Being badgered

The advantage to doing an art course made up of media I have never used before is the fun I have choosing and buying them. I bought two sets of Derwent colour pencils this week and have been trying them out. One set is the Studio line, the other is the Artists soft drawing pencils. Both are nice. The Studio pencils give a wonderful, crisp line, ideal for detailed work. The Artists are soft and waxy but give a nice, bold line and blend beautifully. The badger picture is my first attempt using them together. He is no more than a doodle really. I was just playing with the pencils to see what they could do and he grew out of those experiments. I bought some soft and hard pastels two weeks ago but they scare me. They say that watercolour is hard to control but I cannot seem to get pastels to do what I want them too. I guess that is where the tuition comes in so I will have to wait until I reach that part of the course.

The other pictures are of a couple of birthday cards and some metal tags decorated with alcohol ink and embossing powders.

More pictures

Just couple of piccies I came across. One is a pop-up inchie. It is 2x1 inch when opened. I also made a castle one but I have to decorate it first. The second in a birthday card. The colour looks a bit manic. It isnb't quite as vibrant as it looks. I cannot get the reds to scan well. If I try and adjust the colour in my photo editing programme it looks even worse. The card is actually a nice, rich red instead of manic orange-red.

Embarking on an adventure

Not much to report at the moment. I have spent the last two weeks writing my final assignment for the Leonardo da Vinci course and feeding my neighbour's cats.

Either I am getting particularly fussy as I get older or the standard of courses is slipping with the OU. Kindergarten kids will know more about Leonardo than I do after this course. I am sure there is a wealth of information available on this man but the course just dusted over a whole lot of detail. That makes two Open University short courses that have not hit home for me. Time to try something different. So I signed up for an art course. This course will give me a qualification in Pet Portraiture at the end of it which means I will finally have a piece of paper to qualify my skills. People like to know that the artists they employ have been through art school but I am self taught. It shouldn't negate my skills but it does. Hopefully this will redress the balance a little. The course covers coloured pencil, pastel, acrylic and oil - all of which I have very little experience with. It will be a bit of an adventure for me.

Meantime this is a piece I was trying out using some tiny paper weaving. Those little Medieval birds insisted on being part of the projects.

A little moderation.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have had to enable moderated comments. If you leave a comment I will have to verify it before it turns up on the page. I am really sorry for the inconvenience but waiting a little extra time saves my blog a lot of trouble. Getting comments that are not really suitable for everyone to view is not what anyone wants. I love to get genuine comments so I hope it won't put anyone off leaving one or two :o)

Horsing around

A couple more papercuts for your delectation. Both horses, both backed on hand painted papers. I should really stop all this 'horsing around' and write a few letters I have been putting off.

Snow, snow, quick, quick, snow.

I have had my first dose of snow for the winter. The snowflakes were so big they looked like white mice falling from the sky. Beautiful. There was a good few inches by the end of the day and more forecast for overnight. Unfortunately rain is forecast for tomorrow afternoon so I don't think there will be enough time to make a snowman.

Along with a picture of my front garden in the snow, I have added one of a card inspired by some downloaded paper patterns from Scrap Girls (www.scrapgirls.com) and my diary for this year. I also made one for my sister (which was much nicer - in blues and greens) but I forgot to scan it before I gave it to her.