Floating Lemons: Bit by Bit Blog

40: Pink Cake for Lani!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LELANI!

This is for Lelani who turns 9 today. Her favourite colours are pink, purple and blue.

A quick one, as I have guests this weekend. Am still trying to figure out how to proceed as far as my art is concerned, but am far more relaxed about it. I'll get there ... and meanwhile thank you for all the messages, advice and encouragement, they are all excellent and truly appreciated. Helps to give me some direction and that's no mean feat at the moment ... :)

39: Closed Gate

I really need to make some changes. Start with something fresh and new ... I love what I've been drawing but am tired of the same old detailed work and my head hurts and my eyes ache. Am a bit stuck in a rut at the moment I think, any ideas folks?

This was another quick one ... it's one of the gates I pass by on my daily walks with the dogs on the way into the village. I do love the textures of the stone and was very much inspired to do this by the absolutely amazing detailed work of a good friend, horrigboy, on Flickr. When I grow up i want to draw and paint just like him ... :)

But right now I think I need a bit of a break to figure out which direction I want to run to ... am procrastinating with starting up on the acrylics too. sigh. Cheers!

38: Dare Me Diva

Another quick fun sketch ... I'm working on a larger one so am doing some rapid ones in between:)

This is for another good friend who is one of two with the extraordinary and humbling ability to make me laugh till (please don't say what you're about to say, Mark, it's not fit for pubic consumption!) my stomach hurts ... :) To be taken lightly of course and with a huge sprinkling of humour ... love you loads Daph!!

Hmmm I may have to do a series of this for other insane mates of mine, they keep me sane ...

37: Clouds In My Coffee

This was quick, simple and a lot of fun to do though the scan has made it a lot 'rosier' than it is in real life. The clouds are WHITE (not pink) in the real drawing, I promise you! I give up with this scanner ... I may end up buying a new one, ack.

I love it when drawing from the imagination, I'm learning to throw all the rules out the window and just play. Enjoyed this one -- I knew immediately what I wanted to draw and it's wonderful when that happens.

On a more personal note: Funnily enough, I also had two friends in mind when I drew it. And yes, I do mean in a very tongue-in-cheek, fun, and excellent old times, way :). They're very special friends and creative individuals, and perhaps the fact that they share a birthday has a lot to do with the fact that they both constantly challenge me mentally ... there's nothing better than intellectual stimulation, say my fleeing gray cells ...! This drawing IS about them, and great memories.

36: Top Snail

Meant to be a simple drawing for the monthly challenge at Botanical Art: any botanical of your choice with a bug or an insect included. Here's my twig with snails attached! Hope it counts.

The scanner has managed to screw this one up some, so it's a bit more blue and overexposed than it should be ... sigh. Ah well, I give up battling, and give in ...

I felt this drawing to be pretty symbolic of my own situation recently: patience and perseverance. Bit by Bit and eventually one reaches one's goal, right? Am not too sure about the top of a dead twig being the best choice but hey, each to his/her own :)

When I returned from my trip to Malaysia, it was to find millions (I am NOT exaggerating) of these teeny white snails all over the terrace and garden. i hate killing just about anything (mosquitoes are fair game I'd say as they're after my blood and they buzz frustratingly all night ...) so it was pretty horrendous walking around hearing crunching sounds from under my shoes eeeeugh. Sigh. They're about as big as half the fingernail on my little finger though they come smaller and slightly larger too ... millions, I promise you. Must go take a photo of it soon as it looks like it's been hailing white snails out there.

P.S.: To those of you who are visiting now, here's a link to a post with some photos of the snails in 'real life': Snails snails snails 

Top Snail Card at Zazzle

35: Guitar

Guitar Card at zazzle

I'm sure that in art, as in life, our minds conveniently create blocks to prevent us from considering the consequences of our actions or decisions ... If we knew how difficult some things would turn out to be, we would never attempt them. As with the above drawing ...

My ex-husband is visiting me at the moment. He's a great guy and we're still good friends, so that isn't as strange as it might sound :) He's also a musician, so of course I saw his guitar and thought, hey, that would make a great drawing .... ack. Conveniently forgot about the strings and bits and pieces, didn't I? Oh yes, and the STRINGS, have I mentioned those? It ended up taking me AGES. And a lot of frustration and cursing, but I persevered, as you can tell.

