HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB

 

My husband Bob celebrates his birthday on December 25th and every year I paint him a special card as we don't exchange gifts, preferring to buy what we want as we need it.  This first one was done at the end of our first year living in France and depicts a local view at Trestrignel plage we used to walk to when we stayed in the port on the boat.

 

2004 has a painting of Fort la Latte which we had visited during the summer and later discovered was featured in a very old Tony Curtis movie called 'the Vikings' which of course we watched on Christmas day.  Shame it's a bit wonky!

 

In 2005 we were spending a lot of time sailing near Treguier and walked along the river Jaudy to find this beautiful aqueduct.  We met a German lady on the river bank who told us about the French lessons she attended in Lannion and we soon joined her there too and improved our mastery of the language.

 

In 2006 we bought the camping car and one of our first trips was to the Loire valley where we visited Saumur and the beautiful chateau that overlooks the river. 

 

2007 and we took a guided river tour of the Nile and despite it being in French we were able to understand all the commentary and thoroughly enjoyed the company of our fellow travellers.  What we saw on the journey was one of the most amazing and unforgettable experiences of my life, I've drawn and painted lots of the statues and views from my photos since our return. 

This is Derwent drawing pencils on black paper.

 

In 2008 we headed south in the camper and visited Carcassonne, another long dreamed of city after reading the novel by Kate Mosse.  This is done in coloured pencil on tan paper.

 

In 2009 we went to the Pyrenees and stayed near Lourdes from where we visited the Cirque de Gavarnie, an amazing glaciated valley with fabulous mountains and views all round.  Bob was unable to walk too high up the hills as he suffers from vertigo but I went all the way and took photos so he could see the views from higher up. 

Next time I'll post the next seven year's pictures and you'll see something a bit different!

MAD ABOUT MUSHROOMS PART 2

 

I've had  a lovely week drawing more mushrooms, this first one is almost the size of a plate, found in  the forests of Brittany by Luba and Hervé a few weeks ago. They picked so many in one day that she had to preserve most of them by freezing of drying and pickling in brine.

 

 

Here is a photo of their finds from one days foraging.  Lots of boletus and tiny chanterelles which were delicious in a tart she made for our supper one evening.

 

But back to Belarus and here are a pair of strange ones with yellow heads and speckled black and white stems. I  used my Derwent drawing pencils for this one, they are a lovely collection of earthy colours with muted greens and greys.  The leads are soft and creamy and work beautifully on the mi-tientes paper.

 

Last night I copied a photo taken by my sister in law Trish in her local West Sussex woods.  I drew it last year in my sketchbook and it was nice to do it again on pastel paper with Pablo pencils which are smooth and fine and lovely for mixing in layers.  I left the test swatch on the side so you can see the different colours I have used.  The light wasn't very good so I had to guess if I was using the right shade and it was a lovely surprise this morning to see it in daylight although I did have to erase and replace a bit of rather bright blue that had got in which didn't work at all! 

 In case you're wondering, the best way to erase coloured pencil is to use a putty rubber in a dabbing motion because if you rub you will spread the colour into other areas and dirty the colours.

Next time I hope I will be showing you the finished picture.

NEW PORTRAITS

 

Every year I try to draw a portrait of each of my granddaughters, for my own pleasure as well as a wish to keep a record of them as they grow up.  Photos are fine but there's nothing like trying to capture a likeness in pencil on paper.  This first picture of Sarah is one of my favourites taken from Facebook where she loves to post moody photos of herself and with her cat, Narvi, who you saw last week on her birthday card.

 

 

With them all as Facebook friends it's very easy for me to get hold of good, natural photos which they are always changing on their personal profiles. Steph spends the least time on Facebook so I have to keep an eye on the photos the others post from time time.  This one is very typical of Steph with her sunny, quirky personality.

 

 

Kirsty, the eldest, is at university now, so again it's easiest for me to catch glimpses of her life on Facebook.  I think this photo was taken last year in her special dress she wore for a school prize giving.

 

 

I remembered to scan the steps of the drawing as it progressed so you can see how the colours are built up.  I used my Museum coloured pencils on tinted paper chosen to echo the wonderful colour of her hair.  They have thick leads and can be used in layers that look a bit like pastels but without the annoying dust.

