Makings and Musings Community

https://makingsandmusings.thrivecart.com/l/membership-creative-community-recordings-group-live-events-etc/

There are 91 classes in the new library at the moment and I will add the rest over the next weeks. Please do have a look around and let me know what you think!

This group is staying exactly the same, the library will just be an new addition:

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let you know about a small change that will be happening next week, and I want to explain it clearly so there are no surprises.

First of all, please know that your membership stays exactly as it is.

This community group will remain the same. You will still be able to share your art, ask questions, connect with one another and with me. I will still upload the recordings the day after our live sessions, just as I always have. Nothing is being taken away.

What is changing is that I have created a new library where you will be able to watch past class recordings much more easily.

Over the years, I have built up almost 300 class recordings. Many of them are already inside this group, but they can be quite difficult to find. I wanted to create a better, simpler way for you…

I really enjoyed the colours in this but the items are not very realistic!

I would like to try this process again soon.

Hello everyone, a quick update about the Zoom link for our Thursday classes.

I have now created a brand new recurring Zoom meeting with a new link. The links I shared previously will no longer work, so please make sure you use the new link from now on. This new one will be the link for all Thursday sessions going forward, until further notice.

This is the new link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83455631687

It turns out the issue was caused by a technical problem with the old recurring meeting. The links looked exactly the same, but behind the scenes Zoom had created a different version, which meant it did not work properly for some people. I have done a bit of digging and I now understand what went wrong, so this should be properly fixed.

Thank you so much to those of you who flagged the issue, that was really helpful.

I’ve just shared a new video underneath where I explore alcohol inks.

This is not a material we’ll be using in our community classes, so there is no need to rush out and buy anything.

I simply wanted to show you what alcohol inks are, how they behave, and what they can do. It’s very much an inspiration and curiosity video rather than a tutorial to follow along with.

If you already have some alcohol inks at home, you might enjoy giving them a little play after watching. And if you ever come across them in a shop, you’ll now have a sense of what they’re used for.

It’s all about exploring and learning together, without pressure. I hope you enjoy having a little look at this playful material with me.

Hi everyone, I hope you had a lovely Christmas period. Some of us spent these days with family, some with friends and others alone. Whatever your situation is and if you celebrate or not, I hope you have had a lovely few days with joy and creativity!

I’m almost back home with lots of creative plans for you to join in with soon!

Hi everyone, I love seeing your creations while I’m away both here and the wintery paintings in the courses group!

I naturally took some art materials with me on holiday, a few pens, pencils and a small set of watercolours.

Hi everyone,

I have just added all current members to my new course, Wintery Watercolours. You should have received an email a moment ago with the steps to sign in.

You now have full access to the course. When you click the link in your email, you can sign in with your email address and create a new password. Once you have done that, you will be able to reach the course any time.

A new painting will open each day for seven days. You will keep access to the whole course for as long as you like.

If you have any trouble logging in, please tell me. I am here to help today. You do need to set a new password, so please look out for that step.

Here is the login link once more (to use after you set a password by clicking the email you received) :…

Hi Everyone, Next week is the last zoom class of 2025. What would you like to do?

Hello lovely creatives,

I wanted to let you know a little bit in advance that the Makings and Musings Creative Community will be taking a short winter break this year. I’m going to take a proper rest — me and my husband are heading off on our honeymoon, and I’m planning to leave all things work-related behind for a few weeks. We are going to Egypt and I am so excited about it!

That means there will be no live sessions from 7th December until early January. My last live session before the break will be on Wednesday 4th December, and I’ll be back for our first session of the new year on Wednesday 8th January (unless I decide to add one on New Year’s Day, but probably not!).

During this break, there are two options for your membership:

• ✳️ Pause your membership — payments will be paused, and you won’t have access to…

I love being part of this group and learning together. I think it's so inspiring to share our processes and Art and love seeing everyone's Art. I hope I'm not being too keen to share mine. I am getting carried away with excitement 😄

For September I looked at another art material to show you. This time it’s Conté Sticks.

They are a bit of a mix between charcoal and pastel sticks but harder (and therefore more precise).

Watch here:

I’m curious to hear if you know these and if you ever tried them.

Xxx irene

Thank you for the gifts Irene. Lovely. Made my day 🙂 look forward to getting creative

Hi everyone,

Staedtler is hosting an art competition this month (until the 15th October) and they have asked me to help promote it. Because of that I have some lovely art materials from Staedtler to give away in this months giveaway. There are loads of great prizes in the competition, the first prize is a trip to their headquarters in Germany and loads of art materials too.

