25 February 2013 - Derwent Metallic Pencils & Water

 

All this time I've had Derwent's Metallic Pencils

and hadn't read on the tin that they are also water soluble.

 

 

http://www.pencils.co.uk/product.aspx?mid=720

 

 

17 February 2013 - Inktense Pencils

 

Derwent Inktense Pencils on rough-grain watercolour paper.

14 February 2013 - Pencil Outlines

 

Pencil on rough-grain watercolour paper.

 

(Delayed post due to hot weather.)

13 Feb 2013 - Inktense Pencils Swatching

 

The joys of having a new tool to experiment with : - )

 

Derwent Inktense Pencils on rough-grain watercolour paper.

 

(Delayed posting due to hot weather.)

11 February 2013 - Inktense Blocks (watersoluble)

 

I splurged in the art shop last weekend :-)

Trying Derwent's watersoluble Inktense Blocks

and a waterbrush - it has water in the handle

that you squeeze down into the nylon tip.

 

When its dry it's fixed, so you can add more drawing/painting

over your original layer without changing the original layer.

You can also use these on silk - but I haven't yet.

 

Links to Derwent's webpages for Inktense Blocks and Waterbrushes

http://www.pencils.co.uk/product.aspx?mid=1338

http://www.pencils.co.uk/productlist.aspx?mid=1302

 

There are lots of demos on YouTube

 

 

4 February 2013 - Painter Circle-flowers (Carla Sonheim inspired)

 

I have a new pair of glasses.

They have graduated lenses (which I've not had before).

I can see long-distance OK and reading-distance OK,

but I keep losing the computer-distance.

I figured playing with Painter would provide

some happy practice learning to focus on the screen.

 

This is based on one of Carla Sonheim's free on-line tutorials

http://www.carlasonheim.com/abstracted-flowers/

 

I'm grateful that I live in a time and place

where I can have glasses.

 

 

3 February 2013 - Sugar Sticks

 

Having coffee with my sister at the cafe at the Museum today,

she asked how my sun project was going,

I said I'd been slacking off, so

she shuffled some sugar sticks into a sun for me.

 

Thanks April!

 

 

26 January 2013 - Gel Pads (& Avacado Stone No 4 update)

 

The gel pads are for sore spots on feet (from new shoes).

 

Avacado stone number four has finished drying out.

 

Happy Australia Day :-)

 

 

25 January 2013 - Watercolour, Texta, Colour Pencils

 

Sloshing around with watercolours,

then watersoluble kid's Texta pens,

then some China white watercolour,

then a bit of coloured pencil,

then a little more watercolour.

 

Hooray, hoorah! Can again upload pictures to Blogger

straight from computer without loading to Picasa first.

What a relief to not have to go the long way around.

I'm glad Google sorted it out and hope

anyone else affected is back to "normal" too.

23 January 2013 - Zucchini from Walyo Yerta

 

I went to visit Walyo Yerta Community Gardens

in the south Adelaide City Parklands

http://www.walyoyertagarden.org.au/

 

They generously gave me this

mega-huge organically-grown zucchini

which I made into veggie & cashew curry

with a Herbie's spice mix

http://www.herbies.com.au/ 

 

Meanwhile my friend Mawarini has embarked on another collaboration

"creating stories that aim to help children understand

about staying true to oneself and learning to accept others

despite differences in looks, cultures and personality".

http://babasheepblog.wordpress.com/ 

22 January 2013 - Stuck on Carla Sonheim!

 

This "sun" is really the eye

from a Carla Sonheim inspired

drawn-with-eyes-closed

Seahorse

 

 

 

 

But wait - there's more...

 

 

21 January 2013 - Draw With Eyes Closed (Carla Sonheim exercise)

 

An exercise from Carla Sonheim's blog

http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/drawing-class-starts-thursday/

or find it on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lv2P38-EGUY

 

19 January 2013 - Scribble Jigsaw (Carla Sonheim exercise)

 

The sun is in the background for this one.

It's an exercise from Carla Sonheim's book

"Drawing & Painting Imaginary Animals"

which is a really fun book!

