Author: Ruth

Columbine Close Up

~ Ruth ~ Leave a comment

Pale pink columbine close up for today’s Flower of the Day 🙂

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Landscapes of my Mind

~ Ruth ~ 4 Comments

I’m still really enjoying experimenting with neurograhic art – it may just be fancy doodling, but I can easily become engrossed in it. For some reason I keep seeing abstract flowers within the shapes created by the lines… perhaps these drawings/ paintings are truly the landscapes of my mind?

Sharpie and watercolour paint on A3 watercolour paper, and a hefty dose of imagination and artistic license! 🙂

PS here is the original line drawing for this one…

Word of the Day: Shape

Birds & Bees

~ Ruth ~ 3 Comments

We like to encourage small birds into our garden, but are not so keen on the larger ones, who need no encouragement. We live close to the sea, so seagulls are regular visitors, as are crows and wood pigeons.

At the other end of the size scale we have dunnocks and sparrows, coal tits and blue tits, all of whom fly in and out to eat seeds from our bird feeder, and at times we’ve even seen an occasional goldfinch. In the winter we have robins, too, wary with their wonderful red breasts.

But the real characters when it comes to the garden birds are the starlings and the blackbirds. The starlings with their speckled backs and their funny little calls seem to travel around in groups like attention-seeking teenagers, jumpy and agitated and strutting their stuff with attitude, as if they own the place.

My favourites are without doubt the blackbirds, they always seem so friendly as they watch us as we’re gardening, getting surprisingly close as they wait patiently for worms and other delicacies disturbed by our endeavours. Sometimes when I’m sitting quiet and still on the bench they’ll hop about happily by my feet, and I love to hear their song, clear and melodic…

Oh, and of course we have bee-friendly plants growing in the garden so there are always bees buzzing around happily, and butterflies too 🙂

Weekly Prompts: Birds & Bees

Penny for my Thoughts (and Feelings)…

~ Ruth ~ 4 Comments

I’ve realised that when it comes to neurographic art I still struggle a bit with drawing my initial lines straight from my subconscious – without meaning to I find I usually have some kind of a conscious idea in my head that probably gets in the way of any real spontaneity.

Apparently it’s a good idea to use a penny on the page, and let the pen tip drive the penny across the paper, drawing a line wherever it goes. I still choose where I start each line but it certainly helps give a bit of quirky randomness to the design that hopefully comes more from my heart not my head.

I decided to record today’s creative venture at each step, just for fun. Pic 1 shows the basic lines in progress across the page, and pic 2 records where I’m at once I’m done with the penny. Then pic 3 shows all the intersections rounded off, and pic 4 shows added circles and semicircles drawn freehand to create more balance and interest to what I already have on the page.

Looking at my drawing, I decided I perhaps saw a few abstract flower shapes within the design, so started colouring them in accordingly – and I chose to use watercolour paints today instead of just markers and gel pens. Pics 5, 6 and 7 show the progress of the flowers – and pic 8 is the finished drawing once the leaves are painted in.

I’m really happy with how it’s turned out, so I’ll certainly try using the penny to draw the initial neurographic lines again, and the watercolour paints were also fun to use 🙂