angeltreats

A new cookery blog

2011-02-17T16:41:00.002Z

So, even though I haven't posted in a long time, I have missed blogging. But I'm still suffering from creative block, so I have nothing nice to post.

I have, however, been baking obsessively. And that is the title of my new blog. Check it out, say hi if you stop by and visit.

This blog will stay here, and hopefully one day soon I'll pick up a pen/pencil/paintbrush/sewing machine again and post something pretty.

Madeleines, and how to lose weight while still baking obsessively.

2010-09-01T16:51:00.002+01:00

Since we moved away from London, I have had to drive everywhere, up to three hours a day, and this has made me fat. Now that I'm working locally I am spending a lot less time in the car and all day long on my feet in a hot kitchen, so it's about time I sorted myself out.

I have joined Weightwatchers and I have a copy of this book, which is fantastic. I was very sceptical of recipes that use low fat spread instead of butter but I've made tons of stuff, from banana muffins to chocolate brownies (the brownies use applesauce instead of butter, genius!) and everything has turned out yummy and not at all diet-tasting.

The above photo is my latest effort, some lemon madeleines using my lovely new madeleine tin from Lakeland that I bought the other day while we were in Stratford upon Avon (very pretty place, you must go for a visit). They are much prettier in real life.

Anyway cakes aside, I've really neglected my poor blog again. I really must make more effort.

I made a quilt!

2010-04-22T07:06:00.001+01:00

Well, it's only five inches square and some of the stitching is in the wrong place, but it's still a quilt. It's got batting in the middle and a binding and everything! I like the little boat pattern. It's supposed to be a mug coaster, but I like it too much to spill coffee on it. My lovely neighbour took me to her patchwork class and taught me the basic techniques, it was great fun and now I want to make more quilty things.

Oh, I also made a little hat for an egg. Here it is. I saw the pattern here, and added a little scallop edging. I don't really eat boiled eggs, but this makes me want to eat them just so I can use the cozy with its bright colours. I made it from embroidery floss!

It's a busy few months for me. Every day for three months, my little car Jim is driving me forty miles to Gloucester so I can learn to be a chef. Today is only day four and I'm enjoying it so far but I suspect I'll be exhausted by the end of it! Plus I have Portuguese exams in less than a month... So if I fall behind and don't post for a while, you'll know the reason why not.

Yes, I am eating your bonsai.

2010-04-16T09:49:00.004+01:00

Do you want to make something of it?

(Sorry for the poor photo, it was taken sneakily through a window and heavily cropped so the perpetrator didn't have time to run away.)

Lucky duck

2010-04-14T16:11:00.005+01:00

When I was a kid, if you got something good like a present or a new toy, my neighbour Jonathan used to say you were a "lucky duck". I always liked that expression :-) Well today I was a lucky duck. I won a contest on Hilary's blog, Let Her Bake Cake, which is gorgeous and which always makes me feel hungry after reading her latest post. Go and visit her and try out some of her recipes - the latest one for rice crispie squares looks fab.

Anyway my package from Hilary arrived this morning and I was pleased as punch with my little haul! She sent me the most gorgeous book about bread, The New Family Bread Book by Ursula Ferrigno, as well as two bags of Allinson flour and a tub of yeast. She also included a gorgeous tea towel which hopefully you can see in the photo, but it's too nice to use for drying dishes so I think I'll turn it into something lovely. Maybe an apron, but if you have any better ideas please let me know!

Naturally I wanted to get stuck in and make something from the book immediately if not sooner, and I was tempted to try a fougasse, but then I was distracted by a recipe for Irish brown soda bread and had to make that instead for a little taste of home. Here it is in progress (look at my kitchen tiles, aren't they hideous?!):

The recipe wanted you to shape it into a round on a baking tray, in the traditional manner, but I thought I'd be clever and stick it in a silicone loaf tin so it'd be sliceable.

Unfortunately the silicone is so flimsy that the dough forced the sides of the tin to splay out and the loaf kind of rose outwards instead of just upwards, but at least I know for the next time to do it in a proper metal tin. And I'm going to scoff some of it right now with some lentil soup I made the other day, and a lump of Bowland cheese!

Oh and I did put the yeast to work straight away too, here's a sneak peak of a milk loaf rising away happily.

Thanks again Hilary, I'm so happy with my new book and can't wait to work my way through all those pizza recipes next!

Late to the granny square party (and other crochet bits)

2010-04-12T10:40:00.011+01:00

Image above from Emma Lamb's blog, here.

In the last few years, crochet seems to have really taken off again, and in particular granny squares. I've seen some gorgeous things on various blogs, Etsy and in the Cath Kidston catalogue, but the person whose work I have really fallen in love with is Emma Lamb. There is nothing in her Etsy shop that I wouldn't like to own, and it's traditional and contemporary at the same time which really appeals to me.

Anyway, back in September when we first moved to this house, I bought some cushion pads with the intention of knitting some covers for them. Of course that never happened and they've been languishing in the spare bedroom ever since. So the other day when I came across some sparkly wine and gold yarn that I'd bought in Lidl, I thought I'd add some cream yarn and turn it into some granny square cushions for a previously cushion-less chair in our living room.

One is just a giant granny square, and the other is four squares joined with double crochet. They're lined and backed with beige linen because I couldn't be bothered to crochet the backs - yes I know I'm lazy. And I hadn't used my sewing machine for so long that it took me a while to remember how to sew in a zip, which is shameful. You can't see in the photo (and my camera battery died right after I snapped this so I couldn't take another shot) but the wine and gold yarns are actually sparkly.

Next I have to replace the cushion on my computer chair, which I've had to throw away because Elvis threw up the world's biggest hairball all over my Chinese satin cushion. I discovered this when, having just woken up and being not quite awake, I stumbled into my computer room and sat on the chair and got a big streak of wet hairball right across my backside. I was not pleased, I can tell you. I've started a purple and cream chevron pattern cushion, inspired by one in Erika Knight's Simple Crochet. If you're in London and fancy learning to do something similar, my fabulous crochet teacher Bee is running a chevron cushion workshop as part of her new venture Make Do Mend. Sigh... I do miss the vast array of classes in London.

Image above from makedomend here.

Finally here are some flowers from 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet, which my mum in law bought me for Christmas. The pattern for the pansy didn't seem to work out, as the back petals came out with big gaps between the stitches, so I just sort of made them up as I went along rather than sticking to the pattern. The one with the pom pom wasn't supposed to have a pom pom (I think it was a dahlia) but I was in a pom pom kind of mood.

Bread, and the awesomeness thereof.

2010-03-16T08:46:00.004Z

Well I fell off the Thing A Day bandwagon - surprise surprise - but only because my last couple of weeks at work were just too busy and exhausting and I was getting home, having a bite to eat and going straight to bed. But now I'm a happy housewife, for a little while anyway, and am filling my days with domestic things like cooking and sorting out our wilderness of a garden until my course starts. (Incidentally, there's a chance they might not get the numbers to run the course I really want to do, so if anyone is near Gloucester and wants to train to be a chef in three months, you should come along and make up the numbers!)

Anyway, I'd like to share with you one of the newest obsessions in my life. Since I've had a bit more time on my hands, I've discovered the joys of baking bread by hand. People always say it's therapeutic and they are completely right - kneading dough is like squidging the world's best stress ball, and the results are far nicer than anything you buy in Tesco (those awful plastic white sliced loaves... yeeeuch). We bought a bread machine last year and used it constantly, but it's now confined to the cupboard while I get my hands messy.

And like any baking, it's a bit like alchemy. Take random ingredients, mix them together, throw them in an oven, and they turn into something completely different. It's fantastic. You don't even need a recipe once you get the hang of baker's percentages.

This is my latest loaf. The top is a little darker than it would be normally, due to me forgetting to move the oven shelf down a bit, but it doesn't taste burnt and it made for very yummy toast once I'd spread cherry jam on it :)

Go on, give it a try, I promise it's easier than you think. If you're tempted, pick up a copy of the River Cottage Bread Handbook, which is gorgeous and I've taken to carrying it around in my handbag. Is that a bit weird?

Thing #10 - blueberry muffins

2010-02-10T21:04:00.002Z

I haven't actually fallen by the wayside, I just haven't posted for a few reasons. One is that the internet connection seems to be up and down, which is very annoying. Another is that it's been a weird few days and my head is a bit all over the place. I finally got to the point where I couldn't cope with my commute to and from work any longer, so I've resigned. I'm leaving at the end of the month, and while I'm very sad to leave because my workmates are so lovely, I won't miss the travelling, constant exhaustion, lack of a social life because I'm always tired, forking out £160 a month for petrol and the awful, awful traffic. I'm also thinking about a complete career change and retraining to become some sort of baker or chef (the former being my dream job), but it's a big decision that needs a lot of thought so I'm not rushing into it.

Aaaaanyway. Sorry for rambling. I have made something, or part of something, every day in February and some of it wasn't edible so I'll try and catch up over the weekend, but the photo above is what I made today. Blueberry muffins, and the recipe is here.

Thing #3 - mutant muffin

2010-02-03T20:47:00.004Z

I promise I'm not turning this into a food blog. But the fact is, I like food and I like cooking.

I fancied some lemon and poppy seed muffins like the ones I used to get in Starbucks when I worked in London, so I made a batch of these. The recipe is from this book (which is excellent, by the way). This one got dislodged from its place in the tin in the oven and turned out a bit... odd. Almost as if it had a nose.

It was still yummy though!

Thing #2 - a fabric flower

2010-02-02T21:38:00.005Z

Yesterday on Thing A Day, bittyandbunny posted some gorgeous fabric flowers. When I saw them I immediately wanted one for myself, so tonight I set about making one. Here it is. I want to make another one, a huge oversized black one.

The fabric was some nasty polyester lining that I was never going to find a use for - nice to figure out a way to make it into something I like.