 

This is part of Exercise 7 - Scribbles Galore

 

Cartridge paper, Copic Sketch marker (the "brush" end),

watercolour pencils (dry) and Staedtler pigment liners 0.1 and 0.7

 

http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/

 

 

17 January 2013 - Dusk Photo

 

Had to wait until the sun was down to go home

after a 42 degrees celcius day.

 

(delayed posting because of hot weather)

14 January 2013 - Rainbow Pen

 

Nostalgic purchase - I had one of these rainbow pens when I was a kid.

Nice that they're back in style again!

13 January 2013 - Avacado Stone No 4

 

"Get well soon - we miss you"

to Liz who originally inspired me

to try avacado stone carving.

 

 

 

Pictures still having to come via picasa,

reminding me of the Olden Days when Ravelry first started

and photos had to be uploaded to Ravelry via flickr,

so long ago that I've forgotten my flickr log-in...

Kim Knapp's advice for uploading photos

Thank you Kim!

"After sleeping on it and sitting at my computer with a clear mind... I figured something out ... I went into G+ Photos ... my photos there ... I uploaded my photo for today's blog to Google+ photo album and then went into my blog and downloaded photo for today from that G+ album. CRAZY!"

Kim is another person doing a 365 project, she's working on 365 hands and doing some fabulous, fun, clever pieces
http://365handproject.blogspot.com.au

Check out Kim's avacado stone carved hand design which she cleverly carved with a paperclip
http://365handproject.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/hand-250-pits.html

7 January 2012 - Copic Marker & Watercolour (still no image from computer option)

(photos added 13/1/13 via Picasa)

 

Kim has explained (via Facebook group) that Google now requires photos to be uploaded to Picasa first and from there they can be inserted into Blogger posts. It sounds very long-way-around and for now the computer is heating up too much to take the time to do it. Looking forward to cooler weather and the opportunity to work it out.

6 January 2013 - One-Liners

(photo added via Picasa - thanks to advice from Kim Knapp)

Another exercise from Carla Sonheim's book "Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists".

Exercise No 18 - One- Liners

You draw your subject using only one line from start to finish, if you take your pen/pencil/marker off the paper then your done.

Photo to follow when I work out what the problem is (still no browse box). Maybe I've reached my Google picture gigabites limit? Surely not when they are small file size photos...

5 January 2013 - "Picasso Dog" Exercise

(Photos added via picasa 13/1/13)

 

The bad news is that the Browse box still isn't appearing in the Blogger Insert Image window :-(

The good news is other people using Blogger don't seem to be having the same issue.

The other good news is my parents gave me a copy of Carla Sonheim's book "Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists".

Drawing Lab Mixed-Media Artists

I did a "Picasso Dog in the Sun" using her Exercise No 19.

Photo to follow when Blogger's cooperating. Maybe it doesn't function well in hot weather either. Maybe I should try from work computer on Monday.

You can find some of Carla's creative exertise tutorials on her fabulous website
http://www.carlasonheim.com/

and her blog's interesting too
http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/

4 January 2013 - Watercolour & Salt

 

The salt was just plain standard-grain-size table salt.

(Photo had to be loadad via Picasa - slow process)

At the time of posting this, Blogger's picture uploader isn't working - in Insert Image the Browse Box isn't appearing.

Will add photos when the problem's fixed at their end and it's cool enough to have computer on at our end.

3 January 2013 - Avacado Stone No 3

 

Due to the hot weather this stone is drying and oxidising really quickly.

2 January 2013 - Paint Drip Splats

 

These four splats were shuffled about in Photoshop.

 

Here are the original free-range splats.

 

"Happy New Year!" 1 January 2013 - Seaweed Face

 

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!

 

Arame seaweed - good to add a bit to soups for a little extra

protein and minerals including iodine.

 

Not currently soup weather here, we're settling into a heatwave.

Cool change due on Friday.

 

So I'm in search of a salad with arame - maybe this one

http://renegadehealth.com/blog/2009/04/29/raw-food-recipe-for-cucumber-arame-salad