If any of you out there would like to see me bash my head against the wall (especially any guitar afficionados who are examining my drawing and saying, "Hey, that's not quite right!"), then please, just go ahead and point out the numerous mistakes--all of which I am well aware-- and sit back and enjoy the show :D

Peter (Pete Ross and the Paesanos) has a great voice so take a peek and have a listen, at his sites at MySpace and on Facebook's iLike. Enjoy!

34: Floating Koi

EDM Challenge 166: Draw a Fish

Floating Koi White Card at zazzle

I've been a bit stumped as to what to draw recently ... so went through my photographs and came across some I'd taken of the monstrous carp or koi at my father's place ... they are huge and beautiful, and so I decided to finally put them down on paper. First time I've used only one brand of pencils for a drawing: Caran D'Ache's Luminance 6901. They're gorgeous, though they're soft and need lots of sharpening to retain the fine points I like to work with. Love them!

Once again I had a problem with the background. After my experience with the artichoke I decided not to colour in a background as yet, but have superimposed the fish onto one of my older coloured pencil textured backgrounds just to see how it looks:

Floating Koi Blue Card at zazzle

I kinda like it ... also have to point out the fact that in the photograph there were absolutely no shadows and the water in the pond was so clear that you could see the pebbly ground (which I was NOT about to draw!), so they really DID look as though they were floating on air ...

33: Purple Artichoke

It wasn't until I was almost finished with this drawing that I realised it could be made to fit into the latest challenge at Inspire me Thursday ... so I added the orange background to make it truly "Purple & Orange".

But to be honest am not that happy with the orange, it seems to heat things up and I prefer cool background colours. So I've taken the background off digitally and here it is against plain white. Which do you prefer?

I like it against the white ... though that's just personal preference. Fortunately we don't all like the same things else the world would be a boring place ...

I used to grow purple artichokes when I had my wee courtyard garden in Melbourne. I'd let some "flower" as they were amazingly beautiful. And delicious. This one was yummy.

32: If Elephants Can Fly ... Anything is Possible!

Elephants Can Fly! Card at Zazzle

Am dedicating this one to an old, close and very special friend of mine. He requested a drawing ... and this is not it (I'll get to it eventually!) but I think this will do very well for the meantime. It's to wish him all happiness for his future, as he really does deserve it :)

Wanted to do something simple (and, as it turns out, rather sweet) as I'm still exhausted from running around having to catch up on everything that needs to be done now that I'm back in France. One of these days life will get back to 'normal' I hope. Meanwhile, I'm so enjoying being back here.

I love Malaysia but it's intensity and vividness is sometimes overpowering and I tend to lose myself in the wild tangle of powerful emotions, constant activity and chaotic colour that threaten to separate me from my love of being in control [surely you know that about me by now! :)]

The one thing that I did rediscover on this unexpectedly extra long trip however, was the irreplaceable and precious value of friendship, especially that of friends I have known for literally decades. There is nothing like it -- these are individuals who know me inside out, and, quite remarkably, have stood by  me despite it :) I am honoured by their constant criticism, extremely rare bouts of flattery (!), and twisted senses of humour ... and can quite confidently say, with much pleasure that if we've gone this far together, it's pretty much indestructible. However fragile I may feel the next day ... Thanks guys!

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 :)

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!

7: Plastic Pasta

EDM Challenge 152: "Draw something in a plastic wrapper."

Yes, I've been busy :D I decided to take time off and indulge my need to get some drawing done. I haven't done an EDM Challenge in what seems AGES, so looked them up and grabbed this plastic bag of organic pasta out of my teeny 'just-starting-up' larder/pantry. It kept me busy for a bit, and therapeutically soothed my 'stressed-from-the-move' soul.

6: Red Hot Mug

Red Hot Mug interpreted as a card and Love card on Zazzle :D

I miss my Daylight Lamp!! I used it to draw by, in the evenings, so I could still see the true colour of my pencils. As it is, I had to stop last night in the middle of this drawing as I no longer knew what reds I was using. and I continued it today in the clear light of day, sitting by the window.

I bought this lovely deep red mug at the markets last week. I haven't done it any justice as far as its real colour is concerned, but this was my attempt nonetheless :) I used watercolour pencils so scanned the above once I'd finished drawing it in case I destroyed it when I "painted" the water on. Below is the final result, which turned out neither as well nor as badly as I'd imagined:

From France- 4: Tree of Hearts, 5: Love makes me Happy

Bonjour!! I'm now in France!! I still can't quite believe it and am loving it here. If anyone would like to know a bit more about what's up in my life, I've blogged over at my Musings blog, so head over there.

