Art supply gifts + mini haul

Hello!

Christmas was good for me this year, I spent the whole day with Paul in my jammies, eating lots of food and drinking a little too much Asti. It was also good in terms of Christmas presents. I got lots of new exciting art supplies and I thought who doesn't love a good art supply haul.

Sooo, let's go.

Winsor&Newton Gouache

Why I love it:

- The colours are extremely bright and opaque.

- The paint is very smooth and the colours mix well.

- It's easy to go over it with coloured pencils, which creates some really cool textures.

Why I don't love it:

- The set came without a brown, which is one of my most used colours.

- The paint dries really quickly in the palette and unlike watercolours you can't just add water to revive it.

- It can be difficult to layer the paint and it can come out looking a bit patchy.

 

Overall:

I absolutely love these. I'm sure I'll be getting loads of use out of these once I get over my watercolour habits.

Colerase pencils

These are erasable coloured pencils. What's there not to love, right?

Why I love these:

- Superb 70s packaging.

- I was very curious to try these out and they are really fun.

- Once I get used to them they'll make for much nicer softer sketches

(Yes, I am aware this is crappy sketch).

Why I don't love these:

- They are not a hundred percent erasable.

- They come unsharpened and sharpening them is a bitch. They are, unfortunately, made of crappy wood and I'll probably end up having to sharpen them with a scalpel.

I mean look at this mess.

Overall:

I like them, but not as much as I expected and I could probably do without them.

Copic Ciao Markers

To those who are not familiar with copic ciao, these are double-sided markers. Sounds unexciting, but oh man, this one sexy art supply... These particular ones came in a set of five and a fine liner. One side is a nice flexible nib similar to a brush pen, the other is a kinda square and chubby.

Why I love these:

- They are not like anything I've used before. I remember using felt tip pens as a child and hating how bright all the colours were, as it made it impossible to draw faces, or anything really, with any kind of subtlety. These are pale, easy to layer and generally beautiful.

- They are extremely easy to carry around and whip out whenever I feel like it compared to my other art supplies.

- Using them makes me really think about my colour palette and simplify my drawings because I don't have loads of colours.

Why I don't love these:

- These are pricy buggers. How the hell does a single marker cost more than a quid or so?...

- The set came with a bit of a hideous pink that I don't think I'll ever use.

- I already want more colours and it turns out these babies are impossible to find in Glasgow.

First atempt. Meh.

Second attempt. I actually quite like it, but I smudged the fineliner. Meh.

Third attempt. I'm still undecided about this, so probably meh.

Overall:

I understand the hype now and I think these will become permanent residents in my bag.

Mini haul

I may have made a couple of purchases to complement my Christmas gifts, oops...

I picked up a couple of little gouache tubes because grey and brown are some of my used colours and the set didn't come with any. I'm just being lazy really.

Since copics are so hard to find I got a few Winsor&Newton promarkers. I got a pale blue, a grey and almond, which is a really pale warm pink. The colours are lovely, but I don't love them. They don't have the flexibility of Copic nibs and the colours are a wee bit more opaque than I'd like. Unfortunately, I think a couple of online Copic purchases will have to happen... But maybe in February, it's the 9th of January and I already have no money. Yup.

I hope those who made it to the end enjoyed this little run down of new art supplies with lots of pretty pictures. I really tried to get good photos this time and any feedback would be very welcome.

Okay, bye!

Hello 2017

Hello and Happy New Year!

I have never bothered with reflections on the previous year or resolutions for the next one. But 2016 has been a little different, so I figured why not share some of the things I've done and some of the things I planned on doing this year.

In 2016 I...

1. ...graduated. 

Last year at uni was a really sucky time, it was a lot of hard work and towards the end I had very little motivation to keep going. But I ended up with a First. I know it sounds like I'm showing off, and actually I am! I am very proud of myself for sticking with it even though I realised my degree was completely unrelated to what I really wanted to do...

2. I figured out what I wanted to do!

For the longes time I didn't know what I should do after graduation. A lot of people encouraged me to do a postgraduate degree and I was very close to applying for one, but I never went through with it. Once I really thought about it I realised that the only thing I ever really loved doing was drawing. I know that illustration is an extremely dificult profession to get into and even if I succeed it will be years before I get anywhere. But I want to stick with it and see what I can do. It's strangely comforting thought.

