Light as a feather

 Still playing around with feather designs...here's one I finished on my lunchbreak today and coloured digitally.  Might paint it these colours and turn it into a collage!

You are my cup of tea

Here is a new drawing I've been working on in the wee small hours; I've got a coffee version too:

 

I'm going to be bringing them along to the Auckland Art and Craft Fair, on next Saturday, the 30th of November.

How do you like your tea?  I have a cup of Earl Grey every night before bed and Mr. Millicent Crow always makes it too weak on purpose so that it won't keep me awake.  I grumble about the weak tea but secretly think it is nice!

What does the fox say?

I had another go at this drawing...think it turned out looking a bit more like me this time.  I guess the fox is not strictly to scale though...I have never seen a fox in real life and have always imagined them the size of a cat.  Mr. Millicent Crow assures me they're more the size of a dog!

Gone the way of the dinosaurs

 On my lunchbreak today I went down the road for a coffee and sat at one of those big tables you share with strangers.  They were all having serious businesslike conversations and I...was drawing a dinosaur.  It made me laugh.  I'm going to draw a whole lot of dinos like this brontosaurus and turn them into a pattern for printing on fabric...I wouldn't mind a pair of dino print pyjamas!

And this 80s velociraptor patch is from a child's t shirt I bought from the op shop to cut up for patches.  You can see one of the other patches here.  Now what to draw next...T Rex or Triceratops?

Trash or treasure?

 

Here are some more things I didn't buy at the op shop, looking a bit crinkly I'm afraid from spilling a whole jar of water on my sketchbook.  Might be time for a desk clean up methinks.  

 And hooray, it's that time of year again...

 I might have to do a "Things I didn't bring home from the inorganic collection" edition of drawings. I have already resisted a beautiful '70s couch (severely broken) and a pair of knitted gold sparkly pants!

Left behind in Onehunga

I find it hard to leave Onehunga empty-handed - it's such a treasure trove of great op shops and temptation.  Last week was no exception (and I'm in the process of drawing a few lucky finds) but here are some of the things I did manage to leave behind at the op shop...

 

Left behind again

This week I didn't buy at the op shop:

Seeing as my house is starting to resemble an op shop, I thought I should put myself onto a bit of an op shop diet.  So far I've been having fun writing down all my op shop tempations and saving them to draw in a quiet moment.  I don't think I'll be able to go cold turkey though, I'm going to Dargaville soon and have heard it's a bit of an op shop goldmine!  Any Dargaville op shop tips gladly received!

Feathering my nest

My workmate was given two mysterious bags full of feathers the other day, and I borrowed a few of them to draw over the weekend.  Here they are in pencil and in pen...I'm going to hopefully turn them into a gocco print in the next couple of days. 

 

I think they once belonged to a hawk, a pheasant, a kereru and a mallard. 

My creative space: birds of a feather

I finally finshed the drawing I've been working on at lunchtimes:

And today, on my day off, I coloured it in Photoshop:

 I'm going to get it printed A4 sized like these ones.
Then I went up the road and had a coffee and started the next one in the series:

How about you, what have you been working on?

 Happy Thursday to you!

Joining up today with "My Creative Space" over here.

Lunchtime drawing

 I've been working on a new one of my "birds saying bird sayings" drawings on my lunch breaks for the last week or so; here it is in action today.  And some of the other things I spied on my lunch break, before I had to run inside out of the rain...

My creative space: dots and sticks

I was reading one of Lotta Jansdotter's books the other day and in it she talks about how one of her friends had mentioned that a lot of her pictures were like dots on sticks. I found this plant on my way home from work that looked like it was made of dots on sticks too and it has been no end of inspiration to me this week.
First I displayed it:

Bottles courtesy of a great Dunedin op shop

Then I painted it:

Then I drew it:Then I turned it into a fabric design:
I'm hoping to get some fabric printed by Spoonflower soon so I've been playing around with some possible designs. I'm thinking something with seedpods, something green...

How about you, what's inspiring you at the moment?

