10 minute sketch-Roses

I found roses growing over the fence from next door, lots and lots of them, and they smell lovely.  I grabbed the ones that were freshest and also found pink geraniums and some gorgeous blue daisies.  And while I was cooking fish-fingers I did a couple of sketches.

These were done with a thick, running out, Sharpie,  but I am quite pleased with them.  

There are roses every-where in the neighbourhood at the mo, I would quite like to take my secateurs on daily walks with me to whisk a few roses into my pocket, but then I might get spotted.

10 minute sketch apple blossom x3

I have drawn the blossom before it all blows away, from my little apple tree which will hopefully have some fruit on it this year.

 I am quite happy with the pencil drawings, but not sure about the black pen, not the right medium for a delicate blossom I think.

Oh I do love blossom it's such a lovely time of year now with all these lovely flowers popping out all over the place.  And they all smell good too. And they are pink.

sketch. lurcher

In the knowledge I was unlikely to do anything useful today I did some sketching of the dog.  She would keep moving and twitching and stretching, that is my excuse.  I found the head very tricky, but I will persevere.

10 minute sketch. wild flower

walked the dog this morning, up the hill, and came across these pretty flowers.  I don't know what they are, lots of stalk and little bits of pretty purple flower.  Not strictly a 10 minute sketch.  

10 minute sketch, rose

 Happy New Year to you all.  I hope you all had a good night last night, we had a wild night at my Mums, playing scrabble and going to bed at midnight.  Crazy heh!

Any way today we have had a lazy morning and then this afternoon me and the girls did some printing on my mums printing press.  The wild life never stops here.

 I drew some roses

 

And then carved the image into some MDF with some rather blunt tools. (poor work men....)

 This was my first print.  I always expect things to turn out better than they do, this was not what I thought would come out at all.  delusions.

 the next try was on some acetate, scratched in, we treid printing like a wood-cut, until we realised that it was more like an etching and then it worked a bit better, above and below

 The kids did some too

10 minute sketch, jasmine

Jasmine time of year, hooray!  Actually there are lots of lovely smelly pretty things around at the moment.  When we walk to and from school I often find myself sniffing around trying to find the origins of some delicious perfume or other.  We have jasmine, fresias, wisteria, magnolias, mexican orange blossom and other things of what I know not the name. 

 I picked some of this Jasmine and put some in the kitchen and some in the living room, and it is so fab. 

And I couldn't resist painting it having had a remarkably un-creative day.   The sketch book was calling me.

Have a bit of a Terry Pratchett thing going on at the moment.  Have just read "The Wee Free Men" trilogy to my elder daughter and consequently myself, and am now reading "Going Postal".  Interesting things about letters and un-read words, and very clever and funny.

10 minute sketch, daughter

I had been for a run, done my stretches, eaten my porridge, spent some quality time looking at the computer, and my younger child was still asleep.  So I drew a picture of her to wake her up.  It didn't work, she slept on, but I got a picture of her, cheeks and all.  Her face is softer and sweeter than this in reality. 

10 minute sketch, fern and small leaves.

I went for a little walk in the bush and took my daughter, my sketchpad and mini watercolour box.  Nobody came along the path thank fully, I am not sure about people seeing me in the process of trying to be artistic, I might be a little embarassed to be caught in the act.

I love all the different shapes, sizes and shades of the native plants, and how they manage to place themselves in such good combinations.  I always try to remember these for my own garden.  Trouble is there are too many good plants and combinations and I get completely over-whelmed.

 these little leaved plants are so pretty

This last one was more of a 25 minute sketch. I didn't time it.

Kowhai 10 minute sketch

These Kowhai are out in the garden at the moment. They are a New Zealand native plant and there are meant to be leaves as well but I think the friendly garden possum ate them all.  

I tried to draw some today, they don't quite have the freshness of the original flowers, not a springy picture.

I found a kowhai sketch from a thousand sketches, there are lots of lovely sketches of flowers to peruse.

horsing around 10 minute sketch no 10

Today I went to some beautiful country mountain area and forget to take my camera, all I had was my cell-phone camera.  I have done my best to turn the photos into artistic shots with a bit of tweaking.  

My daughters friend had organised a horse-riding day at her place and so off we went, and the kids had a fab time.  It was to be said "fresh" out on that field for three and a half hours, but there was hot tea and snacks and  I can't really complain.  And I spent time with a rather sweet horse. 

 And I attempted to draw some horses.  I did my best, but I have never drawn a horse before and they did keep moving.  excuses me?  So I drew a few one or two minute sketches really.

hmm

cherry blossom 10 minute sketch

 This little blossom tree sits in a rather untidy corner ( there a few of these) of my garden.  For quite a lot of the year it is quite a nice shape but in the way a little bit.  And then for about two weeks in spring it does this lovely flowery blossomy thing and it is just so pretty.

as a un-related footnote my printer is driving me crazy.  I have tried to print something out five times, it says it is off line, with some cord wiggling it will then print out half the picture or a message saying "ERROR, OFFENDING COMMAND"  I wasn't being offensive to start off with, but did feel like utering some offensive commands by the end of it all.