3. I moved in with Paul.

Easily the best thing I've done this year. 

4. And then we moved to Glasgow.

I've written a separate blog post (you can find it here) about how tough it was, but I'm glad we did it.

5. I have created a Facebook page and a blog.

It was lots of work and I still need to work on posting more regularly, but I'm glad I made a start on it.

6. I made my own Christmas cards.

It seems like a very minor thing, especially because I made my own cards last year. But I really took my time with these and got really lovely comments on them.

7. I got my first ever proper job.

And subsequently became a self sufficient (kinda) functional adult.

8. I got my first comission.

Actually more than one. I haven't shared the majority of it anywhere, so I figured why not do it now.

Here is a wee birthday card I made for my friend Jatta's dad. It was my first paid comission and it means a lot to me, even though I'd do it very differently now.

The next one was for my friend's photography page.

I then had a go at making a book cover for the same friend, but as it's not been published yet, I can't share the author or the title. This was a tough one because I had very little time to do it and had to change a lot along the way to fit in with what my friend wanted. But it was good practice for when I finally get to work with clients.

This last one was quite close to my heart because it involved two really nice people and hiking.

New Year's Resolutions:

1. Be less precious about drawing and sharing what I draw. I feel like I've not experimented and sketched enough because I always wanted to end up with a proper finished piece and it feels like I've missed out. I have also been very selective, but really I should be posting the good and the bad.

2. Open an etsy shop. I feel like it would be the first real step towards a career in illustration.

3. Make a calendar.

4. Make Christmas cards again.

5. Drop some hours at work and spend them on drawing if we can afford it.

6. Buy a new laptop and a graphic tablet, so I can finally start drawing digitally.

7. Get a dog. Here, I said it. Paul and I have been talking about it for too long, I think it's time we man up and do it.

That's it. I hope that if anyone is making New Year's resolutions they can make them happen. And I hope so can I.

Okay, bye!

Moving blog

Hello!

You may have forgotten about this blog, I almost did myself. But I'm still here! The truth is that quite unexpectedly I got a job, moved to a different city and everything happened at once, so any drawing related matter got put aside.

I generally don't share much about my personal life online, other than an occasional silly camping story, but this experience has been quite... hm... interesting, and quite important, so I decided I'd like to document it in some form.

I won't get into much detail and I haven't drawn a lot of pictures for this because it all feels like a (mostly) unpleasant blur. So I'll start from the beginning.

After graduating I was looking for a job for a few months and when it felt like it was never going to happen, something came along. We were looking to move anyway and it was in Glasgow and everything seemed perfect. To save on commuting I decided to stay in a hostel for the days I was working. It was far less glamorous than I had imagined it. There was a lot snoring, the springs in the bed were digging into my ribs, the kitchen smelled bad and I very quickly switched to eating ready-made meals (which is great as a guily pleasure, but not as a weekly routine), and I felt really lonely being away from Paul in a new city where I didn't really know anyone.

We soon started looking for flats and again, what I thought would be quite an exciting experience (I mean who doesn't like having a nosy in other people's homes?), turned out to be a lot more complicated. Juggling flat viewings and a full time job is not particularly fun. I saw some shitholes, but I also saw some really lovely and homely flats and we even applied for a few.

Unfortunately me being new in my job and Paul not having a job at all didn't make us the most appealing tenants. And the more times we got rejected the more down I felt. It honestly felt like it was never going to end and this brilliant song by Belle and Sebastian became a musical representation of my state of mind *please play the song in the background for full effect*. I think about four weeks in I did totally lose it. I got into my dorm room after the first day back at work after the weekend. I was hungry, there was a big, fat man snoring in his bed at 7pm, his feet were dangling dangerously close to my face because the room was tiny. I sat on my bed, still in my coat, and shamelessly sobbed for an hour. My bunk neighbour came in and he must have thought I was mad, but I was too tired to care.

Normally in these kind of stories you'd expect a solution coming along when it's most needed in the most unexpected form. It didn't quite happen like that, we waited and looked for another little while. I finally met an honest real estate agent (doesn't sound like a real thing, right?) and he told me that essentially without offering a few months of rent upfront we had no chance to get a place. Obviously that sounded completely ridiculous, but my sister swooped in and saved the day by lending us money. We finally got a flat, it was nice, with a good agency, right next to a park and it was the most surreal experience. The first solid memory I have, after I think 5 weeks of all that maddness, is sitting down on the floor (because we had no furniture to sit on) in our new flat right after we had signed the lease and the agent had left. We nothing to eat because when choosing what essentials to take we forgot to pack food... So we just sat there sharing a snack-sized bag of hoola hoops because that was everything we had. We went to Ikea afterwards and stuffed our faced with Swedish meatballs, so all was good in the end.