Thing 1 - Oatmeal biscuits (or cookies if you're American)

2010-02-01T20:46:00.005Z

This is my old weighing scale. I've had it for about six years, and prior to that, when I lived in Ireland, I had a very similar but less pink one. It's always served me well. I dump a few ounces of flour and sugar and so on into the bowl, mix it up by hand or with the aid of an electronic implement, throw it in the oven and it turns into scones, biscuits, cakes, pastry or whatever.

Unfortunately, pounds and ounces have recently become extinct and all my newer cookery books give the measurements in metric only. My mind doesn't think in metric, and apparently my eyes don't see in metric either because the metric measurements on my old pink scale are impossible to see. I made some blueberry muffins yesterday from a Nigella cookbook and they turned out lovely but I ended up with terrible eyestrain from trying to see where 125g was on the dial.

There were two solutions to this problem - either I sat down with a calculator and a pencil and converted all the recipes back to imperial, or I bought a new scale with a big, easy to see display designed for the (nearly) blind. I went for option two. Here's my new scale which I bought yesterday.

Obviously I had to try it out, so I made some oatmeal biscuits tonight. Yum yum. They're from the Be-Ro cookbook, and if you'd like to try them (and I strongly recommend you do) the recipe is here.

So here's my first Thing for February. Oatmeal biscuits. And now I'm off to make a cuppa.

How I will get my mojo back.

2010-01-14T21:44:00.005Z

Thing a day is starting again! Registration opens on 24 January and I will be signing up. Last year I managed to post something every single day in February apart from one and it really kept me motivated so this year I hope it'll help me get my inspiration back. Are you signing up this year?

I thought I'd show you a Thing I made recently - a crochet garland. It was really for Christmas, and I made it with sparkly yarn from Lidl in gold and dark red, but I liked it so much that it's staying up all year! Also see the snow? It was much worse than this. I had five (!) days off work when I couldn't get out because of snow or ice.

And see my little bonsai on the windowsill? It doesn't have a lot of growth yet, but it's developed some new leaves since I got it. I've always been fascinated by bonsai and I just signed up for a day-long beginner class next month and I can't wait. Watch this space, I'm sure it'll be one of my Things next month because bonsai are definitely creative.

I'm still alive and here's what I've been doing.

2010-01-13T15:53:00.002Z

Oh dear, it has been a long time, hasn't it? Every week I keep thinking "this week I'll definitely post something" but it just hasn't happened. It's been a busy and strange few months. We've moved from London to Wiltshire in search of a new life away from city stresses... except it hasn't really worked out like that. First I struggled to find a job, and got rejection after rejection for jobs I was qualified for and had relevant experience in, and to be honest receiving so many rejections is absolutely soul-destroying after a while so I felt really rather poo. Then I did find a job, but it was in Oxford, which is about an hour's drive away through the most horrible traffic imaginable. Most days it's absolute gridlock. And I don't get home till around 7pm by which time I'm too exhausted to do very much.

So basically I sit in front of the TV knitting socks (which I'm churning out like a one-woman production line, by the way). About the only thing I seem to have any energy for is cooking, which I've been doing in copious and unhealthy amounts, hence my expanding waistline, but the recipe for the muffins in the photo above actually came from a Weightwatchers recipe book and I'll have to make sure I make more recipes like that if I don't want to end up the size of the house.

I seem to have lost my mojo for drawing and painting. Has anyone seen it anywhere? Please send it back if you do find it because I really miss it. I'm determined that one of these days I'll pick up a pencil again.

Why is that all baby shoes are cute?

2009-09-11T16:37:00.004+01:00

I don't tend to coo over babies the way lots of women do. I'm just not that terribly interested in them. Cats are far more entertaining.

However, what I am interested in is that my lovely friend and former workmate is pregnant with a healthy baby after many complications and several miscarriages and I am very very happy about that. So happy, in fact, that I knitted him or her some booties from leftover sock yarn.

Sorry for the bad photos, I snapped them quickly as I was leaving the house, before giving them away.

I don't know what it is about baby booties and shoes (especially those tiny little Nike trainers) but they are all incredibly cute. I can't resist them.

Odosketch, and how not to do perspective

2009-09-02T08:38:00.005+01:00

Odosketch is a very fun little online sketching program. You have to sign up (which takes about fifteen seconds) and then you can save your sketches and publish them on your blog or wherever. (It embeds it as a Flash thingy though so I've just taken a screenshot instead.)

I can't find the pen for my graphics tablet so I had a little doodle with my mouse. Have you ever tried drawing with a mouse? It's VERY difficult! Here's our beloved car, a 14 year old Fiat Punto. It's covered in scratches, but I think it gives it character :) In real life it's bright green.

Now I want to go out and draw it properly, with a pen/pencil/crayon/whatever that I can actually control! And when I find the pen for my Bamboo tablet I'll have another go at Odosketch and see what I can come up with.

The first thing I ever felted.

2009-09-01T16:03:00.003+01:00

While hunting in some drawers for a necklace today, I found the first felted object I ever made a few years ago. It's a little corsage made from some mohair I bought in Paris, with a pretty vintage button. I had no idea how to felt, so I threw it in the washing machine with the rest of the laundry and hoped for the best! I loved how it turned out.

The necklace in the photo is the one I was searching for in the drawers. Do you like it? I do, but I've never worn it because I just can't figure out what to wear it with. It's rose quartz and lavender jade. If you have any ideas what it would match, let me know!

Bee's Brilliant Beads

2009-08-29T08:27:00.006+01:00

Last Sunday I went to a workshop with the fabulous Bee of Chain Creative. The topic of the day was bead crochet and we learned how to thread the beads into a pattern and crochet them up into a rope-type affair that we could then turn into a bracelet. I have to admit it took me a while to get the hang of it. Then when I did, I realised I'd threaded the beads wrong, and I hadn't time to finish my bracelet. Oh and when I got home I realised I'd left my only 1.5mm hook at Bee's so I had to order another one (good excuse to buy some nice new Clover hooks!). But last night I finally got time to sit down and finish it, and here it is.

Here it is on my arm.

I love it! I have lots of spare beads from when I ordered the wrong size and they're just lying around, so now I have a good use for them. I think everyone will be getting one of these for Christmas :-)

Agnes from MrsG Knits was at the workshop too and she's posted her finished bracelet on her blog, go and have a look. Hers is very professional-looking!

Oh and here's a little toadstool brooch I needle felted, just because I felt like it.

A digital drawing (abandoned)

2009-08-14T08:29:00.003+01:00

I have been dabbling with this for ages. It's a tutorial from Corel Painter magazine. It looks nothing like the version in the magazine. And now I'm bored of it. It's not exactly the most interesting subject matter. So now I'm posting it here, and that means I don't have to work on it anymore and can do something else instead.

(If only I had time to sit down and learn it properly... I have such a long list of arty stuff to do when our house move is finally over.)

A very nice Saturday!

2009-08-02T12:01:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I took a break from ebaying and headed out to the Kent countryside, home of Bee from Chain Creative, who taught me to crochet a few years ago. Bee has a lovely house with a fabulous garden, and in the summer she holds workshops there. Yesterday was a felting day, and five us (plus Bee) got stuck in and did some messy wet felting, crocheted a pear doorstop to felt in the washing machine, and best of all, we learned needle felting. I've been wanting do learn this for ages and ages and I wasn't disappointed!

Unfortunately most of the things I made aren't finished yet (I have to finish crocheting the pear, and the felted fabric I made is still drying) but I'll post some photos when it's all done. However I did manage to make two little brooches with the needle felting, and here they are!

I'm so addicted to this, it appeals to my love of all things cute and quick to make! It's so cool that by taking bits of unspun wool, like in the photo, and stabbing them repeatedly with a sharp needle you can turn them into 3D objects. I think I'll do a Moomin next...

Thanks Bee for a fab day, a yummy lunch and for introducing me to yet another crafty hobby!

Do I really have to get rid of these?

2009-07-27T10:18:00.003+01:00

We are moving house soon. It's a BIG move, as we are leaving the big smoke and heading out to the countryside, and we are leaving our jobs in the hope that we'll be able to find new jobs when we get there. So partly because we need the money and partly because we desperately need to get rid of lots of stuff to make moving easier, we're having a massive ebay clearout and listing all the stuff we don't want in batches. So far we've sold lots of books, and I have about ten million handbags listed which will end this afternoon. So far so good.

Except now it's time to ebay the cameras.

Not all of them, obviously, some will never ever be sold. Like my Trip and Holga and Richard's Werra.

But some. Like these.

It's hard to get rid of cameras! I don't know why I get so attached to them, when most of them I don't even use. But they have to go. Sigh.

However the little blue Instamatic in the main photo is not going anywhere. Richard bought it years ago, I think from a charity shop, but it's too pretty to ebay. Look at it. It's blue! And it has some brand new flash cubes!

So I'm keeping it - who can blame me?

Little crochet friends

2009-07-11T14:27:00.003+01:00

Here's some little crochet friends I made for a Craftster swap recently. My partner received today so I can post a photo without worrying about ruining the surprise :) This is William the pig and his friend Margaret the bear. William is made from some Phildar mohair yarn I got in Paris, and Margaret is made from something fluffy and nice by Sirdar that I can't remember the name of. The little things in front are bottlecap pincushions I popped in the package.

Another one!

2009-07-03T12:15:00.002+01:00

Two postcards in one day, lucky me :) This one is from Juan in Cordoba. I wish I was in Cordoba and this was my little courtyard (and the library below with the staircase would be inside this pretty little house of course).

I want a room like this in my house.

2009-07-03T11:21:00.003+01:00

This is a postcard I received from the US. I would kill for a library like this in my house. The staircase reminds me of Harry Potter.

Me, age 29

2009-06-25T19:37:00.003+01:00

Here's the little doodle I did yesterday. I don't really look like this, but some days (particularly on birthdays and after a rotten day at work) this is definitely how I feel.

I'm not quite sure what I was doing with the arms, I've just realised they make absolutely no sense and the poor old lady would have to be some sort of contortionist or have fingers growing out of her forearm or something.

