EDM #221 and a new footballer

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.

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

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.

EDM #217 - draw your inner critic.

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.

EDM #11 - draw your glasses or sunglasses

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.

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

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

EDM #2 - draw a lamp.

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".

EDM #211 - draw a microwave oven.

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.)

EDM #211 - and a few observations on Quentin Blake.

The current Everyday Matters challenge is "In the style of..." (or as Jim so aptly put it, "plagiarize your betters") and most people are being very brave and taking on the masters - I've seen Da Vinci, Charles Rennie Macintosh etc, as well as a lovely Beatrix Potter tribute. Well I immediately thought of my favourite illustrator, the fabulous Quentin Blake. Having been a Roald Dahl fan since a very early age, I grew up with the images of Blake's Charlie, BFG, Matilda et al and I really don't think there has ever been an illustrator with such an immediately recognisable style. His scratchy, childish lines are just so distinctive. But it's only recently that I've looked a bit closer and noticed that while the drawings are simple and childish and apparently rushed, there's a lot more to them than that. Everything is in proportion (unless it's supposed to not be). His use of perspective is spot on. And he spends more time on them than you'd think at first glance. He describes his work process on his website. The facial expressions are the best bit. And (at least in the Roald Dahl books I've read, which is probably all of them) the illustrations look exactly how you'd imagine the characters to be. The more I look at his work, the more I love it and want to buy every book he's ever illustrated just so I can look at the drawings.

I will never ever ever in a million years have a fraction of Blake's talent, but for the purposes of EDM I did try and emulate his style. Sadly I don't think I was very successful, but I did get a chance to play with my new toy - my husband bought me a graphics tablet even though it wasn't my birthday or Christmas so I am a very happy bunny this weekend! (Hey Husband - I know you'll read this so THANK YOU again, I love it!!) I really need a lot of practice with it though, it's quite different to 'proper' drawing.

An elephant and a cat (and the loss of another cat).

My lovely workmate Jacky lost one of her cats to cancer a couple of months ago. On Friday, she came home from work to find that her other cat, a 16 year old Persian so obviously no spring chicken, had collapsed and was struggling to breathe. She rushed him off to the emergency vet only to find that his kidneys had failed and he had to be put to sleep. Poor Jacky was devastated. The cat who had been with her since he was a tiny kitten and it was him she cuddled up to during a horrible marriage breakup, so it's not surprising really. Anyway, I wanted to cheer her up a bit so I thought I'd crochet her something. Not a cat, because that might make her too sad, so instead I remembered that she loves going on holiday to India and made her an elephant. This little fella is tiny - less than 3", and as yet has no name. He was loved by his new owner, which is just as well because I found it quite hard to part with him!

I also did an EDM challenge today (number 185 - draw a cat). On my desk is a tiny cat calendar and during a very long and very dull task this afternoon at work I had to take a break before my head exploded. So I did a very very quick sketch of today's cat, using the first pen that came to my hand (a cheap ballpoint) and the back of some scrap paper. Here he is along with the calendar page.

EDM #189 - razors

I got home late tonight so didn't get time to do anything much for Thing a Day, so I thought I'd do an EDM challenge very quickly and use that. This is a five minute sketch including colouring in so it hardly even counts! But at least it's a drawing, right? It's pen (the first one I picked up) and watercolour pencil.

EDM #4, and goodbye to one of my childhood heroes.

I had some Malteasers hot chocolate drink tonight while I was watching Buena Vista Social Club on DVD - we are going to have some sort of discussion about it tomorrow in class, but as I've seen it lots of times I was only half paying attention to it, and found myself doodling my mug when I'd finished drinking it. I coloured it in with watercolour pencils and my waterbrush (I love my waterbrush, it's so clever) and thought I might as well post it.

I had the second of my three watercolour classes yesterday. It was good fun. A roomful of adults playing with giant paintbrushes and making a mess, what could be better? The teacher wanted us all to use big brushes, and most of us had to actually go out and buy bigger ones. I bought a size 14, it's liberating in the same way as drawing with pen is liberating because you can't really fiddle around and have to kind of just dive in. We were doing a lot of wet into wet technique but I seem to get my paper too wet and as we hadn't stretched the paper it all went a bit horribly wrong. My paintings (I use the term loosely, but they did all involve paint) are still at the class venue but I'll post them when I get home so people can laugh at them :-)

Sad news yesterday: one of my childhood heroes, Tony Hart, passed away at the age of 83. He had been ill for a while and had suffered two strokes, which had left him unable to draw and that must have been a terrible thing for him to cope with. I found out when I got home from my painting class and I have to admit, I sat down and had a little cry. He was a very talented man and a genuinely nice guy and will be sadly missed. Rest in peace, Tony.

EDM #23 - draw your foot - and more water brush antics

I said I'd do something coloured and I did! This is my foot. You can see my very glam green Primark pyjama pants too. I don't own a single pair of black socks, I'm sure that says something about me but I have no idea what! These purple ones are some of my more subdued; most of them tend to have stripes or birds or cats or something.

I used the Derwent watercolour pencils I bought a while ago and I think I really need to experiment with them, because some of them blend much better than others. The red and blue of the EDM #23 lettering blended really easily, but the green of the pyjamas didn't, and the olive green of the shadow on my pyjamas came out much darker when it was blended with water. I used my waterbrush again for this and I am very pleased at how easy it is to clean it between colours, but it'll be interesting to see if it's the same when it's used with proper watercolour paint as opposed to pencils - I will report back when I've had a play around with that. The paper I used for this was wildly unsuitable and the water soaked right through it - there is a red stain on my knee that was left over from the drawing on the previous page.

Good news! I signed up for the ten week beginner's life drawing course that the teacher of the Monday night class I went to is offering. It starts in February and I will be counting down the days, I really can't wait.

Tomorrow we are going into town to do something involving Culture. Possibly a visit to the National Gallery.

EDM #21, and some new toys.

I wanted to try out some new stuff I'd bought - a Pentel Aquash waterbrush and some Caran d'Ache water soluble graphite pencils. These come in HB, B and 3B, a set of two each, and you can scribble with them and then add water to create a wash. I first saw water soluble graphite pencils on a David Bellamy DVD and thought they were very clever, and the water brush is really for carrying around with me along with a sketch box full of watercolour half pans, but like any new toy it had to be played with a bit as soon as it arrived. I didn't have time to do a 'proper' drawing so I just very quickly sketched my husband's old Olympus OM-2, a very cool old camera but compared to the first SLR I used (a Pentax K1000) it has quite a few bells and whistles. I drew this with pen (some Faber Castell effort that I don't like but is waterproof), so when I completely messed up the entire lens I couldn't rub it out and fix it - ah well!

I realised that I seem to be using only pencil and/or black and white. The next thing I post will be in colour!

This doesn't look like Portuguese to me.

I'm supposed to be doing my Portuguese homework, but I accidentally found myself doodling in my exercise book with the mechanical pencil I had been using to fill in answers. For some reason I quite liked drawing on the lined paper - I will have to be careful or all my homework will be covered with doodles. This might not be a bad thing though!

Thank you so much to the people who left comments or sent me emails about the life drawing classes. I contacted the teacher (in this class he offers advice and guidance, rather than actual teaching, if that makes sense) and he reassured me that a total beginner like me would be more than welcome, so I'm going to try and go along on Monday night. Expect to see the fruits of my labour if I'm brave enough to post them here!

Finally, here's a not-arty-or-crafty related thing. Our catdog Elvis (he's officially a cat but thinks he's a dog, even though the vet told him he wasn't) likes to sleep in our bed when there's no one else in it. By 'in' I mean under the duvet, like a person. This is an awful photo and I do apologise but I had to snap it quickly using my useless eeePC webcam before he moved, as he was just about to emerge and beg for food. Isn't he daft? I thought you might get a giggle out of him!


PS: I'm having problems uploading images to blogger tonight so I've uploaded these to Flickr... I hope they work!

EDM #205 - draw a soda can. And an idea for Monday nights.

I used to be addicted to diet coke. Seriously - I had my very own coke habit. I would get through up to three litres of the stuff in a day. I kicked the habit a few months ago and I don't touch it at all now. If I want something fizzy I have a glass of diet lemonade. (Or a beer.) So this is one of my husband's cans of Dr Pepper, which is disgusting stuff but comes in a pretty can.



I don't like this drawing. Is there such a thing as a bad pencil day? It just looks all wrong. The perspective is wrong, the top of the can is wrong. It didn't help that I was sketching in a room that is very dark, so there were no discernible light areas and shadows. I have to tell myself it's my third proper drawing ever so I don't get too wound up about it!

And I had an idea for something I'd like to go to. On Monday nights, there is a drop in life drawing class in Bethnal Green. I reckon life drawing, in a studio with no distractions, would be really beneficial. I have literally never drew a person before (not counting cartoony doodles). It only costs £7.50 which includes the tea and biscuits (vitally important), and it's close to home, so I think I'll go along next week. Especially if I can drag a friend along for moral support.

If anyone has been to a life drawing class I would love to hear your experiences!

EDM #10 - draw your hand.

Here's my hand.



Today I discovered that there is an art shop within walking distance of my office. This is good news for when I need to buy something, but extremely bad news for my bank account. They sell Cotman paint in tubes and half pans, which is good, but hopefully I'll be confident enough soon to buy and use artist quality paint. But right now I'm still at the stage where I'm afraid of wasting paper.

The bookmarks are done! I had to make an extra one for me.

EDM #1 - draw a shoe.

I don't necessarily intend to do these in order, but number one on the list appealed to me. This is the first 'proper' drawing I've done since I last had an art class at school, aged 13 (so about 1994), and it took about an hour. I used a 2B Derwent pencil. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It scanned very light though, I've tried to darken it a bit in Photoshop but it's not brilliant.



The shoe I really wanted to draw was a red glittery one, but I have no idea how to go about drawing glitter!