Saturday 21 January 2012

Crazy time with butterflies.

I don't know what I was thinking,
to try and do a challenge
during school holidays.

I started a butterfly in my journal
with great intentions 
of making a butterfly with little butterflies.

Got sick of cutting up little butterflies
so abandoned that idea.

Next I grabbed Audreys glitter pens
and coloured in the butterfly,
(this came at a price, as Audrey wanted to colour too
if I borrowed her pens)
what a mess that was.

I did a photo of the butterfly at that stage and posted it for
What's on your workdesk wednesday
The next day. again with Audrey in tow, (singing loudly this time)
I tried to paint over the butterfly and add a few bits and pieces.
It was at this stage that I decided to abandon the idea altogether.
Mainly because Audreys singing was getting to me,
my eye was twitching with each screech.

One last try today,
I decided to stick to what I know best (watercolour pencils) and here
at last,
is my entry for this weeks IA, with the theme Butterflies.


 Okay, so it isn't finished but at least I got a butterfly done.

I was squished into a corner to do this
as Miss Auds wanted to be with me.
How I got this far, with all the interruptions
amazes me.


Just for a laugh
here is the terrible butterfly
that I abandoned.
School starts on monday.
YIPPEE!!

Wednesday 18 January 2012

One big mess of a day.

We are in the last week of school holidays
and so I thought I would try to do the weekly challenge
for Inspiration Avenue and have
something decent to show everyone 
for WOYWW.
Should have known better.

The theme for IA was butterflies, sounds simple enough
but I wanted to try mixed media.

Out came my trusty journal and I was off.
I cut out a butterfly shape and some butterfly music
and had this good idea (seemed good at the time)
to make up the butterfly with lots of little butterflies.
After cutting out about twenty little butterflies, I got fed up and changed tack.
I lightly water coloured the butterfly and glued it to the journal,
then coloured the journal and glued on the music
and now it is getting a bit yuck
(so are my fingers, with the glue).

Then came the next bright idea
to use glitter glue and gel pens,
getting worse!!
So I place the little butterflies on the page,
looking a bit better, until
without thinking, I have a blonde moment and
blow away some crayon dust and
all the little butterflies
flutter about the room.
Time to give up for the day I think.
I am happy to show the picture today
as it will probably be totally different by
the time I put it on IA on friday
(that's also if it makes it to IA at all).

Here is my desk today


and
here is my poor little butterfly 
(prior to the blowing incident)





Think I should stick to painting!

On a brighter note
schools back next week,
so I won't have the 
500 interruptions that
I had today. :)



Wednesday 11 January 2012

Heatwave on WOYWW

It's wednesday again and that means
we get to take a look at what people
have on their desks
all around the world.
The Stamping Ground is where
you can find many others.

Not much has been done in my room this week
in fact the only time I came in here
was last saturday when little miss went to the movies with dad
and I had four blissful hours to myself.

I came straight in here and did a little cherry picture in my journal.

First, here is my desk today

not much to see.
There is a very good reason for not doing much, 
we are in the middle of a heatwave (temps in the mid 30's C & 36C today)
and although my room is airconditioned it isn't fair for me to be enjoying the cool air while the others are out in the heat.

We usually get this heat in february when the kids and hubby ( he's a teacher) are back at school and I can sit here happily creating, but we still have 1 1/2 weeks of holidays to go.

The only thing to do in this heat is spend the day in the pool and we are doing exactly that, only getting out to eat on the patio. 
I am a prune with terrible pool hair, wearing an oversized sunshirt of my hubbies, a floppy hat and have pink zinc on my lips.  It's really quite a sight! 
I promise I won't supply a photo.

I have a few photos of the process I went through to make the cherry pic and yes I know I have done cherries before, 
but they are a summer fruit and I love painting them, 
actually I prefer eating them more.

The cherries are in watercolour, which I have built up in layers to get more effect.





















While waiting for the layers of watercolour to dry, 

I started to colour in the border with water colour pencils. 

The border is hand drawn and nothing matches exactly,
makes it more interesting.


Then I decided that it needed something on the left page so I wrote a little ditty and printed it out on my new printer :) and coloured it with paint, then stuck it to the page.



That looked a little boring, so I decided to play with the circle a bit

and finish off the cherries stems.


I was just going to finish off the cherry with the ditty, when they came home,
so this is it so far.

I'm off to the pool.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Back at the desk, well almost, just for WOYWW

Happy New Year to all,

it's going to be a good one,

I can just feel it.

I hope Santa visited each and everyone of you.

I was spoilt with some wonderful things

and here are a few of them, sitting on my desk

just in time for What's on you work desk wednesday.

Feel free to visit the other desks on WOYWW.

First, my biggest present,



my new Canon Pixma.  
My old printer was one of the first Pixmas and this new one is just incredible.
I have only had a little play with it and I can't wait to spend some time in here making some prints.

The next photo is of my very special presents


The first is a beautiful art deco calendar from my wonderful friend Angie, in England

and the second is a journal that I received from my daughter Audrey.

Some of you may recognise the picture, it is one of Tracey Fletcher Kings journals 
and it is really bright and gorgeous.

I have not had much of a chance to come in and do any arty things for some time
and I am suffering severe withdrawal.

I did get close to doing some art on Audreys Christmas present.  She received (among a thousand other things) a wii U draw tablet and I was actually allowed to have a play.

It is not exactly the best piece of art I have produced
but you have to understand that I had this tiny little drawing tablet 

(I have a big Wacom tablet in my room) on my lap, 

a big fat parrot on my shoulder

and a child with a guinea pig sitting almost on top of me.

Here is the best of the worst I produced.

The amazing thing is that I was able to put the image on an SD card and stick it into my new printer, which then put it into my computer.  My computer is close to 10 years old and they didn't have slots and things back then.

If I am really lucky, my little miss will allow me some time

to do a bit of drawing over the next few weeks.  

I will really need something to keep my sanity 

as I will have a thousand school books to cover in that nasty sticky stuff 

that sticks all over me and not the book.  

Then there are the uniforms, I always have to take the hems up or down,

putting name tags on everything, 

getting lunch boxes and drink bottles,

arrrgh it drives me crazy!!   

So a little drawing time isn't too much to ask for is it? 


I will tell you when we finish that darn game of Monopoly!!

Have a great week.