Sunday Sketchblog #32

EDM #13 is draw your phone. This is obviously the one on my desk, not the one I carry around in my handbag. Modern technology's all very well with its sleek little devices, but they're not much fun to draw!

Emma's just started EDM-ing too, so pop and see what she's done this week.

Illustration Friday: Crooked

Life's taken over a bit this week, so my contribution for Illustration Friday is just a quick sketch...

Crooked teeth. Supposedly something we should all get fixed, but which can actually be quite attractive and apparently lucky in some cultures. And remember Chaucer's Wife of Bath? I think she was pretty proud of the gap between her teeth.

Lost in Books

Updating my 'About Me' a little bit the other day, I realised I have never created anything book-inspired. So I thought up this little drawing as an immediate remedy.

And now I have Belle and Sebastian's 'Wrapped up in Books' stuck in my head...

Sunday Sketchblog #31

EDM#12 is 'draw what you ate for dinner'. Unfortunately, it's pretty unrealistic that I'm going to make dinner and then let it get cold whilst I draw it... So I was going to draw what I ate for lunch instead, but forgot. This sketch is actually just 'some things I ate'.

Visit Emma to see if she's been inspired by anything sketch-worthy this week.

Oh, look! #15

Recent nice things...

Greenest of green smoothies | Road trips in the rain

Sunday morning baking | Cat, baffled by curtains

(instagram: timballoo)

I love seeing how other people make things, so this video of Phil McAndrew painting 'fear' was inspiring.

Illustration Friday: Burst

I've really enjoyed participating in Week Word for the last year or so, but I'm afraid I'm switching my Friday allegiance for a little while and trying something new...

I think Emma pointed me in the direction of Illustration Friday a while back, and I'm finally going to start joining in.

The premise is pretty simple, a topic is posted each Friday and people upload their illustrations to the website during the following week. It's really interesting to see so many different ideas and interpretations, not to mention styles and techniques, all stemming from the same word.

This week's word has been 'burst'. All my initial thoughts were about things bursting and being destroyed, which seemed rather negative. But then the phrase 'burst into song' slunk into mind, and that was a lot more pleasing.

So, inspired by the parakeets that live in the trees around our house and how I imagine they get on with the natives, here's my cheerful little bird bursting into song.

Changing Seasons

Autumn's definitely just around the corner now... it's still sunny and bright enough to need sunglasses, but I've started having to dig out a big scarf to help me face leaving the house in the morning.

Wrap Magazine

A couple of weeks ago I saw Wrap magazine mentioned on Hazel Nicholl's blog and went off on an intrepid search to locate a copy. (Okay... down the road... to Regent Street... to Anthropologie... There were a lot of vicious and wild tourists around though.)

In their own words, Wrap is a magazine that celebrates the very best in illustration, design and creative culture, and each issue comes with five double-sided pull-out sheets of unique wrapping paper. 

Although if, like me, wrapping paper usually means something carefully recycled, flattened and de-selloptaped and which originally cost £2 for three rolls anyway, I don't think you'll be using the beautifully printed sheets in here to wrap up any disappointing bubble bath sets...

So, Wrap is lovely because it's matte, not shiny, has no adverts and just a double page like this...

... of things you might want to buy (and I like most of these particular things.)

It has big full pages of illustrations, like this...

Ella Cohen (and my ubiquitous mug)

 ...and lots of contributions from different, interesting people.

At £10.50 per issue, it's not cheap but it certainly feels better quality than a bog-standard magazine. It'd also look good on your coffee table, and bear repeat flickings-through.

Sunday Sketchblog #30

EDM#10 (yes, I labelled this one wrong... I like to think I'm better at drawing than counting) is draw your hand or hands.

And, if you can read my scribble, this is the 'last time' sketch.

I've just noticed they're exactly a month apart - don't think my hands will have changed much in that period and hopefully I'll be drawing something else on the 3rd of October!

Visit Emma to see what's in her sketchbook for us this weekend.

Week Word: Observe

Junebug was responsible for choosing this week's word, observe.

One of the definitions of observe is to 'notice something and register it as significant' which led me to thinking about the way we see and read meanings into things around us... meanings that may or may not 'really' be there.

Visit Junebug to see what else has been observed this week.

Roman Holiday

We've just got back from a long weekend in Rome, where I'm confident in saying we missed almost all of the 'must do' things but had a lovely time wandering around regardless.

I didn't manage much sketching, apart from one morning by the pool. It's hard to draw when your fingers are slippy with sunscreen...

Sunday Sketchblog #29

EDM#8 is 'draw a bit of organised chaos'. A little spoilt for choice, I went for the paper-holder-thing on my desk.

It features: a post-it detailing a car no one I know owns any more, a picture of a mustard jar ripped from a magazine, an envelope to fill with used stamps for recycling, 20 Swedish Kronor (apparently worth about £1.80), some compliments slips, and the beginnings of a shopping list.

Visit Emma to see if she's been sketching this week?

Week Word: Unity

John at The Healing Seed chose our word this week: Unity. Do visit him to see who else is playing and what they've come up with.

It's clearly true that wedding planning takes over your life a bit, as the idea I kept coming back to when thinking about unity was marriage. Particularly the tradition of handfasting, where the couples hands are tied together to symbolise their commitment and partnership.

I didn't want anything too sentimental or romantic for my image though, as unity also seems like a very powerful word; by uniting, you create something stronger than the separate parts.

CPSH August

Huge apologies to Ruth at the Goldhawk Project for being so late with this - I'm not sure how it managed to slip my mind!

With no further delay...

Something I made

I've actually been doing a lot of knitting recently which would be a perfect subject for this photo, but haven't got around to taking a pictures. So it's the greenest of smoothies instead.

Inspiration

Back cover of the current Wrap magazine.

Old

More bits of steam fair.

Surprise

Taking inspiration from Ruth's picture, we were surprised to find this beastie expired in our barbecue. (Nick would probably like me to tell you that's his smallest finger for scale.)

Motif: Hearts

I think I feature this mug on here far more than it deserves, but it seemed apt again and I liked the position of the crack...

Visit Ruth to see all the other contributors this month.

Reflection

This started out as EDM #11, draw your glasses or sunglasses, but I'm posting it today even thought it means the EDMs are going to get all out of synch! 

I like it and it turned into something a bit more satisfying than just a quick sketch.

Rural Interlude 2012

Steam Fair time of year has come around again so, as last year, we motored down to Dorset through the now traditional rain to march about muddy fields in boots and drink 'traditional' (ie flat and very very dry) cider whilst sitting on hay bales.

The last one's a bit of a thresher.  It's supposed to look like that...

Sunday Sketchblog #28

Another EDM, #5, for this week's sketch. The subject is 'draw your bed'. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I get up first by quite a long stretch, I rarely see it empty...