Festive End of Year

Thank you so much for all your contributions to this blog. I hope they have inspired you and given you some feeling of satisfaction for the hard work you have put into your skills over the past 6 months. Congratulations.
 Looking forward to next year and more classes and more success from so many talented people who just haven't realised they have the talent yet!

Happy 2013 from us here at Quinta do Mosqueiro

Above is  our Christmas card which Fraser created. Also below to show that I have been busy are some of the images of the fabric abc sounds book I made for our granddaughter (don't worry if you can't work out the connection...some of the images in the book related to her favourite TV characters)......and a cushion made for the son of friends. My excuse for not drawing!!!

  

      

 

 

And now for this week's gallery items.

Coming to the end of the year images for the festive season were set for this month but there are some other works too....

  Marianne

Some of my cards but the best have already gone but these give a little insight of the diversity of cut work embossing and colouring the parchment.

As they are very time consuming and I never see them again I am only doing them now for my family or close friends. I prefer drawing and painting!!!

No 1. This was a pencil drawing of a bunch of our black grapes on a large vine leaf. I practised a new method of burnishing the grapes to get the bloom on them and whilst it was time consuming I was pleased with my first attempt.


No.2 This was my 2nd attempt at drawing my dog from a photo as she is a hunting dog she is never still! I have never drawn an animal before and I really enjoyed it and I felt I had captured her character and it always makes me smile when I look at it! I am now starting another one, full face!

No. 3 The mushrooms are a mixture of pencil and water colour. The picture was in one of my books and I loved the finish of brown autumn leaves and one small red mushroom.

No. 4 This self portrait took me ages!! Its not quite right but its more like me than the 1st one we did for the course which made me look 90. I had a session working on the eyes when I met up with Marian & Judy for a drawing day. They were very supportive and helpful with comments like" you look boss eyed" or "one is bigger then the other and not straight" or a polite "mmmm...not sure whats wrong with that!" we had such a laugh that day and we all enjoyed drawing together.

No. 5 the single flower was done using the same technique part pencil and one side additional small amounts of water colour.

 Marian

I am still experimenting with colour and learning what works and what does not work - mainly the later.  I am not very impressed with my offerings this month.  However, I am well aware that if I had managed to produce any one of these drawings nine months ago I would have been as proud as punch.

Candle light - I could not get the background as strong as I would have liked.

Turkey - I learned how not to mix colour on this one!

Wrappings - I thought this one was better, but then it did not involve too much colour and I used soft pastels.

Mid Winter - Soft pastels again, I seem to get a better result with pastels than with coloured pencils, but I find them a bit limited in the subjects they can successfully represent.

 

 

 

 

Catherine

Have had no time for drawing or painting this month as making Birthday and Christmas cards for family and friends.

Really enjoyed making these cards and will continue to in the future.

Will get back to some other work in the New Year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judy

November's Gallery

It is really pleasing for me to see how some of the group members are not only continuing to practise their skills but also experimenting with styles and techniques.

  

Lyn

Marian

.

 The Iris was done in coloured pencils following a step by step tutorial from a book.  Very time consuming and laborious, but I learned a lot about the application of colour and was pleased with the end result.

Machine - This one was done with a pastel pencil, which I found a bit easier than charcoal when it came to the finer detail.

Folding fabric - I like using charcoal and enjoyed drawing this one.

Rain - Judy says my Dalmation would have been put down at birth!  Perhaps I should stick to horses.

 

Halloween -  OK, not quite Halloween, but I could not resist this stone plaque in the Doges Palace, and it was used to denounce witches by posting the name through the mouth.  I used soft pastel sticks, quite messy but I think they represent the stone quite well.

Reflections - so many sketches I want to draw following my trip to Venice - the city of reflections - but sadly beyond my current capabilities.  This is of the lagoon, I used an underwash of pastel followed by detail in coloured pencil.  However I could not get the depth I wanted so I also highlighted with charcoal.  I was quite pleased with the foreground and the channel markers, but felt the background island did not work very well.

Judy

  

Not exactly a self portrait but my Mum with a hat! Taken from a photo of her taken when she was about 20 years old in her nurses uniform

Not a chimney but a lighthouse. I wanted to do the dark moody sky but think I need to learn to do clouds better.

Ok, maybe not a pet but it does have 4 legs even though you can't see them all

 

Grapes on a vine. Taken from a photo of our own vines.

November's Tasks

Catherine

Drew the olives first then painted them. 

Still not happy with olives as would like them to be more loose or less formal.

 

This is a view from the other end of our land looking at our house.

Would like to go on and paint this eventually !

The drawing of our house and land I really enjoyed doing and took a while. I did it from a photo.

Still enjoying myself though and have a long list of ideas waiting for me to have the time.