A bit potty for WOYWW

It's been one of those weeks

for me, 

won't go into details

but I haven't been in my room to play until

tuesday afternoon.

Sorry to everyone that I haven't been to visit,

I hope to be able to do more this week.

I had planned to start a painting this week,

yes a real painting on canvas

but that hasn't happened,

so all I have are some drawings

done yesterday afternoon for this weeks APR

theme, which is "in series".

 Yes, I know the mess is creeping across the desk again.

I promise to clean it up soonish, maybe.

Since I love coffee

and everyone says I'm a bit potty,

I chose coffee pots

as my series.

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down and drew some sketches of

the pots, while drinking coffee, of course.

This is the result after many boo boo's

and lots of rubbing out!!

See, I could have let you think I just did it straight off, 

but unlike Tracey Fletcher King, who is brave enough to ink first,

 I'm not that good.

I have begun adding the paint  and

hopefully, the two drawings on the right

will look like shiny silver, when I paint them,

fingers crossed.

How sad are my hand painted circles
on the blue pattern.
I should use a template
but that is too much like hard work :)

Still a long way to go so

while I keep painting,

 why not hop on over to Julia's

Stamping Ground and

see what is on desks all over the world

this wednesday.

Ink, Pens and Paper for the Artist's Playroom

I've decided to go with

black and white for the

Ink, Pens and Paper theme

this week.

Mainly because I haven't got time to colour it.

Sorry about the photo, the sun keeps going behind the clouds when I take it,

I'm up to about shot number 40.  This is the best you are going to get.

I'm sure the sun is watching me and laughing.

I need one of those light box thingys that Tracey Fletcher King has :)

When I think of ink,

I immediately think of my dad

who was a draftsman.

Not the cheating kind that you get today,

you know, all they do is push a button and 

something is drawn for them

and figures calculated.

Oh no, my dad was a real draftsman,

who drew by hand on a huge drawing board

and calculated things with a sliding rule.

Dad retired many years ago

and recently gave me his pens.

There are heaps of goodies in here

but I don't know what half of them are!

I was really excited until he told me that you have

to wash them out at the end of each day.

This entails pulling them apart and cleaning

each bit.  

Sounds too much like hard work to me,

so for now, I just like to look at them :)

I have to admit that the hand

doesn't really look as if it is drawing,

this is because I don't draw with that hand.

I'm a leftie and just held the pen in that hand while I drew with my left

but in doing that I didn't hold it as if I was drawing.

Silly moo that I am!!

I wasn't sure about the wrist action

of a rightie either,

so sorry if it looks weird,

you should all be left 

like me then there would be no problem.

You can't see it in the terrible photos

but the paper is so old and mouldy

that you could easily call it 

old parchment.

It must be at least 15 years old,

and it's itchy,

but we won't go there.

That's what I get for cleaning out old cupboards.

Now you've seen mine,

hop on over to Jenn's

Artists Playground 

and see all the other 

Ink, Pens and Paper art.

PS. If the sun comes out I will try to get a better photo

and replace the one at the top.

 

Hand drawing for WOYWW

I've had a busy week

but not in the art room,

I'm afraid.

Little Miss had a fight with a

softball in school sport last Friday

and the softball won. 

She had a bloodshot and very swollen

eye, nose, and cheekbone

so there were lots of kisses and cuddles.

Then I was still waiting for the double sided tape to arrive,

which it finally did, late on monday afternoon.

So I could finish my Egbert Notebooks

yesterday.

Today I had to run errands in the morning

but now I'm in drawing mode.

The Theme for this weeks APR is Pen, Ink and Paper

so I have started a pencil drawing of my hand

holding a pen

and hope to ink it tomorrow.

So, at last, here is my desk.

I'm in the family room again today as it's too cold in the office.

These are my dads drafting pens from the old days and I decided to draw them 

for the  APR theme.

This is still early stages

and looking at this photo,

the pens look a little drunk.

Will have to fix that.

If you are wondering how I drew my hand,

I'm left handed and held a pen in my right

and pencil in my left.

Once I get the shading and proportions right,

I will have a go at inking it.

Haven't done a proper ink drawing in years,

so fingers crossed.

I'm never alone when I draw in the family room.

