A bit too ambitious,

I said I was going to start sketching city scapes,

well more correctly I meant street views. So, I had this photo from a street I wanted to try. Very soon I saw it was too ambitious to start with.

The buildings had too many details, and to finish it the buildings would be too small to add all. I just did the first two, and put down some colors to it. Even though I didn't mix any colors, it's quite amazing to see the changes in a sketch when it's colored.

I started over and sketched our garden house, more familiar and easier done. I did this same sketch a year ago, and it's so much better now. I still need to practice trees and hedges, but it's kind of a  promising result.

Uplifted by this result I sketched our house as well. It's wonky and many details not quite correctly done, but I painted it and it's good enough for a start. As you probably know, we have several buildings on our property, so I have many opportunities to practice.

When I look at this sketch now, I see I've told just half the story. We do have neighbours, and in a new one I'll add more of the surroundings too.

One of the warm and sunny days we just had, I actually sat outside and sketched the entrance in more detail. Wonky as well, but I can feel this will become something I'll love to do.

I'm not showing these to tell you all how good they are, it's more to show that it's possible even if the result isn't all that good. One has to start one place, and this is where I start. Now I can only hope to improve, perhaps in a year I will have a better grip on it.
That's all for now, have a fab week all.

Apple blossoms

It's past time for apple blossoms this year.

We have 6 appletrees in our garden, and they all act differently. This year 3 of them had a normal blooming, one was so loaded with blossoms that I've never seen it befort, and two had no blooms at all. They are all old trees, and the apples aren't especially good to eat, but I use them in cooking.

It's truly a beautiful sight when they bloom, all the pink color turning almost white when the flowers open up. There's so much going on in the garden right now that I have no chance capturing it all in my sketchbook. That's when the camera comes in handy. I have hundred of photos for later use.

It's really nice to to draw and paint, all the beauty from the garden, in winter. Wind and snow howling around the corners, and me sitting longing for a new spring. That's the time for using all the photos, picking a subject from all the beauty that was in my garden last season.

Happy PPF and Friday Sketches everyone, and thanks for checking in!

All week about nature.

All my work this week has been related to nature.

We kept on weeding last weekend, and luckily we're almost finished. Just one more flowerbed remains, but the rain came and now it has to dry up a bit.

All year around we have magpies in our garden. I think they are bautiful birds dressed in white tie and tails. They always seems so happy except when they're arguing.
This week we've had four or five of them in the garden and they got me thinking of my paternal grandma. She was born in 1891, and she didn't like the magpies at all. It was something old I believe, about the magpies came just for stealing.

The funniest thing she said  though, was that if one had magpies in the garden and they became noisy, one would have visitors to the home before the day ended. My grandma had lots of storys to tell, she died in 1995, 104 years old.

I made some other birds as well this week. I saw the idea over at  Stefanie's blog and couldn't resist making some.

Cool and happy birds, lovely for decorating and lots of other stuff. I might be back with some ideas later on.

I also tried my hand on making a landscape, using pan pastels. It isn't the worst I've made, but I need alot of practice to be good at it.

It's made on black paper, and I had to add more light to it in picasa. Well, that's about it.

Happy Friday Sketches and PPF everyone, and thank you for all your lovely comments. It's a thrill to read them all.

Friday Sketches

I have not been sketching much last week,

but I have been creating alot of art. I still feel it's scary to sketch using a black pen only. To know it's impossible to erase does in some ways scare me. But, to my surprise I actually did paint the trees without any sketch at all.

At some point it dawned on me that I have to know the "soul" of the things I paint. What differs them from others. A tree isn't just a tree, but I'll have to learn how to express the differences between them. This painting sketch is my first try to express diffrernt sorts of trees. If I'm going to learn the difference of each subject I make, I have plenty of work ahead.

My next sketch is an old tobacco box I was lucky enough to get from a good friend of mine. Her grand dad had the habit of collecting old things, and this one was given to me. I'm not sure, but I think it must be from the 1950's.

Here is the real one, I use it to hold some of my stamps. It's such a nice box, made out of cardstock and a paper band once glued around it to show it was unopened. It's one of those things that makes me happy, as a little everyday treasure. That's all I have to show this week.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've enjoyed it.
I'll link this post to Friday Sketches.

