Artwork

Page started 04.02.15

Years ago I used to like to draw and paint. Then I got interested in growing native plants and bush regeneration and we bought a bush block. Looking after that and trying to grow my own food means I don’t have a lot of time for anything else. I always wanted to have lessons in botanical art, but somehow it never happened.

Lately, I’ve been following a relatively new blog—Make-do Studio—and the author, Chris, has been showing off her artwork. It’s made me want to take it up again, so I’ve bought some materials and hope I can find the time to dabble a bit.

I unearthed some pencil drawings I did long ago. The date on a couple says ’86. OMG, no wonder I feel old!

I’ve just realised my printer is a scanner, too, so here they are :

This is my favourite, a Grey Butcherbird. Drawn from a photo taken of one we used to feed at our previous home. With great originality, we called him ‘Butch’ :

 

This one is the seed pod of a native banksia—Banksia serrata. I have a collection of unusual seed cases in a large bowl, mostly banksias as they are fascinating. I love collecting things from Nature :

 

My husband loved horses, so I drew these for him, taken, I think, from photos in the daily paper :

 

Added 11.02.15

This is Cheeky, one of my chickens :

I blew up her head (not literally!) :

And had a go at drawing her :

It doesn’t have the crispness of the drawings above, done 30 years ago, but hey, I’m just getting started again with drawing. I don’t think I’ve captured her insolent stare, but at least it looks like a chicken! Next job will be to repeat the drawing in watercolour pencils, something I’ve never used before.

 

Added 14.02.15

I traced the above pencil sketch of Cheeky the chicken and transferred it to a watercolour pad. I have two sets of watercolour pencils, one ordinary pencil type in wood, and a set of woodless watercolour sticks…solid colour, no wood exterior. I found the first set very hard; they didn’t seem to want to leave much colour on the paper. I ended up using the watercolour sticks which seemed softer.

It’s not easy. I’ve never drawn in colour before. If I tried to press hard, to darken the colour all it did was to bring up the underlying texture of the paper more. I only had a set of 12 colours, not a lot to work with and I found the kneadable eraser didn’t lift off the colour as easily as it does with graphite pencil. But maybe when I add water I’ll find I can do it that way. I’ve never used watercolours before so this is all new stuff. Here’s the coloured Cheeky :

Added 15.02.15

I’ve decided having this page is a bit cumbersome to deal with so have moved it all to a new blog called drawingnstuff. Hope to see you there!