Drawing update for November

 Pink bottle brush from our garden a few weeks ago, the plant looked amazing, the most it has flowered for a while. The bees, wattle birds and New Hollands have been loving it!

Another house pic - trying some watercolours this time. Not great, will try again sketching the outlines in black first, then filling in with a paint wash.I’m sticking with the same house picture, having fun drawing the same picture & trying different colours, papers & mediums, makes it easy to compare each one.  

And a quick sketch from Ballan 2 weekends back. We went to the Spring/ Autumn festival, had some lovely scones from the CWA tea room & a friendly chat with some of the lovely locals who were surprised that we had travelled to the festival - even though it is only a 45 minute drive! 

 My H goes fishing at the res there regularly so had seen the posters for the event. I ducked into the op shop, and also finally got to visit Chrissie’s Timeless Treasures craft shop, where I bought a new fabric marking pencil that works really well! I seem to have misplaced my chalk marker pen in sorting out/ moving my sewing stuff from out in “ the shack” in the back yard, inside to the study. I’m sure it will turn up somewhere!

Anyway, the deal was that since I went to the op shop, my H got to go fishing after the festival. I sat in the car & did a quick pen & marker sketch of one of the gorgeous old buildings in Ballan. 

Life in reverse

 Making a vest/ corset style vest has been on my to-do list for a while. I made a green fine corduroy practice one ( not sure I have posted it yet!) then sewed a blue cord vest but forgot I had tweaked the size a bit ( and I had done such a good job of lining it & turning it out the right way!)  Lucky I had not made button holes when I tried it on & realised it was too big…

A couple of my favourite cos-tubers have sewn corset-style vests recently, including some that were reversible! I like the 2-for-one idea, & finally got this one sewn up over the last 2 weekends. I wore the purple side out today, & will try it with the floral side out later in the week ( although with this cold spell I might wait a few days!). Pretty happy with how it turned out!  

Will have to start on the next one now,will do buttons & button holes next time, which is what I did with the first green  one.

Sketching class

 I signed up for a Domestika  sketching class that I started a while back but have not gotten back to! I also signed up for the free “ sketching retreat” from  Teachable and then forgot about it until a few email reminders arrived! The course started on Wednesday, with about 10 X 30 minute videos posted each day for 3 days. They are available to watch & rewatch for free until Sunday night. I have watched a few, some fully & some skipping through.

I liked the “ Drawing a house with fine liners & coloured markers” tutorial. It comes with a printable house picture, so I downloaded & printed the house. I powered up my Kmart light box & traced the picture - but not with all the precise detail shown in the class. 

Next I drew the house freehand & tried a looser colour & sketching style, more in the style of   Albert Kiefer from the Domestika  class. I think this one is my favourite!

Number 3 was a super quick sketch, experimenting with some different colours. I love the difference that it makes adding in the fineliner detail on top of the marker colours, and of course the white posca pen adds a final “pop” of detail and depth. Details partly added in the first pic here, finished in the next one.