A Bit of Catch Up

I did a couple more pages for Gina's Sketchbook Challenge before putting the art stuff away for a bit.  I kind of started losing my way but have a better idea of where to go next when I get them out again.  This was an enlarging experiment - large scale isn't really my thing but I've had to do it in the past so I did just the one for now ............

 

Out and about, I did actually have the camera in my bag to capture (in a fashion) these mixed media wall hangings at Sheerness Library :

My paternal ancestors came from the Midlands.   Grandad was killed in WW2 whilst my dad was a baby and his parents parted company when he was a babe himself so I started off knowing very little about them when I got into family history back in the mid 80s.  Finally, as an anniversary treat, we planned a short trip to the Black Country Living Museum and the Back to Backs in Birmingham.  Sadly we didn't get to the Back to Backs as they were closed for longer than stated on the NT website and we didn't find this out until phoning to book AFTER we had booked our accomodation.  Never mind, we had a brilliant time and for me it felt like going home despite never having been there and my grandad moving down south with his mother as a baby c1910.  I have Romany ancestry but I do not like camping, I have conjuring ancestors but magic bores me, lots came from London but the City scares me a bit, I go the Midlands and, well, what can I say except I loved every minute of it and it felt like going home as soon as we saw "Fort Dunlop"!!!!

We took numerous pics so just a couple of textiley bits ..............

Back to now, knitting is good for me at the moment.  I need to concentrate enough to stop me thinking about other stuff and I can do it on the sofa in the same room as my husband for the evening.  Being no great knitter, I'm ok with small items and have knitted up the panda and zebra puppets mentioned in the last post and also used the basic patterns for Dennis the Menace, Piglet, Pooh, pig, rabbit (and a yet to be decided) puppets too ......... will post pics when I (eventually) get them all stitched together and finished!  Am miles behind with catching up on fellow blogs so hope to find some time for light reading before too long too!
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Potato Printing

This was fun!  It's the first time I've played with potatoes for printing since school and was surprised at the lovely contours I could get.  The only downside being they don't last long.

With some Koh-I-Noor watercolour washes and a little bit of pen, pencil and dimensional glitter here and there ............

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Colour Sketchbook Challenge 3

Page 3 (to the right) which is actually page 2 in the book.  No, tell a lie it is actually page 4 because I left the first 2 pages blank until I get some more confidence back in case these weren't good enough to open the book to ............ hmmmm

The page was painted with the same green Koh-I-Noor as the left hand page with a lace fabric pressed down on the wet paint which didn't really work, can just see a few background dots here and there if looking closely.  White pastel worked over a stencil then the whole page was painted with a weak turquoise Brusho which left it quite dull ........... not really me and a lesson learned

Some yellow pencil over the whole background and some pencil detail on the flowers and it looks a little better though still a bit subtle for me ........

Following the tutorials to a certain degree is good for me though as I'm revisiting stuff, learning new things and it's making me think lol!  Oh, and another thing, I forgot to mention is it's an "Upsy Daisy" book (how apt).  I couldn't understand why I had to move the whole of the spiral binding everytime I opened the book or tried to shut it until my husband pointed out that I had it back to front!  I can't be doing that all the time or it will soon be ruined so I shall have to be starting again from the right side soon!!!!
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Colour Sketchbook Challenge 2

Well what can I say?  A quick 10 minute Brusho project this morning quickly became an all day thing.  Anyway, what emerged was turquoise Brusho mixed with acrylic wax stencilled onto a dry on wet (turquoise and yellow) Brusho background.  The whole background was then coated with acrylic wax to seal.

Finding something to bring the flowers back to life ( I hadn't intended blue as in an actual blue but it was finding something that would work over the acrylic wax) .................. blue glitter Markal with an acrylic glitter glaze over to seal due to the non-porous base, white and yellow acrylic highlights.

Unfortunately, particularly with the flower on the right, the camera shows the whole flower as the same blue due to the glitter glaze where there are in fact areas of darkness and opaque white highlights.  Apart from the composition bordering on "Palm Trees at Midnight" rather than "Sea Breeze" daisies I'm really quite pleased and feeling just a little more positive!

