A bit of Nature Photography for a Change

I've had enough of pylons and carparks and man-made stuff for a while, so I took my camera to West Dean Gardens near Chichester...

I loved the shapes of the flowers and the leaves of this blue Echinops flower.

(I held a sheet of white paper behind the flower to take the photo, and I have altered the brightness using Photoshop, but the flower really was very blue.)

Willow Sculpture 

More Sketchbook Project Pages

Koi Carp - Watercolour on Yupo Paper

Construction site with Crane - Ink/acrylic on Watercolour Wash (Yupo Paper)

Trees - Coloured pencil/ Ink on Watercolour Wash (Yupo Paper)

Sketchbook Project Pages

Pylons - Indian Ink on Watercolour wash background.

 

Cranes - Indian Ink on Watercolour wash background 

 

Floral fabric design -  Stencil/stamps/ink on Watercolour background

 

. 

Pink House Watercolour/Collage

Urban Photography II

I had another little photography tour, and here are the results...just as abstract as the last set.

Lens view at Ropetackle

Ropetackle

Random Worthing building which I took a fancy to!

Shoreham Rail Bridge

Sculpture at Ropetackle

 

Scaffolding on Worthing Pier. 

(The most dense and complex scaffolding arrangement I've ever seen - strangely amazing.) 

Demolition Site at Lancing.

(Two houses were flattened in one day. I was lucky to catch this moment just as half this house was gone and half still standing. Big thanks to the lovely demolition man who got out of the way for me to take my photos!)

Shoreham Rail Bridge again.

And again, in detail.

Step-by-Step Watersoluble Crayons

And for a break from the difficulties of Yupo, back to normal watercolour paper for some nice cheerful loose watercolour flowers!  Here's a step-by-step...

Step 1  I drew some bold flowers on bigger-than-A4 paper, using just a couple of colours - quite scribbly....

 Step 2  I added plenty of water using a large round watercolour brush. Also added some spatter with a smaller brush....

Step 3  I tidied up the edges and added definition with watersoluble pencils into the wet paper.

Step 4 - I could have left it like that but it looked a bit lacking so I decided to write on it to make it a journal page.

More Adventures with Yupo

You can't really layer paint with Yupo because even when it's dry, a wet brush just lifts it away completely, leaving white paper. This can be very frustrating! It took me some time and a very light touch to get round the problem, but I'm quite pleased with the light and airy feel of this summery double page.

Here is the underlayer, for those who are interested in watercolour backgrounds.

Experimenting with YUPO

I've been playing with watercolours on Yupo (synthetic) paper. It has no absorbency so you can do different things with paint compared to normal paper.  I've decided I LOVE it!

 

Industrial Landscape Art Journal Page

First Art Journal page for a long time. Just a warm-up really.  Scrappy sketch and a bit of blah about my current love affair with industrial landscape!

Industrial Landscape Photography - Sussex

I'm feeling inspired by Industrial and Urban Landscape at the moment, so I went out to take some pictures, for inspiration and reference.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Some fascinating shapes and silhouettes, and I'm seeing a kind of beauty in this kind of landscape that I've never seen before.   

 Aggregates Processing Depot at Portslade

 Gas Storage at Worthing

 NCP Car Park at Brighton 

 Aggregates Depot again

 Industrial Wasteground Portslade

Cylinders at Shoreham

I can't go out, I'm watching my hare...

I have a fascination with hares and a little personal motto: 'Chase the Hare', which I have engraved on a silver pendant round my neck. It's a reminder to try and live life at full tilt, like a greyhound chasing a hare. Sometimes I have to remind myself to keep an eye on the hare, and that's what this page is about.

Journalling everything....

I'm making pages about everything going on in my life at the moment, and now I'm even making them about what's going on in my friends' lives too.

Pretty Sandals Card

I had to wait in all day yesterday for a delivery so I spent the day making cards, just using up scraps of paper and ribbon and bits. I think this was the cutest of the ones I made. I like these pretty little shoes so much, it's a pity they aren't real!

Another Personal Journal Page

The words won't make sense to anyone except me, but I decided to blog this page because I was quite pleased with the look of the layers and the texture.
I used paint, collage, stamping, acetate overlay.

Public/Private Double Page Spread

I came across the mugshot of Frank Sinatra and it made me think of the sides of our personalities which we show/hide. My usual combo of paint background and collage.

Watercolour Poppies Page

During some freezing cold days last week, I was really longing for the summer to hurry up and arrive!

I did some loose paintings of poppies a while ago using watercolour paint and watersoluble pencils, so I cut one down to journal-page size. I didn't want to risk making a mess of writing on the picture, so an acetate overlay seemed a good solution. I like the simple summery feel.

Back to Art Journalling After a Long Break...

Well, I'm back again, after another of my mysterious six-month disappearances, and I've been sketching and journalling and making collages for a week or so now. My creative mojo is gathering pace, I've got loads of ideas, and I'm enjoying getting my hands dirty and making art again.

The pages I've made this last week have been quite personal, and one even has several sentences of journalling (which is a lot for me!)

I am getting tired of my beloved turquoise, so orange has recently taken over as my favourite colour. This is a simple collaged page with a watercolour background.