Watercolour Historical Fashion Illustration

I've recently bought myself a set of water brushes and don't know how I got on without them, especially as they mean I've been working in watercolour again. it's very easy to make watercolour painting muddy, especially as I tend to work in thick layers, the same way I do with acrylic paint so I tend to use a thick white liquid watercolour for the highlights. I'm going to try more pen and watercolour wash work soon.

The brushes in the picture are Pentel aqua brushes, they're one of my favourite things, I don't really go in for a lot of kit but these work really well and it means I can keep them, an ink pad and a sketchbook in my bag at all times. If you fancy a pack you can find them here, there's also loads of different types out there for varying degrees of money, mine were £3 for three with postage.

On a sad note this painting was done for a local steampunk magazine, unfortunately there was a bit of messing around involved and, not to be a downer on things, I have learnt a valuable lesson not to work for free for a business if you've already heard worrying things, there's plenty of better ways to get your artwork out there. It's not only a waste of time but devalues your work and the hard work of other artists. On a happier note I have discovered an artists union that is trying to stamp out this kind of thing.

You can still have a read of the articles author Sandi James's diary of steampunk events at her blog sandi by gaslight though, it's really sweet and there's loads of fantastic photos of amazing costumes people have made, the fact Sandi makes historical and steampunk clothing really comes through.

Love and cake

Frocktopus

xxx

midnight moon and rust

I thought I'd go hunting yellows and oranges with my new camera, as they show up so bright in the lovely blue grey light we've had today, plus it doesn't hurt that yellow is my very favourite colour.

I'm very much enjoying photography at the moment but I'm trying to sketch more, I was going to attempt a sketch a day for the year but crochet got in the way. Here's last weeks sketch.

We had a christmas party the day after boxing day this year, we usually have one on christmas day but with health and seeing both families this year we thought we'd give ourselves a days recuperation first. I got all my sketching stuff into a sneaky corner so when my fatigue hit I could sit and sketch people but I was too busy catching up, cuddling and being hypnotised by the fire, so my first sketch this year is of the fire, burned out and smelling of smoke and bbq, like most of us the next morning. oh and bear proposed back at the party, pruuuuuu.

Did you all have a merry Yule or Christmas?

Love and hugs

Frocktopus

xxx

Christmas tree light-painting tutorial

I had great fun playing with long exposure on a point and click digital camera, the room wasn't really bright enough for most photography, especially with my unsteady hands, which turned out to be the perfect way to get some great effects with light painting. All you need is a camera, a dimly lit room and a christmas tree full of fairy lights and reflective baubles.

I've been getting festive the last few weeks, the house is full of baubles and fake plastic trees, present making is well underway so the house is strewn with wool (no change there) and last night we finally cracked out the lebruchen and the pink plastic tree all of my very own. 

To get these pictures I experimented mainly by taking a shot while moving, sometimes round in circles like the one above, sometimes while shaking the camera up and down or side to side, sometimes forwards and backwards. They all made different effects.

It helps to have a lot of different reflective textures and lights as these all produce different results, which a christmas tree full of baubles is perfect for.

These would make fantastic Christmas or Yule cards, christmas trees are nearly always beautiful and I love the pagan history behind them, but I've seen so many pictures of sparkling trees with a pile of pressies under them they can sometimes blur into one and it's not everyones style (I personally love me some traditional christmas stuff though.)

This technique doesn't need a christmas tree though, you could probably get some great effects with any reflective material or light source, there's some amazing light artists out there, just pop it into google or pinterest and get inspired.

Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully have a new camera of my very own again soon.

Happy yule and Merry Mince pie season

Frocktopus

xxx

Portrait and figure work on the iPad

In an effort to learn new things I've been playing around on bears iPad. It's surprisingly fun, if a little frustrating, these are all drawn on paper 53, I tried art set but even though it gives you far more choice (especially with colouring, the watercolour brush on paper 53 is, quite bluntly, rubbish) it just doesn't suit me, I prefer making digital art that is very obviously digital media as opposed to something that badly imitates physical media. 

This is my friend Jess, she's a brilliant photographer, hairdresser model, I'm very lucky having lots of friends who are life models too and happy to pose in return for cake.

 This is Dan Svarc, a fantastic musician and I'm proud to say one of my oldest and best friends. He's also often known as his alter ego Svan Darc, go check out his stuff, it's fantastic, he's currently looking for artists, musicians, crafters and data-benders to work on him with remixes in all media of his latest ep Purge.

I'm particularly fond of this picture, after playing around I managed to shade by using the watercolour  tool and rubbing out the dodgy wiggly outlines, then sculpting the edges of the lines with white watercolour.

 This is my bear, you've heard alot about him already but art wise he's hard to draw, I tend to cut him off at the chin as drawing or painting his beard that goes down his neck makes his jaw look way longer than in real life, it ends up very cartoon Viking. His nose is fantastic to draw though, definitely my favourite facial feature to draw, noses are so angular and so individual to a persons face, for me if I've got the nose right, I'm happy.

If you can't tell by now I don't like drawing two eyes open, I can never get them looking the same way unless i'm drawing myself in the mirror and that limits you terribly, so this is one of my rarer angles unless it's illustration stuff, which I tend to do with long fringes and put all the character in the bottom half of the face. This is also a lot freer than I am used to drawing, this was at the end of a long night up chatting and it seems to be when I draw best.

What have you lot been drawing and making?

Hugs & doodles

Frocktopus

 xxx

Watercolour and portrait

I've been reacquainting myself with water colours after buying This inspiring book about urban sketching, as it's still way too cold for me outside at the moment I got some delicious mussels to paint, all in the name of art of course, the garlic and butter was purely aesthetic I assure you.

I've also drawn a get well soon card for my lovely steampunk friend Rhys, this is him in his evil scientist getup from the asylum last year.

Love and cake

Frocktopus

xxx

Imbolc Yarnbombing at Plank festival

Last Saturday was Imbolc, celebration of Brigit, goddess of spring and making,a festival of new beginnings. So what better time to brush off the snowy cobwebs and cover a village in crocus coloured crochet.

I'm so happy with my poms (half pompoms) I can't bear to throw away my scraps of wool and they look like tiny anemones growing out of the wool.

Bear had the brilliant idea of filling the pocket with sweeties, we also managed to limit ourselves to nicking one packet of parma violets.

Ta-dah

I can't take credit for the last picture, a fantastic textile artist called Carol Parker turned Market Rasen into a yarn bomb Hiroshima, there were so many fuzzy stripes in that village I had a hard time finding where to home mine. You can see the rest of her pieces for plank here and what else is going on during the festival which continues until the 2nd of march here.

We had a wonderful day out and are planning more,  but now my patchwork has been set free I'm still working up rainbow and fluorescent granny squares, any ideas on what to make with them? I'm thinking a mini skirt.

Hugs and crochet

Frocktopus

xxx

Winter in the cottage garden

Snow in the woods at Ducky Cuddles cottage