A postcard from China

2009-06-24T18:44:00.003+01:00

This arrived today, all the way from China via Postcrossing. The sender says it's traditional folk line drawings, and in olden days, girls had to learn to copy established designs before they started needlework. I think this is so interesting - think I will have to do a bit of googling to find out more! And I think the card is really pretty. If you haven't signed up to Postcrossing yet, you should. It's fun to get postcards from strangers!

Oh and today is my birthday. I'm 29, which is ridiculously close to 30 and very scary. I drew a little doodle of how old I really feel, but left it at work - I'll try and remember to post it tomorrow. But I did get some nice presents, including some Maimeri Blu watercolour paints, and this book which is full of gorgeous examples of calligraphy (mostly copperplate) from the 18th century. That should keep me busy for a while. I'll be trying out the new paints tomorrow, but tonight I'm having a slap up birthday meal cooked by my lovely husband :)

A big pink mess.

2009-06-20T21:44:00.004+01:00

I bought some black drawing paper today and had the bright idea to mix up some pink gouache and see if it looked nice against the black.

Well... it probably would have, had I mixed it properly, but I just can't ever seem to get the consistency right, and I ended up with a big pink mess.

This side is bad.

But this side is worse.

Incidentally, I promise my calligraphy is better than that when (a) I've ruled some slant guidelines (it SHOULD be 5º for italic, 55º for copperplate), (b) I'm using ink/paint that is a bit thicker than slightly chalky pink water, and (c) I'm using my left hand to actually hold the paper down and stop it running away from me, instead of using it to hold a little bowl of gouache because it's too messy to sit it on the table :)

Oh and the orangey looking stuff is actually gold ink, but it's pretty much useless. It doesn't even come in a pretty bottle.

Sparkly is always good

2009-06-16T07:50:00.004+01:00

Ages ago, I bought a bottle of Winsor & Newton iridescent medium. Like so many of my art supplies, it lay around unused till last night I finally dug it out to have a play around.

I was using pans, so rather than mix it with the paint, I waited till the washes had dried and then brushed the iridescent medium over the top, before painting the outline.

Here's some autumn leaves. (No idea why I got the idea to paint autumn leaves in June, but anyway...) if you click on the image to make it bigger, you can kind of see the glittery bits.

I did some butterflies too, but they didn't come out very well due to me not being able to remember what butterflies looked like. And it didn't even occur to me to look for butterfly pictures on the internet! I think the iridescent medium works really well for butterfly wings so I'm going to do more of these, and hopefully the next lot might look a bit more like butterflies!

Oh and I'm having scanner trouble again. The colours of the butterflies are a lot more muted in real life, somehow the scanner has done the opposite to what it usually does and saturated everything rather than washing it out. The colours of the leaves are pretty much spot-on though.

Postcard from a stranger

2009-06-15T18:53:00.003+01:00

I joined Postcrossing a while ago. I love receiving postcards, but nobody ever bothers to send them anymore when they go on holiday. Today I received my first ever Postcrossing postcard, from Chris in Kansas City, USA. I like the cute horse. I hope he gets his phone call eventually!

Welcome Harvey!

2009-06-13T09:37:00.004+01:00

See the little gnome in the sidebar over to the right? >>

That's Harvey. Normally he lives with Michelle but he's doing a tour of blogs at the moment and for now he's staying with me :) Isn't he cute? He's so excited to be in London that he's started looking for a job, and he's hoping he might get to meet the Queen.

Honest scrap!

2009-06-11T05:40:00.004+01:00

I was tagged by Michelle from My Life on the XYZ List. The rules are as follows:

Link back to the person that sent you the award. See above :)
Display the picture
Tell 10 things about myself
Pass the award on to 7 more lovely people!

So here are ten things you might not know about me!

I'm fighting a coke addiction. Diet coke, actually. I thought I had beaten it, but it's caught up on me again.
I don't normally read much chick lit, but I have read Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy about fifteen times and am slightly obsessed with it.
I am incapable of drawing with charcoal without somehow getting it ALL over my face.
I learned to knit when I was about 8, but after a gap of about 17 years I had to teach myself again from scratch when I decided to knit Richard a scarf for his birthday. The scarf was too long, too wide and full of holes, but he loved it and to this day still wears it all through the winter.
I wish I lived in Spain. Probably Andalucía. When (not if) I win the lottery, I'm moving there immediately.
For years I thought I hated pineapple, parsnips and turnip. I was wrong about all of them. I'm trying to change my mind about olives next.
I have three sewing machines and one serger. One of the sewing machines was bought purely because it was pretty.
I want to be a calligrapher. Like as a job. But first I have to get much better at it.
I'm a complete grammar nazi. I just can't cope with stray apostrophes and misplaced commas. I'm notorious for it at work.
I cycle to and from work and class every day (unless it's raining very heavily) and every single day I shout abuse at the idiots who walk straight out into the road without looking and almost cause an accident. Grrr!

I'm supposed to pass this on to seven people but I'm thinking I'm too nosy to limit it to only seven, so if you're reading this consider yourself tagged! And if you post ten things about you, be sure and leave me a comment so I can read them.

Oh and here's a bonus thing about me that I didn't add to the list: It's 5:50am and I've been awake for ages. I'm not happy about this and will probably sulk for the rest of the day. Insomnia is not nice.

Some actual drawing - finally

2009-06-09T08:18:00.005+01:00

(This one got accidentally trod on!)

I was having a complete drawing block. I couldn't think of anything I wanted to draw. So last night, despite being exhausted from a sleepless Sunday night (thanks Richard, and if you ever snore like that again I'm divorcing you) I dragged myself along to life drawing class. I was glad I went - I enjoyed it as much as I always do - but I can see that in the five weeks or so since I've been I've really taken a step backwards and I found it very difficult.

What made things harder was that the previous group to use the studio, a theatre group, had left a huge weird steel structure in the middle of the room. We couldn't move it so we had to work around it, and it obstructed the view of the model which was annoying.

This was a warmup sketch - we did lots of one minute poses but this was different because you had to use your "wrong" hand. So I drew this with my left hand in about a minute. I never tried to draw with my left hand before.

Some more drawings. I have to be honest and say I don't actually like any of them, but the important thing is I actually did some drawing and feel like the mental block has gone.

The reason I haven't done any drawing for a while

2009-06-05T16:03:00.004+01:00

My dad will be 74 next Friday and here's his birthday present. Even though they're very simple, they took quite a while to make! But I think they turned out well and I hope he likes them.

The yarn was a Kaffe Fassett design for Regia and was lovely to work with. Best thing was that I bought three balls and only used one and a half, so I still have enough left to make some for Richard :)

Wallpapering my iMac

2009-06-05T10:43:00.005+01:00

I was looking at a wallpaper site this morning, because I wish I could wallpaper the bedroom. Unfortunately I can't, because we're renting, but I saw some wallpaper I really liked that would match the bedroom and decided to wallpaper the iMac with it instead.

Here's the wallpaper:

Five minutes later and after some Photoshoppery, here's what my desktop looks like now:

I love it! Is it sad that I'm wallpapering my iMac to match my bedroom?

If you'd like to use this wallpaper to decorate your own screen, click on the image of my desktop above, it'll take you to my Flickr where you can download it.

Oh and the reason I haven't been drawing is because it's my dad's birthday next week and I've been spending all my time frantically knitting socks. I'll post a photo of them later.

Unsuccessful photography

2009-05-29T14:39:00.005+01:00

You might remember this post from a while ago, where I did a digital drawing of one of the old cameras, an Agfa Silette L, that we've had lying around the house for years. Well I finally got a roll of film back from the lab today from that camera and oh dear. What a massive disappointment. It looks like the focus is off, and I don't think it's just my bad photography skills that are to blame. What a shame, I really like that camera but I don't think I'll be using it again.

This pink VW Beetle is one of the only shots that was (nearly) in focus.

The good news is that my exams are OVER! So I finally have time for other things, like drawing. And painting. I'm hoping to get back to life drawing classes next week. I've missed them terribly.

Walking the dog

2009-05-25T21:03:00.002+01:00

(Or possibly the cat, we still haven't decided what he is.)

Insomnia

2009-05-23T05:30:00.001+01:00

Taking photos of the sunrise at about 5am is something to do when you can't sleep.

Stamps - lots of stamps.

2009-05-22T18:17:00.003+01:00

I have lots and lots of stamps, and I have some empty frames. I'm going to fill the empty frames with stamps and hang them on the wall, because stamps are awesome. So many different, pretty, interesting designs, so many different countries and so much history. I love them.

I took this photo for my Unravelling course, as this week is about "favourite things". It's currently the desktop background on my iMac :)

Felting is fun

2009-05-20T20:51:00.008+01:00

I picked up my needles recently and knitted this little bag, and finally got around to felting it and sewing the flower together.

The yarn is Twilley's Freedom Wool, Crystal Palace Little Flowers, and something else I can't remember, also by Twilley's, and it was a very quick and very easy knit. The pattern is here.

I'm so pleased with it! Isn't it pretty! The only problem is that it's quite small and I tend to carry a huge bag around with me everywhere, but I like it too much not to use it so I'll just have to cut down on all the stuff I carry! Oh and the flower is removeable so I can pin it on my jacket :)

Here's what it looked like before I felted it.

A shot from the Werra

2009-05-19T22:58:00.003+01:00

Update from yesterday's post: Richard got a roll of film back today that he shot with the Werra. Most of the photos weren't great but here's one we both like. Unphotoshopped in any way.

I like old cameras

2009-05-18T22:18:00.004+01:00

We have an abundance of film cameras. They're somewhat addictive. They can be picked up for next to nothing nowadays and they somehow have more personality than your generic DSLR! Here's a couple of sketches of two of my favourites.

This is my Olympus Trip 35. It's rather an iconic little camera - it's fully automatic apart from setting the film speed, and was launched in 1967 and made famous by David Bailey in a 1970s ad campaign. My particular one is from 1979 and is in almost mint condition. I paid hardly anything for it on eBay, but it's my favourite of all my cameras. (Apologies to my D80, but it's true.)

