Letting Go!

Yesterday was the last day of a couple of 10 week Art Journalling Courses.  And nobody wanted it to end!

For most of the people who attended the sessions they have been a golden moment in a stressful week of caring for others much more than they have had time to care for themselves. Spending those golden moments being creative and learning ways to make beautiful art changes lives!

So when the courses ended, there were such mixed feelings: Joy for having been there and sadness that the weekly fix of making art in a safe, supportive cocoon has ended for the moment. It can be so difficult to let go.

But they are all ready to fly! Really firm friendships have been made that will last forever, skills have been learned and talents found that many of them couldn't have dreamed of. Their Journals are exquisite, and very, very precious.

So fly my friends! You haven't really had to let go. All the support is still there for you. And we will be making Art together again really soon.

This little sketch was made with Derwent Inktense pencil in Chinese Ink and a fine black pen. 

Dancing Fairies

I think I'm addicted to Inktense pencils. I've been playing with them a lot! I've been teaching using them in Art Journals so they are always in my bag. They suit so many styles of colouring and artwork and are so easy to use.

Next year I'm doing a workshop on Whimsical Illustration so I thought I'd show you a little drawing I did lately. A Dancing Fairy.

She started out as a black and white drawing. I wanted an image that was like a paper doll that I could experiment with, cut out and resize. So here is what I did with her.

I resized her to a tiny size and copied the image 9 times. I thought I'd have them dancing in a circle. When I put them on the page the legs were curling up a little bit so I decided to leave them unglued to add to the dancing effect.

There was the space for a flower in the middle and between the fairies so I cut it out and coloured the background with the pencils, keeping the colours  light and fading into one another.

I've been experimenting a lot with holes in my pages and letting them show through  to interesting things on the following pages.

Soooo... On the next page is this!

And this!

At the top of the page is the fairy at full size, about 4 inches tall and coloured in. Its good fun to try to get extra uses out of your drawings and doodles especially if they take a long time to do. 
Give it a go and let me know how you get on. 

Oops! Inktense Part 3!

I've been teaching drawing and colouring with Inktense pencils this week. Every time I do, I am reminded that these are such a lovely product. I just love 'em!

They are so easy and effective to use with just a few top tips to make the effects extra special.

It reminded me that back in March I added two tutorials on this blog for using them and promised a third one. Life got so busy and I forgot to do it.

Part 3 was going to be about using these amazing, versatile pencils on fabric. Here it is...

It is a little known feature of Derwent Inktense pencils that when they are dry they become permanent. This makes them fab to use to colour fabric. 

Some artists use Fabric Medium to wet the pencils and it is great to experiment with this and see if it gives extra fastness but I have always just used water to fix mine.

The colours are also translucent which means you can layer them. This means that you can keep adding colour and blending it to make lovely watercolur effects.

Step one: I used a vintage doily and drew one of my  little crazy birds onto it. I probably used a 0.2 size Pigma Micron pen for this because it is permanent and can draw fine detail without the nib being ruined on the textured fabric, if it is used carefully.

I will have some workshops coming up soon,  in 2017 on Whimsical Illustration

Let me know if you are interested in these because lots of people have been asking about these and I think places may go quite quickly.

I then embroidered over the lines and details using 21st Century Yarns hand dyed thread. Then it was time to play with the pencils!

I drew around the embroidered contours on the doily with the pencils. I used 2 colours because I love the way they mix to give a blended watercolour effect. Here is a closer look.
Click on the photos to get a larger and closer look.

Then I added the water. Here is the most important bit......

VERY LITTLE WATER!

This gives you much more control over the dissolving the pigment and spreads it only as far as you want it to go.

As soon as the area you have been working on is dry, it is fixed and you can add more colour if you like.

The area on the right of the photo above shows the effect with the water added.

I will probably leave it like this now. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of colour to zizz up a thingy! Finished!

These would be fabulous to decorate one of the pages in a 

Fabric Book. 

Workshop coming up in February for making these and I will probably include this technique in that action packed day.

Have a go! I'd love to know if you do and what you think.

PS. Try colouring on Satin ribbons and on threads too.

Inktense Tutorial part 2

Are you ready play with those lovely Derwent Inktense Pencils again? 