 

 

If you look closely you might see that I've scribbled some light blue in places as highlights in the hair to reflect the colour of her dress.  Kirsty was delighted with the portrait when I posted it on Facebook.

 

 

This collage of 3 separate portraits from 2011 was done in Derwent drawing pencils which have a wonderful range of earth colours suitable for this type of subject.

 

 

In 2009 I also used the earth colours having been inspired by studying portraits done by Leonardo da Vinci  and some of the Pre-Raphaelite artists like Dante Gabriel Rosetti and John William Waterhouse.

 

 

Way back in 2008 I was working in watercolours and produced this painting after first drawing the girls separately in pencil.  This one is still in a frame hanging in the spare bedroom.  The top 3 pictures are in frames in the hall and get changed each time I draw a new one.  I have now got quite an album full of all the earlier ones which make a really nice family portrait history. 

Maybe next time I'll take the plunge and share some of my early ones which are not very good drawings but it might be interesting for you to see how I started and how much my work has  changed and improved with years of practise!

SARAH'S BIRTHDAY CARD

 

Today is my youngest granddaughter's 14th birthday and now that she has opened it I can show you her card I made this year.  It's a portrait of Narvi her favourite cat who spends a lot of time with her curled up on her bed.

 

 

I started by tracing a photo I took from Sarah's facebook profile page and then transferring it on to the tinted paper I had chosen, a lovely warm earth colour that reflects some of the colour in Narvi's fur.

 

 

I used a white Derwent drawing pencil to draw the outline first as these pencils have a thick lead and a very creamy texture that I wanted to use convey the fur in the picture.  I filled in the eyes first as if I had made a mistake I would have had to start again, then I started on the fur with the various earth shades in the Derwent collection.

 

 

 

I continued filling in the fur, gradually deepening in the shadows till I completed the portrait as you can see from the picture at the top of this post. 

 

 

I normally put in some money for Sarah to spend on something she wants and this time I printed off a section of the head and cut a slit where his mouth is.  I glued this on the inside of the card with a few notes stuck in his mouth.  I hope she smiled when she saw it as it did look rather funny as I closed the card to put in the envelope.

For cat lovers Narvi is a Maine Coon cat who has a black brother called Odin and an older cousin called Loki. 

EGYPTIAN JOURNEY LAST PART

Ramses II drawn with Derwent drawing pencils on mi-tientes paper.

 

We returned to Luxor for the last 2 nights on the cruise boat and had the opportunity to look around the town on the Friday morning.  Bob and I chose to visit the museum and took a taxi from the rank near the mooring. There was a lot of competition to get passengers and a bit of haggling over the price but we got a very good deal and the taxi took us wherever we wanted for a few hours.

 

 

Luxor museum is one of the best I have ever visited, full of wonderful artifacts, well labelled in English and beautifully laid out. I could easily have spent the whole day there.  This statue of Thutmosis really struck me and I almost felt in the presence of the long departed pharoah. There were displays of some artifacts that had only recently been discovered in 1989 and 2004 as well as a lot of the household objects found with Tutankhamon like his bed and chariot.

 

 

Every town in Egypt has these caleches which are used to transport tourists around.  We went on one for our visit to Edfou which was fun as the driver was showing off how fast he could steer through the traffic which was mostly old vans and motorscooters.

 

 

In Luxor we saw this amazing structure on a roundabout at the edge of town. Huge and very colourful.  The town itself is on the banks of  the river Nile with views across to the fields and low hills on the other side.  The sides are lined with cruise ships, sometimes moored up to 6 abreast so you have to go through all the other boats to get to yours.

 

 

Since the terrorist attacks a few years ago the Egyptian authorities have set up a system of armed guards around all the main tourist centres.  It gave us peace of mind but was a bit scary to see guns sticking out of the watchtowers everywhere we went. On the Friday afternoon we set off in our coaches to see the temple of Denderah, accompanied by our armed guards in a land rover and on the Saturday we had an escort all the way across the desert to Hourgada for the second week of our holiday by the Red sea.

 

 

The life outside the towns in Egypt looks much the same as it must have thousands of years ago with peasants using donkeys to transport their goods to market and bullocks to help plough the fields. The clothes look just like those paintings in my bible I had as a child!

We had a holiday of a lifetime and I can heartily recommend it to anybody as long as they have the stamina to keep up the pace and are prepared to suffer a bit with the tummy troubles. I haven't tried to describe too much of what we saw at the temples and tombs, it would take too long and I really only wanted  to give a flavour of the trip so that my readers may be interested in taking a further look at a fascinating part of human history.