Daily routines messed up.

It has been an odd week.

Handyman free from work and my days have not been as usual. Isn't it strange how one can't get the routine to work properly with another person around. It's not that I don't like to have him home, I just notice how things change.

Just a little sketch I did, the text says : They told me it's summer, but I don't know, it's cold and no nests here.
I have come to use my sketchbook alot more than I thought I would. I often use it for testing out things that I'm going to make larger pieces of. Next photo shows such a test.

I had made a piece with birds, but didn't like it much because the birds, kind of, just sat there. No life in the piece so to speak. Therefore I decide to make another one where the birds were "alive"  The finished piece below is called : The Angry The Brave and The Curious one. This is a much better one, and one can almost hear the noice from the birds.

I have been doing quite much arty stuff this week, even with handyman around. Much testing, failure, but new ways of using my result and so on. I'll have to show you some other time, today I finish off with a journal page done in acrylics and twinks.  It was quite a job to paint the fence, but I had to because of some very dark photos in the book.

Finally, let me tell you that I was one of the lucky winners of a free spot in Dion Dior's Watercolor Pencil class. Yayyyyy!! Starts in September, I think. She has lowered the price of this class till the end of May, so why don't you consider a spot for yourselves. Dion is a very skilled artist AND teacher. I so much look forward to this.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy Friday everyone!

I'll link this post to Friday Sketching and Paint Party Friday

Some old tools

For many many years

these were among my most used tools, together with a bunch of different sewing machines. I'm a trained tailor, and when in school, we were forced to use a thimble. It was a hard job to get used to it, and now I can't make a single stitch without it. No matter what I need to stitch, my thimble is a must.

That's the reason I have three, one quite small if my fingers are cold, one for warm hands and the fancy pink one were bought last summer in the US. I think that will be a good one, but I don't sew much these days.

My left hand pair of sissors is an important tool too, and as a tailor I do keep my fabric sissors away from all kinds of different use. I have one for paper use, one for kitchen, some fabric sissors and a couple of thread cutters. All for left hand use or universal.

This sketch were done with black pen only and watercolors.
Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

I'm linking this post to Friday Sketching and Paint Party Friday.

Playing with ink

I was playing with ink the other day.

My sketch book has become a great place to play and test new things. Subjects I want to make a larger piece of are often first tried in my sketch book. This particular day, I was testing ink and how it would turn out if I let it bleed with spraying water onto the lines before painting anything.

As you see abowe, the ink spread out too much with spraying, so I changed my method by using a brush dipped in water instead. I liked that much better, since I had a bit more control with the bleeds. It was fun doing, and I will definitely do this more. The ink I used was water resistant,(?!) but that is when dry. I manipulated the ink when still wet.

I've learnt a whole lot about shading during the class I just finished, and I want to try more ways to use that knowledge. There is also a lot more I want to practice more, so my days will be filled to the brim of fun. My three roses in a vase are not excactly a masterpiece, but they served the purpos.

Because of the angles when photographing, the ink seems to be blue. It's black though. Do you have a sketch book? Why don't you join the Friday Sketching challenge Dion Dior hosts every Friday? It's much fun and one can link up the work every day during the week. There are no rules except your sketch has to be in a sketch book. Each Friday Dion announces a theme for coming weeks sketch, but we can do our own choices. It's easy to link up your work, just by copying your post address and add it in.

Give it a try, I'm sure you'll enjoy it too!

Tiny garden house.

 HappyFriday Sketching.

This weeks theme isn't excactly my cup of tea. I find it so very hard to sketch houses, and houses were the first thing I thought of when reading the theme.
I tried several times to sketch our house, but I had to let it go. Instead I made this little sketch of our tiny garden house. It's wonky, but still, it's a sketch.

Handyman built this house for us some years ago, using some windows which once belonged to our house. Together we planned the shape of the house and he built it.
Normally these little houses are painted white, but I didn't want it to show off that much. With this green color it flows with the rest of the garden.