Looking back at the last tutorial I thought that I should mention that Inktense pencils are usually thought of as producing vivid spectacular colours of Indian Ink, and they really do! One of the things that I love so much about them is the way we can immerse ourselves in the joy of using pure, bright colours in our artwork.

But there are lots of fab tutorials on how to get them to release their full colour and it takes a little more practice and thought to use them for subtle blending techniques. It is also good to know that if we have them in our art kit, that they can be used in many ways. This is a slower and more relaxing way of painting which is great for calming the mind.

So lets look at adding some shading and detail to our artwork. 

At this stage I usually start to think about what images or doodles I'd like in my circles. I usually don't fill every space because I sometimes like there to be a calmness of some empty spaces.

In Art, there is as much importance in what we leave out as to what we put into our pieces and negative space, the space between, is a great decorative tool.

As you look at your work so far see if any shapes leap out at you. The green oval shape looked like a leaf to me so I added some veins with a black Pigma Micron pen.

The lines in the paint next to the leaf looked faintly like the petals of a flower so I followed the lines with the pen and made a flower.
There was space for another leaf so I copied the shape of the other leaf, and then there were two! 

Once the shape of the flower is made you can outline it with the pencils and blend the colour inwards. I added a yellow centre to the flower and blended it gently outwards. 

This gives a very subtle natural 'bloom' to the flower. I also added some shade below the flower and leaf to make them look more 3D.
To do this just use a grey or blue and draw a line along the outside of the shape and use a tiny bit of water to blend it into the background. It also disguised the bit where my pencil slipped and gave me a wonky line. I will doodle over it later.

Now lets have a look at adding some detail to the trellis. Last time I drew around the inside of the shaped with the pencils and wet it to soften the colours. Today I started drawing in the spaces.

This photo is very much enlarged to show you the doodles. Anything goes really. The spaces are tiny and you just want to give them some interest. I used the Sakura Pigma Micron pen again for this because it is waterproof when dry and I can go over it with more colour later. I used a 0.1 nib size.

My biggest circle next! 

I have chosen to draw a bird in my largest circle and I think this will become my focal point so I will add the most detail to this. If you don't feel confident to draw freehand, you can stamp an image instead. Remember to use a permanent ink like Stazon so you can add water and pencil over it.

Can you see the difference that shading brings to the image? I outlined the bird and the scallop edging with grey and blended them towards the centre of the circle and it make the image come alive! I added a little more yellow to the bird too.

I also drew tiny spirals around one side of the bird to make it look like it was emerging out of the clouds. Little red details make the image pop and keep it from looking too dark.

I've decided that I don't like that pesky porthole circle below the bird. So I'm going to change it!I've given it a wash of green and yellow. Then whilst it is wet I have drawn a yellow circle in yello and outlined it in Sepia Brown.I have also drawn the petals around it in Sepia.

Then I addad some mor between the petals and blended it.

To finish my daisy I doodled around the edges of the circle and in the centre of the flower.

So that's it! I think I'm done. I have finished by shading around everything to give it a bit of depth.

Next time I will show you some simple techniques for Inktense pencils on fabric. Keep watching.

Lovin' Inktense and Circles

I had such a lovely time playing with my Inktense pencils and Sizzix shapes yesterday. I thought you might like to see a step by step tutorial on how I painted my little arty thing.

Inktense pencils are like Watercolour pencils. They dissolve easily when water is added to make beautiful blended watercolour effects. How they differ is that these pencils produce stunning vibrant colours, are very soft and blendable and are permanent when dry on both paper and on fabric. it i also possible to get very subtle colours and shadow effects if we use them carefully and we can explore both of those options in this project.

I started with a sheet of watercolour paper which I cut in half.

I ran both pieces through the Sizzix machine with the circles die and then put the circles aside to use another day. I wanted to use just the negative shapes: the bits left behind.
there is a photo of the Sizzix die on a previous post if you'd like to see it.

If you don't have a circle cutter just draw around a cup, a glass etc in 3 different sizes. And cut them out. You don't have to do this with a knife, a pair of scissors will be fine. It doesn't even matter if bits are missing. I cut around the outside edge of one of the pieces and tore around the edge of the other.

With some white glue or a glue stick glue all the pieces in layers onto another piece of watercolour paper making sure that there are some interesting spaces between the shapes.

I've also added a panel from another Sizzix die. I love these for adding some small intricate details to the piece.

