When Sleep is not Your Friend

Hello Friends!

Some nights sleep is just something you can only dream of in your waking hours. When insomnia strikes  there is nothing you can do. Well, actually, there is something you can do. On those long nights when Mr Sandman forgets to drop by and I cannot get a wink, I triy to do something constructive. When I was awake last night, and nothing closed my peepers, I just put the light on, pulled out my paints and caught up on one of my missed lessons.

Here is my lovely Lotus Flower. I am calling it Lotus of the Dawn. That seems an appropriate title given the ungodly hour of the day I was creating it.

I used my new Winsor and Newton watercolour paints and new Caran d'Ache Prismacolour II waterproof colour pencils.

I hope you like it.  

Until next time.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Debbie. xx

The Vikings Are Coming!

Hello Friends!

I hope everyone in the UK and near continent and Scandinavia are safe after the barage of storms we've had in recent weeks. I know some of you have suffered and it's going to be a long time before the flood waters will drain. I am thinking of all of you and sending wishes for normality to be restored as soon as possible.

There's a Viking invasion on Facebook.  It's a silly game everyone is playing whereby you have a photo of you edited to show what you would look like as a Viking.  Having had an obsession with Vikings since I was a child {along with all things Celtic too} I couldn't resist joining in. Frankly, we all look like siblings!

This is me as a Viking.  I like it!

As I enjoy creating fantasy portraits, and I'm currently learning to draw using graphite, I just had to draw a portrait based on me as a Viking.  My goal it to be able to draw people that are recognisable and while I'm very happy with the sketch, she does not look like me as a Viking.  

She is not quite finished.  Part of me wants to invest a little colour but part of me resists that thought.  I want to finish off her shirt, and I'd like to work a light bokeh background but I am afraid of spoiling it.

To satisfy my need to apply colour, I did this one using just Caran d'Ache watercolour and Spectrum Noir water resistant coloured pencils.

When drawing the outlines I use the basic formula of an oval divided in half both vertically and horizontally, then the bottom half gets divided in half again, twice.  Here are some stages in the early development of a portrait as you might like to see how one develops.

As you can see, the proportions are basic and can be altered, but the more you tweak, the less human like the face becomes, making it more fairy like, or elfin for example. I like to fill in the eyes early on as it makes the face less spooky!

*Editing to add that this method for drawing a human face was not created as one might think by the genius that was Leonardo da Vinci, but by the American illustrator Andrew Loomis in the 1940's!

Next week I begin a seven week long intensive drawing course using graphite under the mentorship of Danish artist Ida Andersen Lang I hope to vastly improve my skill set in this medium.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, stay warm!

Debbie 

Tai Chi, The Angel and Me

Hello Friends!

A recent study has shown that's doing Tai Chi twice a week drastically reduces the progression the progression of Parkinson's disease.

If you are interested in it, you can read all about it here.  

It is by no means conclusive and is pretty much in the early stages of research but I am happy to try anything especially what are classed as complimentary therapies.  I have found an instructor who is happy to come to my home so that I can try this out in private, one on one, without having to go and make a fool of myself in a public group.  It would be quite embarrassing trying to learn this in front of other people because I am prone to falling and I am very slow so could not keep up with the group.  I also tire easily so it might be that I can only do a few minutes before I need to sit down and rest.  

She came to my house yesterday.  After a brief assessment of my mobility, she suggested that Tai Chi is not the best idea for me as my balance is rubbish and as I am prone to falling or toppling over it might prove more of a hazard than a benefit.  She did, however, suggest Qigong, a system of gentle movement and breathing, you can read about it here,  I have since discovered several of my friends do this with good results.

Meanwhile, I made this little watercolour painting of a Prayer Angel of Peace as part of the annual Wish Upon A Star online course hosted by Atelier Ida Andersen Lang.  I used Gansai Tambi, Chromoflow, and graphite.  It is the job to angle the camera, to get the true colour of the picture.

I always want to paint a very muted palette. But it is something that eludes me all the time. I am learning to accept that it's that it's probably part of my own personal style that I favour brighter jewel colours. So I'm going to learn to stick with it.

Here are a few photos that show you don't have to have a huge space to create simple pieces of art. I am working off a folding table. I think they call them TV dinner tables. Plenty of room for a book stand to take my tablet so I could then play back and follow the lesson. My recycled chipped mug of brushes. An A4. drawing book. My crystals and candle which make the space sacred. and other bits and bobs.

As I put the final touches to this entry so Storm Ciarán, our  third named storm, is beginning to make its presence felt although it's not supposed to be here until late Wednesday. The wind is definitely howling outside right now. Hatches are battened once more!  We are under an amber weather. alerts for the next 36 hours. We are expecting torrential rain and winds of up to 90 miles an hour. And this is just the beginning of winter.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie x
 

Well Hello!

 Hello friends!