We have some outdoor furnitures in there, and this time of year it's lovely to be there having some coffee. One gets closer to the garden this way, and many times I can sit out there watching lots of different birds. I have a bird bath on the deck, and the birds love it.

Notice the little lace border hanging down from the roof, I spent quite some time to design it, and handyman spent equal time to make it. We've had lots of positive feedback from our neighbours regarding this little "garden palace" of ours. The door is from somwhere in between 1900 and 1910, and was given to us from a neighbour. He changed all the doors in his house, and this one were the only one original from back then. I'm glad I did this sketch, but I'm not sure I'll do it over again untill I'm better doing it.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy your weekend!

Friday Sketching

My kitchen table didn't show anything interesting, so I have chosen to sketch a part of my kitchen instead.

What you see is where I cook our food, baking cakes and so forth. The house we live in is a hundred year old beauty, which we've restored. We've kept the intire house as close to the origin as possible. We did find some original kitchen parts, but they couldn't be of any use. 

As you see below, or actually you won't be able to see it, I have chosen to hide the ventilator behind a tiny curtain. At first I frightened it would be very fatty in a short while, but it works fine. 

My kitchen is a very small one, but we have all we need, and all the modern equipment have been embedded. 

Even though each room is quite small, it doesn't feel that way because of very high celings. All over the house we have lots of beautiful details, the carpenters, back then, worked in a completely different way than today.

Well, that's all I had for you today, enjoy your weekend!

Friday sketches, sliced fruit.

Banana, handymans favorite fruit.

I was so glad to see this weeks challenge were sliced fruit. I knew I had bananas, so I would use one for inspiration. That was what I thought, but handyman had eaten the last one for breakfast this morning. Therefor, my sketch is improvised.

I used ink for sketching, and water to to let the ink bleed a bit but it doesn't show much in the photos. I've never liked messing up my pieces, but I can feel my resistance against that fading away. I made another sketch yesterday, much more messed up and I really liked it.

I'm so excited these days, my brand new set of Sennelier aquarel paints are on their way to me, and I can hardly wait for them to arrive. I've only had some old pan watercolors that aren't much good.

I'm so happy for this Friday sketches challenge, it makes me sketch alot more. I've even found myself thinking, oh, I'll have to sketch this. And also, I use my sketchbook to try out things I'm going to make in the future.

It has always been hard for me to make backgrounds in my paintings, but I find that's much easier too. The sketch book allows every entry, and there's nothing to be afraid of.

Find your sketch book and join this challenge you too.

Trying a new substrate.

In fact I have used brown paper earlier,

but not as a substrate for watercolors/ Twinks. I know it's not acid free and all that stuff, but it's not likely I will become a Rembrant either. I love a rough surface, so I thought of trying this one. What I did was to wrinkle up the brown paper and smooth it out, several times, to achieve a softer and much more textured surface. I used my iron on the paper before I anchored it to a 140 lbs watercolor paper. Below you see my starting point.

First thing I did was to put some paint to my paper, just to have something to start with. When I saw what my paint did to the paper, I truly had my doubts. Would the paper dry back to the surface I spent time to make, or would it all be messed up. Of course it would dry, but what about the wrinkles?

To my big surprise, it dried back to the surface I had prepared. Isn't that a bit strange? In wet condition, all the wrinkles were gone but they revived. I am, of course, happy for that it's just that I don't quite understand it. Below is my piece with paint and dry.

I had been sketching this beautiful old house with a tower and a conservatory and everything was very nice, but I had difficulties transfering it. I ended up sketching a new house which was very easy to transfer. Stright lines only. I used a nib and ink to strenghten the lines at the end. This is how it looked like.

Now, the painting is the fun part so it's just to turn the brushes. The house first, and the same thing happened over again, the paper lost all the wrinkles, and it looked scary. With the house done I left it for drying and all went well. I did it all in parts and let dry in between, and voila........ finished painting.

It was very hard photographing this process, because the wrinkles caught too much light, you know, I used the Twinks for paint. Just a tiny bit penwork and it was done.

Not too bad result, and I learnt a lot during this fun experiment.

What was your last experiment?

Light, does it matter?