At this point my job was done. I still went back to the house where we were staying before to clean and pack, but that was it. Paul made the whole move happen. It was hardly smooth sailing and our plans were failing every step of the way, but very slowly we got furniture, moved everything over and one day, quite unexpectedly, we realised we had fully and completely moved to Glasgow.

I wanted to write about this in case someone else is in a similar situation. Not necessarily with a move, maybe you're just trying to achieve something and everything is telling you to give up. If you keep trying you will make it happen. Or at least I'd like to think so.

I know it was just a move and a few weeks of missing home, but it feels like a big achievement to me. And the way Paul put it, when we were living together before it was out of convenience, but this move was a big life step. I'm pretty certain this was the right decision and I am where I should be. And I'm very excited to see what will happen next.

Okay, bye!

Travel Drawing Kit

Hello!

I was going to write an ink review today, but I realised I'd probably be the only person interested in reading it. And I'd already know what it says, so you know... Also I'm not feeling the freshest today (quiz night got a bit out of hand last night), so I couldn't be arsed to do all the ink swatches. Instead I present to you my travel drawing kit!

There are 5 things that make up my kit.

1. Paper. I like A5 sized things (sketchbook, notepad, paper pad, etc), so that it fits neatly into most bags. At the moment I'm using a drawing pad where you can rip out the pages. I like pages you can rip out because they're easier to scan, but they also have a tendency to fly away when you're outdoors. The pad is a lot thinner now than it was at the time I took these pictures and I think I'll switch to a proper sketchbook when I finish it.

2. Watercolours. I got this little Winsor & Newton set as a graduation present from me to me. I bought it here. The quality of the paint is really good and I'd say 12 colours is plenty to mix any shade you might need. This particular set came without a black (mad, right?), I bought a black half pan separately and got rid of one of the greens. I know there are different sets out there, so I'd say the only criteria would be that it's small enough and that it has enough space to mix your colours.

3. Brush pens. Oh I love these. It's quite a new discovery (also a graduation gift from me to me), but one that has secured a solid spot in my travel set. They're really handy as they eliminate the need of carrying a cup for water and rinsing the brushes. The actual brushes are quite thick, but the tips are really fine and work well even for doing fine detail. I got them here as a set of three, but one would probably be enough.

4. Pencil-case. Paul got me this bad boy for Christmas. It smells like goats, but I love it. Essentially I could pack a pencil, a fine liner and, if I was feeling fancy, a felt tip pen, and that would be more than enough; however, I always overpack it. There's usually a bunch of small brushes I end up not using, at least 4 or 5 fine liners, and lots of other crap. A new addition is a couple of coloured pencils I use to add details after I've finished painting. It also contains a tiny, sad-looking rubber. I've had it for ages and I keep thinking I've lost it because it's so small, but for some reason I'm having trouble letting it go.

5. Kitchen roll. It's really handy to keep a piece of it around when painting the traditional way, but it becomes an essential when you're using brush pens. Since you don't wash them in a cup, you clean them by rubbing it on the kitchen roll.

I never really end up doing any inking on the go because it's a fiddly process, which requires a flat and steady surface, which can be hard to find.

I thought I'd leave you with a little photo, which for me pretty much sums up the advantages of drawing outdoors.

You may wonder what this lovely place is. If you want to know... Tune in for the post coming next Sunday to find out! Okay just joking, it's Loch Achilty. But there is a post coming up about this camping trip, so I hope to see you here again a week from now.

Okay bye!

Camping at Loch Tay

Sooo, I know I said I'll try to post every Sunday, but I thought I'd throw in an extra post because today I also published a Facebook page and it's all new and exciting and we went camping last weekend.

Day 1

The plan was to get up early and leave early on Friday morning, but, because of my faffing about, it didn't happen. We planned to drive to Loch Tay and find a spot to wild camp there (because that is the best way to camp). It is a VERY long loch, with VERY few spots to wild camp, specifically two. After driving around the whole thing roughly 1.5 times we finally settled on a spot and it was actually really pretty.

