CPSH October

Emma asked me to pick this month's CPSH topics, and here are my photos...

Inspiration

The view from the bridge approaching Granary Square
and Central St Martins.

Something I made

Pizza dough. Or the moon...

Cosy

Pumpkin spice latte. Which I thought I wouldn't like, but I did.

Motifs: Hallowe'en

Carved pumpkins from our Hallowe'en party!

Supplies

Portable drawing things.

Please do visit the other participants this month to see their photos, and I'll pick my favourites over the next few days.

Rach at The Awesome Lady
Sally at Diario
S at Cinders and Rain
Emma at The Gift Shed (hopefully!)
Ruth at The Goldhawk Project
Margo at Tulsi Crafts

Anyone else who's joined in - let me know and I'll add you to the list,

Final Nixie

The third and final nixie, having a bit of a sit down after being defeated by the slippery glass mountain.

Radio 4 informed me this morning that Philip Pullman has produced a book retelling the Grimms' fairy tales, and Amazon tells me that one of them is called 'The Nixie of the Millpond'. I might have to go and investigate...

Sunday Sketchblog #36

Two EDMs this week, as they seemed to go together a little bit. EDM#21 is something old, antique or vintage and EDM#22 is a piece of clothing. As I didn't read ahead, I drew a vintage dress for #21 which meant I ended up with two clothes drawings in a row...

A bit different to each other though, as #21 is a vintage dress from a photo I had saved on my Pinterest...

and #22 is the coat stand in my office with various items of clothing draped over it.

Visit Emma to see how her sketchblog is coming along?

Another Nixie

I've abandoned Illustration Friday for one week only as I got a bit focused on the Nixie from last week and decided to do a couple more illustrations for other parts of the story. Cunningly, this will also count as one of my projects for the course I'm currently doing.

So, here's that Nixie again, about to encounter the brush mountain.

Full Sketchbook!

Almost exactly six months after starting, my little Moleskine full of self portraits is full! That's sixty drawings in total - although there are a couple of utter disasters that were abandoned part way through. I certainly didn't manage one every day, but an average of ten a month doesn't seem too bad.

So, here is the last batch. Next week I'll try and do a post with the whole lot, disasters and all (teeny tiny images, so it won't be massive). Hopefully it'll be interesting to see them as a series.

Another year older...

As, this time last year, I was commenting on how all my school friends and I were turning thirty, it's probably not massively surprising that this year we're all celebrating being thirty one...

One of my friends decided to cope with this development by deciding that thirty one actually sounds quite young, as you're clearly younger than all the other people in their thirties. Helpful and supportive as ever, I drew him a birthday card featuring other nice things he is also younger than to reassure us all that ageing doesn't need to be terrifying.

(By way of explanation, Mr North is the oldest of our friends. Admittedly no one knows how old Vince is but, factoring in cat years, it's a pretty safe guess.)

Sunday Sketchblog #35

I'm guessing that EDM#20 must have originally been thought up on Father's Day, as it's 'draw something dad'.

My dad lives in Dorset, so wasn't available to be drawn. Instead I sketched a favourite photo of us together from when I was much smaller.

And the original...

Emma got off to a flying start with her EDMs last Sunday. I wonder how many she's managed this week?

Illustration Friday: Water

This week's topic is water.

When I was small, the most terrifying thing in my tiny world was a picture of a water nixie in a book of fairy tales. So terrifyin,g in fact, that I had to paperclip the pages together so I wouldn't accidentally see it.

In a possible attempt to appease my inner child, I decided to use this week's IF to create a slightly less horrifying water nixie.

And, brace yourselves, here is the original nightmare-inspiring illustration. I think it may have been the shoes that I found particularly alarming.

Mundane Reportage

This is me trying my hand at 'reportage' style sketching - quick drawings of real things and places. Unfortunately there's nothing news worthy going on outside and heading out sleuthing isn't really an option for me at the moment, so it's just reportage of everyday stuff. Does that count?

Green Park Tube

Fruit Seller on Piccadilly

Texture and Transport

I can't decide whether I like this or not... It was an exercise in using different textures and colours and then combining them in Photoshop, to create an image to illustrate a newspaper article. I keep thinking it looks too 'messy' but then, when I tidy it up, it loses some of the sinister quality that I do like about it. Conundrum

The article's about women feeling unsafe using public transport in London. However, if you read it carefully (although you can't in the image below - the text is jumbled up!) there's no actual increase in levels of crime or danger, just that people feel more at risk (quite a lot of men, as well...) Anyway, I wanted the illustration to reflect that - to feel threatening and scary, but without there being actual murderers and rapists lurking round every corner.

Sunday Sketchblog #34

EDM#18 is the view out of your window. Rather than drawing the street I can see from my office again, I went for a quick sketch out of the back window. I see these chimney pots every day and love the warm terracotta, although I'm guessing they're never used these days.

I've no idea who the geraniums belong to, either. I'd have thought the buildings over there are all offices (it's the back of Jermyn Street, I guess) but perhaps some are little pied-a-terres instead?

Visit Emma to see if she's still EDMing?

Illustration Friday: Mirror

This week's topic is Mirror. The scent of Hallowe'en is clearly in the air, as I've come up with this slightly sinister illustration...

Me, me, me...

I've not posted any of these for a while, but my little self portrait notebook is about two-thirds full now! I'm glad I've stuck at it as it's pretty cheering to look back and see signs of progress (albeit interspersed with some very odd looking attempts... might post some of them once it's full for amusement). 

Some favourites from the last month...

(Yes, I do really like that stripy cardigan. Yes, I am wearing it again today.)

Hand-made Colour

This week I've been learning about using hand-made colour, digitally. Rather than drawing something by hand, scanning it in and colouring it on the 'puter, you can also create the colour and texture by hand. Hopefully, you end up with images that seem less 'flat' and which still feel like they were made by a human.

As I was working on a make-up themed image last week, I played around with smearing various make-up products on to a piece of paper and using the results to colour my line drawing.

I think my favourite bit is the mascara - I love the contrast between the shape of the drawing and the textured pattern from the brush.

Sunday Sketchblog #33

Draw a tree or trees, leaves or branches, said EDM #15. I was all set up to draw a tree, but then it got dark. So here's an indoor leaf instead, still attached to an apple from next door's allotment.

Visit Emma to see what's in her sketchbook this week.

Illustration Friday: Books

This week's topic is 'Book' - great minds clearly do think alike...

I think that one of the most important things about reading is how it gives you a perspective on other lives and worlds - not just learning about them, but living in them through the characters.

CPSH October: Topics

I've not done very well at participating in the Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt just recently, but Emma's asked me to host for October so hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures this month...

Anyone can join in, just leave me a comment on this post to let me know you're playing with a link to your blog, then take a picture for each topic and post them at the very end of the month. I'll then do a round up and pick my favourites.

Without further ado, this months topics are:

Photoshop Practice

Continuing to play with line drawings and Photoshop... mostly making a big mess, but I don't think I've been this excited about learning new skills since I figured out steering and changing gear at the same time!

And using a template 'magazine page'.

New term...

As is traditional for autumn, I've just started learning something new. For the next month or so, I'm going to be finding out about mixing together handmade and digital techniques and (hopefully) getting to the bottom of the mysterious (to me) Photoshop.

To start with, we were just playing with black and white line drawings - working out how to put different sketches together, overlapping them or not, that sort of thing. I've been practising with some quick sketches, and am thrilled to discover I can remember everything so far!