of feathers & birds…

I have taken flight!

As I said before, I’ve been enjoying some amazing art classes online recently.

Here are my first drawings I’ve done for Creativity in Flight :

These are all of the same European Roller, but each drawn slightly differently…

Pencil drawing:

Pencil sketch:

Contour drawing in ink (pen & waterproof ink)

Pen & ink drawing with hatching & cross-hatching:

Through these drawings, I’ve discovered two three things:

1) I so enjoy drawing birds!

2) I discovered ink! I love the feel of real pen & ink drawing- that is to say I bought a bottle of ink and a pen and dipped the pen in the ink and drew. The ink glides on the paper beautifully and I love the thought of using something that has been used for centuries! (And not as messy as I thought it would be!)

3) Practice! Each time I drew this bird, it became easier. Easier to see the shapes and lines & thus quicker to get it onto the paper. Food for thought!

Chat soon,  Vxx

Jumping right in…

I have jumped into this huge big pond of art journaling. I think I’m just managing to keep my head above water as it is overwhelming the number of ideas I have swimming around in my head.

The Joynal class I am taking with Jane Davenport is all about fairies and whimsical creatures. I altered an old storybook with gesso and collage:

and have done two ‘warm-up’ pages,

A face…

and a full figure…

It’s still quite new to me to draw out my head like this, but I am so enjoying experimenting!

Hope you all have a magical week!

Vxx

Art Journaling

I have been absorbed into the wonderful world of art journaling. Yes that’s where I’ve been – swept away into this magical colourful place and covered in coloured pencil scribblings, watercolours, ink and acrylic paint- oh, and tons of gesso!

I’ve been busy with a few online classes this year…

I heart drawing (Jane Davenport)

I then discovered that I should have done Supplies Me first –so I went backwards…

Then Jane started a new magical class on 30 April called Joynal…

These classes are so amazing and easy to follow along – click on the links to find out more.

I’ve also started 21 Secrets which features classes by 21 artists all sharing their passion for art journaling. (Jane Davenport also has a class there called “Frolicaholic”).

Then from 21 secrets I also found Gina Armfield and started an online live watercolour class called Creativity in Flight…

So now you know why I haven’t blogged much – I’ve been totally carried away by the artsy fairies.

Here’s a few pics of my art journal that I’ve started with for the Joynal class with Jane Davenport. I am having loads of fun being messy while transforming this old children’s book into my new art journal…

My plan is to finish Joynal and Creativity in Flight and then go back and complete the assignments for the other classes. Well, that’s the plan. I’m trying to discipline myself so I don’t go rushing into another class quite yet.

Will be sharing some of my artwork from these two classes soon…

Vxx

Can you say “Holidays”?

Yay! School holidays started today! I picked the kids up from school today at 11am and already felt a sense of relief.

4 weeks off bliss! No homework in the afternoons, no fetching & carrying to & from school (sometimes 3 or 4 times a day!), no school projects, just some pure fun! = HAPPY MOM!

This weekend is, of course, Easter. We’re at home, a quiet long weekend for us.

Tuesday we’re off to our little place of African heaven… The bushveld.

Hopefully we will see more of these beautiful prehistoric looking creatures…. I just love how this little baby is resting on his mommy’s back!

& this won’t happen again…(feb 2012)

the new, wider floodplain after the floods this summer…

Don’t you just love these faces?

You get the picture?

We’ll be back again after about a week, then we’ll relax at home until it’s my mom-in-law’s 80th birthday.

The whole family (the birthday girl + 5 kids + each of their spouses, + all 10 grandchildren= 21 in total) will be off for 3 days down to Umhlanga in Kwazulu Natal to a beautiful old hotel which was recently revamped …

I cannot wait to take photos of the beautiful lighthouse! (and I have to admit staying in such a gorgeous spot will be sublime!)

So this school holiday, we’ll have a bit of the bush and a bit of the beach – the best of both worlds – I can’t wait!

Autumn in April

The little sign on the postcard below says “Guess who’s sending this to you”. Well, guess who is actually writing a blog post? Yip – I am!

I have The Graphics Fairy permanently on my internet homepage and this rather funny postcard popped up for April 1st. Isn’t that fish funny? It’s like a carrier fish I guess (as in carrier pigeon?).

My birthday also happens to be April 1st (I know- funny ha! ha!) My kids even managed to prank me yesterday on my birthday! Shocking!

One reason I haven’t blogged in a while is that my internet has been so erratic lately! It simply goes off-line at whim. I discovered the problem has to do with my noisy crackling landline which then naturally interferes with the ADSL signal. {sigh!} It got fixed a week ago, and 2 days after, it went all crackly on me again. So here I am crossing fingers and thumbs that the signal holds out (and that dear old Telkom fixes the problem again soon!).

I must tell you what else has kept me very busy…

I have been doing an online drawing course. (Well- trying to do it in between internet signals!)

The course I started is called “I (heart) drawing” by Jane Davenport.  About a 1/4 of the way in, I discovered I should have done her “Supplies Me” course first – so I stopped the first one and started with “Supplies Me”.

“Supplies Me” is, well, all about getting the most from your art supplies & finding which media you enjoy best. Jane’s classes are fabulous – funny and filled to the brim with valuable information with loads of tips. She takes you through different media like pencils, watercolour, acrylics etc. and then with each week of the 8 week course, you learn to draw faces and figures – Jane’s way. Now let me tell you, Jane’s method of creating figures & faces out your head – be it whimsical or more realistic drawings- is so easy to follow and made such a change to the way I approach my art.

The best part is that even if you are not natural at drawing, perhaps you are simply just ‘creative’ rather than ‘artistic’, Jane will be able to teach you how to draw! The bottom line is practise.

After finishing ‘Supplies Me’, I will go back and complete “I heart drawing”. This is more of a detailed look at drawing figures – especially stylised fashion figures as well as faces.

Jane will also be doing a new course from 30 April which is all about drawing fairies and other mythical creatures. In the course you also create your own fairy tale. I am itching to start that one!!

Here are a couple of the drawings I’ve done in my journals in mixed media:

in pencil on plain paper:

and more mixed media…

If you are interested in Jane’s courses, take a peek at her blog:

http://www.janedavenport.com/