leaves

leaves
Originally uploaded by deggieB

Draw the book your reading.

I love AndyGoldsworthy's work with leaves and the book gives a bit more insight into the processes he uses. Beginning with using only windfall leaves and progressing to testing them at various times of year and finding what each type of leaf wants/ is prepared to do. I particularly like the boxes of london plane and the most basket like of the sweet chestnut structures.

In my own mind some of my explorations of unlikely plant materials for baskets and paper seem a bit less mad -- knitting with couchgrass roots anyone?

ingredients for lunch

You can find the recipe here.

Best Crêpes in Barcares!

mikey

I made this

I made this ( and then drew it).
I've been meaning to try making my own stitched notebook for ages, #13 of the 75ways book just gave me the impetus to get on and do it. 32 pages stitched into 4 signatures, a recycled cardboard box cover and a press stud pop fastener.

I've got the signatures folded for my next notebook already- going for a coptic binding this time.

Ooh a and a lovely link for book binders

http://littlepaperbird.blogspot.com/

Anyone wanting to buy me a present, one (or all 4) of her little books would be lovely. From the Etsy shop on the right hand side bar.

Draw your morning Tea

Best Drink of the Day

75 ways to draw more

I've joined in Michael Nobbs 75 ways to draw more group on Flikr, and have consequently been drawing loads more. It's really good fun, it's stopped me waiting for inspiration to strike, cos I can go to the list and choose something. I particularly like No 8 -Do lots of bad drawings.

Permission to do bad drawings makes the chances of the odd good one happening much higher.

So my new flikr photostream is here.

here is my drawing for #29 Draw your lover

Beltane

hand

Degs Legs

vase with irises

bath legs

I liked the colouring in--so I've gone back to to do this sketch from the other week.

trip to the seaside

Drawn in the car on the way to the way to Teignmouth, an amalgamation of views on the way.
Looked at some Clarice Cliff plates in a shop window and came back inspired to colour in.
I haven't done much in colour before, and drawing from imagination is something I'm trying more of too. BTW, i was a passenger-- it is Never Safe to Draw and Drive.

Found via Michael Nobbs twittering

Crowded train sketch It's a contour drawing -- and another sketch blog

Balancing Pebbles

Treated myself to an afternoon of stone balancing.

Had a nice chat with some folk from Vermont, who told me about Inookshooks. I see why he thought they were a bit similar, but I wasn't aiming to make an anthropomorphic figure, or even leave a lasting mark on the landscape. I'm aiming to make it look really delicate, so it's fairly unstable, not a quality you'd be looking for in a waymarker.

I do quite like the idea though, of leaving a balance standing so other people can take away whatever message they like from it-but the urge to add just one more rock is usually too powerful. Every one I did yesterday eventually had a catastrophic collapse. They'd have been an OK size to leave too. Not too near a path and not really heavy or tall enough to hurt anybody.

contour drawing

Contour drawing is a warm-up exercise that Betty Edwards recommends in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

The rules are that once you have placed the pencil on the paper, you're not allowed to look at the paper again, only at the subject.

Some of them turn out quite striking. I usually draw my non drawing hand ( I sometimes do contour drawings with my non dominant hand) or my feet.

Equinox

perfect balance between night and day, east and west, gravity and levity.

dandelion after rain

the bloke at the next table

Sketch on back cover of cheque book

self portrait

reflections

the watery mirror reflects a deeper, darker more detailed world than the surface view, even when the scrying surface is just a muddy puddle

Michael Nobbs

I love Michael Nobbs drawings.
They are of such ordinary things.
He likes tea even more than I do. (Or at least as much)


michael nobbshttp://blog.michaelnobbs.com/page/3/

hex photo

drawing

hex is the dogs name, i don't know why i signed his name not mine, but i did the drawing. Click on it for a bigger version





black ballpoint pen

Spirals

Different days, different places, different materials, same basic shape