Meanwhile, I have been suffering without my coloured pencils and sketchbooks. Who knew I'd depend sos much on having the huge range of colours I had at home? They are now in storage with all the rest of my art supplies and what's left of my material possessions, waiting for me to find a more 'permanent' abode here in France. So I have only managed a doodle and a text design in between the huge chaos of packing, moving and semi-settling in. Not really happy with either but at least I got something small done!!

Tree of Hearts card is up over at Zazzle.

I did this text design:

Love makes me Happy card at Zazzle.

And no prizes for guessing that there's a love/hearts theme going through my mind at the moment. No no no, I'm not in love or attached at the moment, but Valentine's Day is around the corner and my commercially-minded panicked brain is hard at work thinking up designs for products and gifts, sigh. Apologies but I can't quite help it at the moment :)

On the bright side ... I've discovered a great art store close by and have practiced surprising restraint but managed to bag myself a set of watercolour pencils and good paper, so will be back to drawing again soon. Can't wait as my fingers are itching to get sketching again.

I'm also planning to start taking lots of photos and doing some drawings of what's around me though there's so much that's charming that I'm on overkill at the moment and in quite a bit of a daze still. Thank you to everyone who has messsaged me wishing me all the best and wondering when I'd be back here. I'm amazed that anyone noticed me missing at all so truly appreciate your wishes. Huge hugs and cheers from France!

2: Valentine; 3: Sweet 16

I just haven't had the time to do very much else but pack, get everything ready for the move and recover from exhaustion. Am suffering from lack of sleep! But I did manage to do a bit of text design and produced a Valentine's then Happy 16th birthday design.

Valentine Hearts card at Zazzle

Sweet Sixteen Card at Zazzle

My colored pencils are packed away and in storage till I need them to be shipped over to France, which means that it may be six months before I see them again. I have a basic minimum of twelve with me so will do with that till I can get my hands on more. Meanwhile I guess I'll do more digital text designs.

I can't believe it but tonight is my last night here In Australia! Looks like I may be offline for a while and only have access to limited internet connection which means that I will not be able to visit your blogs and check out all the wonderful art till I get a connection of my own. I can see myself suffering from all kinds of withdrawal, eek. But I shall be back as soon as I can and hope everything goes well with everyone out there. Cheers.

The matching Pink Leaf Sticker for the card received two Awards for Best Sticker of the Day (6th January) and Top Ten Sticker Views at Zazzle :D

1st Drawing for 2008! Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley card at Zazzle

My first drawing for 2008! The Lily of the Valley is such a sweet flower and it's particularly special here as I'm dedicating this to my god-daughter, Lily-Rose as the first half of a belated birthday present :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and that this coming year will be fruitful for us all! Happy 2008!

184: Top Hat Bunny ATC

Top Hat Bunny card at Zazzle

Drew this two days ago but am not happy with it at all. Almost didn't post it but I decided that I'd keep up with my decision to post everything including errors on my part! So here it is.

I'm absolutely exhausted, I've had 2-3 days of hard cleaning and clearing up to do and I have guests staying with me for the New Year which is wonderful. Doesn't leave much time for drawing though, but I'm sure I'll squeeze another one in very soon.

183: Eggplant

E is for Eggplant card at Zazzle

I decided to get a bit looser today and just have fun with my colored pencils. I picked two eggplants from the garden this morning and took a photograph (if you want to see the photo, it's here) and had a lovely afternoon drawing them.

It's been such a pleasant day, and so relaxing. I've picked tons of beans and tomatoes and zucchini from a garden that doesn't seem to mind my having ignored it so disgracefully the past few weeks, and had cups of tea, enjoyed a drawing, cooked a roast chicken for lunch, relaxed ... what a wonderful Christmas Day! Hope everyone has had the opportunity to count their blessings too.

181: Rosebud 182: Red Poppy

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Red Poppy products at Zazzle

Oh my, I've been so busy! Will blog about all my packing and planning stresses at my Musings blog tomorrow ... am too tired to do more tonight than upload the only couple of drawings I've been able to do so far.

Drew this red poppy tonight, now that I finally have some time to relax a bit as I've finally completed all the major To Dos for my move. And a couple of days ago I managed a simple outline of a rose bud:

Rosebud products at zazzle

Which was quite an achievement even if it doesn't seem like it -- finding time to draw at all was amazing as I was either clearing up house, on the phone, creating new products for my stores or too exhausted tomove at the end of the day. I'm hoping that now that I have most of the huge stuff out of the way I can do a bit more sketching before I leave!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Cheers :)

177: Chick

I can't believe I'm actually managing to fit another drawing into a busy day. Have cleared some things up, moved furniture around and emptied shelves and desktops to have some things ready for pick-up by friends on Saturday, and I've even cleaned up. And then sat down and did this quick sketch :D It's now time for bed ... am exhausted!