To see lots of other creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

In quiet moments

One of the things I like about doing the door for bands, or having slow patches when I'm doing my market stall, is drawing in my sketchbook. On Saturday as I was running out the door to do a market I grabbed a couple of shells off the top of the cupboard, thinking that if I had a quiet moment I could practise drawing them. So here they are; I had a bit of a play with them in photoshop afterwards. Mr. Millicent Crow bought me a small sketchbook for Xmas and I must remember to keep it in my bag so that I can steal little moments of time for drawing.

A little collection

Some of the things that have found their way home with me lately...I've been finding lots of lovely-shaped leaves lately and I always seem to come home with my pockets full of them. I bought the beetroot especially for drawing but it'll be good in a salad too!

Simplifying

I made some more rubber stamps this afternoon based on some little treasures I found at home. I had lots of fun working out how to simplify the images I used from this:

To this:

To this:Then I turned them into patterns:

I'm hoping to have a go at stamping these on fabric...maybe for patterned pockets for a plain skirt. And I'm eyeing up the four fresh new erasers I brought home from the supermarket!

Have a good weekend!

Rubber stamps

I've been seeing lots of lovely hand-carved stamps around the place lately and I thought I'd have a go at making some. First I did some sketches of things I'd like to stamp:

Carved some of them out of some erasers I had lying around:Made some more (after realising I'd need to simplify them quite a bit):

And covered my sketchbook with stamps:They're quite addictive - I had to resist filling up my whole sketchbook with different stamp patterns! Now to replenish my stash of erasers...and make some more...

My creative space

In my creative space today I've got some more brown paper drawings - I've been working on some every night this week and I've got an idea for turning them into a zine...
This fellow dreams of riding in a hot air balloon...but only if it matches his bow tie!
And these seahorses are an illustration for a story Mr. Millicent Crow wrote about how difficult it is to buy a seahorse in this town. You can read the story here.

I've got a day at home today, lovely. Screenprinting some feather brooches, working on a couple of paintings and designing myself a new business card are on the agenda.

To see lots of other people's creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday to you!

In the navy

More fun with brown paper. These fellows are from an old photo I found in a magazine - they're a practice for drawing sailor uniforms for another project I want to do soon. As soon as I find a willing model!

My creative space

In my creative space today I've been experimenting with humble old brown paper, the kind you wrap parcels in. These folks are drawings I've done on brown paper, stuck to white paper and painted over with a touch of gouache. The brown paper's really fun to paint on, it's quite addictive. Hopefully I'm going to use it in a project I'm going to work on with Mr. Millicent Crow...or fill sketchbooks with haughty-looking people painted on brown paper!

What have you been working on?

To see lots of other people's creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday to you!

My creative space

In my creative space today I've got a couple of bits and pieces. First up, these two - a practice for some paintings I want to do:
At the moment I'm calling them Pearl and Abe. Pearl is pretty no-nonsense but she's got a heart of gold. Abe likes playing practical jokes, although they sometimes backfire, can't relax unless the house is tidy, and has beautiful penmanship. They're done with ink and a bit of watercolour.

And this is a sneak peek at a skirt I'm making using a giant version of this feather print. I had to make one of the pattern pieces out of a piece of lunchwrap, so fingers crossed it works! I'm always a bit nervous about using my silk screen for things that have to be right the first time - I'm finding it a bit hit or miss, but it seemed to work ok this time. I'm actually making two versions of this skirt, but one without the feather so it won't look like I'm wearing the same skirt every day!

What have you been making?

To see other people's creative spaces head on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space

In my creative space today I've got a drawing I've just finished of a little collection of...stuff I found lying around the house. A minimalist I am not!

I've got a few plans for this drawing. I'm hoping to turn it into a gocco print - maybe a multicoloured one, seeing as I've got a whole lot of new gocco inks I'm itching to use. I'd also like to use it to practise colouring in Photoshop - my sister and I are doing a night class at the moment to learn how to use InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator and we're doing Photoshop next week. The other plan I've got for it is to make it part of a little series of miscellaneous collections from around the house...I sure do have a lot of trinkets and things lying around!

What have you been making?

To see other people's creative spaces for today pop on over to the "Our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!