So what's with 365 Days of art?
It's all about inspiration and a love of creating. I create five pieces of art a week, one of which I'll show you how to do, this week Sunflower heaven.
But if that doesn't take your fancy I've got shading, cats and fairy houses in trees.
I'm taking my tasks from the fabulous artist and art author Lorna Scobie.
I also have a Facebook page thingy-majiggy. If you like what I do, then head on over and give us a like, you'll never miss out that way.
Day 71
Task; Add shadows to the glass bottles.
A nice task to learn how shadows work, although I didn't 'see' the sun until after I'd done a couple of the bottles' shadows. Can you guess which ones? Side Note: It was fun to play around with different ways to represent shadow, I love the dots at the bottom.
Day 72
Task; Pattern time
Who doesn't love pattered slightly strange looking snails? I used watercolours for the body and shell, waiting until they dried and then went to town with colouring pencils. TOP TIP; I lightly sketched out the snails before I started painting, so I knew what kinds of shells I wanted them to have, do the same if your not confident.
Day 73
Task: Doodle a tree
Is there anything cuter than a tiny tree house, how about a tiny tree house with fudging fairy lights. BOOM! Drop. The. Mic.
Day 74
Task: Draw the weather.
So the UK has had a bit of a heatwave these last few days... I know I know... sounds like an oxymoron, but it's true. I didn't have too much time today to knock this out but here it is. Turned out good. It pops.
Day 75
Task: Draw something in nature
So I treated myself to a bunch of sunflowers, this week. They've sat cheering up my kitchen for a few days now, that burst of sunset yellow. I knew I wanted to have a go at painting them... so imagine my happiness level when I opened my art book and saw the task of drawing something in nature. I've just Leveled Up at life.
What you'll need
Watercolour paper.
A pencil and waterproof black ink pen, (I use Uni fine line pens, no; 0.2, 0.1, and 0.05)
Watercolours and a paintbrush.
Step 1
Lightly sketch the sunflower shape and leaves. You don't need to go into much detail just a rough little doodle will do. This is a speedy high energy pieice, it works best to not get bogged down in details. Ink it in.
Start with you thinnest pen and lightly sketch the petals and the leaves. Then move up to the next thickness, adding more detail but only focusing on a section of the flower.
Top Tip: These kinds of artworks don't do well with a timided hand. Let your hand fly, create lines where they wouldn't be, use your pen like scythe across the page to sum up, be brave.
Step 2
Start with the lighter yellows, creating a base to build on. Colour outside the lines, flick your brush, blow excess paint into fucky channels. Be creative and wild with your brush.
Let dry.
Step 3
Once everything is drier than Stephen Fry's wit, add the darker layers, still be free, but control your technique to construct shadowy areas, this create interests within the sunflower. I also use a very dark blue in the darkest parts, to make the browns pop.
This a quite an abstract painting, so don't panic if it doesn't look exactly like a sunflower, your painting will be full of life and energy instead.
Note to self; I should have done a pale blue background to hint at the blue in the center... but we live and learn.
That's it folks
... Join me next week when I go all lefty, get funky with horses, and dance with colour.
But if you can't wait, here is where it all began. Week 1.
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