Charlie the parrot is right behind me,

Smudge the guinea pig is just to my right

and the chooks are at the window next to me.

Here is a photo of my Egbert Books.

 

I think they look quite cute.

I've put one in my Etsy shop to see how it goes.

Well, I had better get back to my drawing.

Why don't you pop on over to Julia's

Stamping Ground and see what 

everyone else has on their desk

for WOYWW.

Hope you all enjoy the Olympics,

I'll be watching.

You may have missed this 

post.

Strange Girl just appeared.

I just had to make this post 

as the strangest thing

has happened to me.

Now those who know me

know that I don't do people,

apart from Egbert that is.

I love to paint fish and flowers 

and all sorts of things

but people,

no way, nada, nut,

and no how.

My people always look like aliens

with weirdly placed eyes and noses

and don't get me started on the bodies.

So as a rule

I have always avoided the human form.

Just to clarify,

Egbert Bookman

isn't human, he is a book elf

so I can paint him, although

you may have noticed

he doesn't have a body

and probably never will.

I digress.

As a rule I don't paint or draw on the weekend

as I am too busy with cleaning and playing

with little miss, but last night

as I sat on the couch just about to watch TV,

I had this weird urge to get my art journal.

Normally any attempt to pick

up a pencil is met with aww mum, play with me,

 or can I draw with you.

Meaning can I draw all over

your picture.

But this time utter silence,

so you don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

I grabbed my journal and just started drawing.

I kept seeing this girls face

and felt compelled to draw it

and draw it I did.

I have no idea who she is or where

the face came from

and I drew her completely from my imagination.

So weird, especially as I can't draw faces.

Here it is,

not anatomically perfect

but for me, it's good.

 If this is you,

I'd like to know how you got into my head

and what are you doing there.

My cheeky little miss said

it can't be a picture of you, mum 

because it doesn't have wrinkles!!

Thanks darling!

Gotta love kids.

Painful pear and no good mail.

This weeks theme for Artist's Playroom is pears.

Easy you might say,

just draw a blob and colour it green, red and yellow.

My blob decided to be a nasty blob

and just wouldn't play the game.

I thought I would try subtlety in colours

and it looked blah.

So then I coloured the background in a 

pinky orangey red,

looked okay.

When it came to darkening

the shaded area, 

trouble began.

The paint kept spreading to one side or the other

and wouldn't fill the middle. I dried it with a hairdryer

but that made it worse.

 Then I blobbed it and got a tide mark 

and I dropped some red right in the middle of the pear.

So, blow it, that's all I'm going to do.

Just having one of those days.

Tried putting it in a frame to see if it would look better

but no, now a framed  blob gone wrong.

My concentration just wasn't on the paint today

because I was keeping an eye out for the postman.

I have three Egbert books ready to put together

and I ran out of double sided tape.

Can't get that stuff anywhere, so ordered

it from Sydney on tuesday and still don't have it.

I could have flown down picked it up and been back in four hours,

but it takes up to three days to get something by post.

Drives you nuts.

So, while I sit and wait for the postie

have a look at some better pears

on Jenn's Artists Playroom

and while you're at it,
check out the paintings on
Paint Party Friday.

Don't know why the post has a 

gap up the top, can't get rid of it,

I think Blogger hates me :(

UPDATE:
The gap is now fixed
with a huge thankyou to Serena Lewis,
who told me how to fix it
and I still haven't got
my tape from the post man :(

Alone at last for WOYWW

I am alone at last!!!

My mother in-law has gone home

and little miss  is finally

back at school.

You can't see me but I am dancing around the room,

the peace is wonderful,

I have a huge grin on my face

and I'm ready to draw and paint my heart out.

I have been working on two desks today.

One for painting and drawing

and the other for doing up templates to 

put inside note books.

I have designed three more Egberts

and painted them today.

All I have to do this afternoon is

to ink in the details.

They don't look much until the ink is on

but I think they will make cute note book covers.

On this desk is my inside covers ideas and the start of some

more Egberts..

It looks a bit boring but I am amazed that I managed

to print a page of sticky address thingys

and it lined up first time.

I hope to take them down to the Collective Store to sell

and I might even put some on the Etsy shop,

if the weight doesn't make them too expensive for postage.