This is a Werra 1. It's a bit of an oddity. It was made by Carl Zeiss, the lens manufacturer, somewhere around 1950 to 1960. It takes 35mm film and to advance the film and cock the shutter, you twist a ring at the base of the lens. I've never seen anything similar on any other camera. The lens hood turns backwards and screws back into the body, and the lens cap screws onto the lens as if it were a filter, rather than just clicking on like normal lens caps do (I imagine this would be a bit annoying after a while!). This is Richard's newish toy. He found it in a charity shop in Stoke Newington a couple of weeks ago for £10 - bargain. He just shot a roll of film with it and left it in today to be processed - if any of the shots are particularly nice I'll update this post tomorrow.

Both drawn with Faber Castell Pitt pen, Caran d'Ache water soluble graphite pencils and a water brush.

Do you still have a film camera?

Unravelling week 2: reflections

2009-05-18T08:23:00.004+01:00

This was a hard week for me because I hate hate hate being photographed. There are hardly any photos of me after the age of 14 or so, when I finally got sick of my dad constantly brandishing a camera and started to hide from it. I didn't take many photos this week, and I cheated a bit by not even being in all the photos I did take. (The above is one of the Unravelling writing exercises, reflected in my makeup mirror.)

I have had a kind of nothing weekend. No drawing at all. No painting. And I can't scan anything right now anyway as I rearranged my desk and now my printer lead doesn't reach my computer (did I mention I bought a new iMac? I love it) so I ordered a new one and will have to wait till it arrives. But I'm thinking I might do a doggy version of the "lots of cats" drawing tonight.

My husband is a hero too.

2009-05-17T08:42:00.003+01:00

I made Richard into a hero too!

When he grows up, his ambition is to be a mech pilot. (He has watched too many anime films.) I think this might be as close as he gets.

Should be a nice surprise for him when he gets up this morning, as stalking my blog is one of the first things he does every day!

Super Me!

2009-05-17T08:33:00.003+01:00

I spotted a link on MyGurumi this morning (a blog I've recently discovered that managed to make me pick up my knitting needles again): The Hero Factory. If I was a superhero, this would be me (after going on a diet, obviously):

Try it out, it's fun :-)

100 posts! Let's celebrate with lots of cats!

2009-05-13T19:53:00.004+01:00

Well I never thought I would have stuck with my blog long enough to make a hundred posts, but here I am! And I still love my little blog. It keeps me motivated to draw and paint and make stuff, and all your comments make me very happy and even more motivated, so hopefully there'll be another hundred posts to come.

(Click to make bigger.)

There is no better way to celebrate something than to draw lots and lots of different coloured cats. So here's lots of cats. (It was too big for my scanner so I had to stitch the pieces together in Photoshop, so if you can see any joins, just pretend you can't.) Faber Castell pen and watercolour.

Work in progress

2009-05-12T08:00:00.004+01:00

Not much time for arty stuff or crafty stuff as I've been busy panicking over tonight's exam, but I did decide I wanted some Fashion Wheel art for my walls, and that a pop art style might be quite cool. Here's what I worked on for a while last night while watching Ashes to Ashes (series 2 is much better than series 1, by the way).

Click to enlarge.

There's still quite a bit to do, and I also can't decide if I prefer a white or a coloured background. Any thoughts?

PS: This is compressed to make it load quickly - the 'real' one is better quality.

Feet

2009-05-10T22:30:00.003+01:00

Week one of the Unravelling e-course finished today. So far it's great. The writing assignments are very thoughtful. I haven't actually put pen to paper yet (due to exams, yet again) but I have been thinking about what I want to write, and I've got a little journal to put them all in.

The photography theme for this week was "feet". Here's one of mine. I took with my rubbish little compact while waiting on the train. There's a few more in my Flickr, here.

My exams: two opposing views.

2009-05-07T19:54:00.005+01:00

I hate exams. This is how I feel during exam time.

Richard thinks this is how it will all turn out. Nice to know my husband has faith in me (no matter how unrealistic!).

(Click to enlarge.)

Actually this evening I had the exam I was dreading the most (Portuguese oral exam - I was talking about childhood obesity, of all things) and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. One of the examiners gave me a chocolate at the end of it! I was actually saying to my workmates that at the start of every exam, students should be supplied with chocolate and coffee. This was at the end of the exam, and I had to bring my own coffee, but it's definitely a step in the right direction :)

Sleepy catdog

2009-05-04T21:10:00.003+01:00

Elvis is worn out from chasing The Nothing* round the house all day and is now having a full-on slob across the back of the sofa. I grabbed the nearest pen (a fine nibbed calligraphy marker) and did a couple of very quick sketches of him.

Number one. This is on the back of some paper I had been using to try and break in a new very scratchy nib, which is what all the funny shapes are.

Number two. He kept moving in his sleep.

Here's what he looks like right now. Bad webcam photo but just look how huge he is. I measured him and he's about 24 inches long. All the better for cuddling.

*The Nothing is Elvis' nemesis. He likes to chase it round the house at 3am.

EDM #221 and a new footballer

2009-05-03T20:38:00.005+01:00

Here's EDM number 221 - draw a handheld game. What else could I draw but my DS Lite? I love this thing. When the DS was first released, I was wary of it. I thought the touch screen was gimmicky. Eventually I got one and I grew to love it, especially as games like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Professor Layton came out. When my exams are over, I'm going to finish Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars. (If I had a pound for every time I said "when my exams are over" I would have the deposit for a house by now.)

Also here's a footballer. He plays for Chelsea and I think he's called Ricardo Cavalho. So he's probably Brazilian, in which case maybe he can help me revise for my exams... I was in a charity shop the other day and spotted Shoot 2009 annual for £1 and snapped it up. Lots of lovely footballers to draw! And it's tidier than all the sports pages from newspapers that I had been hoarding up till I got around to drawing them.

Both of these were coloured with horrible coloured pencils from WH Smith because I have misplaced the pencil case with my Derwent pencils in. I tidied up the other day and put them away somewhere safe and now I forget where the safe place is :( The colour from these pencils is really quite weak. I never really noticed the difference before but I haven't used these pencils in a long time and now I realise why they were so cheap.

Tomorrow my Unravelling e-course starts. I'm so looking forward to it. Everything for the past few weeks has been assignments, exams, work, exams, exams, exams. Hardly even any drawing. It's about time I took a bit of time for myself when I wasn't allowed to feel guilty for not studying. Also it will force me to take photos, and that's a good thing. There will be writing assignments too. I'm not a writer at all, as I'm sure anyone who reads the ramblings on my blog has already noticed! But again maybe it will force me to sit back and think about things a bit instead of always rushing through stuff to get to the next thing on the list.

Pretty curly writing

2009-04-29T23:01:00.002+01:00

Here's my new pen for learning copperplate. I've been trying it out a bit before I try to learn the actual letter forms, because I thought it would be easier if I was already sort of comfortable using the oblique pen. It's so cool! Such a pity it's totally impractical to have an inkwell on my desk at work and hand write all my letters, but I can't see the boss going for it...

And here's the Fight Club haiku, written with the new pen. It's not any particular script, but I think it's quite pretty anyway. My workmate's daughter is getting married next year, maybe if I've learned copperplate by then she'll let me write her invitations :)

Fashion Wheel update and my new pen

2009-04-29T17:53:00.004+01:00

A few people suggested trying coloured pencils might be less smeary. Well I gave that a go, and it wasn't terribly successful, but then I found a 3B Caran d'Ache graphite stick I had lying around and tried that instead. It was much better and I got a lot more of the detail. Unfortunately 3B is really quite soft and I managed to smear it with my hand while colouring in, plus the coloured pencil ran into it a bit, but it's definitely better. Next time I'm at the art shop I'll look for a harder graphite stick, I bet that would be perfect. Or maybe I could use some charcoal fixative before colouring... hmm. Click to embiggen - it's definitely clearer than the previous ones.

Oh and side note - Richard bought me a nice new oblique pen holder and some pointy nibs because I want to learn copperplate writing. The writing on the Fashion Wheel drawing is me trying out the pen. I'm not claiming that this is anything like copperplate, of course, because it's most definitely not! I can do decent italics, but italics really aren't anything like handwriting (they're more like shapes and parallel lines that all look the same), and my own handwriting is dead upright and not even joined up. This is going to take a lot of effort I think :) Pretty handwriting is most definitely a lost art.

PS: I haven't cleaned this up in Photoshop at all, whereas the previous efforts were very very grubby indeed.

If I had a blog when I was 9, this is what I would have posted.

2009-04-28T08:08:00.004+01:00

When I was a kid, my very favourite toy was Fashion Wheel. Readers in the US might not know what this is, but I'm sure they'll remember Fashion Plates which was very similar. You set the plastic head, body and legs of your choice, rubbed the black crayon over it (similar to brass rubbings), then coloured it in. And you could even use the plates to create a texture for the fabric. It was genius. Never mind that the crayon always made the faces look all smeary!

Recently I saw a post on Apartment Therapy about Fashion Plates and it made me start hankering after my Fashion Wheel, so a quick trip to Ebay later and I was the proud owner of an early 1990s model. The clothes (and heads) are slightly different to mine, which was more 70s style even though I had it in the late 80s. The special crayon had long since disappeared so I tried out a Conté crayon and a normal wax crayon and both were very smeary, I'll have to work out how to do it so it doesn't smear so much. Some of my ladies' faces look like they have been kicked! I cleaned up the outlines a bit in Photoshop so they looked a bit tidier.

Here's Richard's Fashion Wheel drawing (below). This version comes with a plate with a cat and a dalmation on it which is quite cool :-) Somehow his was less smeary than mine, maybe he didn't press so hard.
Did anyone else have Fashion Wheel or Fashion Plates? What creative toys did you like when you were a kid?

"Hand night" at life drawing class

2009-04-25T10:45:00.005+01:00

Every week, we study a different aspect of the body or a particular method of drawing. This week's class was about drawing hands - something a lot of people find very difficult (but bizarrely, something I really like doing). We talked a lot about the anatomy of the hand and wrist (for example, the wrist and knuckles are always on the same plane, no matter which way the hand is turned). We did lots of very quick one minute sketches of the model's hands, and then a few longer drawings. It was a fantastic class.

Next week is the last class in the ten week course, and will be dealing with feet and foreshortening. Then I'll have to join the Monday class for seasoned pros. Not sure how I feel about moving away from the beginner class!

Quick warm-up sketch of my own hand

Pretty quick drawing of my classmate Anya's hand (about 5 minutes)

Final drawing of the night of the model Steve's hand - about 20 minutes

Leisure Painter WINNER!

2009-04-24T08:12:00.003+01:00

There were twenty comments (actually there were twenty two but one was mine and one person left a second comment as she forgot to put her email address in the first comment). So I used random.org to pick a number between one and twenty. And the lucky number was... 2.

The winner is ALEX! Congratulations Alex, I'll send you an email to get your address.

I like this giving stuff away thing... I also have a subscription to Patrones - a fantastic Spanish magazine similar to Burda World of Fashion. Some of the magazines are for kid's clothes, which is no use to me. I wonder if people would like to win those... :D

I'm going to a calligraphy class this afternoon and life drawing tonight so hopefully I'll have something nice to post later on!

That time of year again.

2009-04-22T22:06:00.003+01:00

I have a BIG essay due in tomorrow (it's roughly 3/4 of the way finished and it's now after 10pm). Next Thursday I have my first exam. Work is super busy and it's a struggle to get away on time. And on top of it all, I've enrolled in a calligraphy class that starts on Friday. I wonder if you can buy free time on ebay.

I am so spending this weekend drawing because I just haven't had time recently and it's quite depressing! Can't wait till my life drawing class on Friday evening.
Normal service will resume shortly. In the meantime, here's some Spirograph-style doodles I made on the computer.

Kingsmill Cat

2009-04-20T22:02:00.002+01:00

We buy Kingsmill bread, mainly because it's the only edible brand that our local shop sells, but also partly because I want to save the tokens and send off for a Wallace and Gromit toast rack.

Lately the loaves of bread have been a bit holey, which is very annoying because you're only really getting half a piece of toast when you take into account all those air holes. But this was the most impressive holey slice of bread I've seen so far. I couldn't resist embellishing it a bit...

Passion for Painting award!

2009-04-20T21:32:00.003+01:00

I received this award from the lovely Christine. I'm ashamed to say it's taken me a few days to get around to posting it... thank you Christine!

The rules of this award are to:

List 7 things you love
Put a link to the artist who tagged you for this honor
Pass the honor on to seven artists you feel should receive the recognition, and let them know they have received this award

So here are seven things I love, not counting family, friends and cats:

My sewing machines. I have three. My favourite is a 1961 Bernina 600 that I inherited from my friend's mum.
The Tube Map, which I think is a work of design genius.
My cameras. My main camera is a Nikon D80, but I also have some film cameras: an Olympus Trip 35, a Holga and various others. I don't use them enough but I do love them so much.
My crochet hooks.
Adobe Photoshop. I could spend my entire life just playing around with it.
CSI (Las Vegas, not NY or Miami). Best TV show ever.
My paints! Apart from painting, I just love looking at my box of watercolour pans and seeing all the colours.

I'd like to pass this award on to the following bloggers. Please visit them, because they are all lovely and their blogs are as awesome as they are.

Sheila
Barbara
Sandy
Captain Elaine
Dot
Kat
Sarah

EDM #186 - something I have always wanted. A long and rambling post about typewriters and coincidences.

2009-04-19T19:14:00.005+01:00

Oh dear - drew the keys far too small!

There's a little story behind this one. Not that interesting or exciting a story, but a story nonetheless.

I have always loved typewriters. Not the writing part of things - I've never had the aspirations to be a writer that a lot of people have, not even when I was younger - but the machines themselves. Just like I obsess over old sewing machines and cameras, although I do actually like sewing and taking photos.

When I started secondary school, I was excited when I saw a whole room full of typewriters and found out that when you reached sixth year (which would probably be junior year of high school in the US) you were given typing lessons. I couldn't wait. Unfortunately, they phased out the typewriters before I was old enough, in favour of a room full of computers (RM Nimbus) which we were never allowed to use.

I always wanted a typewriter of my own, but we didn't have a lot of money, so instead my aunt gave me hers on long-term loan. I loved it. It was a Silver Reed portable and the ink was all but dried up, but I taught myself to type on it, and did a lot of my GCSE coursework on it.

Recently I've started wishing for a typewriter again, and even went so far as to research (on ebay mostly) which one I wanted. The machine of choice was a Smith Corona Calypso, because it was tiny, cute, a pretty colour, and looked like it might actually be usable. I managed to find an auction for one today, but got outbid at the last minute. I was so disappointed. But my disappointment was short-lived.

I had to go on a little trip to Islington for some calligraphy ink this afternoon (more on that later), and accidentally got off the bus a stop too early. On the way to the art shop, I walked past a junk shop I'd never seen before, and there, sitting outside on a knackered old table was a royal blue Smith Corona Calypso! Couldn't believe my eyes - what a huge coincidence. Sure it wouldn't be working, I fished an envelope out of my bag, stuck it in the typewriter and hit a few keys, and it was almost perfect. The price tag said £14, but I managed to get the seller to let me have it for £10. Less than half what the ebay one would have cost me if you take into account the postage costs. The A key is sticky and the shift lock doesn't work. I love it. Almost as much as my Olympus Trip 35.

If you're still reading after all that, here are some photos of the newest addition to our household.

Need to clean those keys a bit!

I haven't been drawing much over the past few days because I've been so busy with my last assignments for the year, which are due in next week, and also because I've been practicing my calligraphy. I haven't done it for ages and I'm so rusty it's depressing. But it's something I'm determined to get better at. No point posting my pages and pages of the same letter groups over and over - I don't think anyone would be interested in that! But I might show off my new coloured inks at some point. I've just discovered the joys of filling a fountain pen with ink instead of using a cartridge - the difference is amazing.

Oh and here's a bookmark I crocheted while watching TV last night. Bonus points if you recognise the book - even more bonus points if you recognise the artist.

Leisure Painter Magazine Giveaway

2009-04-17T12:31:00.006+01:00

I ended up with two copies of this month's Leisure Painter magazine, due to my subscription starting on the wrong date. I don't have any real life friends who like painting, so I would like to pass it on to one of my online friends who will enjoy it.

If you would like this magazine, just leave me a comment on this post, and next Friday 24 April I will use a random number generator to pick a winner. Make sure you leave some way for me to get in contact with you - a link to your blog profile or email address or whatever.

If you're in the US you might not have heard of Leisure Painter. It's a lovely magazine, with articles and how-to projects largely dealing with watercolour but also soft and oil pastels, drawing and other mediums as well as book reviews and other goodies.

UPDATE: the contest is closed! Thanks for entering!

My husband's masterpiece

2009-04-16T08:06:00.004+01:00

This was painted by Richard, age 29.

In his defence, he is very very good at making complicated spreadsheets in Excel, and he is also a very good photographer, and he makes fantastic cups of tea, and the paints were not very good quality.

In case you can't tell, this is a seaside scene with cliffs. (Although that should be obvious, right?)

Love you, husband x

Very bright butterflies

2009-04-15T08:04:00.004+01:00

When I first bought my watercolour set, I had no idea what I was looking for, so I bought the biggest Cotman set in Cass Art. There are half pans of about thirty colours, maybe more. Turns out I only ever use about ten of them regularly and some I had never used at all and in fact never even seen on paper, so I sat down last night to have a bit of a play around with these poor forgotten colours. Here's the result! I like painting wet into wet, because you never really know what you're going to end up with till it dries. I'm going to paint more of these, but next time I'll try and make them a bit neater round the edges!

I have really been neglecting my poor camera lately. I have a Nikon D80 and it's a great camera, but recently it's only been used for taking photos of stuff I've made or received in swaps. So I've signed up for Susannah Conway's Unravelling e-course, which starts on 4 May. I have exams at the end of May and always tend to fret and worry around exam time, so this will force me to take a bit of time out and stop fretting for long enough to take a few photos! I can't wait for this to start. I love Susannah's blog - if you haven't visited it, you should. She's a lovely and very talented lady who takes beautiful photographs.

Tree practice, again.

2009-04-14T05:38:00.002+01:00

I wasted three pieces of watercolour paper tonight before I managed to paint something I didn't hate! I couldn't paint on the backs, as they were postcards and had some printing on the back, so I'll just use them for testing out colours. I didn't even get past the sky for one of them.

For this tree, I was only actually interested in painting the tree itself so didn't make much effort with the sky or foreground, but I don't think it turned out too badly. Hopefully this one looks less like a lollipop than my previous efforts!

We ordered my birthday present tonight - Jacksons have a 10% off sale on Maimeri paint until 12 May, so it made sense to order it now. But I'm not allowed it till my birthday which is 24 June so I'll just have to contain my excitement for another while :-)

Back to work tomorrow... sigh.

I wish I painted this (but I didn't).

2009-04-12T22:42:00.004+01:00

A while ago, I was contacted by a guy called Chris Chalk, who liked one of my photos on Flickr and wanted to know if it was ok to use it as the basis for an oil painting. Of course I said yes - I was pleased as punch to be asked. So then last Thursday I received another email from him, attaching a photo of the final painting. Well! I fell in love with it immediately. I love fresians, and if we weren't on such a strict spending ban I'd be buying this for myself. But unfortunately I can't, so I'm doing the next best thing and blogging about it instead.

Here's the photo from my Flickr account.

Isn't it fantastic? (The painting, I mean, not the photo.)

Oh and on Chris' website, he has a section where he shows the work in progress, which is very interesting.

He's now working on a second one (of the same groovy cows) - I can't wait to see the result.

Free watercolour painting lessons!

