Beloved

Another one of my beloved, in coloured pencil this time. He's finished work for Christmas now, so he's got plenty of time to sit around and be drawn by me.

Bleak

A poorly looking plant and a bleak view out of the window.

Relaxing

I'm trying to use pastels as much as possible to draw things from life, so that I get a bit quicker. The hardest bit is finding the right colours when I have so many. I think the answer may be to decide at the beginning what colours I am likely to need, and to put them out separately.

Seascape

This is another seascape from a photo taken on our holiday in Crete. It is done on Sennelier la carte board, which I didn't like at first, but I'm getting used to it now and getting to like it more and more.

Comfort Zone

Here are some studies of Molly. Sometimes I just don't know what to draw, and I think I must be in my comfort zone drawing the dogs and my boyfriend. However, I think I could draw them all day and every day and never get any of them quite right!

Muse

Here is my muse, patiently trying to keep still for me while he watches the darts.

Garlic

Garlic in pastel on Sennelier La Carte.

Moorings

This is a drawing of our moorings. We were very lucky to buy the boat with the mooring, as it's almost impossible to find good residential moorings near London. I intended to add watercolour to this, and I'm very glad I scanned it first as when I started adding the paint I discovered that the ink I'm using is water soluble! So this is now the only decent version I have of this sketch!

Outside

I thought I'd show you a drawing of my boat today, complete with bags of coal (very necessary at the moment) and empty wine bottles.

Dinner

D preparing Sunday dinner. What a lovely man!

Pointy pepper and chillis

I liked the shape and colour of this "Tescos finest" sweet pointy pepper (it also tastes nice!) This was done over about three days and I had to replace the two green chillies as they were starting to dry up! The length of time it takes me to do things is always a problem!

Cosy

It's a sleety, grey cold afternoon but the worse it gets outside the cosier I feel in here.

Messy Kitchen

I'm sorry everyone for the sparse nature of my blog - the reason why I dont have a picture of myself or a blogroll or links to anything is that I'm way behind in the browser stakes - I should be using Firefox but apparently cant download it until I upgrade my operating system. Given my paranoia about changing things when for my work everything is going quite smoothly, it may take some time for me to sort this out. However there are loads of blogs that I admire and visit regularly and I would really like to add them to a blogroll, and one day I will...

Exploring

This weekend we took the boat up to Paddington for the weekend. The bottom sketch shows D looking like an intrepid explorer in his new super-warm coat (you need one to drive a narrowboat). We were surprised to find when we got there that many other narrowboaters had had the same idea and Paddington basin was quite crowded. We decided to go to Leicester Square and see a film, and having done very little research on the latest offerings, plumped for one called 'Easy Virtue' - not really D's sort of film but enjoyable nonetheless - then came back to Paddington and had a great Chinese meal. Next day were going to take the dogs to Hyde Park but the weather was bad - not Molly's cup of tea - so decided to return home. D got soaking wet in the rain on the way back but we both agreed we had really enjoyed ourselves. The top pic shows Chester - exhausted after the stress of travelling!

Football on telly

...and I thought football was supposed to be exciting...

Church on the sea

This is a little tiny church we visited in Georgioupolis in Crete. You had to walk along a very precarious path made of large rocks. It was quite stormy on the day we did it so was even more hazardous than usual. I've been trying a new technique of using soft pastels on Wallis paper over an underpainting. I'm quite pleased with this one.

Remote

This is my response to EDM Challenge 197. I found it extremely hard - and I dont think the result is brilliant but it was a good exercise!

Basket

Here is Molly lying on her basket - it's full of blankets at the moment. The bits of fur coming out at the front are not a long beard, but her tail.

Snoring

It's never very relaxing drawing animals - you are just getting things right and then they move... Luckily Chester is a very sleepy old man and was merrily snoring through this drawing.

D again

Here's another drawing of D - it's not at all flattering to him - he looks much better than this in real life!
By the way, I am enjoying having a blog so much - it has helped me a lot to have a group of people cheering me on for doing a sketch - it's so encouraging and motivating. Thanks to everyone that has left a comment.

EDM Challenge 196

This is my attempt at challenge 196 - the rope on the bow of my narrowboat.

Begging

Molly begging for chocolate.

couch potatoes

Tonight was spent eating, having a couple of glasses of wine, watching a bit of TV and falling asleep on the sofa. We seem to be doing that a lot lately!

