Hedgehogs and hobby rooms....

Finally... beginning to see my desk and can actually get to it without having to leapfrog over rugs, furniture and cushions, etc...

We finished the ceilings in the basement ourselves ..just got the office done two days ago.  Now the computer has gone back down into the office.  Lots of other stuff has moved too.. yaaaayyyy!  Still more stuff and furniture to move yet.... but it's coming along.  Another few days and it should be more or less back to normal in there.  I can hardly wait.

Every so often I get to do a bit of drawing and drop on a bit of watercolour paint ... such fun taking Danielle Donaldson's classes.  Little drawings ... which is perfect ....  seeing as I have no space on the darn table yet...just enough for tiny pieces of watercolour paper and some paint.. oh, and of course, some paint brushes.  All I have is 2 square feet of space right now ...but, it's enough!

Whimsical animals this time around, and I am pretty darn proud of my little hedgehog... which is a totally copied Danielle version of a hedgehog... well, as close to hers as I managed to make him.

Are you ready for soooo cute?  I love my little guy!  What fun it is to see little faces come to life... almost as great as making little bears.

Danielle Donaldson

I've taken some of her online classes previously.... and all were fun.  So, when I saw this one for drawing whimsical little animals (little is the key word here) and how to watercolour them ... well, it had to be done.

What fun!

It is also a bit more than that ... she calls the bottom portion of the projects Story Blocks...  I still don't really get it.  I guess my mind just doesn't work that way.  To me it is collaged bits and bobs and using pretty colours that I think look good with my little guys I've drawn and painted.

So far I've only done a few... we are re-building a wall that divides the exercise room from the tv room...so I don't have many spare minutes to rub together... darn it.  I would much rather be having fun with paints and papers than making eleventy nine trips up and down the stairs every 10 minutes.  I have buns of steel already... and, we are only two weeks into the project.  But, we re-built the front side of the wall already ..and, will be starting the back side framing after a bit of re-wiring ...   It will be close to 2 months by the time we are finished it all I'm sure.  In between it all I try to find a few minutes to draw a few lines and even to drop on a bit of colour.

If you want to check out Danielle's class (or other artists) you could go to Jeanne Oliver's site  http://jeanneoliver.ning.com to see what I'm talking about.

Here is my first little dog . ....

and.... some little bunnies that I did ...

Click on them to make bigger if you like...and, you will have to imagine them matted ... and/or matted and framed for the time being....

Sunshine girl

That's what I think I'll call this one.  She has sunny colours.

And, surprise of surprises....we, too, have a sunshiny day!  All week looks pretty good...that'll be the first week without snow since ...well, since about October 2013 actually.....

I may get to golf on Wednesday... although, they are calling for showers on that day..... I better dig out some rubber boots and go anyway...it could be our only golfing day of the summer..... aacckkk!

"Sunny" adds some warmth to anybody's day.... with her love of perky colours and fabrics....

I glued bits of pretty pink and gold papers to her parasol, her skirt and even on the top of her blue bag... it could be a purse, or ....a fancy shopping bag....

I gave her some cute little "twiddly toes" as Mom used to call pigeon toed....

She's ready for a day of shopping or just admiring herself in shop windows as she goes merrily on her way......

too "normal"

I did another girl for the Creative Girl project.  She is not totally my own design.  Took some inspiration and liberty from an ad in a magazine.  I called her Shopping girl.... but, have decided she is too ..... uhm...... normal looking, if you know what I mean.   Danielle's girl was ... more .... fun... more ...caricature-like and whimsical .... even less realistic ... sort of ....

But, I did have fun doing her .... and really enjoyed trying to lay on some water colours and get some pretty results ... and, I want my girl ...my own design ultimately.... to have a pet of some sort...so I tried a doggy this time too  ... a pink poodle don'tcha know....  I've made one of those before ... when I was making bears and dogs....

I tried the little trick of gluing on some pretty paper in a couple of squares on the skirt ... to add a bit more visual appeal ....

Today ... another girl ...in between laundry, dusting and some other stuff...yes...it must be done... I can only put things off so long... and, all of you crafters out there DO so know what I'm taking about ...I know you do!  After a while, the dust bunnies get almost big enough to fight back ..or I need cages instead of a vacuum..... where do they all come from?

Skipped to the last project..

The first and third projects in the course didn't appeal to me all that much...but, for sure I viewed them and got all the information from them... and, then... just skipped to doing the girl in the final video.

Watercolours are not an easy thing to lay down..... but, what fun giving it a try!

We are doing a girl in our final project, and, of course, we are supposed to "invent" one of our own eventually.  But, in the meantime, Danielle gave us all sorts of little bits and pieces to use to make one up .... or, in my case, I just more or less copied the one she did on the video.  I also used the same colours to get an idea of how she did things...

Here is my gal....

Here is Danielle's....

I'm sure you can see the differences...but, all in all, I'm pretty happy with my effort....

Here they are side by side....

I need some better white ink pens... and a bit darker pencil...and of course, lots of practice...but, what fun!

She says it took her abut 5 years to come up with a girl she likes and can draw easily ... not using a detailed face at all as it would detract from the rest of the body and colours..  etc... so, today I'm attempting to come up with a girl of my own design........or at least partly my own design..... we'll see how it goes....

The cat came back...

..well, she probably wasn't even gone... she was just hiding somewhere.  And, look how perky she looks.  ..ahahha...she was probably downstairs where the boarder is staying and I didn't want to invade or intrude.   But, I felt guilty that I had missed her dosage of thyroid meds and Googled to check how serious that could be ... decided it was okay to miss one time and left visiting her 'til last night.  I found her straight away and closed the downstairs door and pasted a big note on the door handle.  Do. Not. Leave. Open.  

I'm happy I have now claimed our own space.  The cat's and mine.  I feel totally relieved.

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Here is my first little attempt at Danielle Donaldson's water colour class.  I jumped to the second project as the first didn't appeal to me ...although, I did go through the video of course...as it had a lot to do with how to put down some watercolour paint.  Not that I figured out the part about more water til the fourth video actually...and, so my colours are a bit darker than she did.

I'm pretty happy with the results ... which are not too dissimilar to hers... except for the darker colours and the gnome hat on the little house to the lower left..hahahhha... reminder to self... don't put trees directly behind a house and expect it not to look like a hat!

I now realize than when she says add more  water to the brush and go from colour to colour taking some of the last colour with you...she means put it onto a mixing surface, get the right colour and then go to the paper ...  ...she didn't mean to take it directly from the pan of colour.  Okay, ...got it.  Next one.........

And, I  need some better white ink pens...mine are too transparent....