Finally started shading

only a week later than everyone else so am a week behind with the suzi class technically. But it does say we will still have 2 weeks after the video's go up so I am not panicing yet. So here is my first attempt at shading. Not the best as its got some colours showing through strongly but seeing as I have never done anything like this before I certainly don't think its the worse and am impressed i managed to pull together some elements of it. I plan to do some more shading tomorrow night :)

Not quite to plan

In that I don't think I did the sketching I said I'd do Tuesday evening but that is because I got sucked in by Professor Layton on the DS. Its a game that consists of loads of puzzles whilst being a mystery quest at the same time. Its great - I love puzzles. Plus they are the types of ones where its logical but its not the first answer that jumps to your mind, you have to really look at what you are being asked.

Plus now I have less of a free weekend as I am heading back to London to see friends and family. But I intent to take my sketchpad and my netbook with me so I can watch the films on it and then sketch over the weekend as well. I might even take my sketchpad out and about with me to see if I am hit by inspiration from people on the street.

SuziBlu Video 1c

Thats right I watched the rest of video 1b whilst doing a bit of sketching and have watched most of 1c. I even drew one of my petites with a body which didn't turn out quite right in regards to the clothes but its all exploration of new things. I did like giving her cat ears though and playing around with her t-shirt but originally I was going for a dress, then the top looked like a t-shirt so I played with that but she was still left with the dress like bottom. Jeans would have been better so maybe next time I will do that.


I plan to watch the rest of that video tonight and do some more sketching as I was supposed to come up with the Doll I wanted to use for my painting by Saturday but being away from Thursday til Sunday hindered that. So I want to sketch some more in general before I move on to using the colours.
Because that is what Class 2 is which went online yesterday. I am off to the cinema tomorrow so that will leave me no time to sketch so Thursday will be when I start playing with my coloured pencils :) However I have a very free weekend at the moment so the plan will be to play to my hearts content.

More Suzi Blu fun

Thats right, I have made my way through half of video 1b which I did Monday Night and then just sketched in front of the tv last night which was fun. And so I have more sketches to share.

So the first is what I was sketching whilst working my way through some of Video 1b, I also had a More magazine next to me so I flicked through that for some inspiration as well.

Then I was sketching whilst watching Hairspray on the TV and was trying to recreate some of their hairstyles which was fun. I might attempt to do something like that for my actual piece but I am going to have more of a play before I decide that.
I have been out drinking with a lady from bookgroup tonight so no sketching but hoping to fit some in tomorrow before I head back to London for the weekend

Journal Home Safe

Finally my journal from Seren's group swap is home safe and what a treat it is. There were six of us in the swap in the end adn each artists pages are soooo different. I have taken a picture of a double page from each artist so you can see the difference. Its so exciting to leaf through and just touch and look at each page. I know that I will find something a little different each time. So thank you to Nadia Munarolo-Kurjata, Linda East, Karen Chew, Nathalie Davis and Seren. I have enjoyed this swap and although it took longer than expected, I would do it all again in a heart beat.

Video 1a

So I did have a go at Suzi's first class but I only went through video 1a. I plan to look at video 1b and 1c tonight. They are nice to follow and you can have a little draw whilst following the video as well. Suzi is very personable on her video's so they are nice to follow. Anyway here is my first play yesterday, sketching along with the video.

Playing with paints

Art evening on Thursday was fun although Nic put me to shame with her drawning skills. She recreated a drawing of Bumblebee from transformers and it was very good. She didn't end up painting it but is going to paint it in oils at home so I look forward to seeing it.

I on the other hand headed straight for the paints and just had a bit of play. I was going for the sea and although it could be considered the sea, my other half pointed out it also looks a little like mountains and I agree that because the peaks are quite high it could be seen as mountains as well. Clearly something to develop in the future.

The first of Suzi Blu's classes is up online and I am downloading them now although I am not sure if I will find the time to start playing today. I may try to have a little play though. For now I will go back to watching Chocolat whilst trying to let my burnt skin cool down from the sun getting it yesterday :)

I'm attending a workshop

Thats right I have taken the plunge and bought myself in to a workshop - ok its an online workshop but I am very excited. I never done any official art and so this feels special. There are alot of things on the list to buy and I am not sure if I will buy them all. I will see what I think from the tutorial videos but I am getting the basics. And so at the weekend I ordered lots of nice colouring pencils for all the faces I am going to be drawing - I have joined SuziBlu's Petite Dolls class and they turned up today. They are special looking which I then had to put in colour order to look nice.

I also popped to hobbycraft yesterday and picked up soem basic colour acrylics in big tubes so that I have plenty to play with. I only have little tubes so I will save them for stuff I will do less. We are using them for backgrounds in the class so will be able to just much around and experiment. I picked up flesh colour as well - might need that. I also got a circle template and a sketchbook as we will be doing lots of sketching and then using it in our paintings.
So that starts next week and I plan to have fun.


As for tonight I watched Half Nelson whilst writing to penpals and it put me in a contemplative mood so got some tunes on the stereo and have been finishing off pages in a journal I have from a swap so I can send it home. Here's just a few pages from it.


Bring on tomorrow night which is art night with my friend Nic. I see alot of mess with my new paints happening. I will be sure to take pictures

Craft and Vintage Fair

Thats right there was a craft and vintage fair in Chipping Sodbury which I popped along to. It was good fun, small but fun. I had a little wander round and actually could have brought lots of things but I have so much already so I kept myself under wraps however I did buy a couple of things.
One was a card which made me think of an online art friend so it will be heading her way soon. The other was some note cards and envelopes with pixies on mushrooms on them. I thought they were fab and don't have too many notecards as I do use them up so it was all good.

This was one of the stalls there. It was beautiful and I could have bought many things from it. However I did take a card, i took a couple from some of the other stalls as well so I can in the future check out their stuff online.
There was a couple of people who had come all the way from Cornwall which I thought was a long way to come just for a craft fair but I guess it depends on whether they do well and meet nice people or not.