Fox

Here is my fox, done in gouache. He is opposite a page which I did, after driving around the local area, the day after the riots. The stripey patterns in the background are the shutters on all of the shops. The face is a rubber stamp I made a while ago.

Coloured Circles

Colour mixing circular fun. Each of my gouache colours, on its own, then mixed with white, on two different coloured page backgrounds. At the bottom some doodly patterny flowers.

Chalk Face

A Pastel chalk face. I did the outline of the face in a dark colour first. It is from an image I saw on Abundance, which is filled with beautiful, thought provoking pictures and quotes. Today it has music too! If you click on the picture you can see details of the source written on the other page.
Tonight I came home and drew a small cactus in the book, and then a weird looking face with big round eyes (I have just received some doll making eyes which are as big as mine and was thinking about that). I drew with no tv or radio on, just the sound of the rain. I should do that more often. I am one to have background noise, but on the few occasions I don't it is lovely! Perhaps like meditation-I don't know as I have not meditated, but I thought it might be.
An aside-'chalk face' is a term for teaching-as in working at the chalk face. Not anymore with the advent of smartboards. In my classroom I have a non-working smartboard and no blackboard but hey-ho!
I have now reached the end of my photos of the book, though the book itself is nearly finished. I will take some more soon to show you.

Teabags

Teabag experimentation page. Painted with watercolours, inked background, stuck down with Matt medium. I have been saving teabags for ages now but have not used many. I like the absorbent nature of the paper as the colour just spreads out really quickly. I also like the transparency of them which means they are good to layer. I like these things, but have not explored them very far!

To Do

A to-do art project list-only two of which are done! The snail got done the day after and I have made a felt owl for the doll but everything else is still waiting! Then, for want of an idea, I carefully coloured in a chequered pattern on the graph paper page. I really enjoy colouring in at times. I find it very therapeutic-like doodling. Next week I go back to work after the summer holidays, and the first day-of usually quite tedious meetings, is a prime doodling day! I try to resist but am usually so bored I can't help it.

The snail photo added the next day. He was fun, and quick to make, which is not always the case with needle felting. He has a real shell, and little bead eyes on wires.

Stuff

This mouse is representative of my inability to throw much away. He is from my brother's house-remnants of the last occupant-an elderly lady. My brother is quite able to de-clutter, and laughs at me for my over filled house and collecting habits. So when I was allowed to look through what was left in his house after he moved in, I found it hard to not take things away, to be appreciated later. Only recently did I turf the bag of stuff out of the cupboard, to find out what was left. This little mouse is broken and badly repaired, so he either has to go in the bin, or, because he has a nodding head, to join with my nodding head china poodle-part of a small collection of poodles, keep his head down, and pretend he is one too. So that is what he has done.

I am a hopeless case.

More roofing work.

They are still there five weeks later and I am wondering if they will get it finished by the start of term.
Ideas for motorway signs after my trip up to Yorkshire and back in a day.
Motorway driving would be so much easier without the arrogant and badly behaved
(insert expletive of your choice)s out there. I want to make the big sign for my rear window as an ironic statement to those expletives who do this but I fear it would be inflammatory. On holiday in Scotland I liked their motorway signs-they were positive but thought provoking statements, none of which I can remember sadly!

I love the big basic direction signs in capitals for THE NORTH etc. My fox and a view of some moors I crossed somewhere on my way back.