Sleepy

It's only 7 o'clock but D is very tired after his day's work.

EDM Challenge 195

This is a very unremarkable fork, I dont have any interesting ones I'm afraid, only the cheap and cheerful variety.

A corner

I was wondering what to draw and noticed this messy corner which is quite typical of the way we live on the boat!

Where is everybody?

I've just installed a statcounter (as you can see from the multiple buttons on the right - how do I get rid of them?!) and I've made the depressing discovery that my blog is being visited by precisely nobody!!!! So I'm speaking to thin blogosphere air - a bit like a vicar I used to know who had to preach sermons week after week to an empty church... The trouble is I dont have time to do anything about it at the moment - work is very busy. Never mind - will get working on it soon!

Thunder

Here is D reading the newspaper after a hard day's work. He has decided he doesn't like me drawing him, especially from the side, so I have to do it sneakily. It is pouring with rain and thundering outside. It's a good job Chester the dog is now completely deaf, otherwise he would be terrified. But he is sleeping on the floor, blissfully unaware of the noise.

Bodies on the beach

Here are various bods seen on the beach on our last day. It's very hard to be discreet when drawing people like this. The small sketchbook helps.

Sunbathing

It's hard to imagine we were doing this only last week. Now we're back in the cold - although it's nice to light the fire and get all cosy.

more holiday pics

A couple more of my holiday drawings - the top one was done in Chania venetian harbour sitting in a cafe - this man was trying to sell his paintings without much success. The bottom pic was the view from our apartment which was right on the square in Georgioupolis.

Holiday Pics

Well we're back from our holiday in Crete and it was lovely ... here are the first of the holiday pix - the top one is from the first day when the weather was a bit cloudy - we were sitting in a beach bar called the 'Tropicana' and looking out of the window at the stormy sea... the second was the next day - sitting in another bar (of course) on the town square in Georgioupolis enjoying drinks and chats.

Going Away

This was a very quick one done last night. I am going away tomorrow to Crete (hoorah!) for a week so hopefully when I get back I will have some holiday sketches to post!

The old boy

Thanks to everyone from EDM for their kind comments and encouragement for my blog! I realise that I have posted a lot of pix of Molly so here is one of the old man, Chester (12 years old).

Little Scruffbag

I was just drawing Molly when Chester decided he wanted to sit on the sofa as well, so he is included in this. Molly is extremely scruffy at the moment and must be bathed before she goes to stay with my friend when we go to Greece next week for our holiday.

Watching lots of TV

Yes I must confess we do watch a lot of TV - especially when it's stormy outside and the coal fire is burning in the corner and we are cuddled up on our sofa. The top pic was done on Friday - it's a pencil sketch of D and looks quite insipid next to the pen sketches I think. I am much more careful when I am working in pencil, much bolder in pen. The second one was done yesterday of D watching Strictly Come Dancing. We had been to see his mum in her nursing home on the south coast all day. We had planned to go out Saturday night but succumbed to the fire and sofa! The bottom one was done whilst watching 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' on Sunday afternoon.

A bit of colour

The pepper at the top I did today, the nectarine yesterday. It's the first time I've used coloured pencils for years! It was fun to used some colour.

Self Portrait

The top pic was done last night, the bottom one today. I always find self portraits incredibly hard - it's awkward to measure anything in a mirror and difficult to look objectively.

Sport

Today was a lovely day - got up late after a late night last night, walked the dogs, went food shopping. D spent the afternoon watching golf and as I have no interest whatsoever in watching any kind of sport I did other things, including this drawing.

The first sketch was done last night - I had a very busy day yesterday and didnt get to draw until about 9pm. I thought I wasnt going to get anything done and I might break the spell by having a day without sketching but just about managed to produce this while D was watching X2.
The second one was done this afternoon - what a beautiful day! We drove round all morning doing various chores and came back with toys for the rabbit then sat outside watching him play - his favourite was the shoe box we got with D's new shoes... I dont usually tackle boats - not my strong point - but I made a brave attempt at our neighbour's boat - something I wouldnt normally be bothered to do without the incentive of this blog. We are a bit worried about our neighbour as we havent seen him for ages...

Washing up

D usually does the washing up but I made him leave it for a while so I could do this, at the same time as watching 'The Restaurant' on TV.