I did a fun little experiment with light the other day.

What does light have to say for the expression of a piece of art? We all know that light matters, but can light turn a specific mood into a completely different mood? Yes it can.

I used a card to paint a rainy scene, it was a rainy day here, so I guess I was inspired by that. I actually drew this quite fast, so it's no masterpiece. It's a cabin situated by the sea/ fjord.  It sits on the bedrock and pretty close to the ocean. Now, imagine you were in the cabin looking out at the rain, what feelings comes to mind? Probably, oh well, it'll soon pass.

If you look at the next photo, what feelings would appear then? Do you recognice the change in mood in the photo? Much darker, more depressing and the question, will it ever stop?
I have to say, I never gave this issue serious thoughts untill I made this card. The actual card has colors somewhere in between these two. It's very interesting doing small experiments like this.

The diagonal "wet" drops/lines are made by a far to big brush. They should've been much finer. I was hoping to be able to actually rip marks in the surface along the drops/lines, to make it look alot more like actual rain.

Now, I wasn't because my piece had been drying too much. I think the surface should have been wet, or at least damp.
What was your last experiment?

A study in form

The other day

I tried my hands on giving form to a subject using dark, light and one color only. I ended up using three green colors, but only tiny drops of two of them.
I lightly sketched my subject using a green watercolor pencil, that's all. After sketching and some work with the paint I had a piece looking like the one below. The peas look much greener in this photo, it's the light used only that makes the difference. Still a lot of work to do.

I kept working. while I could hear the teacher in a class I'm taking say, take your time. I took my time, and it sure paid off. Instead of leaving the background without paint, I chose to add some blue color as you'll see below. Why I didn't think of making the blue color with stright lines is a mystery. Note to self, always think while working! Well, so far so good.

Next step was to add highlights and shadows, and boy did I do that! I simply ruined my entire work. White and gold pens used in a generous amount. And then the shadow, failure as well. At this stage I had to take a looong break. Notice that I even signed it before I realized my failure. Oh my! I have no clue where my mind was while doing this, but apparently it was not with me. In this writing moment there's a text line from Pink Floyd coming to my mind.........."there's someone in my head, but it's not me..."

During the break, I realized my work was ruined so it wouldn't matter if I did it completely. I therefor decided to try a rescue maneuver, new failure would not matter on top of a ruined work.

I actually was able to fix most of it, and the end product came out pretty well, if I might say so myself. I used water and paper towel to remove as much of the white pen as I wanted to, added a darker blue in the background, which works even better than the first one, strightened up the lines and then added my shadows using charcoal. All in all it was a great work session, containing lots of learning for me.

This piece measures 15 by 15 cm's and was done on a hand made paper, and this time I let my sign be.

Thanks for popping in!

Another sketch.

New week gone,

I.ve often wondered where time goes. When I go, I know the road is behind me, but the next day the same road is still there. Where does time go, and where is it comimg from? Is it the same 24 hours over and over again? No, I'm not crazy I started wondering, that's all.

I've been sketching all week, and this one is one of them. It's a flower spreader from the dark ages. In real life it's black with gold decor, but that was to dull to paint so I chose my own colors.
It's meant to sit in the bottom of a glass bowl, keeping the flowers in place and spread them in a fan-like way.

The funniest thing is, when doing it's job, it seems like the fish is swimming amongst sea grass. All the flower stems looks like sea grass. There are many different types of flower spreaders, but I have neven seen anyone like this one before. Cool thing bought in an antique fair some years ago.

I had some left overs, and used them to give the fish an opportunery to express himself. I think he's saying : Hey, where are my bowl and the flowers, I'm sick and tired of being on dry land.

Below is a photo of the real one in use. I'm sorry for the quality of the photo, but you can see all the stems surrounding the fish. I even removed one just to let you see the fish a bit better.

The Friday Sketch challenge is so much fun, and it's open for you too. Come join us, click the Friday Sketch button on top of this blog and join in!
This Friday I had already made my sketch, next week I'll wait till I see Dion's lead. I've also seen people share the colors used, and that's a great idea, so I'll try remembering it too.

Enjoy the weekend!