Sophie's self-portraits

Sophie's self-portraits
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

When my daughter left primary school recently, the school presented us with a folder containing all her school reports and a series of self-portraits that she had drawn each year. It was such a lovely leaving gift.

It is interesting to see them all side-by-side showing the developmental stages of her drawing skills - the first one features the all important belly-button that all children seem to include in their early pictures! and the last one the introduction of shading. It is also interesting to see when she chose NOT to draw the glasses that she has worn since the age of 6...

Cactus

A prickly subject.... again painted at the garden centre.

There is something very interesting about this particular garden centre, it is a family owned business, and one of the original founders is a lady of 101 and she still comes in to work every day! Well they say doing what we love keeps us young - she must be the proof...

Pots

More paintings from the garden centre

Tulips

Painted in-situ at a garden centre with my drawing and painting class
Watercolour in a Moleskine Watercolour Notebook

Mask-and-Scarf

Still life from my drawing and painting class.

A VERY tricky subject, a black sequin mask on a striped grey devore velvet scarf...

Pitt Pen on watercolour paper

Shells

Still life from my drawing and painting class

Watercolour on watercolour pad

Seascape

Seascape
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Week 2 of my drawing and watercolour class - this week, seascapes, using masking fluid and spatter techniques, working from a photo.
I'm really pleased with how this one has turned out, but must try harder to get my horizon line straight! I think what really made the painting was adding the little sailboats on the horizon - they weren't in the photo.

Widbrook

Widbrook
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

A quick sketch, done while sitting in the car - had to stop when another car parked in front of my view!

First attempt at not using pencil first!

Pitt artist pen, Moleskine sketchbook

Sky 2

sky2
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Another sky study this time I applied a Watercolour wash then removed some paint with a tissue to get the cloud effect, then back in with a darker colour when the paint was slightly wet to create the dark clouds. Landscape put in when sky had dried.

Sky 1

sky1
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

First class of my drawing and watercolour course - missed the first two weeks, so am playing catch-up. Learning basic watercolour washes and skies - then adding a simple landscape

Musical Italy Inchies

Musical Italy Inchies
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Sample of inches for 'Art for Cures' Musical Italy swap in the colours of lime green, pale blue and orange

The Terracotta Army arrives!

The Terracotta Army arrives!
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Attended a fun workshop with the children where we made our own Terracotta Warriors! Great fun, haven't played with clay for years, but hard to get the detail working on this scale...

Pitt Artist pen and watercolour pencils in Moleskine sketchbook.

1st attempts at needle felting

1st attempts at needle felting
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

These were my first attempts at dry needle felting. They were completed in Denmark last summer when we were on holiday. My daughter and I were taught while we were there by a family friend.

The little character on the right was created as an example when my daughter had a 'felting party' for her 11th birthday. She invited 5 friends over and they had a great time - lots of broken needles, several minor stab wounds requiring plasters, but fortunately no serious injuries

Cornwall - Eden Project WeeMan

Cornwall07-Eden Project WeeMan
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Another amazing sculpture at the Eden Project - THE WEEE MAN (stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) - view the large size to read all about him.

We had a lot of fun trying to make out all the different things he was made of - the teeth were rather intriguing, then we realised they were computer mice! Do a Flickr search on WEEE to see lot's more photos of him.

Certainly got us thinking about what we will buy (and discard) in the future...

Cornwall - Making dens at the Eden Project

Cornwall07-Eden Project Den
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

A great family activity - making Dens. We thought we had a great design until a strong gust of wind blew...

Cornwall - The Eden Project

Cornwall07-Eden Project
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

We visited the Eden Project - a fantastic day out. It is a conservation project created out of old China Clay pits. It now houses geodesic biodomes which replicate temperate and sub-tropical climates.

The drawing is of an amazing sculpture near the main entrance, it is made with driftwood.

Cornwall Map

Cornwall07-Map
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Map of South East Cornwall where we spent a week's holiday this August. I traced the map and transferred it into my Moleskine sketchbook, then annotated the map to show the places we had visited.

