Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twenty-Five

I always like a good cup of tea made with loose tea and poured from a tea cosied pot.  Earl Grey, Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon and Lapsong Soushong are my firm choices. I absolutely detest tea bags with a vengance.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twenty-Four

This is positively scary if this a true representation of one of my hands.  I'm hoping not.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twenty-Three

Very unusual jewellery box

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twenty-Two

Silent Sunday

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twenty-one

Went to the seaside yesterday with the family.  So whilst they were busy crab fishing, I did a couple of quick sketches.  This challenge is certainly teaching me that I don't need to worry to much about the detail. It is fine to just scribble down a note of what I see.  My confidence is certainly building and subject matter or moments I see that I wouldn't normally draw I am having a go at.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twenty

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Nineteen

Silent Sunday

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Eighteen

So it looks like I have finally caught up for now.  It's just over halfway of the challenge and I'm finding myself almost seeking out what to draw.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Seventeen

 

This was a real toughie to draw.  The wheels were all twisted and I was really tempted to straighten them out to make life easier.  Then I decided that if I keep, 'making sets', my drawing will never move forward and I will always back out of drawing the more challenging items.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Sixteen

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Fifteen

I'm still a day behind.  So here's the fourteenth sketch.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Fourteen

A selection of buttons I found stored in an old travel sweet tin.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Thirteen

There's not been a lot of time again today as I've been doing a workshop for the village Fun Day. I guess you can tell by my sketch what I was showing the children how to make.  It always amazes me the 'Feel no Fear' approach a lot of youngsters have.  I showed a 5 year old how to measure 2 strips of paper which she had never done before, she bravely battled with my instructions and with a small amount of support produced a lovely alternative to a paper plane.  It flew beautifully.

Adventures in Paperland - Paper Heart Giveaway

As promised I am here to share the results of the hearts.  After a little finishing and adding some simple cotton cord I think they are quite presentable.  Definitely good enough for a giveaway.  You could use it as a gift tag for a present or save until Christmas to adorn the tree, the choice is yours.

There are 3 up for grabs, so 3 lucky people will each receive one each.

To be in with the chance of owning one of the hearts I would like you to do the following:-

1.  Leave a comment on one of the recent Adventures in Paperland posts
2.  Head over to my Facebook page and click 'LIKE' then tell me which heart I should send you if you are lucky enough to win.
3.  Follow my blog

At the end of the month, I will put all the names in a hat and draw out three names
.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Twelve

Another attempt at drawing Biscuit.  As a teenager I used to favour drawing in pen and ink, it seems that some things never change.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Eleven

It's so easy to get behind.  It's the weekend so my routine is obviously different and being school holidays there is a certain boy that needs plenty of input.  I found it quite difficult to draw today.  I've been eyeingup the mint on my window sill for a few days but now I've come to draw it I feel I haven't really done it justice.  I think I need to have a go at drawing plant life again.

Silent Sunday

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Ten

I was working yesterday with the 50+ group, so sitting and taking my time to do a drawing got later and later. I have resigned myself to the fact that if it is done in the evening it will be a complete waste of time taking a photo of it.  Of course, now as I write this I have figured a way around this. (lightbulb moment)  I guess I could scan the image, now there really isn't any excuse for posting on the day I do the sketch.

This looks absolutely nothing like my Dr Martin boot, I just wanted to try out a different technique.  I held the pen at the end and then didn't take it off the page until I had finished my observation.  It's been ten days of the challenge and I'm getting to the stage of not what shall I draw, but what medium or technique shall I use.

Adventures in Paperland - drying time

Well those lovely hearts took about 3 days to dry in the blazing sun.  On the first day of drying they looked rather grey and I was worried I wouldn't get my usual milky white handmade paper.

I got 16 hearts out of the pulp I made so I consider that pretty good going and quite economical.

During day one, I had a brain storm.  Just in case they did come out grey in colour I wanted to try and embellish them somehow.  I considered using a little food colouring around the edges, but then decided that this would be too harsh.  Then I remembered I had some large print Mill & Boon books which I could use.

I tore out a couple of pages and looked for little phrases I could use.  I wish I'd taken my time to consider the words, but like everything when I create it moves, flows, adapts.  The first few were given obvious phrases like 'Congratulation' and 'sealed with a kiss' and 'My friend' then my eye picked up more ethereal connections such as 'a mountain stream exists in memory', imaginary companions' and 'wild flowers up a mountain path'

I'm considering doing a giveaway if they turn out alright.

My favourite heart is the one above, it reminds me of my brother who loved everything about steam engines.  Here's the last picture he painted.

                          

to be continued

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Nine

Adventures in Paperland - using the pulp

My initial plan for the pulp was to try using the same crocheted doilly to make and impression.  However, something inside of me kept telling me that I need to make either a clay impression or get a vac  form impression, so I won't damage the doilly.  Sound advise so I think I will wait.

So I chose to work with shapes instead.  I dug out my stencils and pastry cutters that I use for craft groups and looked through for a simple shape.  I chose a heart,  I know it can be interpretted as a valentine symbol but my thought process was taking me to gift tags for family and friends.  Ideal for Christmas and Birthday pressies.

