ArtyFartyAnnie

Hello Fellow Deskers, It's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday feels so good to be back in the game :o) Here's mine today, not much going on as I've "tidied" between projects ... On the chair, you can see my favourite cardi, handknitted by my good friend Trina, and my latest art journal, now FULL! Time to make another one - I love using covers from old books and filling with mixed media paper, using coptic binding which helps it to lie flat when it's open. On the desk I've been swatching these Derwent watercolour pencils in skintone colours. I've had them knocking around for years, I think they may have been my Mum's actually, but they've barely been used so I decided it's time to get them out. They seem pretty good, except weirdly the terracotta colour, which doesn't move AT ALL when you apply water. Very strange, the others are all fine. Anyway, that's me for now - I will go and link up over at Julia's Stampi...

Week 29 of PYHAS was a lesson with the fabulous Lucy Brydon , who taught us how to paint a Folky Fox. I really love Lucy's foxes, but thought I would adapt slightly and do another little rendition of my old mate Archie. Archie loved to sleep anywhere warm, so I have many many photos of him sleeping in strange places - in flower pots, on egg cartons, snuggled on top of a hot pizza and even curled around a saucepan on a lit gas ring! He had this way of staring you down with just the one eye if you dared to disturb him and I think I caught that in this painting ... Mainly watercolour paint on cold-pressed watercolour paper, with details added with acrylic paint pens. I enjoyed everything about this lesson and learned a lot from it - my favourite part was probably the technique for creating the leaves with a watercolour brush, which was so addictive I had to force myself to stop.

Week 28 of PYHAS was a lesson with Jenny Manno called Ball-Jointed Dolls. Jenny showed us how she creates these quirkily beautiful ladies using just graphite and watercolour. We also learned how to draw the exaggerated proportions which was really interesting. Mine ended up too small for the page, so I added a background, which I quite liked in the end. On the back of the watercolour paper I did some preliminary sketches ... PYHAS is definitely making me try all sorts of new ideas and techniques and make use of all those supplies I've been hoarding.

Inspired by a lesson called Patchwork Pets with the talented Jennifer Steck , I used a photo of my old mate Archie as the reference for my version. All done with acrylic paints and paint pens on mixed media paper, then I went back in with a watercolour pencil to add more shadow. This was so fun to do, and relatively quick and easy as well, so I will definitely be tyring this technique again.

Hello Fellow Deskers everywhere, It's been over a year since I made the decision to take a break from blogging, because I was just too overwhelmed with Other Stuff at the time - but things have calmed down now so I'm back and it's WOYWW day wooHOO!!. I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to - if you would like to join in, just pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and check it out. We've moved house since I last posted, so I have a new and improved craft room now (still stuffed to the gills though). Here's my messy desk in all its glory ... On the top are some sketches I've been working on from a class called Ball Jointed Dolls with Jenny Manno. This was one of the classes from Paint Your Heart and Soul 2020 which I treated myself to this year - haven't done many of them yet but I've been enjoying watching them and feeling inspired. Underneath you can see my current art journal with a picture I left to dry overnight - th...

It's been over a year since I posted anything on my blog - I just had too much else on my plate this time last year - but now it's time to fire up the old girl again. My plan is to document all the random creative, crafty stuff I have a go at and some of the things that inspire me to keep trying! I will probably just be whittering away to myself, but that's fine, I do it all the time :o) Here's a page in my art journal which started with some 3-D printed miniature pipework which my son Tom made for me. I die-cut the cogs, screws and things from card, layered them up on the page and then got busy with pastes and paint to grunge it all up. Blimey, what a mess I made! The most fun (if slightly scary) part was painting over the whole (almost finished) page with water-based oil paint (yes, that IS a thing, who knew?!) in Payne's Grey, letting in dry and then wiping it back again - I love how it settles into all the nooks and crannies to accentuate the detail...