a little lime

This weeks Diva challenge - Tipple - which is, basically, clusters of circles. Fun and so very useful! I LOVE using circles, sometimes as a fill and others as a feature, you can see some examples in my gallery if you want to check it out. Today I went with lots of loops with little clusters of tipple nestled here and there. For a change, I decided to go for some strong, juicy colours in shades of pink and purple. Fun. hx

Our neighbour has an empty paddock where she kept 3 sheep. Over the past few years two have died, and the remaining one really did not like being alone......so, about a year ago when it saw our cows grazing in the paddock next to her, she joined the herd. She comes when we call the cows, shares their hay and runs behind when they are being herded into another paddock - she's an old dear, so the running occasionally involves a bit of pushing (by us) for her to keep up. So, back to that empty paddock - as our neighbour didn't want the responsibility of looking after more sheep herself, and conveniently we wanted a few sheep to breed for the freezer (and to have cute lambs), over the weekend John picked up some Dorper sheep (they shed their wool so we don't have to shear them). We got a nursing mum and her lamb (a boy - he'll end up in the freezer when he's old enough) and an older lamb (a girl - future breeder). They came from an area with little grass, so poor mu

Reading a book when this one popped in my head. Of course, they always morph a bit as I begin drawing them, my initial idea had leaves stitched along the edges rather than the thread flowing through the whole design. Just a bit of patterning - not sure about the choice of flueri as I think the other more organic patterns look better and this is kind of the odd one out. Anyway, it's done now so I'm stuck with it. Going from one drawing to the next right now, which is nice after a few weeks of not drawing all that much. hx

A quick one that I blocked in yesterday and finished off this morning. It was fun to play with a couple of patterns I haven't used before, though I did manage to get Chard in there - I think I have used this pattern on just about every graphic style piece that I've done. love. it. Sometimes when I work on these more intensely patterned pieces, I waver between shading the patterned areas as well as the overall design. The times I have attempted this it has ended up looking too busy without the strong distinction between design elements. Today I stuck with shading the block elements and am happy with how it came out. Have a great weekend! hx

Back to school today after a 2 week mid-term break - it went so quick! Still there is only 4 weeks left of term after today, so I can't complain too much. Though, I probably will! Very excited to see an email with a link to my Ripples pattern on Tangle Patterns  this morning. Linda does an amazing job. When I became aware of "tangles" around a year and half ago, I was so thrilled to stumble on Linda's site - I think I spent close to a week drawing out every pattern and visiting all the links. I could see so much potential in using the patterns and amalgamating the concept with my own drawing style, it totally kick-started my drawing gene which, honestly, for quite a few years had been pretty much kicking back, almost comatose, sipping a cocktail by the poolside. And, something I meant to post yesterday and forgot.......a bit of exciting news that I stumbled upon via Genevieve Crabe, (owner of Tangle Harmony - another fabulous site which keeps even me, with my so

Things have been very full-on around here and it probably won't let up for a bit. I found this pattern half completed in my journal when I picked it up today, so I finished it off. Reminds me of wallpaper and I am too mentally drained to come up with a clever name, so just dubbed it walp. They don't call me the super-duper pattern namer for nothing, baby! Probably not as detailed as my usual instructions, but the steps are pretty straight-forward. I want to have a play with it on a design when I get a chance as I think shading would really look great. hx

The diva challenge this week was to use Dex as a monotangle. I really love the 3-d look of Dex and have used it in a few of my intensely patterned pieces, but as a stand-alone - that was hard to think of anything that really excited me. Ultimately, I came up with this, and I'm o.k. with it, but don't love it - my shading's a bit slap-dash but I didn't want to waste any more time on it. I do like that in one spot I can see through 3 layers of windows :) Ever have those weeks where nothing that you draw really satisfies you? Unfortunately, I do, and they're probably the weeks I should just put the pencils down and back away from the desk............. this week has been one of those. Tried this idea - pretty cool, but........yeah, I was bored after about 10 lines. Here's my mini version - you can see I didn't make it all that far. Reminds me of the desert. I think there's probably a little more to it looking at some of the finished ar

Can you believe it's been 13 weeks since I've done a diva challenge - wow - how fast time flies, right? Ah, well, life's been busy and I've had a few other projects on the go. I enjoyed this challenge, such a pretty, feminine pattern and well, you know I just love, love flowers. So, here's my response: I started off with a loopy line (the darker line running through the pattern, then just henna drummed and mooka-ed it up. The last couple of weeks I have been drawing, still working on the sketches I mentioned in the previous post. I'm pretty much done now. Here's a couple that I really love: Looking forward to the weekend AND the fact that I don't have to work for the next 10 days - a mini break -the school has some special program running next week! Yeeha! hx