Here's a free Calendar for January 2014

I've been thinking about doing a Calendar of Sketching William!   but for starters I'm going to do a month at a time and see what people think about it.   Instead of going through these photographic companies who produce your own picture I'm actually going to 'draw' the calendar dates with a sketch of William at the top for each month.

Soooo, if you want a copy I've (hopefully) added below the pdf  for you to copy and download yourselves.....this is technical stuff for me, so I am keeping my fingers crossed it works.

As I said, I'm only going to do a month at a time and see how it goes from there - this is the picture for January 2014.    Towards the end of January I'll do a blog post ready for February.

and here is the pdf link (just click the pdf word)

A Lovely Festive time

Hope you have all had as lovely a festive time as us.  Rounded off yesterday by visiting our son who prepared a gorgeous meal for us all and hence we collapsed in a heap on one of his sofas...including a lurcher who couldn't decide if he was with his dad or me....

(I  'virtually'  added the Santa hat as a joke.....teehee)!!

A Surprise Tea Party for Tracey

Today is a special surprise

for those of us who join into

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY

We are having

this TEA PARTY

for you TRACEY

S U R P R I S E !

and I got William the lurcher to help with the painting -

he thought it would be fun to pose for his picture

and send you

ALL THE BEST WISHES FOR THE SEASON

WE ARE ALL SUPPORTING YOU AND WANT YOU TO KNOW

WE ARE THINKING OF YOU

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

One full brush of paint

Ahh, the joy of a size 10 Kolinsky Sable..

full of delicious paint and in one sweep I attempted a very unrealistic donkey...

 

and waited for the paint to dry, then added some dark detailing

 -  quite pleased how this turned out, after all it was in one brush stroke 

(with no pencil lines to follow)  -

Of course, there are times when it is a complete disaster

- but I turned this next one around -

and call it    'Against the Storm'

Using tissue paper I wiped away the excess paint, then added the 'action lines'

the rest is up to the imagination!

Not quite Wordless....Wednesday!

Time to sort those Decorations out - and start wrapping presents....Oh no! the wrapping is a job I so do not enjoy....

1.  the sticky tape seems to double itself up before I can attach it to the paper.

2.  I can never measure the paper properly and end up with a huge bunch of paper at the ends...

okay I could cut that back and make it less bunched....then I end up taking too much off and having to start again.

3.  I wrap something and forget what it was and have to unwrap it to check!

4.  The only sensible solution by then is to pour a glass of wine....

 ~ Cheers Everyone ~

Snow days and Paint Party Friday

Friday already and I'm Linking to Paint Party Friday - with many Thanks to EVA & Kristin - whilst sharing some Snow....

Just got back from the Brecon mountains in Wales.  A lovely time revisiting familiar places and sightseeing.    So, here's a few (a lot) of pix for you to enjoy and a little sketching too, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing at the time...(although I have to admit I sketched them in the car but didn't add the watercolour til later)...

Watercolour in my large moleskine book...

The higher we drove the more snow we found, but it was lovely to see the comparison between 'High and Cold with Snow' and 'Sunny and a bit warmer at lower level'...... 

close up...

and

I took some videos of the drive.....so if you have got this far perhaps you would like to see these.  Apologies for the dead flies on the windscreen, flies will obviously do anything to get in on a video!

In Video 1, it would seem that some drivers had more trouble with the icy conditions than us......

This area reminds us so much of our own Dartmoor,

especially when it is snow capped.

~ Have a terrific weekend all ~

Wordless Wednesday

This is what happens

when daughter catches me looking over the stable door with her horse......I'm on the right!

A Winter walk

Another walk a few days ago and we drove round to Westward ho!   Always good for a wander and it is nice seeing the various beach huts along the esplanade.  Now mostly closed up for the Winter months.  There was one I spied though with its door open and the owners still enjoying it this side of New Year...

Walk

The other day we took a wander along the Tarka line.  A former railway line now used by walkers and cyclists.

There seemed to be some ominous black smoke in the distance...we never found out what that was about..

this is the estuary looking towards Barnstaple...

so pleased I have a good zoom on my camera...from this spot I zoomed towards the bridge

Apparently the polar bear wanted a drink!!

(Photo courtesy of Lil H.)

a look at some of my favourite pens...

I've loads of different pens, but there are some that I use a lot.  They include these

the V5

the Uni-ball eye

and occasionally, when I need a brown/sepia look I use this Faber-Castell PITT pen

but how do they perform, bearing in mind that I add watercolours sometimes.  Getting a pen that doesn't Run Everywhere is essential. 

That can also work in my favour though, like sketching William, the ink runs perfectly in the V5.  Here's a little chart....

and my notes here on how I found them

A busy morning

and some interesting activity this morning over at the local beach with the arrival of the Air Ambulance - according to sources it could well have been called out due to an over enthusiastic fitness fanatic - as far as I am aware the emergency services left without a patient on board ...but at least they turned out and are on hand to help if necessary

This is how visitors relax in our house!

and, of course, it needed to be a sketch

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ALL

I've filled up a Moleskine!

I love sketching and painting in my little Moleskine sketchbooks (3" x 5" ish) size.  But is it

total desperation when I actually end up drawing this Beaver on the Inside Cover just to make the

most of it all....

(suppose I should have drawn a mole - although perhaps it does look a little like one!!!!)

Thankfully I have another moleskine on the go and a spare brand new one that I can't

wait to get started on.

Wordless Wednesday

Colour added

 I got hold of my small palette and  I soon coloured in my drawing ...

It gave me something to do for a few minutes....boredom is now setting in, which could mean I am actually on the mend!