Well I'm off to ink some Egberts,

with a huge grin on my face.

Why not hop on over to Julia's

Stamping Ground and see what

everyone else is doing on their desk today.

One success and one failure on WOYWW

It's been a hit and miss week this week.

Not much was done in the art dept

as it is still school holidays and we still have a visitor.

Ooh, I here you say,

yes, that's my new toy.

A very evil and sharp

guillotine and I love it.

There isn't a piece of paper

within fifty miles that is safe with

that sucker around and boy have I had some fun.

I also found some gorgeous pink

journals and I will put some

Egberts on the front of them.

You may remember the pencil

drawings from last week,

well I did some in colour.

They came out quite well.

 My failure for the week

was when I tried to do prints of the Egbert paintings.

This is what I got.

 The blue is very dirty and washed out

and I don't know how to fix it.

The image on the screen is just like the painting 

so how do I adjust the colour if it looks

fine on the screen.  HELP,

if any one knows what to do,

                                             I would appreciate it.  I have a  fancy Canon

printer, but still not sure how it works.

The success for the week is at the bottom of this post.

I decided to try and add my signature to the bottom of my posts.

The instructions were via Jenns, Just add water Silly blog

and after copious amounts of swearing and starting again

I finally got it to work all by myself and believe me that is something.

(See Jenn, I can do it!!!)

Now that you have seen my hit and miss week,

why not pop over to Julias

Stamping ground

and see what everyone else has been doing 

on their desks

around the world.

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments and wishes,

especially for my fetaure on 

Just Add Water Silly.

  

Happy Birthday Canada on APR

This weeks theme for Artist's Playground

is Canada, in honour of the 

wonderful Canadian, Jenn

and Canada's Birthday.

I just had to join in as my brother lives in Canada

and is married to a beautiful Canadian lady
named Fran.

My last trip to Canada was in 1976

when I was just fifteen

and I still have a few momentos 

from that time.

These are from 1976

and still going.

About five years ago my brother

finally got married and as we

are a family of five, it was too expensive for

all of us to go, so just my eldest daughter went

with nanny and grandad.

These are some of the mementos

she brought back.

This was going to be all I had for Canada,

until I looked down and there was

cheeky little Egbert Bookman

checking out the flag

and I just had to paint him.

So here, after all that, is my entry

into the Canada APR.

I was going to call it 

Egbert does Canada

but that sounds a bit rude.

So Egbert with the flag will have to do.

If you are wondering why Egbert is a little wobbly,
it's because it's so cold over here
that I can't feel my fingers and keep
dropping the brush and pen!!!!!

Okay, it's not Canada cold
but it is bloomin freezing by
sub tropical Brisbane standards!!!

I would like to send a huge, huge

thankyou and hugs to Jenn

for making me her featured artist,

I feel very honoured.

Now head on over to Jenn's 

Artist's Playroom

and see what everyone else has done

for Canada.

Winter holidays on WOYWW

While most of you lucky people are enjoying 

summer, we are suffering an unusually

 horrible cold winter. 

It is school holidays at the moment

so I have hardly done anything artwise.

Last night my hands were shaking,

it could have been the cold

but I know it was withdrawal symptoms from 

lack of painting.

So, whilst huddled up under blankets

and wearing three jumpers,

I got out my art journal

and started doodling.

Up popped Egbert Bookman again,

this time he is in different places

ready for cards.

These are very rough sketches

as you can see from the squashed teapot.

Egbert was wearing a teacosy on his head

but it looks more like underpants!

I will have to have a word with him.

The teacup is in honour of

Tracey as she is an avid tea drinker.

I also made a new bookmark.

I really enjoy playing with Egbert, 

so he may be around for a while.

Something fabulous has happened to me also.

I have been featured on

Just Add Water Silly.

A thousand thank yous to the wonderful Jenn

for thinking that I am good enough

to be featured.

If you would like to see it,

it's here.

 Well that's me for this week.

We still have one more week of school holidays

after this week, so I guess not much

else will be happening artwise (sigh).

Now you've seen mine

how about you pop on over to Julia's

Stamping Ground

and see what other people have on their desks

around the world.