But then a bunch of loud, and soon drunk, fishermen showed up and took the spot next to us. We like people, but not right next to us and not while we're camping. So we just sat there in the dark, because it was too damp to make a fire, mumbling and raging at the fishermen because they had no sense of personal space.

There was, however, a super exciting and friendly duck. He figured out that if he got close enough and hung around, I couldn't resist his charms and would feed him a constant stream of bread. I named him Albert. Or Alfred. I'm not really sure. Paul just went along with it.

Day 2

The next day we tried to get up and leave the tent reasonably early, but of course it didn't happen (again). Around midday we finally got to a town called Killin. We needed to buy bread because I'd fed everything we brought to the ducks (a bunch of them showed up and hung around with Albert / Alfred). There was a marathon / half marathon / 10k run happening (I'm not sure which). There were lots of happy people and lots of really great dogs. We then made our way to Ben Lawers. Fun fact, the main walk up the hill actually involved two munros - Beinn Ghlas (1103m) and Ben Lawers (1214m). I thought I was going to die, as per usual, but the views at the top weren't half bad.

I think my favourite bit was having a lie down on lovely soft moss on the way back. When we came back to the tent we were knackered, but managed to get a fire going. The fishermen were loud again.

Day 3

The weather was nice and we went to the Falls of Acharn. They were really pretty. We took a different path back and found a nice little playground in town. We tried all the swingy and climby things and I found out my bottom was too large for the kids' swing. Then Paul stepped into dog poo and I had to get it off his boot with a stick.

We got back to the tent and decided to walk 3 miles to Killin to go the pub. I suggested we should move there and changed my mind five minutes later because it was too full of tourists. The pub was called The Falls of Dochart. They had an ale named after the pub (or the actual falls, which were right across the street) and it was pretty good. The pub itself was really cool and there were two great dogs there. They were hidding under tables, though, and we didn't see them until we moved seats twice.

I may have been slightly tipsy after we left the pub and I got terrible hiccups. When I was little my mum told me that you could get rid of them standing in a swallow's pose, i.e. on one leg with your arms up in the air. So I was doing that on the side of the ride, while having a heart-to-heart with Paul and cars driving by. I'm sure they enjoyed the view. When we came back to the tent the fishermen were gone and instead of them there was a great couple with an even greater dog. The guy helped us start our fire. I think his name was Allan, but I could be wrong.

Day 4

I started off the next morning feeling a bit fragile. But it was sunny, the loch looked beautiful and the ducks were back. We slowly packed up and drove home. We made a coffee stop in Aberfeldy. I decided I want to move there.

Okay bye!

Drawing Process and a Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I decided not to do a separate intro post, but if you'd like to know a little bit about me head over to the About page. Instead I thought what better way to start than to show my drawing process of the little illustrated me I drew for the about page.

I did a quick sketch to see what angle, hairstyle and outfit I'd like for the drawing. I suddenly forgot how to draw a face and I realised I drew the head way too large. So I drew a bunch of floating heads to find the right face. I settled on the one in the bottom right corner, so I coloured it in.

I then made a proper sketch, but I (unsurprisingly) started too low down and the feet didn't fit in, so I had to retrace it using my lightbox, a.k.a a window. I ended up with a nice clean sketch.

Then it was watercolour time. I am currently using a Winsor & Newton cotman water colours sketcher's pocket box. Which is basically just a basic wee travel watercolour set, but the paint is great quality. I started with a thin layer of very diluted paint, waited for it to dry before I did another layer, and then another layer, and another layer and so on to create shadows and highlights, until I was happy with the colours.

Layer 1

Layers 2 & 3

Layer 4 and onwards

When all that was done I made my special mix of Winsor & Newton peat brown ink and generic Koh-I-Noor black ink in a super professional mixing dish (a juice bottle cap). I used it to add the outline and some detail. I used white acrylic paint and coloured pencils to finish it off.

I ended up with a picture like this:

If you scroll back to the top you'll see that I used the original sketch without the feet to scribble my colour palette as well as to write out: "Oh hey there!". I still need a lot of practice...

I spent A LOT of time on this.I just wanted to make it good considering it was going to be a permanent part of the blog. Hopefully soon I'll improve and think it's totally crap and want to redraw it, but for now, I like it.

Okay, bye!