Floating Lemons: Bit by Bit Blog

30: Obligatory Heliconia drawing!

Obligatory heliconia drawing ... Unfinished.

I really should keep at it and put a lot more work into this drawing. But I’ve spent far too long on it as it is, and find myself with absolutely no energy left, so I’m afraid it will have to remain unfinished. I may return to it some day, but then again perhaps it’s just meant to remain the way it is. I’m constantly agonizing over the right time to put the pencils down and just Stop. I doubt if I’ll ever learn, despite the knowledge that it can be dangerous to overwork a piece -- and end up destroying it. Sometimes it’s best just to leave things the way they are :)

I think this is heliconia rostrata, which grows rampantly within the neat beds of my mother's garden.

Heliconia Card at Zazzle

29: My dog Bella, step-by-step

Well, Having drawn Bertha I had to do Bella as well. So here she is, And I've included the step-by-step progress as I did in the previous drawing. Still a lot to learn but I'm pretty pleased with these first attempts at watercolour pencil :) Here's the final drawing with water added and some touching up with the pencils after ...

Here it is with just coloured pencil before the addition of water:

And here's the first pencil sketch:

And finally, the photograph I used as reference. I miss my dogs!

28: My dog Bertha, step-by-step!

I'm back in Malaysia trying to settle paperwork and visa documentation! This is just after spending a whole 5 days lugging all my stuff (how on earth did I manage to accumulate so much ALREADY?!) to the car and back and then a 40 minute drive to the village and 40 minutes back, as I was moving into a new rental home in the village I'm hoping to live in! So it's been hectic to say the least. Have barely had time to think!

But today I finally was able (in between a million zillion phone calls in search of documents, translators, lawyers oh dear) to a bit of drawing. And as I'm missing my dogs, I pulled a photo of one of them out and sat down to play with the watercolour pencils I bought when I got here. And I've managed to scan a few steps of the progress too!

Going backwards, here's the final  drawing:

With water added to the pencils and then a final touch-up with the colours minus water (to darken the shadows mainly) and with a B pencil. I am actually quite pleased with the end result despite the fact that it's not exactly quite the way I thought it would look :)

This was the almost-final pencil stage, before adding water. I found it quite difficult to work with such soft pencils (I'm used to hard, fine sharp ones!) on textured paper even though it was quite finely textured. But I didn't go into too much detail as I wasn't sure if the water would just wash it all away! I also had to alter her paw, as I first drew it a bit too short.

And here's the pencil sketch. I'd already added a bit of colour when I thought of scanning in the progress, but you can still see the beginning rough sketch.

And finally, this is the photo I used as reference! Ok, so I made a few mistakes, but I think I managed to capture her personality and that's what has made me happy with it. Next I'm going to have to do her sister or there's going to be a huge upset in the family :D

Brown Bertha Card at Zazzle! :D

27: Tea in Green

Tea in Green Card at Zazzle

I saw the EDM Challenge 162: Draw Your Breakfast. I had it in front of me ... a giant green cup of soothing hot tea. I also had a pre-cut ATC sized card next to me. Add them altogether and the result is the drawing above!

I've obviously been in a bit of a wonky mood lately and seem intent on ignoring the laws of perspective. That's fine, I had fun :)

26: A Bit Tied Up!

A Bit Tied Up Card at Zazzle

So far, all the 'girl' characters drawn from my imagination have had their eyes closed ... I'm not quite sure why, but am glad that finally this one decided to open hers :)

Had fun with this little dabbling attempt -- I had no idea of where I was going with it when I started, and it's all wonky and forget anything approaching realistic perspective etc, but it was extremely therapeutic!

25: White Doorknob

You'd think I'd have far more exciting things to draw at the moment than the doorknob to the door of my bathroom! But I've been keen to draw this one for a while now ... something about the white on white and shiny chrome bits made me itch to get it down on paper, though I wish I had paints with which to create some texture in the white areas as I'd really like to.

Had tons of trouble with the scanner for this one for some odd reason, it kept coming up with a red tinge and missing out completely on the faded blues I used for the shadows, so I ended up placing the whole image into black and white, which got rid of all the colour but came a bit closer to the original. Sigh. Perhaps I'll try taking a photograph at some later stage! Perhaps not ... :)

24: Unfinished Tree

I took a break and went to stay with a friend and her family in a wee village near Toulouse. Had a wonderful time and managed to do some drawings for the kids there :)

I also started this one of the tree that stands in a corner of her large garden, right in front of the outdoor table where I spent a lot of time ... but as you can see, I never managed to get past the initial sketch.

I did take a lot of photographs before leaving so perhaps I'll look through them and see if they help me finish this one off eventually, but meanwhile I thought I'd pop it up here anyway!

23: Red Mini Sketchbook

Red Mini Sketchbook Card & Products at Zazzle

And here's the second page of my new Moleskine!

I bought this small, cute red leather sketchbook with textured pages to take around with me tucked into my bag so that I could jot down ideas or quick sketches ... I love it, it's wonderfully thick and lovely to hold :)

22: Life is a Learning Experience

I decided that I couldn't go another few months without a Moleskine sketchbook (that's how long it will take before I get my things sent out to me!) so I went out and bought one! Here's the very first page ...