Please feel free to post some comments on my blog, it's so nice to get feedback. 

Seasons greetings to all of you around the world!

EGYPTIAN JOURNEY 2

 

We set off for our trip to Egypt in 2007 on November 30th going to Paris by train, staying overnight in a hotel at the airport ready to catch the plane to Luxor in the morning. We finally arrived and were taken to our cruise boat on the Nile, arriving just in time for dinner followed by a talk by the guides about what we would be seeing during our week on board.

 

 

We were woken very early the next day in time for a quick breakfast and then on to our coach to start our day of sightseeing at 6 am! The sun was just rising as well as a group of hot air balloons taking off nearby.  I drew this as we sat in the coach waiting to set off.

 

 

Our first port of call was the Colossus of Memnon and we were staggered at the size of these giant figures, that really is a man standing in front of it to show the scale!

 

 

 Then we were back in the coach and on to the temple of Ramses II .  Our group was named the Crocodiles and led by a charming Egyptian called Tarek.  Because we had booked the holiday in France through a local travel agent, the tour company and all the other passengers were French.  naturally they were quite curious about why we English people would be on a French guided holiday.

 

 

Tarek took care to speak clearly and slowly enough so that we could understand his explanations of the histories of the amazing places we saw.  We met many interesting people and especially the group on our table in the dining room, some of whom I kept in touch with for a while after our return.

EGYPTIAN DRAWINGS

 

Last night I watched a fascinating documentary about life and death in Egypt and I was reminded of a period about 7 or 8 years ago when I spent a winter drawing pharoahs.  I had bought a magazine which turned out to be full of beautiful photos of ancient sculptures.  This first one of Khephren is my favourite and it hung in our hall for many years until I decided to give it to my niece Esther for her 18th birthday as she loved it so much.  Luckily I photographed it before parting with it!

 

 

 

When we later visited Egypt in 2007 I was totally overwhelmed by the buildings, artifacts and the history contained within them and took many photos.  This is a drawing of one of the columns at the tomb of Rameses II.

 

 

We spent a week on a cruise boat and travelled from Luxor to Aswan, stopping off to visit various places along the way.  This is a statue of Thoutmosis III which I saw in the museum at Luxor along with many fascinating items found in the tombs of Toutankhamon and  others.

 

 

This is another statue from the museum, drawn on papyrus which I purchased when I returned home, having seen how it was made on one of our guided tours.  I don't know why I didn't buy any in Egypt, maybe because the shops wanted us to buy their own hand painted images.  I still have a sketchbook and more pictures to scan so watch this space for more egyptology!

A COUPLE MORE MUSHROOMS

 

Yesterday Bob told me he has stopped getting emails when I post a blog so I've changed the settings and hope it works. Have any of you who used to get emails had the same problem?  Please let me know in the comments or by email as I think google has been tweaking and I'm not clever enough with the computer to sort it out!

Here's my drawing of a mushroom I found while I was walking with Justine and the girls at Leith Hill.  It was laying down and when I picked it up I noticed it's extra inhabitant straight away.  I was very careful to keep the beech leaves on top as well as they made a more interesting picture.

 

 

This beauty was growing down the lane just outside the fire station.  While I was carefully carrying it home I met a lady who asked me what it was but I was unsure of the species until I looked it up at home.  However we had quite a long conversation about mushrooms and living in France as an English person and she told me she was having English lessons to help her with her job at the campsite.  The French people around here are so friendly, especially when they realise that I can speak their language!

Signs of Autumn

 

The cool, damp weather of last week has brought out the mushrooms and I was lucky to find these on our walk last Sunday.  They were in a driveway to a holiday home nearby so picked them before anybody drove over them!  The ripe one was about 9 inches tall and dripping ink which stained my hands as I carried them carefully back up the hill.

 

 

These parasols were hiding in the long grass on top of the bank opposite our house.

 

 

I'm looking out for one of those red ones with white spots to draw next!

 

We picked our sloes for gin liqueur this week and of course I had to draw a sprig to use as the label later.

Unknown butterfly

 

We found this pretty butterfly under a chest of drawers when we were cleaning today. I can't find it in my field guide so I wonder if any of you out there recognise the species?