The next thing I had to do was lay out a few paper making frames, which were going to serve as drainage trays.  Then I put all the pulp into a bowl so it was easier to transfer it from this instead of the food processing bowl.

I laid the heart shaped cookie cutter onto the gauze placed a straw near the top then scooped up a small amount of pulp and popped it inside the shape.  Then using a clay tool softened the edges.  It was a little bit tricky holding the straw whilst distributing the pulp but I just about managed it.  The reason for the straw was so there would be a hole to thread ribbon through when the shape was dried. 

I continued in this way until all the frames were filled and I had finished all the paper pulp.

The tray of frames were then put on the shed roof to dry.  I will share with you how they turned out in the next post.

to be continued

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Eight

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Seven

This sketch was completed quite late in the evening whilst I was working on one of my jewellery pieces.  I nearly forgot about the drawing challenge and as it was evening the light was quite poor to take a photograph so I had to wait until the morning.

Adventures in Paperland - preparing the pulp

Following on from the paper casting, I decided to have a go at the same thing using pulp.  This is quite an easy process as it is basically the same as paper making.  If you're curious have a look at the post I did last year on 27 July 2011.

So, it starts with lots of paper torn into small pieces.  I tend to save up the scraps I have left over from making my jewellery pieces.  Ideally you should leave the paper soaking in water for a couple of days, but I'm always too impatience so I tend to tear the paper and work on it by squeezing the paper by hand so it gets really soggy.

Squeezing the paper by hand

 Once I have done this I get my trusty food blender out which I keep specifically for crafting.  I can't believe it is 30 years old and it was second hand when I got it.  Anyway, I digress.  I transfer small handfuls of soggy paper into the blender and give it a whizz.  If you try this yourself, I would advise giving it  short bursts as the central fugal force can send water out of the top.  Also, keep taking the lid off to redistribute the paper, adding a little more liquid from you bucket as you go.

Eventually the paper will break down into a pulp.  As you check it, you need to make the decision when to stop.  When I make paper, I like some of the words from the book print to still show, but on this occasion I wanted all the print to be eradicated.  To do this I had to transfer half into a container so I could get the pulp finer.

Pulp with consistency of Whipped Cream

Once the pulp is how you like it you need to transfer it so that it is ready to use.

to be continued

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Six

I bought these scissors from a car book yesterday and found the patterning worthy of a sketch.  It's a shame that both pairs are beyond functionability but I'm sure they would look amazing in a frame piece at some future date.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Five

Today I was inspired by another artist over at the IPPdailydraw Flickr group, Lauren Britchford who drew an outstretched cat.  Here's my sketch of my kitty cat, Biscuit.

Silent Sunday

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Four

Have a banana!  Yep, I started to put my breakfast together and decided this is what I would draw today.

Adventures in Paperland - Paper Casting

I've spent pretty much all day last Friday working with paper pulp.  It was a follow on from the previous Thursday, when I wanted to have a go at paper casting.  I really would love to able to make a clean impression of a crocheted doilly.  Oh the joy of capturing the stitches.  This is something that has been on the back boiler for a while, amongst the other multitude of ideas and techniques that I want to explore.  However, setting time aside, and then not getting too absorbed is something I find quite difficult.

Like most things, when you create, you need to give yourself time to take the any new technique you have learnt or taught yourself and then allow yourself time to experiment and then develop the technique to suit your own purposes.  We can all copy, it's easier, but not as satisfying.

 So here's my attempt at papercasting. For this, I used toilet roll paper and laid it across the doilly, first vertically, then horizontally.  I repeated these layer making sure I damped each layer using a plant sprayer.  Once I had a few layers I left it to dry in the sun.  Once dry I removed the crochet, and voila!  I'm wondering what it would look like using paper pulp.

to be continued

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Three

This morning a tiding of 4 magpies appeared on the shed roof, they were after the bread I had just chucked up there.  It's not often you see these birds close up with their feathers shimmering blue and green.  This is my first attempt at birds so I'm quite pleased with the result.  During the challenge, my aim is to keep the drawings varied and choose subject matter I wouldn't ordinarily draw.  Tomorrow I think I will draw my breakfast.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day Two

Struggled to find a subject matter for today's drawing then I spotted the poppy heads drying on the window sill.  I using the new sketch book I made last week using brown paper.  Daren't show you the cover.  It was my attempt as a rather complicated Japanese stab binding which went very badly wrong.  I was actually more relaxed than I thought I would be doing today's sketch.

Drawing a Day Challenge - Day One

Drawing a Day Challenge

Gabriella Buckingham aka @Moobaacluck as I know her and her altered ego @inkpaintpaper is hosting a challenge in the month of August to do a drawing a day.  Drawing is not one of my forté's and I struggled quite a lot on Foundation;  the concept of drawing with a stick from the garden, or draw with you left hand, so I expect this to be a real challenge for me.


Perhaps this is something you want to have a go at.  For more information visit Ink, Paint, Paper


And if you are on twitter don't forget to include the hashtag #ippdailydraw