Lots of fun today – lovely not to have anything planned, to do chores around the house, a wee visit to an art store and an afternoon cafe outing (no cake!) and lots of fun using new tools!

Just add water and sparkle….

It often takes me a few days to get the hang of something new – and I have a couple of interesting sketches with my watercolour on the beta paper(I haven’t scanned these) Today I thought I would wash the paper before I used it and that seems to make my washes feel more like ‘normal’ – really loving this beta book. (A5 hand-bound version) – please ignore my lack of imagination when it came to a subject to test….

As for the prismacolor wax pencils- oh ah! what a shock! I was watching the videos that accompany the new book by James Richards and just wanted to add some Jim sparkle to my pages. Surely my art budget can afford three new pencils? That Lavender prismacolour is actually a really vibrant and alive colour (much more than the mauve Derwent I have) and my recent trip to Singapore did get me hooked on anything remotely close to turquoise. Lavender and peach are certainly NOT colours I normally use. Very cool adding some light lavender and aquamarine strokes over my blue watercolour shadow.

An afternoon in Beecroft – close to closing time, so I resorted to ink and wash at this very nice cafe drinking Creme brûlée tea! I really wished I have had a scrap piece of paper to do some thumbnails and work out some values before I started this but the beta paper is too nice for me I could scribble in the back of the book somewhere!

Trying something quite different – a water-soluble pen… a little too dark and dramatic but I want to try this again real soon!!!!
The pen is was using is  Pilot V pen – a disposable fountain pen with water-soluble ink