Bank holiday biro pen drawings

In true lazy bank holiday fashion I've left it until now to write this week's post. It's going to be a short one as I'm exhausted from the weekend's antics!

The weather was amazing for our two night camping trip to Gwithian, Cornwall, even though it was a little cold in the evenings and in the wind.

As the waves were good on Friday, I sat on the beach and did a bit of drawing while Sam went surfing. The sun was shining so I found a sheltered spot next to some mussel-covered rocks which made for an interesting drawing subject. This is a biro sketch which took about 45 minutes.

This is the group of mussels I was drawing. Excuse the fuzziness, some numpty (erm...me) put a fingerprint on the lens right at the beginning of the weekend and made all the pictures cloudy.

The rock was covered from top to bottom with mussels making wet, squelchy noises the whole time I was drawing.

The beach itself was beautiful and only a five minute walk over the dunes from Gwithian Farm campsite where we were staying. Backed by grassy dunes, the golden sand stretches for as far as the eye can see. This photo really doesn't do it justice.

We went to St. Ives on Saturday which was really pretty, if a bit busy with tourists! It's not hard to see why everyone loves it though; numerous gorgeous beaches, lots of pretty boutiques and galleries and enough pasty shops and cafés to try a new one each day for weeks!

The wind came along with the sun on Saturday though, so instead of getting blown to bits on the beach after our trip to St. Ives, I stayed on the campsite to do some sketching while Sam surfed.

I didn't get too far with this ballpoint pen drawing, but you get the idea!

I had a play with paper when we got back. This is a silhouette I cut of Sam's head. Pretty good fit, eh?

I'm sharing today's post on the following blogs: Handmade Harbour, Sunny Simple Life and Manon Popje's Illustrations.

Cute Easter egg decorating ideas and creative highlights of my week

As schools have broken up for Easter now, it seems like a good time to begin getting stuck into a few Easter crafts. A while ago I blew out some eggs, leaving the shells to decorate. This little bunny was inspired by a sheep I saw on Pinterest. It's so simple to do so it makes a great Easter craft for children. The hardest part is blowing the egg out - it takes a lot of puff! There's a printable worksheet here if you'd like to try it yourself.

I like him because he stands up on his own. He's now taken pride of place on my desk at work.

Here's the little sheep that inspired me, the Pinterest link takes you to this webpage, but I'm not sure who to credit the design or photo to.


I think I'll attempt something a little more elaborate with the remaining eggs - I'd like to try cutting sections out but I'm not sure how easy that will be. Does anyone have some other Easter egg decorating ideas they could recommend?

It was Sam's birthday in the week so we went out for meal to East the Water, West the Orient, an oriental restaurant just down the road. It serves a variety of different style food - Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai - and everything we tried was delicious. I ended up taking some home in a doggy bag which made a very yummy lunch the next day!

I baked Sam a birthday cake, but as you can see, cake decorating is not my strong point.

Luckily the taste was its redeeming feature!

I spent Saturday with my Mum at Trago Mills. For those of you who don't know it, it's a huge shop selling everything you could possibly need and a lot more. They've got a well-stocked haberdashery section where Mum helped me pick out some fabric to sew some more bags.

After a lot of deliberation and several laps of the fabric aisles, we settled on these.

The spotty fabric is to be lined with the red cotton and I'll applique the canvas on the right and line it with the dainty little hearts.

I can't wait to get started, but before I do, I'm trying out a few more bag designs in some left over fabric I already had. The pieces are all cut out ready to go and I've begun cutting out fabric scraps for the applique.

I'm using the free 'Phoebe' bag pattern by Rebeka Lambert. I just love the curved top and fastening, and the neat look of the finished bag.

Mum and I visited my auntie yesterday who makes beautiful fabric pieces, from bags and brooches to wall hangings and textured quilts. Any visit to her house always leaves me feeling very inspired, even more so when I walk out with a huge stash of scraps that she's given me! Her website, Lime Green Lizzie, showcases some of her work, but photos on the screen really don't do it justice.

Yesterday she showed us some beautiful stitched flower brooches she made which have provided the inspiration for the appliqué for this latest bag. Fingers crossed mine turn out as well as my auntie's!

I'll leave you with this biro sketch I've been working on. It's been a while since I've done some drawing, but this has reminded me how relaxing it is.

I chose buttons as my subject matter as I just love them! I'll have to start scouring charity shops to build up a stash as I don't own any at the moment and it would be great to have a good variety to dip into when embellishing projects.

This was drawn using an ordinary black biro and gently hatching to build up layers of depth.

Perhaps I'll finish it, perhaps not.

Today I'm linking up on the following blogs: Handmade Harbour, Lamb Around, Manon Popje's Illustrations, Tatertots and Jello and Be Different Act Normal.

'Pinspiration' - pen and ink drawings in ballpoint pen

Pinterest is one of my favourite ways to find new inspiration. When 'artist's block' strikes and you want to create something but don't know what, just a little browse through Pinterest will have you bursting with ideas and suddenly not enough time to try everything you want. I often look for craft inspiration, but it's also a great place to get painting and drawing ideas and tips.

I found the artist Andrea Joseph who draws incredible illustrations using just the humble ballpoint pen. Her Flickr page is a feast for the eyes, keep scrolling down to see examples of her biro work. I've done biro sketches before but seeing her work motivated me to pick up a trusty Bic again and get drawing.

Andrea incorporates little snippets of writing into her drawings, sometimes including tips for artists. One suggested trying to sketch yourself drawing in an imaginary room. This is what I came up with.

The sofa and me are the only 'things' which are real, the rest is from my imagination. (Not particularly imaginative, as you can see!)

I keep noticing (on Pinterest, where else!?) drawings on coloured paper which I've been meaning to try myself. It seems to give the picture more depth and warmth than if it were done on a plain white background.

This is the chest of drawers in our bedroom. As it's getting pretty chilly here now, every potential indoor hanging space has to be utilised! I didn't finish it, but I quite like the unfinished look.

On to a drawing I did finish. Last weekend we went to Bude in north Cornwall. It was freezing cold and overcast but I managed to brave it for an hour or so to do this sketch of this...winch thing...while Sam was surfing.

While I was drawing a man came to touch up the paint on his boat which I was sitting right next to. We got chatting and it turns out he's an artist and has a gallery in Bude! I checked out his website when I got home and he does lovely watercolour paintings of the coast and surf.

I've got a few unfinished projects on the go, which will probably remain in a state of half-doneness for a while because...drumroll please...we're moving house to North Devon next week! Bring on some more lovely scenery to draw and paint!

In other news, I have a shiny new cover picture for my Facebook page!

 

 Today I'm linking up to the following blogs: Cornerstone Confessions, Manon Popje's Illustrations and Thirty Handmade Days.