Not sure I'm labelling these quite right as it's not actually working out as following the tutorials in order but think I'll get there .............
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Starting Over ............... Colour Sketchbook Challenge 1

Thankyou for your encouraging comments ladies but I really wasn't happy with the way things were going so change of plan!!!


We have four clumps of Erigeron "Sea Breeze" in our garden courtesy of my parents who got cuttings from a friend in Sandgate.  Mum calls them "Sandgate Daisies" where they create such a pretty picture in the summer months tumbling over the garden walls facing the sea.  They provide brilliant ground cover in our poor chalky clay soil.

I got a new sketchbook, daunting in so much as I'm not used to working directly into a book at all but determined to have a go.  Now I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to be bending the brief here but I've made a start ........ my way ........... and my husband's far from impressed that it's the "same old thing" .......... not free and flowing but controlled and repetative hmmm.......... .   I like the colours whatever!.

A bit of salt as a resist on the wet watercolour, white pastel smudged around some circular stencils, more paint and some Jelly Roll pen detail ..............

Think the central circles look far too harsh now I've photographed them (after they've been stuck down) ......... will need to think about that.  Perhaps adding more paint will bring them more in line to where they were before.  In the meantime I've dripped a few drops of water on the background to give yet more textural effect and hope it looks ok when I have a look in the morning!!

Update:

Best leave it alone for now .........

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Funky Fungi

Green:  Envious, naive, recycling, gardens, countryside, healthy eating ............


Anyway, change of plan.  I wanted a simple but easily recognisable image to work with for the sketchbook challenge and I've left the sea theme (for the time being) for Fungi.

Following Gina's suggestions

Cut out chosen shape(s) and use as stencil for crayon/pastel (I chose different fungi for this one) - fine.
Fill shapes with colour (darker green) - fine.
Add areas of colour to background - oh dear!  I need to hunt out some better paper as it's not taking more washes very well (in fact it's disintegrating) and it's now all looking the same.  I had a feeling I'd do that with this one colour lark lol!
Add some acrylic gel to the shapes to get them to stand out a bit more then add some darker areas to the background so it gets more messy and more of the same!


 

Add water soluble crayon, water, more crayon etc. etc. and outline the shapes in black pen which didn't improve things!  

It's certainly lacking funkiness (the title was my husband's suggestion ............ he's a "Funky Fun Guy" (so he says lol).  Oh well, there's always another day ...............
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Sketchbooks and Cookbooks

I was delighted to be the "winner" of some art stuff from Gina's giveaway last week ...........

I love the brilliant clear colour of the Koh-I-Noor dyes and have decided to join in her colour sketchbook challenge "Close to Home".  Having spent the last week dithering about a starting point (now decided but will save that for the next post) I've chosen the colour green.  I was rather concerned about the limits of one colour for me personally so green fits nicely.  Both the lime and jade in the dyes are very pretty plus I can play around with yellows and blues and still have green!


Unfortunately the cling film (Morrisons) didn't have enough "cling" (sheets 2 and 3) but luckily I had already used a sheet of plastic canvas weighted down onto the wet paint for sheet 4 to give a textural effect .......................

The second book in my cookbook challenge is "The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook".  The Key Lime pie with 2 cans of condensed milk is very, very sweet ............. especially when it has a meringue topping!  I didn't actually make it but I did have a hand in deciding that the filling needed a longer cooking time than specified:

Some other things from the book (not all this week lol) ............. Pineapple and Coconut cupcakes (greatly reducing the butter content for the frosting):

Chocolate cookies ................

Rocky Mess Road .................

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With regards to the last post, yes, the Brownies could have done with a little less cooking.  I did check them at 27 mins but wasn't too sure so left them for 35 (35-45 recommended I think) plus I used silicon bakeware so they were a little drier at the edges.  I have a Nigella recipe so will have a go at that one some day too.
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