a new year and a new start

Well I've been away a long while but I'm going to blog again.  Hopefully it will stir my creativity.  I'm an open book and blank canvas, scary but exciting at the same time.  I hope after months of getting used to having my highland ponies I can now fit in some creativity and share again with you.  Goodness knows I fail so many times at getting going but hopefully manage something in-between ;)

Wish me luck!!!

more challenges

Ok, so I've decided to follow the EDM Challenge script and use their list of suggestions to work through... no point in reinventing a perfectly good wheel is there ;)  I'll use my own challenge sketch of the mug as their forth one with the same requirement.

#1  Draw a shoe...

Challenge Sketching

Having recently been prompted by creative friends I took a look at the blog of http://dannygregory.wordpress.com/ and his EveryDayMatters Challenges, an idea he acknowleges to be from a lady called Karen Winters who posts a challenge a day for people to draw and post up on the web. There are now Facebook and Flickr sites displaying everyone's work. It's something that I keep coming back to... trying to inspire myself to draw and push thoughts into new creative possibilities.  Everyone goes through phases and mine have been lacking exploration for a while. So once again I'm going to jolt myself into action with one of these projects. Being one to like to share why not join me? I wonder how long I can keep going... it's a bit like taking vitamins... I forget to take them after a while when they've done their job and I'm feeling better ;) If you do decide to come along then you could leave a link in a comment for the relevant post so I can see yours too :) Ok... here goes

Draw a Mug.

drawn digitally in "sketchbook pro" using a graphics tablet

my what big teeth you have Mr Wolf

... all one and a half inches big and they're only baby teeth too!  What an amazing pattern eh!!  I spotted this laying in the gravel under my pony's hay net and at first thought it to be a piece of wood.  Flipping it over the long boney edges gave it away as a tooth and in the photo below you can see how I've ground down those sharp bits so that I can make it into a pendant.  I'm told by horsey people that they are a rare find so I feel quite lucky!

Blue Melanistic

Recently DH bought a wildlife cam and we've been having fun setting it up and baiting for those elusive Pinemartins, but to no avail... it seems "Charles" here and his lady friend "Belinda" do the rounds past this point about 50 times a night... no look-in then for any other creature who might just like jam sandwiches!!  Still it's quite nice to have footage to sketch from... this handsome chap is a little unusual as he's a Blue Melanistic Pheasant... some kind of genetic thing... and his lady is a very dark brown (again unusual as the females are usually lighter).