  Baby Chick Love Card
PS: I received a Today's Best Award at Zazzle for one of the cards I made from this drawing! :D

176: broom

EDM Challenge 149: Draw a Broom

I finally get to do a challenge! I'm still busy but am taking a break (procrastinating? Of course not!) before I tackle the issue of going through my wardrobes and sorting out what clutter/clothes to take and what not to ...

Needed a bit of therapy and though this was a quick and a bit of a wonky sketch, it has done me good. I may actually consider drawing something else as well ... I'm an expert where "later" is concerned, it's a shame no one hires professional procrastinators, I'd make millions:D

175: Fantastic at 50!

Fantastic at 50 Card at Zazzle

My Fabulous at 40 products were so well received that I decided to do one for the 50s ... something I'll be needing myself soon enough! So I spent what little free time I had, in between the multiple phone calls and bookings and confirmations that occupied my day yesterday (am so sick of 'Hold' music!), drawing the above design.

Today I shall pick the pencil up again and set it to paper though I have as yet no idea of what to draw. First I have a huge load of clearing up to do, sigh.

And I'll eventually draw something for the 60s. I've been toying with a few ideas: Sexy at 60, Seductive at 60, Serene at 60, Stupendous at 60 .... ack, am at sea. Which would you prefer? Any contributions would be very much appreciated ...

174: Angel

Angel Card at zazzle :

I drew this yesterday but by the time I'd finished it I was so tired I didn't have any energy left to scan it in! SO here I am, bright and early this morning, posting it finally.

I bought a gorgeous angel ornament two days ago and liked it so much that it was the inspiration for this drawing although I changed the colours and the expression on her face, and added the heart and the star :). She was still the model who posed for it, so I must give her the credit due for inspiring me. It was also wonderful to be able to pick up a pencil and draw again -- am going to have to fit as much drawing as I can into my upcoming very busy schedule.

Cheers!

P.S.: The card was awarded a Today's Best Daily Award AND the Hottest Love Card of the Day at Zazzle!! :D

172: Noel; 173: Sweet Flowers

NOEL card at zazzle

I've just arrived back from a two-week trip and, as it took two days of traveling just to get back, I'm truly exhausted! I went to France on an advance exploratory trip, and it looks as though I shall be moving there, mid-January,  to experience the beauty and character and clear light of the Provencal countryside first-hand, for about six months! Am alternating between panic at the insanity of what I'm planning, and excitement at what the future holds. I won't elaborate further here but if anyone is interested in the details of the move and the chaos my life is about to turn into (and a few photos from my trip), I'll be blogging about it at my personal Musings blog: http://mrana.typepad.com/musings.

Sweet Flowers "love" card at zazzle

As the trip was pretty travel intensive and I get car-sick if I even glance anywhere other than out the car window, I didn't get much drawing done and the little stencil-style flower doodle above was scribbled in the plane on the way to France in a rare 'awake' moment. I wasn't going to post it at all but a friend of mine really liked it (!) and has persuaded me to.

I'm looking forward to getting back into a bout of therapeutic drawing, in between pulling my hair out at the inevitable complications and idiocies involved in the kind of huge inter-continental move that I'm contemplating! First though, I really should get some sleep ... :)

171: Rooster

Rooster Card at Zazzle

I was asked to draw a rooster ... and thought it would be fun to try one, so here's my first attempt!

Meanwhile, am preparing for a 10 day trip so I'm not sure if I'll have the time to post anything, even if I have the time to draw in the first place! Will take my sketchbook with me but we'll see how things go as far as actually getting anything done. If there's an internet connection I'll definitely be posting something!

170: Gift Boxes ATC

I thought I'd show a bit of the progress steps from drawing to finished product! I started this ATC last night. It's 2.5 by 3.5 inches in size and it took me about a couple of hours to draw, nice and quick which is why I call them my "doodles"!

Once I'd completed it, I scanned it in and then cleaned up the edges a bit and this was the result, all ready to turn into a card:

All the digital work is done on my tablet pc in Photoshop CS2. I then played around with a design to frame it in. And some text (which is where my tablet pc comes into 'proper' play and is invaluable!), and finally created two cards out of it: