Button Bear

I said I'd been working on something and here he is! CB Bear.... Hes one of a kind, and will remain that way. This one has taken several weeks and approached with a lot finer detail than the doodle bears. Texture has been added by much finer strokes, producing fur on the cross hatch base, rather than building up cross hatch layers. A total of 5 different coloured pens were used to create the fur. Hes off to a good home, and I'm looking forward to starting the next one.......

Snooks!

Snooks! Feline with attitude......

Please can I introduce Snooks! Our nickname for Noocar, Noocar being Racoon backwards because of the mask like feature on her face! Shes a feline with full on attitude and gives us many a giggle! She happens to be the grumpiest most stuck up cat of all. Five kids, four dogs, three cats and three acrobatic turtles.... its a busy house but there's always something to inspire. Snooks is just one of the feline capers I'm working on.

Here's the first draft!

Ive included a real photo of her, shes an American Ragdoll, and just a fat mass of fur! All the traits of a Ragdoll, moody, lady of the manor, regal and down right bossy, this is a typical pose for Snooks!

New pens in Moleskine

I bought some new pens, and wanted to play around with them. See what they were capable of. Couldn't really decide what to draw and ended up drawing a mass of butterflies! I like they way I can get brush strokes from the pens - will have to try something else, but they're not really fine enough for the bears! Ho hum - I'm sure they wont go to waste, and its all trial and error! I do quite like this though.

Bear Doodles

Dave! Another quickie from the bear doodle archive. He's what I call a proper bear, and based on one that we have here in the house amongst the mad collection. Cross hatching, building up, but again just a quickie.

Bear Doodles

Stan! Meet Stan!!! I have to admit what with Christmas and the fact Ive been working on a larger Bear, I haven't had time for a bear doodle for a few weeks. This ones from the archives as such. I mentioned earlier that there were technical issues with uploading the pictures, something that's being looked into, and I'm currently looking for a scanner that does my pictures justice. In the flesh Stan is dark and somewhat moody, full of woos!!!!!

I'm quite excited at posting the larger Bear Ive been working on, but for now that will have to wait until nearer the 25th.... from doing the quick Bear Doodles, the larger bear took a lot more time, but is based on the same principle of starting with a cross hatched base, almost like the weave on a real bear, and then layers of fur to build in depth and texture. Practise makes perfect, so each one looks different and in my opinion they get better. But that's just my opinion!!!

E is for Eli!

B is for Burp! not very lady like but something you find amusing when it just pops out!

Another entry from Eli's moleskine, and yes! it's not very ladylike at all, but she titters every time excusing herself through laughter. Hopefully she'll grow out of it.

Summer Seeds

Another mad monk moleskine page! This new technique is featuring a lot at the moment, and Ive just produced some cheery Christmas cards using this blended pastel background. I love the softness it gives, but then there's an animated feel once the ink goes on. These flying monks are building towards some new characters in my head at the moment so stay tuned! I drew this one a couple of weeks ago now, before the weather turned bitterly cold. In fact the morning I finished this one we had our very first scattering of snow! Fire roaring, I don't think I put pen or paper down all day and went straight from this one to the 'First Snowfall' scene I first posted.... I really cant wait all through the seasons to produce other mad monk entries, its just too long til spring!!!!

Bear Doodles

I love these quick Bear doodles for several reasons. The simplicity of using biro and pitt pens mean there's hardly any tools to carry around in my bag, and no matter where I am if there's a minute or two spare I can get a 'Bear Doodle' out and continue. The only thing I have found is the tempo is visibly different and I can tell where sections have been cross hatched on separate occasions. Starting again with cross hatching and building layers up, with a few texture squiggles to finish. Not the best one ever produced and I may end up going back to Bert and adding more. He was quick and fun and filled in some time, the hardest thing sometimes is to stop and walk away! You can always add more, but its harder to erase overkill.

Bear Doodles

And finally for today, Bear doodles. Quick sketches using biro, indian ink and pitt pens. The bears were created by cross hatching, usually building in 4 to 6 colours. There's something about bears that i adore, and Eli has taken over my collection, after all at my age i cant be clearing a million teddy bears from the bed each night before jumping in!

E is for Eli!

A is for angelic - something you have down to a fine art!


Meet Eli! Inspired by number 1 daughter, I purchased a Japanese Moleskine and have made entries from A to Z. Each one depicting an element of Eli that makes her who she is!!!!!

In a Pear Tree

I thought as I've spent the last couple of days putting up Christmas decorations I'd stay with the Christmas theme. This is a Christmas card design, in Indian ink and finished nicely with two golden pears. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, and its one of 5 designs.

Just a footnote, there are still technical issues on the picture quality. These will hopefully be resolved very soon, but for now please bear with me!

Deck the Halls!

I love this time of year, especially from a creative point of view. When the house is all decorated there doesn't seem to be a difference between night and day! The tree lights continue to twinkle and look so much better as day turns to dusk and then to night. Today's the day I clamber in the loft space and dust off said decorations. The process of decorating the house is usually a long one, not quite sure if that's through being a perfectionist or just that I've accumulated so many decorations over the years, none the less the end result is such a special one. Its a shame Christmas only comes once a year! I will be posting a sketch again before its back to work, but until then I've posted a snap of the very first decoration placed strategically on a unit - and so it begins!

First snowfall

Ok! So after months and months of nagging my eldest child, affectionately known as "Tall Boy" to set up my blog its finally here. As is Christmas nearly! On that note I thought why not make the first post a fitting Christmas themed sketch from the ever faithful moleskine. I’ve tried a new technique here, and inspired by my all time favourite ‘Norberto’. I’ve started this piece with a pastel background, ink outlines and then inktense and ink infills. I love the finished look, and for a cold chilly setting it still came over bright and cheerful. Thank you to tall boy for getting me rolling in the blog world, there’s still some tweaking on the technical quality of the pictures but please bear with me. The pressure is on now to keep doodling.