Green Dots

Did a quick exercise in green dots to see what colour pencils I have ... yes, I'll be going through the rest of the colours too eventually :)

These are Caran D'ache Prismalo and Stabilo Aquacolor water colour pencils that I have ... they haven't come out very true to their original colour in the scan, but it's as close as I could make it twiddling around!

21: Blue Easter Egg

And sometimes, even doodling can be fun! Am still not 100% but I went on strike (I hate being sick) and drove out to the countryside with the dogs this morning to give them a good run, then got back home and finished up this little doodle that I'd started up late last night. Yes, I'm trying to think up products for Easter for my online stores of course :)

I turned this into a few products including this card at Zazzle:

Oh, and my Rabbit Blue Stamp won a Today's Best Award on Zazzle yay!

Am already wondering what to draw next ... hmmmm ... :D Happy Weekend!

20: Small Blue Door

I loved this door, it was tiny, like a wee door out of a fairy-tale. Saw it while I was walking down a narrow street in the gorgeous little village of Lourmarin, and had to whip out the camera and take a photo so I could draw it later. Also loved the reflections in the window above, everything was so contrasted and strong and stark. I intentionally faded the colours back a bit in the drawing, so that the lights and shadows would stand out more. I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do but I think I quite like the end result, so ...

It's been a while since I got so involved in a drawing and I thoroughly enjoyed it ... there are benefits to being sicky and having to stay indoors :) Am still not too happy with the scanner but perhaps my fiddling around is working as this scan has come closest to the original so far though the colours are still a bit too "fluorescent" to my liking. Cheers!

I've just discovered that I've been given an Award by both Genxster AND Emma at emuse. They are both such talented artists and I stop by at their blogs regularly in order to get inspired, so I feel very grateful and pleased that they thought of me.

Genxster's blog or Flickr sites are always full of wonderful drawings so shoot over and have a look. Thank you Mellanie!

And Emma's blog is chock-full of her creative ideas and art, another inspirational stop.

It's going to be difficult to find someone to pass this Award onto as everyone I think of seems to already have one! I'm hoping that these blog-friends don't as yet but if they do (ok, so I know a few of them definitely do ...) they'll just have to live with getting another as a thank you for all their wonderful artwork and for their encouragement and support as friends: Kathleen, Joan, Andrea, Karen, France, Kathleen Rietz, Laura, Teri ... 

1. If you get tagged (and want to play along), write a post with links to blogs that you love,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

18: Rabbit Sketch; 19: Easter Egg Bunny

I'm feeling very uninspired today ... I finally have time to draw but have a mild cold and nothing seems to come out right and the scanner seems to be making things worse, ack. Not a great day but I did a few test sketches of rabbits and I decided to fool around with one of them and place it on the background from another of my drawings (Lily-of-the-Valley in case you're curious) and this was the result:

After which I doodled a bunny on an Easter Egg:

Which the scanner screwed up completely as the colours are different and the faded blue strokes on the rabbit are pretty invisible ... but that's okay as I'm not happy with any of my drawings and sketches today anyway. I gave up fiddling with the scanner and decided to post these two, even if I'm not crazy about them. There are good days and bad days and the good days will eventually return, right? Right?

Off to make another hot drink to soothe my aching body and take more vitamins to fight off this cold. I rarely get colds so am also extremely annoyed at being sicky ...

Text Designs and 17: Streetlight

I've been so busy running around exploring and trying to find a place to live and learning the language, that I haven't had the time to do much drawing! But I'm putting up some of the text designs I did  while I was without art supplies, and I managed to get a quick drawing done today yay.

I find that I'm fascinated at the moment with detail. I love the panoramic views and the countryside and scenery is absolutely gorgeous here, but when it comes to subjects for sketching I discover myself peering at streetlights and windows and shutters and doors and all the little details that make up the bits and parts of the villages and city!

This streetlight hangs on the wall outside my building, so all I had to do was lean out (not too far!) and take a couple of photographs. Have taken quite a few of windows and doors so those will be showing up pretty soon :)

And here are the text designs I played around with, either because I was asked for them, they were suggestions from friends or customers, or something similar was popular in my stores:

They can all be found at my Zazzle store if anyone wants to dash over for a peek :D

I'm hoping I'll get another drawing in within the next couple of days. Have to think of something Easterish too if I can tear myself away from everything around me. Am off to try and sneak a few more products into my stores before I retire for the night. Cheers!

P.S.: Here's the card I made from the Street Light drawing!

10: Green Leaves, 11: Terrific at 20, 12: Twisted at 20

Green Leaves products at Zazzle

I've been rather stuck lately as far as drawing is concerned. It's probably because so much has been happening that has had, unfortunately, to take priority till I settle in somewhere, but it's rather frustrating and I am looking forward to getting into a good routine again as that seems to help free me up for drawing and art.

Anyway, I've been doodling a bit here and there and this was one of the results. I'm calling it "Green Leaves" for lack of imagination, which seems to have deserted me ... for the moment only, I hope! I had no idea of what I was going to do when the pencil hit the paper, and rather liked what it turned out to be.

Sitting at the tablet pc squiggling out text designs is simple, requires no thought and the feel of the tablet on the screen is somewhat soothing, so it's what I end up doing when tired in the evenings sitting in front of a TV unable to quite follow what's going on but hoping that the French language will be absorbed by my brain through inertia and osmosis ... hmmm, the brain seems to have gone on strike ... :D

Twisted at 20ty products at Zazzle

Terrific at 20ty products at Zazzle