I hope you are all keeping well. Winter seems to have been longer than usual this year. I think there must have been at least 273 days in January. Yet already the year seems to be flying by as we have just a week or so left in February and tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday which can mean only one thing: pancake day! How do you eat yours? My favourites are to make large crepes lightly spread with a little butter, sprinkled with a little sugar, and drenched in either lemon or orange juice.

will you be giving up anything for Lent? I am contemplating giving up chocolate which will be a huge sacrifice for me as it is my one comfort.  I tried Veganuary in the hopes that giving up cheese I would lose weight but I actually gained 4 pounds it was not meant to be that way!

Since I last wrote here all the way back in December, before Christmas, I have had a very nasty arthritis flare up. For those of you who suffer from arthritis I don't have to tell you how debilitating this is for me. I am in constant pain and cannot get comfortable in any chair or bed in the house.

Consequently almost all my activity has been curtailed, even if the weather has been kind enough to get out for walking I am barely able to put one foot in front of the other at the moment. To compound matters, two days ago I had a nasty little fall. I have no idea how it happened one minute I was standing upright the next minute I was hugging the tarmac. Thankfully no damage done a couple of tiny cuts, a grazed knee and a very bruised ego. But it just goes to show how easy you can fall over nothing more than thin air.

Parkinson's disease means that it is very difficult to hold books, and a short while ago a very kind friend sent me this. It is a wooden book stand and I can put my tablet on it with the kindle app and I'm therefore able to read without having the book shaking in my hands all the time. It has transformed my reading and I am deeply grateful to her for sending such a thoughtful gift.

Thankfully I am still able to paint, so in December of last year I signed up to the Anna Mason online art school. I have access to all sorts of instruction connected to watercolour painting and pencil drawing and all for less than the cost of a decent bar of chocolate a week. I didn't start the courses straight away, however I have started them recently and this is my first attempt. I guess you could say it is my first official watercolour painting, having used watercolour paints but never in the style of watercolour painting always used as part of my mixed media art. it is a song thrush egg, and although I have had to improvise with the colours a little, I'm very pleased with the overall results.

I have tried doing the daffodil but I am not so happy with this one the first one is all wrong. I know you will all disagree with me but trust me on this it is very wrong. I do not have the right size brushes or the correct coloured paints consequently it is turned out poorly.

This is my second attempt at it. Again having the wrong colours and wrong sized brushes is not helping even though I'm taking a different approach. As soon as I can afford the outlay for the new brushes and paints I will give it a third go.

Another dear friend sent me an Amazon gift voucher, so I treated myself to a tin of Derwent Chromaflow pencils. So I've been playing with those as well. Here's the first portrait I did using them.

And here's a little field mouse I drew using the new Chromaflow

Using mixed media, I did a couple of mandalas.

And finally a little mixed media painting of cone flowers just for fun.

my friends, as I said I hope you are keeping well this winter.

Until next time

Stay safe stay well stay warm

Debbie xo

Painting a Picture

Hello Friends!

I was recently given this lovely colouring book. What makes it special, and more exciting than my other colouring books is that this one is all printed on quality watercolour stock.  This means I can use my favourite wet mediums without buckling or tearing the paper.

The illustrations are also printed in light grey scale, so unlike most dry medium colouring books, the lines disappear once painted, instead of remaining highly visible on the finished piece.

I found my set of Inktense blocks, which I feel will give me the best selection of colours to do the chosen piece of two gourds.

Of course, this wouldn't be me without a blunder.

I didn't know there was a page of instructions in the book, which had stuck together.

So, by the time I found them, I'd already started and gone about it the wrong way.  I had also picked up the wrong colour and put it down in the wrong section.  C'est la vie!

Onward and upward.

I started using the instructions, back peddling now to try and save the day, laying down the colour where it shoud have been put in the first place.  I have to say, if you didn't know, it isn't too bad.

However, this is what it should be more akin to.  Then again, it is the first layers and will be built up.

I shouldn't say it, but I am mightily chuffed with the stem.  It's turned out well.  I keep on wanting to touch it.

I must contain myself and let well alone, not fiddle with it any more, and hope that I can recover the earlier mistake on the body of the gourd to better match the stem.

It may seem like a lot of photos, but there's method in the madness.  Keeping a good photographic record of each stage helps me learn from my mistakes, a visual step by step of progress.  It becomes an invaluable tool.  I do end up with a lot of similar looking images, but each one is different to the previous set.

Later on, they can be put side by side, as each layer happens, or a colour change is made.

Digital photograpy is a superb tool in this process as it time and date stamps each photo, so if you forget to tag, the process keeps in order.

I won't bore you with all the stages, here's the end result ~ et voilà 

I had to make myself stop.  That's always a problem I have, knowing when it's done.

I also took an online, hour long, paint along tutorial hosted by Matthew Palmer.  I found it very difficult to keep up as I had to keep changing glasses due to near vision issues between screen and workspace.  So, it's a bit of a mess.  Also, because it was simultaneously broadcast in America, it was late in the evening here {almost bedtime} and I found working under artificial light my grey mixed up to more of a purple.  Anyway, for those who haven't seen it, this is what I ended up with.  The waterfall is abysmal indeed.

