Having fun with watercolour / aquarelle painting .

Before I went into hospital, I knew there would be times 

when I would be twiddling my thumbs,

so got myself some new sketching books,

and a few brightly coloured Faber Castell Pitt artist pens.

Then selected  a few of my Micron pigma pens 

 along with my Daler - Rowney Artists pencils.

I thought I'd try something new and what fun I had.

 

 

 

 

 

My friends have just come back from a trip to India

and brought me a lovely gift, a sketch book of handmade paper.

It has lots of raised little bits of wood and was certainly a challenge.

 

This is the lovely book.

It folds together with both curved edges just touching

 fastened with hand rolled silky cord and lovely buttons.

I love the way the paper easily tears from the binding.

 I'm sure I'll be finding lots of new ideas to use this paper .

 

 

 

On the way to the hospital we drove down an avenue of trees

 full of beautiful pink blossom. I knew I would love to paint this.

I didn't have my camera as I had other things on my mind !

But I didn't need it, it was imprinted in my mind,

just the thing for the hand made paper.

 

I wasn't sure how to tackle this quite flimsy paper,

so I tore a page out and jumped in with both feet.  

I kept it loose with not too much water

and was greatly surprised at my first attempt.

 

Here it is finished which later I carefully  stuck in my sketch book.

 



Recently I signed up to follow Polka dot April challenge 

 

 



 

This was my funky effort.

 I had great fun doing it.

But I haven't had the courage to send it !

 

 

One of the many blogs I follow is

Sharon Chapman at Wildflowerhouse

She has just become the proud owner of two of the most gorgeous

 fluffy cream coloured pups you could ever see.

 

   Pop over and have a look.

Her posts are varied and she paints lovely flower sketches.

 Recently she showed

 

Just Fun Doodles 

 

Which really inspired me to try something completely different.

 I'm always doodling when I talk on the phone.

so thought this would be fun and it was.

 

At first I didn't know where to start

and then all of a sudden I found I'd run out of paper.

I'll certainly do some more.

 

 

Also I've been wanting to start a sketchbook journal for ages

and  read that lots of  people  who keep journals

 always recommend to buy one of good quality.

Naturally  : Moleskine 

so I treated myself to a 21x13 cm. Carnet aquarelle .

Which are not available locally where I live in France.

What would we do without Amazon. 

Also  Stillman and Birn Beta series seemed to be popular.

I thought that while I was dropping things into my Amazon basket

I'd get one of each.

 

This is the front page in the Stillman and Birn journal.

I'll show you some of the inside pages later.

 

 

 

I think I'll be using the Moleskine more for landscapes.

 

Hope you like the very varied sketches I achieved

in between my treatment while I was in hospital.

Now I'm back home still unable to do any gardening.

So I'm painting like mad.

 

I've also done some  Annie Sloan Chalk painting.

 

That's for later too.

 

So for now I'll say

 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian