to do homework, which has made me realise I need to backup mine, and what should have been a quick “how do we do it” has taken on an epic evening of research and oh crap we probably need to spend money as there is WAY too much stuff on the hard drive I would be devastated to lose! In the meantime I need to find some USB sticks … we have loads… but where, now that’s another matter!

I also made two birthday cards, as they are for family members I wont share them just yet, in case they are spotted before they are seen by their recipients! But I’m quite happy with them.

I also want to add that I feel desperately sorry for the residents in Tenerife that have had their homes destroyed by the volcano. I have been watching the live footage with as much awe and wonder at nature, as the sheer powerless feeling everyone there must be feeling watching their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

Tenerife Eruption September 19th 2021

Oh well, I better call it quits because its getting frustrating. I shall calm down by reading and commenting on some of the blogs in Effy’s blog along.

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Sunny Sunday

Oh today is a beautiful Sunday here in the East of England. The sun is shining, the temperature is pleasantly warm and I have been sitting out on the deck all day playing with my latest art subscription box..

The latest box from UK Subscription company Artful has arrived. The box itself is always a work of art, I love how they really tease you right from the outset.

Artful Box September 2021

On opening I was super excited. Soft Pastels!!

Soft Pastels

I already have some soft pastels, hubby bought me some gorgeous Caran D’ache ones for my birthday, and some have come from a previous Scrawlrbox, I am just too scared to use them. I just have no clue how to use them successfully and so I don’t use them, and that annoys me because I know Hubby spent a lot of money on them. I am really really really hoping that this box which has 24 soft pastel sticks and 6 pencils is going to have a great set of tutorials to go with it.

On initial look at the magazine I saw a tutorial and my reaction was “yay even I might be able to to do” so here it is. First ever attempt…

Cat

Mr Cat does look a bit demented, or maybe scared. He is supposed to be looking cute and fluffy, but you know what I achieved, so yay go me!

With further looking at the book, i realised they have added quite a few tutorials this time, that makes me happy, they are reasonably straight forward and so I enjoyed the sunshine in the garden and have done them.

  • Flower Vase
  • Lake with Yacht

Then after that I thought.. oh why not have a go at this weeks college homework with the pastels, in for a penny, in for a pound and all that!

  • triplet citrus fruit
  • lemons in complementary colours

So there we go, a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine, listening to the nature, and podcasts by Shinjini and having some fun with Soft Pastels.

My perception of the pastels has changed. Artful have done a really good job with the booklet this time, I feel I can connect and learn from them. The pastels feel really quite nice. The paper was very textured as its mix media, not specifically pastel paper, so i want to try again with some more paper that’s right for pastels, but I really liked these, they went on well, blended well with my fingers or the paper stump that came with the box. Using the paint brush to brush away / blend them gave a subtler effect. Now I just need to practice a lot more, I think this could be a medium I get along with. its messy, chaotic, unpredictable, in a very methodical way (does that even make sense?). More importantly I need to get those pencils out hubby bought me and use them!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Oops I did it again!

So I missed another day, and therefore two days in one will be posted here. I’m sorry, it’s just been one of those weeks. Thursday I tweaked my back, and it really messed me up for Thursday and Friday, so I have had to take it easy.

Yesterday, day 17 was a college day. It was a really good day. The lesson was all about the colour wheel and complementary colours. For me, it meant I could further my knowledge. I have created many and use a colour wheel regularly, so it was nice at this time to be able to be confident in the day’s requirements. I made a wheel using acrylic paints and also played around with some colour mixing and tonal shading. The day was a long day, probably because it was revisiting a subject I know well, and because the course is aimed at beginners, so for me it dragged, but I did enjoy it even with that. It makes me realise that when we come to areas I’m not sure about I will have the space and time to really investigate the subject, and not feel rushed. I really didn’t take much in the way of pictures, I’m afraid.

Colour Wheel – Acrylic

Today, day 18, has all been about my homework.  I haven’t taken any photos, I should really… hmmm.. Okay, I’m going to do that now…

This one was all done in class, where we were investigating the complementary colour scheme and doing some coour mixing.

Complementary colour swatches

Now onto homework…. Our brief is to explore the complementary colour scheme, using citrus fruits. My exploration has mainly focused on the same design but using different mediums.

Citrus Fruit – Acrylic – Complementary Colour
Citrus Fruit – Faber Castell PolyChromos Pencils
Citrus Fruit – watercolour
Citrus Fruit Water Colour

Well I know its been a little brief. I will try harder tomorrow to be on the case and organised, I might even have something else to write… lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Until next time

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Oops missed a day

So catching up now with a quick post before I head to college!

I’m so sorry I missed yesterday, unfortunately I tweaked my back whilst out on our walk in the morning so the whole day was spent keeping myself steady and settled, whilst in pain. Hubby was is lots of meetings so I was able to spend the day at my art desk. Which meant I stayed relatively still. But by the time the evening came around I was in agony. Hubby massaged my back for me and I flaked onto the sofa and had TV time and a relatively early night, which was fine till 5am and I was awake with the owls!

Anyway here are some pictures of the journal I made. I’m hoping to get it onto Etsy soon. It’s a cute little thing made using just what I could find in easy reach. It has a total of 48 pages, and I’ve added lots of stickers and tags even a pocket on the last page.

Catch you later!

Shopping!

I went into Norwich City today!!

I can’t believe it, I left the house, I went to the City, on my own, for the morning and I loved and hated it in equal measures.  I had to go, I had a dentist appointment so I decided to spend some time after the appointment just enjoying the shops.  Firstly I notice how much the city has changed. So many shops closed and boarded up, and others opened and new ventures are being started.  I popped into several charity stores, I browsed, I meandered, I purchased books for the kids (3 that I loved and I believe they will too), I enjoyed myself!  I visited stationery shops and picked up a couple of bargains ( a set of Polychromos pencils for £10 reduced from £25), and some more expensive items (4 x neocolor II and Derwent pencil extenders).  I went to the library and ended up sitting on the floor looking at art books and chatting to a lady setting the world to rights and connecting on Instagram! I picked up 5 books to read at home. The reason I hated it was the need to wear masks, the keeping away from people, and because the weather was warm and I’m not sure shops are using air cons it was so hot, oppressive and claustrophobic, in the end I had to leave, it was getting too busy for me. Slow and steady that’s what I need to to do adjust to being back into the world again.

Today’s art is a thank you to Tamara for giving away some free art on her website. I put together a little journal page and included some of her art work (note, I didn’t note until just now I got the date wrong! ha ha).

Podcast – I asked the other day about new podcasts, and I found one, via this blog-along. Shinjni at ModernGypsy does a podcast, I’ve listened to a couple and I love them!  I shall be binge listening now.

More art from my Karen Campbell class, and today I have done two postcards in urban sketch style. Both are of Big Pen, one point perspective and one using a fountain pen and a little water. The other was pencil, arteza brush pens and a fountain pen to outline.

I was told by our daughter that my hair reminded her of Avril Lavine’s .. now given I am 50 and AV is still in her 30s I’m sure she wouldn’t be too happy but I don’t mind haha… honestly I doubt I look anything like her, but I had my photo taken anyway!

Whilst in the City there was an art / eco farming exhibition in the Library. I took this photo of a cardboard mountain representing  a forest canopy and its diverse nature and what it means to nature.

Today has been a good day, then the evening started and our tech has been playing up all over the place, so I shall keep this short and sweet and catch you again tomorrow.

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.