Mmm Tasty...

Halloween must be on it's way - gingerbread bats, cats & rats.  Black icing c/o Morrisons supermarket, thank you very much!

Hephaistos the Magician's Cat

 I had a commission to make this little set again - what fun!

 The cat is knitted, the rest of his ensemble is sewn in felt and fabric.

 I embroidered inside the book...well, just because I could.

 He's fully poseable - loves his fishy!

Better not cross him though, he has access to magic!

It's too late to get one of these made for Halloween, but if you would like one or one similar, do get in touch - it's not too late for Christmas!

Progress Report

I've been able to work on this every day this week and progress is steady.  Going at this rate, I should be finish it before I'd planned to, which is good news.  Acrylic on Dalerboard.

In a spare five minutes I had another play with Quink ink and a water spray.  I'm loving the effects that can be created and want to explore this medium further.

For the time being however, it will just have to be a few snatched spare moments.

Busy Fingers...

Sometimes it feels like I'm just hanging around the house having fun with paint and yarn all day, but while that is pretty much true most of the time, there is work being done!  Another Rudolph trophy completed today and up for sale in my Etsy shop.  I can make more, just don't leave it until too close to Christmas as these take a few days due to the stiffening process for the antlers.

I put in a good few hours on this yesterday - I worked on the head and the area around the head.  I can see this is going to be one of those paintings where it will get finished quickly which will make me feel I didn't do enough.  It doesn't always have to be a struggle, but when it's too easy it is a bit disconcerting!

There was enough stripy sock wool left over to knit myself a pair of wristwarmers - I think that kind of justifies the expense of the initial ball of wool...doesn't it?  There is a tiny bit left over but not enough to make anything in particular. 

I think the sudden surge in creativity has a lot to do with the onset of autumn and the fact that the garden no longer gives off  it's siren call. Everything is slowly dying off out there and all that needs to be done is gradual clearing up of the dead bits.  I did pick one last sweetpea yesterday and some fragrant honeysuckle flowers the day before so all is not gone yet.

Sheer Bliss...

I always love painting and drawing dogs, they are my favourite subject.  Sometimes, however, they can be a bit of a struggle when the photos are bad or the colour of the fur is dark.  Not this one though!  I have an amazing set of photos to work from, the dog is cuteness personified and the painting is not a chore but a complete joy to do.  This is still only in the blocking-in stages, with the only part almost complete being the eyes, yet already he is peering out of the canvas urging me to get on and paint him. 

This is in acrylic on Dalerboard with a good three coats of gesso to obtain a smooth surface.  Can't stop to chat, I need to get back to this!

Incentive...

I hate knitting socks.  I usually don't get past the first one, but this time I had a bit of added incentive.  Not only was the yarn eye-wateringly expensive, I really, really wanted a pair of blue and white stripy socks.  So these only took just over a week, in amongst other woolly projects.  Also, as I made them ankle socks, there was enough yarn leftover to make a pair of matching wrist-warmers. 

We went to a craft fair yesterday - some wonderful things to look at and some ideas to think about.  Due to high prices, I came away with a very small haul this time, these great little pieces of fabric.  Now I just need a project to use them on.  Any ideas?

Quink!

Last week I was reminded of a technique by something I saw on a tv programme. A girl drew some trees using a thin nib & Quink black ink, then washed over them with water to separate the pigments of the ink and create a cloudy effect. Quink ink separates into blue and a coppery brown when wet.  Today I finally remembered to buy some of this ink and had a bit of a play.  I used a photo I took in the Blackwood Forest in the summer as a reference and drew the main branches only of the trees, then inked them in. In some places I just inked the sides of the trunk and added water to make the ink run into the middle & create a shaded effect.

Then I used a fine water spray to mist over the paper where I wanted leaves & dropped ink gently into the patches of water with a paint brush.  Where there was a lot of water, the ink ran beautifully and when dry, looked like sunlight coming through the leaves.  Once the leaves had dried, I had to go over the trunks again as they had faded in places - perhaps next time I would do the leaves first.  I also re-applied the water spray and ink in places to make parts of the leaves darker.

For a first attempt, I am really pleased with this and can see lots of potential for future pictures.