Be careful not to let the glue seep through to the front if you can because the pencils wont work over the glue. However you sometimes get interesting effect when this happens, and you will see this on mine I'm sure.

OK, we are ready to start adding the colour! Grab your pencils and a brush and a little pot of water.

I've started with one of the 'holes' at the bottom of the page. I usually stat with a slightly darker colour at the bottom because it 'grounds' the artwork and gives it a bit of weight.
I've drawn around the inside ridge of the circle with Light Olive and Iris blue pencils. The joy of the Inktense is that they blend as you go so we maximize on this by adding more than one colour each time to give us joyous lively colours.

Now I've added water. I have started on the outside and am blending inwards. This gives a lovely shaded 3D effect to our circle. VERY importantly, my brush has very little water on it.
This allows the pencils to dissolve more slowly and blend properly and give a much better result.

Next I did the circle next to it in pinks and purples. I blended that and this time I used the colour that was left on my brush to colour around the circle too. From now on, I am going to use that left over colour to add to my background and dilute it further till all the colour is gone. Each time I have a new colour it will add to the rainbow effect.

I want to show you a slightly different way to add blended colour  now. This time we are going to start with one colour in the middle and another around the edge.

Then we start blending from the inside out!

It's coming together isn't it? If you keep to a colour scheme it will all look harmonious. Mine are all in the pink and purple family with accents of green and yellow.

Now for the little lacy panel...

So that's it so far. The basic colouring is done. On the next blog post I will show you how to add shadows and details.

Inktense and Circles

Two of my favourite artsy things! Derwent Inktense pencils and circular motifs and shapes.

Today  I have been chillin' after a busy weekend and have just been playing with the negative circle shapes that have been cut from watercolour paper and Derwent Intense pencils.     

I will do a tutorial about how I did this tomorrow if you would like to follow along and have a try but for now, here is my doodlin'.

 

Happy Weekend Everyone

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

May the birds sing for you and your skies be ever blue x

Mother Nature's Woolly Book

The world around us is so beautiful. Even the tiniest details of the birds and beasts, the flowers and the colours can fill us with joy if we take the time to look.

Luckily I have had more excuses to look closely at Nature recently because we have had 3 lovely Nature Embroidery workshops at the Hertfordshire branch of the Embroiderers Guild. We were led by Trish and Viv who make the most beautiful pictures with collaged stitcheries  that include all kinds of techniques. We have been so inspired with the little embroideries, that we have made them do 3 workshops for us so far!

I have made mine into a book of course and mounted all the little samples on  lovely woolly surfaces like vintage blankets, and handmade felt. The cover was kantha stitched handmade felt made to look like moss on the forest floor and the red behind the holes reminded me of toadstools. 

Here are some of the pages.

This first one celebrates the humble little beetle. Some creepy crawlies are gorgeous! I had fun with the colours on these and learning some basic stump work.

Here is a closer look.

The background is cotton sheeting which has been scribbled with Derwent Inktense pencils which permanently dye the fabric when they are dampened and blended.

This next page is embroidered rabbits. The sample is stitched to a vintage embroidered doily and the page is made of an old wool blanket. The edging is couched hand dyed wool.

Birds next! I have to have birds on everything! The first one is canvas work with added needle felted blobs and star stitches. Shame it looks so crooked ha ha.

And this one is a drawn bird with added hand stitches on another doily. Coloured with Inktense pencils again.

It has got velvet flowers added. I love using these!

Ready for more bugs? These have grass stitched around them in hand dyed silk thread and a round border of silk and wool fibres which are held down with hand embroidery to look like lichen and moss. The bee is velvety! It took ages but he is so sweet!

Here is a closer look at the stitching!

More bugs!

Each bug has Trapunto quilting beneath it and Kantha stitching around it.

A pretty butterfly now just in case you are feeling itchy... Embroidered with variegated threads from 21st Century Yarns. My favourite!

And seed heads. I am in love with looking at seed heads! This also has snippets of vintage fabrics and lace.
It has all been stitched to a lovely soft blue wool blanket.

A little nest. With eggs! It has a real twig and teensy handmade organza flowers. This one has all sorts of bits and bobs to give it texture. See what you can spot in there.

It has been joyous making this book and doing the workshops. Trish and Viv were so generous in sharing their techniques and making the days perfectly relaxing and inspirational. And it was the perfect reminder for me to take time to look at and rejoice in the little things.