Then the next day, I did this one trying to remember what to do.  I didn't have masking tape, so used pretty, low tack Washi instead.  I didn't do another waterfall, and used the purple paint to create some misty mountains.

Removing the tape to reveal a border makes a huge difference, even when the painting is awful.

I've been working in the garden, more off than on in the cold, and taking lots of walks, as well as painting,  Gardening and walking when the weather is good, painting for when it is not good.  I'll never be any good at painting, but it makes me very happy to putter for a few hours.

Until next time

Stay Safe, Stay Well

A Quick Hello ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ nothing much is happening here at the moment, well, plenty is happening but nothing I feel you would want me to share, so I have generally been quite quiet.  I'm sitting here today trying to unfrazzle myself from a stressful, pear shaped morning, gathering my thoughts while sipping a mug of my favourite Constant Comment tea, and nibbling Lindor limited edition Orange ~~~I'm in heaven as orange is a favourite flavour of mine in anything ~~~ chocolate, Cointreau, tea, cakes, trifles, juice, even shampoo, soap and bubble bath, not to mention the real thing peeled and juicy, freshly dripping segments.  So, here I sit and thought I'd just type a few words to let you know I'm still around, mainly having a quick read of other journals drifting in the ether and leaving a scattering of comments ~~~ This poem just about sums up me and the weather at the moment ~~~

The Sky Is Low, The Clouds Are Mean

by Emily Dickinson

The sky is low, the clouds are mean,

A travelling flake of snow

Across a barn or through a rut

Debates if it will go.

A narrow wind complains all day

How some one treated him;

Nature, like us, is sometimes caught

Without her diadem. 

~~~~~

The weather is cruel now. The winds have blown almost relentlessly for the past three or four weeks now and suddenly winds of 20 mph seem calm by comparison. The rain when it falls is torrential and drives sideways.

So far, in less than a month, we've had Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, and lastly Desmond. Today's map has the all too familiar big, white arrows again ~~~ Just look at the wind speed today {the black circles, below} and this is fairly typical. Some days it is easier, others much worse. Bah Humbug!  I'm fed up with this now. As for the poor people in the north of England, my heart goes out to them ~~~ I should not complain about my weather ~~~

Every morning now I open my laptop to my Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar to see what magical delight is ready to greet me, even distract me for a while as there are many activities, such as designing a snowflake, or decorating the grand tree that stands in the Square in the Victorian village ~~~

I have been doing a little more painting and reading some new books, most recent of which is Bill Bryson's latest release, "The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island" which is a jolly good laugh and a pick me up guaranteed to make you smile as he writes in his inimitable style. I was fortunate to be able to secure a signed copy too ~~~

Here are my latest Folk Art attempts {only my second effort at this} and I have to say I'm very happy how they are turning out ~~~ I'm getting the hang of this distressing technique that is quite the rage these days with the favouring of vintage ~~~The Eiffel Tower isn't finished yet, I have to work out how to make it stand up or turn it into the Leaning Tower of Pisa ~~~

For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, I have disabled my profile. I do not know if this is a permanent move or a temporary one. Let's just say 'until further notice' and I'm getting a lot more things done since I've made this move. It is a very distracting activity, and I don't think I realised how distracting until this last week or so. I confess I am severely lacking in self discipline {I think it is that free spirited inner child and the artist within} and I am easily led astray with distraction activities ~~~

The freezer is emptied, defrosted, cleaned, and now reset and filling up with goodies for Christmas, and to see us through the Winter months ahead. I feel happier with it full at this time of year just in case the weather turns really bad and deliveries cannot get through.  My dry store cupboard is due to be turned out later this week and have it's quarterly sort through.

The rest of this week I will be baking cakes and mince pies for the freezer and finishing off and labelling jars of Raspberry Jam and Cranberry Jelly I made earlier this week.

Did I mention previously that I won £50.00 of Lakeland vouchers? Well, I did, and this is what I spent it on ~~~ a lovely hamper of treats. I decided to treat myself and not spend it on mundane necessities ~~~

Doesn't it look scrumptious? And, there is a lovely wicker hamper for picnics later on too ~~~ I could tuck in right away but must be good and keep it for Christmas ~~~ The bag of fudge is particularly endangered!

Here is somewhere you might like to visit Susan Branch's latest blog "On with the Dance!" It's a real happy place to visit and there's snow ~ and you can sign up for the "Cookie Jar Willard" too, arriving in an inbox somewhere near you any moment now ~~~ I'm over there reading right now, see, I told you I am easily distracted ~~~

On that note, Gentle Reader, I must fly ~~~ I have never been so behind in the run up to Christmas, there are cards to write, there are jobs that are waiting my attention and I cannot keep putting them off just because I don't want to do them ~~~

Until next time

Sincerely yours
Deborah xoxo