Time

time
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Collage on irridescent acrylics with white gel pen in Moleskine sketchbook. The poem reads -

TIME
You can’t buy time, nor can you sell it
You can lose it, but you can’t gain it back
We all live on borrowed time, trying to steal more of it
We talk of saving time, but all we do is fill it
Some people have time on their hands,
others have no time at all
when in fact, we all have the same time—
we have all the time there is
Some people wouldn’t give you the time of day
others take the time
We say it’s time to get up, and time to go, and time to work
as if time controls our lives
We don’t say, it’s time to love
or time to do nothing
We waste time, doing what does not need to be done
and what we have no pleasure in doing
We let others control our time
We don’t take the time, to think how we use
this minute, this hour, this day, this year
which make up this life

Copyright © 1994 by Natasha Josefowitz

green inchies

green inchies
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

My first inchies!

Every Exit

Every Exit
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

I loved this Tom Stoppard quote.

The person was drawn from a photo found on Flickr.

Wish I knew how to adjust the colour on my scans - in reality this is a punchy lime green and a vivid pink!

Pastels in Moleskine sketchbook.

Potential

Potential
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

This collage was a 'thank you and leaving gift' for a wonderful lady with whom I worked with in a local Business Women's committee.

The tag actually has a little 'home' underneath the name, and it has a personal message on the reverse. The name buttons were made out of Fimo and stamped with a rubber stamp then painted with a Gold leaf pen.

Mobile Mania

Mobile Mania
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

This is my first attempt to do shading with crosshatching - how do you guys make it look so easy?!

As I am new to the EDM group I am just dipping in here and there with whatever takes my fancy. I did this in the car while waiting for my daughter at her riding lesson.

Moleskine sketchbook, Pitt artists pen

Art Journey

Art Journey
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

This is the opening spread in my new Moleskine Sketchbook (large size) -

Collage and soft pastels

Red Pepper

Red Pepper
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

This was meant to be part of my drawing practice, but when it was finished I couldn't resist adding the luscious red watercolour.

Moleskine sketchbook and watercolours

Ebony

Ebony
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

The new addition to our family unit - we adopted her from the Cats and Dogs home a couple of weeks ago. We think she is about 10 months old and possibly a cross between a Staffie and a Whippet, with a bit of Labrador thrown in! She is very affectionate, playful and alert, and can run like the wind, but is a little nervous when out on the lead.

I had never particularly been a dog person - we used to have a lovely cat, but I must say I am enjoying her company and she gets me out of the house more which can't be bad

Irises

Irises
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

I used two techniques here. I drew the Flag Iris on the right first. It was drawn with watercolour pencils then painted over with a waterbrush, but I think I overworked it. It's always so hard when to know to stop!

The one on the left I painted with a light watercolour wash then shaved on some pigment from the watercolour pencils. This technique would have worked better on proper watercolour paper as the moleskine sketchbook does not seem to like getting too wet - it will take a certain amount of water but then tends to seep through to the back of the page. I like the looser look of this one though - what do you think?

Watercolour and watercolour pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook

My New best friend

My New best friend
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

This was a lot harder to draw than I imagined - especially those little rounded buttons on the blue panel!

Moleskine sketchbook, pen and watercolour pencils

Garden surprises

Garden surprises
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

We moved into a new house in January, the garden had been very neglected due to the previous owners ill health. So it has been a nice surprise to see a few flowers poke through the soil. So far we have had a patch of bluebells and these Lily of the Valley which have always been a favourite with their delicious scent and tiny white bells.

Not too pleased with the leaf on the left - it looks far too 'flat', still early days in my watercolour journey, much still to learn...

Moleskine sketchbook and watercolours

why

why
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Collage, chalks, gel pen and rubber stamps in spiral bound watercolour journal

Scents of France

A wonderful idea taken directly from Dory Kanter's book "Art Escapes" to document the scents and aromas of your trip

Watercolour on watercolour paper

the blues

the blues
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Acrylics, rubber stamping and collage in watercolour journal

Real women

Real women
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

I just think it is sad that so many women cannot accept themselves as they are - they strive so hard for 'perfection' which is often not as attractive as that which nature intended...

Harmony

Harmony
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

Acrylics, collage and gel pen

Clouds

Clouds
Originally uploaded by JournalEYES

This was inspired by a poem by A.K. Marshfield -

"Clouds puffed up like roosters
A swirl of jet smoke in the azure blue
Green liquid lapping
Just beaching and nothing on mind's horizon
My feet walk away with my mind
another life calls to me..."

Acrylics on watercolour paper with gel pen

Welcome to my blog - my little bit of cyberspace to share my passion for journaling and mixed media. I hope you enjoy it. I love to hear your comments, and will always try to respond to any questions you may have.