2009-04-12T16:02:00.007+01:00

No, not from me (I'm the last person to be giving watercolour tips when I barely know one end of the brush from another) but some that I have bookmarked that I thought might be interesting and helpful to other people. If you know if a good site with tutorials or lessons, leave a comment or email me and I'll add it to the list.

Frank Clarke at Simply Painting - the lovely Irish man who started me off with watercolours. He has some good free lessons on his site that teach you how to do an easy but lovely painting from start to finish.

Bob Davies' Watercolour Secrets - he has an eight DVD course (which is very high on my list of things to try and justify forking out for), but also offers some free video lessons that are really excellent. You have to sign up and have the links emailed to you, but you don't get any spam emails and it's definitely worth it.

Cathy Johnson - a lovely lady, and her site is absolutely full of very useful tips and tutorials and interesting stuff.

watercolorpainting.com - lots and lots of step by step tutorials that you can print out if you like. Everything from how to do a simple flat wash to a step by step painting of a lighthouse.

Terry Harrison - just the one lesson from the author of one of my favourite watercolour books, but it's a good one - a step by step lesson on painting a country style scene.

Mary Ann Boysen - I've just discovered this site. Lots of free lessons.

Susie Short - tutorials including a nice one on painting trees.

artistsnetwork.com - the site for Watercolor Artist and other magazines; there are lots of downloadable tutorials and interesting articles.

Something different.

2009-04-11T10:41:00.003+01:00

This is kind of straying from my usual quick scribbles. I sat down yesterday to chat to my husband and his friend, there was a magazine cover in front of me, there was an open page of my scribbly book for making assignment notes, there was a B pencil. So I started doodling, but found I got more 'into' it than I had intended and ended up spending about half an hour drawing and actually trying to do a bit of shading. I have no idea how to draw fur, but now I want to learn. I kind of wish I'd done it on proper paper now instead of my squared pad.

Here's the magazine cover where I saw the picture of the fox. We see lots of foxes in London. They scavenge in bins for something to eat and are always very scraggly, sorry-looking things. This lovely furry fox looks nothing like our local ones!

An Easter tradition.

2009-04-10T10:08:00.005+01:00

Mini egg nests!

My husband is 29 and he still hasn't grown out of them. His friend is coming round to play video games today so I thought I'd make them both something yummy. I doodled the mess in my kitchen while the chocolate was melting. Annoyingly, I realised too late that the pen was not the waterproof one I thought it was, and the ink ran into the paint, but it was only a little sketch so I'm not really bothered.

And here's the results!

I should add that I didn't eat a single square of that chocolate (Cadbury's Dairy Milk), which was very very difficult.

Edited to add instructions!

If anyone would like to make these, they are very very easy. You need:

1. Good quality chocolate. A 200g bar is a good size.

2. Cornflakes

3. Mini eggs. I used Cadburys, but I'm sure there are other varieties available.

4. Paper cupcake cases

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Don't let it burn! You could do it in the microwave but I've never worked out how to do this without the chocolate burning.

Transfer the melted chocolate into a bigger bowl. It needs to be quite deep. Add cornflakes, a few cupfuls at a time, and mix it round really well till all the cornflakes are coated with chocolate. Keep adding cornflakes till the mixture is nice and thick. Crush the cornflakes with your mixing spoon as you go.

Put a heaped teaspoonful of the cornflake mixture into each cupcake case, and press two mini eggs into the centre so it forms a nest shape.

Put them in the fridge to set - an hour or so should be plenty - and then enjoy them with a cup of tea.

Bet they don't last long!

It is harder to draw people than it is to paint trees.

2009-04-09T19:18:00.005+01:00

I would dearly love to be able to sketch people on the train or in a shop and actually make the sketch look like the people. But I find drawing people incredibly difficult. In my life drawing classes, my drawings often end up faceless because I think they look better with no face than with a badly drawn, ugly one! But it's time I learned, and the only way I will learn is by practicing.

I did a few sketches from photos in my magazine. Here's one of an exceptionally lovely-looking boy in a Dolce & Gabbana ad. Do you think the sketch looks like the photo? I can't decide. The eyes are totally wrong because I wasn't paying attention, and I had to imagine what his ear looked like because the page cut it off. His face also isn't chiselled enough. But it's a start, right?

Oh and thank you very very much to everyone for their advice yesterday about the separating watercolours. I really appreciate the time you take (not just yesterday but whenever) to leave me a comment with advice or constructive criticism or just to say hello :-)

A carrot and a question.

2009-04-07T22:42:00.008+01:00

I'm back on weightwatchers again, having put on a bit of weight over the past year. Eventually I would love to be able to go running again. Even if I was never able to do another marathon (I ran the Edinburgh marathon in May 2007 and loved it even though I got horribly injured) it would be nice just to run five miles maybe three or four times a week. But since I really just can't run at the moment, and even walking more than a couple of miles can be painful due to my stupid arthritic ankle, I am going to have to eat a lot more of these and a lot less cake.

:(

Here's a question for the watercolour experts. I am currently using Winsor & Newton Cotman paints. The plan is to replace them with artist quality paints very soon. But in the meantime I'm noticing a few things that mildly annoy me, and one of them is this:

See how in the palette the colours have separated? I had a mix of cadmium yellow pale, cadmium red and ultramarine, it was a slightly purplish grey, but you can see where I've left it alone for a minute and it's separated back out into its three components. Is this a common characteristic of watercolours? Or is it just because student quality paint contains more filler and less pigment? It bugs me a bit having to constantly keep swirling the brush around in washes to keep them mixed! If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very happy to hear your comments.

Alphabet cards for a little girl

2009-04-07T07:54:00.013+01:00

This was a project for the OTT21 (one tiny thing) swap on Craftster. My partner chose "alphanumeric" as one of her themes, as she is teaching her daughter to read, and I thought a set of alphabet cards would be a fun project. Apparently the recipient liked them a lot! Thanks very much to everyone at EDM who emailed me and replied to a plea for help when I couldn't think of anything at all for V. I used watercolour pencils and a Faber Castell pen. The letters are all the same size, but some of them got resized a bit in the scanning and cropping. The cards are 3" x 3" in size and I made a little green felt pouch with an elephant button to keep them in. Hope you like them!

Trees are apparently hard to paint.

2009-04-06T22:16:00.003+01:00

So I read somewhere that I can't remember. And I'm trying to convince myself that that's true, and it's not just me being inept.

Here are some trees I painted tonight. They are a bit too blobby to actually look like trees.

Another thing that is very hard is mixing greens. I used lemon yellow, cobalt blue, ultramarine, burnt umber and a bit of viridian for this little painting. I remember quite a lot of the colour mixing theory we did in my watercolour class at the start of the year, but actually putting it into practice is a different story. Still at least I had more luck with the scanner tonight, and I do like my little fence.

Elvis the catdog gets a faceful of butter.

2009-04-06T22:03:00.003+01:00

My horrible husband is a big meanie. Elvis came to sniff what Richard was eating (crackers and butter) and Richard shoved one of them in the poor catdog's face. I snapped some photos very quickly - they're a bit out of focus but I hadn't time to fiddle :-)

Elvis made a halfhearted attempt to clean himself up, but has now given up and is wandering round the house looking much as he did when I took the photos.

UPDATE: About an hour later, some of the butter is still there. He appears to have forgotten all about it.

EDM #217 - draw your inner critic.

2009-04-05T14:13:00.004+01:00

This challenge was very appropriate for me. I'm hugely critical of myself, to the point of being self-deprecating. Always have been. I wish I was less so. Maybe one day I'll learn to like my own work.

Click to make bigger and you'll be able to read the text.

I did this in photoshop. The font I used was one I created with my own handwriting.

Stephen the chicken - a friend for Neil. Make your own!

2009-04-04T22:14:00.006+01:00

Neil was lonely so I made him a little friend - this is Stephen the brown chicken! He's a little more hyperactive than Neil - he can't stop flapping his wings with excitement!

A few people asked for a pattern for Neil, so I wrote one up. It's very easy. If you make a chicken, please send me a photo (angeltreats at gmail dot com), I would love to see what you made. Please be warned, I have never written a crochet pattern before, so if anything is unclear let me know.

::PATTERN::

sc = single crochet
ch = chain
st = stitch (i.e. the stitch on the round below that you are working into)
sc2tog = single crochet 2 stitches together (i.e. decrease)

Place a marker (a bit of scrap yarn will do) at the beginning of every round. Work in spirals and don't join the rounds.

Body - use white or brown yarn or whatever colour you want the body to be.

Round 1: 5 sc into magic loop (or you can do ch2, 5sc into second ch from hook if you don't know how to do magic loop)

Round 2: 2 sc into each st around

Round 3: [2 sc into same st, 1sc into next st] around

Round 4: [2 sc into same st, 1 sc into next 2 st] around

Round 5: [2 sc into same st, 1 sc into next 3 st] around

Rounds 6-12: sc around

Round 13: [sc2tog, 1 sc into next 3 st] around

Round 14: [sc2tog, 1sc into next 2st] around

Stuff body

Round 15: [sc2tog, 1st into next st] around

Pop in another bit of stuffing if you can. Sew up the hole and weave in ends.

Wings (make 2 in same colour as body

Ch 7

Row 1: Skip first ch, sc into next 6 st, ch 1

Row 2: Skip first ch, sc into next 6 st, ch1

Row 3: ch 3, sc into 4th ch from hook. [ch3, sc into next st] to end.

Finish off and weave in ends.

Comb (the thing that looks like the chicken's hairstyle!) - use red yarn.

Ch 7

Sc into 2nd ch from hook, ch3, sc into same st. [sc into next st, ch 3, sc into same st] to end. Finish off.

Making up

Sew the wings to the sides of the body, near the top. Sew comb to the top of the head. I have used yellow felt for the feet and beak, and seed beads for eyes, and I used superglue to attach them. You could embroider the face if you prefer.

And that's it! I hope you enjoy making your own little chicken friend :-)

Life drawing - fun with charcoal.

2009-04-04T10:54:00.003+01:00

Last night's class was all about light and shade. The room was slightly dimmer than usual and the teacher used two bright lamps to create strong areas of light and shade on the model, Leo.

