Here’s a drawing on Ingres paper, with pen & ink and colored pencil. It’s always fun to use a colored paper. I also like to draw with ink, it’s so spontaneous because you can’t really make any corrections.

Today I will be studying for my upcoming theology exam, and later we’ll go to have dinner with my mom and my eldest sister who is visiting with her husband. My husband has been working at nights for a week or so, it will be nice to have him home earlier today.

One of my textbooks is in Swedish, which is not my strongest language, so I doubt I’ll be getting any painting time tonight.

After working again as substitute teacher today, I wanted to free myself from all rules and regulations and do something fun! This is in watercolor, pen & ink. The photo is not good at all, but I’ll see what I can do about it once the sun shows up again. It’s been raining for several days now.

I have also started to sign my whole name in my paintings, instead of just initials.

I think I will be doing more abstract work, it’s very liberating. I also have an oil pastel magpie to finish up. I’m at a point where I don’t know if I should continue, or just stop. I think maybe just a few highlights might do.

I feel much better now, of course life’s not totally painless but at least the worst is over. Now I have been able to run, and I even took up Pilates! I haven’t painted much because I’ve been so busy doing all the stuff I couldn’t do before, like washing the windows, lol!

Here’s a hibiscus flower in gouache, watercolor and ink, which I just finished today:

I have to tell you though, my own problems started to look so small in the hospital, while I shared a room with two ladies who had ovarian cancer. At least my illness isn’t killing me. I felt so sad when I left, I was going home to carry on with my life while they had to stay there not knowing what’s going to happen next. It seemed so unfair.

I have started to study theology, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I couldn’t continue my previous studies in rehabilitation and special education, so I just picked up something else that I have an interest for. I also applied to cultural history but I don’t know yet if there was room for me in the group. Both are open university studies, distance learning, and it’s awesome  to listen to lectures on my computer via internet! I can paint, or crochet or whatever while I’m listening. I’m going to have the first exam at the end of the month, and some essays to write.

Meanwhile I started drawing, I’ve been doing some graphite drawings. I looked through my works from last year, and what I liked most was a very basic drawing of a dog’s head, drawn in graphite. I have been playing around with watercolor as well, but it seems to be frustrating more than inspiring at the moment. Nevertheless, I think I’m making some progress with my painting skills.

I got some narcissus in a pot for easter, they were beautiful while they lasted. I made a sketch from life for a watercolor painting, but the flowers wilted before I had a chance to finish that. Instead I made this graphite drawing from one of the photos I had taken.

 I used pencils from 2H to 2B, but I’m missing the F grade from my kit. I also used a technical pen, 0,5 lead in HB.

I hope to have more work to post soon, I’m working on another graphite drawing and I’m considering digging up my colored pencils, too. My darling husband came home the other day with a drawing table. It’s waiting in the carage, I need to clean up some space for it first. It’s quite big,  but it’s adjustable and with some modifications maybe I can use it for painting as well.  It’s an old table from an architect who was throwing it away, when my husband ran to the rescue!   

The spring is arriving here, slow but steady. I’m going to be ready with my camera and sketchbook, when the first leaves and flowers show up.

I hope everyone has a happy Christmas!

They are mixed media monotypes. I painted the picture on a glass plate with watercolor, printed it on paper and then drew on top with pen and ink. Monotype is a one-of-a-kind print, meaning you can only print the image once. I didn’t quite get the idea of making a print if you can only print it once, until I gave it a try. You can really get some very interesting effects.

These are both available in my Etsy store.

It’s of a feather I found in the woods, when I was walking there picking pinecones and pretty stones for drawing. I think it’s a magpie feather, might be crow. Anyway, I started this drawing after I recovered from that migraine attack the other day. Having slept most of the day, I woke up at 2.00 a.m. and tried to think of something to do that wouldn’t wake my husband. I usually work from photo reference I have on my computer, but as my head was still hurting I didn’t dare to do that, so I just drew this from life.

It’s colored pencil, pen & ink. The paper is sage colored Lana pastel paper, it takes colored pencil layers very well. 

This is available on my Etsy shop, there’s a link at the bottom of the page. I can’t seem to be able to add a link in the text right now. I’m listing some smaller works for sale on Etsy, until I get an official website going.

I recently finished my first ever commission work, so I treated myself to some sumi-e supplies:

The book I got last spring, it’s titled “The simple art of sumi-e-mastering Japanese ink painting”.   The roll includes some rice paper, the black oval thingy is an ink stone and then there are some Chinese ink sticks. I got these in the mail today, I ordered them online and didn’t expect them to look so very pretty! I also got some new watercolor brushes and lovely handmade heavy watercolor paper.

Here’s the commission work I finished, it’s a portrait of my second cousin’s Belgian shepherd:

This took me over a week even though I worked on it every day. I was also working at the local school that week, and during the weekend I got a nasty migraine. So unfortunately I don’t have any other new work to show for now. This is in watercolor, approx. 12 x 9 inches, 32 x 24 cm.

Now I’m off to eat my husband’s delicious reindeer fry, and after dinner I might look into that sumi-e painting. I do have some embroidery stuff tempting me also, I’m stitching a replica of an antique school girl sampler from France.

I ended up leaving off the necklace as well, it would have been quite a job to add it at this stage. My camera picks up the whites, so the skin tones look a bit funny. 

I’m really really happy with this. Not sure what my sister will think, she hasn’t seen this yet. I hope she won’t kill me, lol!

I’m calling them “our crows” but they don’t really belong to us. We just have many crows and magpies around,  sometimes we feed them too, I’m not sure what our neighbours think about that as these birds can become quite a nuicance. I just find them to be so beautiful, and they have such a wide variety of expressions.

I need to come up with something to feed the little birds, too. These thieves eat all the little bird food. I was hoping to photograph the small birds as well but so far have managed just one blurry shot of a female sparrow.