I did this first one with charcoal pencils, which I hadn't used much before but I really like them. For someone like me who gets herself covered from head to toe with charcoal when using the uncompressed sticks, they're a great idea!

This next one was a bit different. While we were drawing, the teacher prepared a piece of paper for each of us by covering it with charcoal and then brushing the surface with a household paintbrush to create an even tone. Then we were to "draw" the basic shape of the model using a putty rubber to remove the charcoal and leave light areas, and then add the detail back in with more charcoal. The vertical lines are from scratches on the drawing board underneath.

I loved this technique. It's easier to start drawing when the paper isn't bright white, for some reason. I love the drawing (and I don't say that about my work very often) but I think it's more because I enjoyed doing it so much than because I like the end result. When we'd finished, the teacher picked out my drawing to talk about and said some very nice things about it :-) Throughout school, I don't think I ever had an art teacher say anything nice about something I had done. I felt like a five year old being given a gold star, I was so pleased! And I did get myself covered in charcoal, including my trousers and the entire left side of my face.

Here's a bonus sketch of our Elvis. This only took a minute, I was on my way out to class, but he looked so cute I had to grab an envelope and do a quick doodle.

What can I do with a pink doily?

2009-04-03T18:04:00.004+01:00

I made this last weekend but I can't think what to do with it. Maybe I'll frame it. If anyone has any good ideas, let me know!

BADGERBADGERBADGERBADGER

2009-04-03T09:43:00.007+01:00

MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

Does anyone else remember this travesty that did the rounds of the internet a few years ago? Ever since I painted this mushroom I've had this song stuck in my head and it's driving me nuts :( I'm currently listening to some really bad Spanish pop music on the radio in the hope that it'll get rid of the badgers. It's not working, and apparently every single Spanish pop song goes on about the soul. You touch my soul, I like your soul, your soul is beautiful...

Anyway, this mushroom was an exercise in colour mixing from my Alywn Crawshaw book. The colours used were alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and ultramarine. I overworked it a bit but I kind of like it anyway.

Make Something Cool Everyday

2009-04-02T18:56:00.003+01:00

Nancy at Dabbled is running the Make Something Cool Everyday challenge. The idea is that every day in April you create something - just like Thing A Day. I miss Thing A Day so I think I'll have to play along with this! Look at the cool button she made.

Today all I have created is a quick sketch of the view outside my window in purple felt tip pen, but I'm going to have another go at the watercolours after dinner.

Watercolour failures

2009-04-02T08:18:00.004+01:00

I did two more postcard-sized paintings last night. Both were exercises from a Frank Clarke book (in fact I think I've done one of them before, except bigger). I really don't like either of them. The trees look stupid and cartoonish. But all I wasted was two bits of watercolour paper and a bit of paint and a few hours of time, and it's all practice, isn't it?

I'm going to sit down with my Terry Harrison book tonight. He paints nice, more realistic trees. I'm just going to paint lots and lots of trees till they start to actually look like trees and not brown crayons with bits sticking out.

Oh and I'm still having major trouble scanning. The sky of the poppies picture is actually a weak ultramarine, but it looks almost white here. Hmmmm. I need to figure this out.

EDM #11 - draw your glasses or sunglasses

2009-03-31T18:26:00.004+01:00

Inspired by Greg, who did this older challenge on Saturday last, I found myself sketching my own sunglasses this lunchtime at work. I love these. They cost, I think, the princely sum of two pounds from Primark and make me feel like Marilyn Monroe. It's just in the last week or so that I've found myself needing sunglasses when cycling to work in the morning, which is great because it definitely means summer is on the way.

I only had some horrible Crayola coloured pencils and an HB (no. 2) pencil, and about five minutes before lunchtime was over.

Back at the watercolour again.

2009-03-31T08:14:00.003+01:00

I haven't done ANY watercolour painting since the class I took at the start of the year. This is terrible. And of course I've forgotten everything I learned so I'm back to the start again. I have lots of postcard-sized watercolour pads and thought it would be nice to paint some tiny landscapes on them. Unfortunately my scanner is not playing nice this morning at all and I've been completely unable to scan the boat picture so it looks even remotely like it does in real life (and I think it's crooked too). I'm going to have another go when I get back from work. I have to leave it for now because it's making me cross!

I enjoyed doing them anyway. I really must paint more.

An experiment in not spending money.

2009-03-29T21:24:00.004+01:00

I was reading Apartment Therapy the other day and something jumped out at me: Buy Nothing Week. The idea is to have one week where you ONLY spend money on necessary things like food, medication and transport. I have no idea why this is such a novel idea to me, you'd think it'd be common sense. If you want to save money, don't spend money. But I suppose it's easy to lapse into spendthrifty habits... anyway starting from tomorrow I'm having a no spending week. Exceptions are: if it rains, I'm allowed to take the train to work (normally I cycle); if for whatever reason I can't bring lunch to work (unlikely) I can buy a sandwich from Sainsburys that costs £2 or less, and if my bike breaks, it has to be fixed (same goes if I need a new inner tube or something). But that's it. And I definitely MUST NOT buy any books of any type, or any art supplies or stationery whatsoever. I'll post an update this time next week.

As for Purple Pink and Orange's not eating out challenge that I'm taking part in - well, we kind of fell by the wayside yesterday when, while out shopping, we realised we were starving and went to Burger King. But we did get a cheap cheeseburger meal each (£2.99 each) so it really wasn't too bad. Apart from that I am still being positively angelic, and I'm sure I've saved lots of money, so I'm thinking I'm going to keep it going for April, with the exception of one meal out for Easter.

Oh and also while out shopping yesterday my husband bought us a copy of Professor Layton for the DS. I didn't know a lot about it except that it was as rare as rocking horse poo around Christmas and everyone has been raving about it. Well, they were right to rave, it's fantastic! Some of the puzzles are really quite devious (in fact some are bordering on the unfair) and it's such a great feeling when you figure out the solution to a particularly ponderous one. Great fun. Go and buy it.

Sketching in the British Museum

2009-03-29T19:35:00.004+01:00

My life drawing class left the studio and headed to the British Museum on Friday. It was great fun although a bit overwhelming - so much to draw it was difficult to know where to start. We were in the Greek Room (home of the Elgin Marbles). Everyone took a different approach - most people picked one or two things to draw and spent a lot of time on them. I was like a kid in a sweet shop and wanted to draw everything, so I did lots of rough sketches. The time passed so quickly... I'm going to go back and draw there again soon.

Three goddesses from the east pediment of the Parthenon

Horse sculpture from the chariot of the Moon God Seline - also from east pediment of the Parthenon

Dionysus

A bloke fighting a centaur (couldn't find it on the museum website)

Centaur with missing arms and legs (no link for him either)

Some swap goodies I made.

2009-03-27T15:50:00.004Z

I recently did a Craftster swap and my partner has received her package, so here's some of what I sent.

A wallet made from a tube map and some vinyl. I made myself one too!

A passport cover and matching tissue holder. I liked this Ikea fabric.

A wrist pincushion. I didn't realise at the time that the pincushion was out of focus... oh well. I loved this... had to force myself to give it away.

A set of placemats (they're folded up, the birds are actually in the corners of the placemats). These took me ages! I'm such a beginner at embroidery... but I enjoyed doing them. The pattern was from Sublime Stitching.

I haven't received my package yet... I hope my partner sends it soon.

Reasons why today is a good day

2009-03-27T08:26:00.004Z

Apple phoned to say my Macbook is ready. Hurrah! I'm going to pick it up soon. No more tiny netbook screen, no more GIMP, I'll have all my bookmarks again and a proper size keyboard.
My life drawing class is going to the British Museum tonight to draw all the sculptures. This will be very cool and I can't wait.
It's Friday, so no work!

Anyway here's a racehorse from the sports pages. I made a huge mess of his front legs, poor horse, but I couldn't fix it as I drew it in pen, so he'll just have to put up with having strange legs. is name is Premio Loco which I think is a great name :-)

Oh and also - thank you so much to everyone at EDM for the suggestions. I can't say too much here as it's all a big secret and a certain person might read! But I will post the results asap, I can't wait to show it off.

Something I crocheted

2009-03-26T08:40:00.004Z

If you like crochet at all, you must go and check out Bee's blog, chaincreative. Bee is the lovely lady who taught me to crochet at Loop, I'd tried to teach myself from books and thought I was a lost cause but apparently not! (At least not when it comes to crochet.)

Yesterday Bee posted about starching crochet and I thought I'd share this bookmark - it's the last of a batch I made a few months back for a Craftster swap. This one is one pattern repeat short, because like so many other things, I made it while watching CSI and wasn't paying attention. I starched it with spray starch so it's nice and stiff. It's very very easy and the pattern is here.

Sorry for the awful photo - it's dull outside and there is absolutely no light in here at all.

And here's what the bookmark is currently... um... bookmarking. I kid myself that it's improving my Portuguese, but really it's the Quentin Blake drawings and Dahl's warped sense of humour I love.

I'm still without my Macbook and therefore without Photoshop, so I'm using GIMP which I have to say, I really hate. Hurry up, Apple :(

Drawing the sports pages again.

2009-03-23T20:02:00.004Z

I discovered today that The Sun does a football supplement on Mondays to report on the weekend action. I stole my workmate's copy to draw. Here's some Liverpool player, apparently he scored a goal or two last weekend.

I'm also working on something really quite cool for a Craftster swap but it's top secret for now! I can't wait to post the results.

Oh and I'm still sticking to the "not eating out" thing, and my halo is getting shiner by the day!

My beloved Macbook is currently in the clutches of Apple, having its cracked case replaced (free of charge, happily, as it's a design fault) and I'm using my little eeePC in the meantime. Its tiny little screen and keyboard aren't too bad, but what's really bugging me is the lack of Photoshop. Oh how I miss it :( I downloaded GIMP so at least I'd have something to crop/resize stuff with, but it's just not the same at all. Even worse is the fact that all my bookmarks are on the Macbook, as is the software I use to listen to Brazilian and Spanish radio. I hope Apple hurry up before I go mad!

EDM #206 - "we call it..."

2009-03-19T20:40:00.006Z

I'm aware that some people in the USA have this sport that they call "football". It is NOT football. Football is what they mistakenly call "soccer". I used to be a lot more into football (PROPER football, not that American stuff, although Waterboy and Gridiron Gang were good movies) but since I stopped working in pubs I never seem to watch it any more. The very occasional game of FIFA is as close as it gets... although during the World Cup I join in the excitement and support about seven different teams.

My life drawing teacher wants us to draw the sports pages of the newspaper because there's some great dynamic poses in there and the models never move. I had a go at it for the first time tonight and wish I'd thought of doing it sooner. I think these took about ten minutes each. Thanks to Keeley for ripping the pages out of the back of her copy of The Sun for me.

Oh and also - I stumbled across a very nice blog today of a jewellery designer called Christine. She's having a giveaway for a very nice ring - check it out. But try not to win, because I want it for myself :D

Almost forgot...

2009-03-17T08:19:00.003Z

Happy St Patrick's Day!

(Card courtesy of my mum, expertly and seamlessly altered by me in Photoshop.)

Neil the chicken

2009-03-17T07:55:00.006Z

Here's Neil. I made him last night while watching 90210, the new series, which is terrible but for some reason I keep watching it every week.

Update on the "not eating out" thing (i.e. the challenge on purplepinkandorange): I haven't bought lunch at work for a whole week, I've brought it with me every day. We haven't been out for dinner, or even lunch at the weekends. And still no cakes or biscuits. Or chocolate. See my halo? See how sparkly it is? Of course I then ordered the new Grand Theft Auto DS game so any money I'd saved is now gone. Oh, and a flashgun for my Olympus Trip 35. Oh, and some gouache. But apart from that I've been good.

Life drawing

2009-03-14T09:23:00.004Z

Life drawing class was fantastic last night. The model was a bit older (late 40s to early 50s) and curvier than the ones I've seen so far. We were learning about legs and how the joints work, and especially the knees. Very interesting. We were made to stand up and waggle our legs around to see the field of movement each joint has, but I'm double jointed and my legs do things they probably shouldn't, and I think I got some funny looks :)

The pose on the bottom left (and the scrappy sketches across the bottom) of the page above was one that gave me immense trouble. The way the model was sitting made her hips look wider than they really were, and it was very much a case of drawing what you see, not what you know, but sometimes it's so difficult!

A few more above.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who give their input on the hot cross bun debate! I got lots of emails and some replies on EDM as well as your comments here and they were pretty evenly split between "hot cross buns are cakes, don't eat them" and "no, they're bread, there's yeast in them, keep scoffing". So to settle it once and for all I asked my mum, and she thinks they're bread. And if my mum says it then it must be true, right?

However in life drawing last night the usual fabulous array of fabulous biscuits was there and I didn't have a single one. I bet I start displaying a halo soon.

Playing with my waterbrush.

2009-03-13T17:22:00.006Z

As much as I love my waterbrush, I've only ever used it with watercolour brushes and never with "real" watercolours, so today I took a break from my work to do a quick sketch of some of the things on my windowsill (my beloved Roberts radio, pot of pencils & pens and a tube of handcream) and coloured it in with some cheapy Cotman pan watercolours. I didn't like the waterbrush very much, to be honest - the bristles didn't spring back together the way they would on a sable brush, which made it very difficult to do the lettering (I gave up and went back to pen) and it was quite difficult to clean the brush without a container of water. I ended up using a piece of paper to kind of work the paint out of the brush... till I realised I had defaced the notes I've been making for an essay I'm writing. Oops.

If anyone has any tips for using waterbrushes with traditional watercolours I would love to hear them.

Elvis does not approve, and thinks I should get back to work. Okay, okay, I get the message...

Life drawing class in an hour and a half, hurrah! Happy weekend, everyone.

EDM #2 - draw a lamp.

2009-03-09T23:41:00.003Z

Just a quick and silly doodle while I was finishing off an assignment for tomorrow. This one is another oral preparation, this time about violence in videogames and it's not nearly as scary as the last one but wish me luck anyway! I love this lamp, I really have to draw it properly with colour. Another thing to add to the list of "stuff to do when the assignments are all done".

Things I am not allowed to eat, and the reasons why not.

2009-03-08T23:28:00.003Z

1. It's Lent. Everyone in my office (religious or not) gives up something. This year my 'things' are biscuits, cakes and takeaways (Chinese, pizza etc).

2. Nice food costs too much. There is a gorgeous bakery near the office called Konditor & Cook. They have lemon curd cheesecake that you'd sell your granny/husband/beloved pet for. It costs about £3 a slice. There is also an Italian restaurant that sell food to go - the most fantastic pasta in London. It's about £5 for a box of whatever pasta. I work four days a week, and if I buy lunch every day it can easily add up to £20 a week. (Note to husband - now you know where all my money goes. It's not all being spent on pens.)

3. I have put on tons of weight, especially since the whole arthritis thing happened and I'm just not able to get back to running (as even walking can be a bit trying at times). Cake and cheesy pasta doesn't help. I need to sort this out.

Purplepinkandorange is having a little challenge - no eating out for the month of March. I'm a bit late in starting, but better late than never, right? And I'm also applying it to buying lunch in Pret, that pasta shop etc. If for whatever reason I can't bring it with me from home, I'll go to Tesco and buy a cheap sandwich. I'll post weekly updates for the rest of the month, in keeping with the challenge.

Also - a question. There's a debate at work as to whether or not hot cross buns count as cake. I think they don't - to me they are a bread product. My workmates disagree. What do you think?

Melville

2009-03-08T00:20:00.003Z

A city from my head. It would have been even bigger and busier but my pen ran out of ink :( Click to make it bigger.

Hurrah for leaving everything to the very last minute!

2009-03-07T17:37:00.005Z

As part of (yet another) assignment, I have to write a piece on Brazilian festivals (Carnival etc). That bit's fine. We also have to produce some sort of video to go along with the written work. I suspect everyone else will sit in front of their webcam and talk about something. Maybe one or two will play the guitar or something. Me? I'm severely camera shy, so I thought "I know, I'll do some sort of Flash cartoon with lots of little Brazilian dudes in traditional Carnival costumes dancing around".

One problem - I haven't actually got any idea how to use Flash. And the assignment has to be handed in on the 19th.

Soooo... I have less than two weeks to research and write 2000 words, learn how to use Flash from scratch, do all the artwork, animate it, find some suitable music to set it to, and put the whole thing together.

Oddly enough, it is occuring to me that this mightn't have been the smartest idea, and on the evening of the 18th I'll probably be talking to my webcam just so I actually have something to hand in, but at least I can try, right?

This scrappy little robot was just to have something to fiddle around with before I actually waste any time doing 'proper' drawings only to inevitably ruin them. But I think he's kind of cute.

Doodling in class again.

2009-03-05T21:54:00.004Z

We had to do presentations tonight (the thing I have been dreading and procrastinating about for weeks) and one girl, Natasha, played the guitar and sang a song during hers. I did a quick sketch of her and all the stuff blocking my view : )

I'm so, so glad this presentation is over! It went about as well as I thought it would (so not great, then) but at least I won't have to worry about it anymore.

Rollei 35 & Mario baddy - separated at birth?

2009-03-04T21:18:00.005Z

I was talking to my husband this morning about the Olympus Trip 35 and how cool it is, and he told me about the Rollei 35 which is also cool (and which sells for many pounds on ebay these days). I looked at the photo on Wikipedia and immediately thought of one of the bad guys from Super Mario Bros 2: Snifit. I ask you - do these two photos not look alike to you? He thinks not, but he is wrong.

Incidentally, I've decided I must have one of those little Rolleis, but that won't come as a surprise.

Some useful mantras.

2009-03-04T16:25:00.006Z

Repeat to self:

"I am not interested in Adobe Illustrator."

"I am not interested in drawing cartoon people."

"I will not procrastinate."

"I love writing about the Brazilian military coup in 1964."

"I will not eat all my husband's pringles."

If I say all that enough times, I might start to believe it. Although it might be too late for the pringles.

EDM #211 - draw a microwave oven.

2009-03-02T20:52:00.004Z

Not a "proper" drawing this, but I thought I'd have a bit of fun - I was heating up a beef enchilada for dinner and thought I'd try and draw the microwave before the enchilada was ready. Grabbed the very first pen (a terrible ballpoint) and piece of paper I found and started scribbling. It's not a good drawing but it's not bad for 3 minutes 50 seconds I think! (The stuff on top is a bag of apples on a tray and a package of hot cross buns.)

(If you click on it, it displays much better.)

Joining the ranks of the Holga owners!

2009-03-01T20:38:00.008Z

I love quirky photography, and I especially love vintage-looking images with saturated colours and light leaks and maybe even double exposures. I've always wanted a Holga, but the 120 film is hard to find these days and the processing costs have always been a bit scary. Well, this weekend I finally found a lab who will process medium format film without requiring me to sell a kidney (these guys) and that was that, I was straight to ebay to find me a Holga. It's coming from Hong Kong for a fraction of the price lomography.com wants for one. I can't wait to get my hands on it! I used a photo for this drawing, because obviously I don't have a real Holga sitting in front of me... yet.

Hopefully, the images will turn out something like this Photoshop mockup I did earlier using a photo of an awesome Corolla stolen from Dave_7 on Flickr (original photo from here).

I'm still having tons of fun with the graphics tablet, but I'm not sure I'm approaching the whole "digital drawing" thing in the right way. For starters, I'm only using Photoshop because I don't know how to use Illustrator. And I'm really not sure about blending colours - I've been kind of using a few colours and blending them together using the smudge tool, but I bet there's a better way. I would quite happily spend the whole day experimenting, but unfortunately I've got a LOT of uni work to do.

And with that, it's back to writing about Chico Buarque and the history of MPB... sigh.