I’ll tell you more about it on Thursday 😊

The theme is ‘Inspired by Nature’

https://www.staedtler.com/uk/en/discover/design-journey-international-creative-challenge-2025/?utm_campaign=DJ-Creative-Challenge-Social&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=instagram

A warm welcome to the new members who joined the community this week!

Please have a look around and use the topic buttons to find recordings to watch.

We are drawing together on zoom on MONDAY this week (instead of Thursday) and we are using colour pencils.

I’m visiting the birthplace of John Constable this weekend, enjoying the English countryside and going for some long walks.

See you tomorrow, and if you cannot make it live the recording will be available shortly after.

In this workshop I share one of my favourite mediums with you – watercolour pencils. They are such a joy because they combine the precision of a coloured pencil with the softness and flow of watercolour paint.

Watch Here:

I begin by showing you different ways to use them: sketching dry, adding water afterwards, and even dipping the pencil straight into water for stronger marks. I explain why these pencils are wonderful for travel sketching and why I prefer starting with colour instead of graphite.

Together we explore a peaceful countryside landscape. I guide you through placing the horizon, hills and a lake, and we add a little sheep in the foreground using very simple shapes. You will see how I block in colours, layer greens and blues to create depth, and keep the sheep light so we can return with details later.

I show you how adding water brings…

Hi everyone, I hope you all are having a lovely week! Alan and I had the most amazing wedding this weekend! It was calm but also full of joy and love with lots of food, music and dancing 🥰 I’m more than happy to share a few more pictures in a few days but for the time being we are going away together on a walking holiday through the English country side.

I am sure youbwill all really enjoy Bel’s class next week (I’m a little sad I cannot join in myself 😊) and I’ll see you all the week after!

Xxx Irene

In this class, I will guide you in drawing your own personal map. Together, we explore how to turn your experiences, memories, and dreams into a beautiful and imaginative artwork. You will learn simple drawing techniques that help you shape islands, forests, mountains, and other landmarks—each one representing something meaningful in your life.

Watch Here:

You can follow along with me, or you can make the map truly your own by adding symbols and stories that matter to you.

I created five themes to help get you started:

• A meaningful journey

It arrived a week ago. What a pleasant surprise to discover an international package in my mailbox. There are two items I invite you to notice: One is the blue sun print. My daughter and I made them oftrn on camping trips. The other is a teeny tiny, light violet item I challenge you to find. Great fun, gave me a chuckle. Looking forward to breaking in the small sketchbook on one of my walks.

Thank You, Irene. This is a special tradition you are building.

PS. the photo's sides are cut short in this post. I couldn't find a way to change it.

Hello Creative Community!

I wanted to let you know that I’ve created a new group just for anyone who has ever joined one of my Makings and Musings courses.

This new group is the perfect place to share pictures of your artwork, ask questions, share your progress, and connect with other course participants.

If you’ve taken a course with me before or are currently in one, I’d love to see you there!

Here’s the link to join: https://www.makingsandmusings.com/group/courses/discussion

Hope to see you soon!

Grab a material to draw blobs with, and something for details.

I used a marker for the large shapes and a pencil for the lines.

and don't forget to share your drawings in the homework group- I love o see your creations!

Homework group

#artclass #class #drawing #colourpencil #crayon #shoes #illustration #draw #mixedmedia

Sketch notes, or visual note taking is a fun way of recording your thoughts.

In this class I will introduce you to the basics. How to organise your page, the basic shapes to use for any drawing and we are sketchnoting a route we regularly walk or run.

Burnishing is a colour pencil drawing technique that creates soft blends and smooth textures. In this session I show you how I use it to create this drawing of a balloon puppy.

Watch yesterdays live session back now and sketch along!

This is the pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/makingsandmusings/pins/

In our first live session this March I will paint in gouache on a Pantone postcard.

This is part of an art challenge that I decided to participate in where you paint 100 of these postcards. The inspiration comes from the colour of the card.

As the cards are a little to smooth to paint directly in I will do some prep prior to the live session. to prep the surface I will prime it with Gesso. Once the gesso is dry the card is ready for the gouache.

During the live session you can join in using gouache and Pantone cards, you can paint along on 'normal' paper or use any other art material of your choice.

Hi my creatives,

I have created another step by step tutorial for you.

I love snow drops as they have a special meaning for me. The first ones are just starting to pop up in my garden and I really wanted to include them in a drawing this week.

I did not add any text to the tutorial this week as I think it speaks for itself.

Start with light lines and slowly add more details.

Good morning everyone, I created another colour pencil drawing tutorial for you!

I also created a template sheet that you can use to draw the sketch with. You can download it underneath.

The reference photo I used is this one:

Drawing on black paper is a lot of fun and it brings it's own new challenges. Instead of adding darker colours to white paper we work the other way around and we add the highlights to the dark paper.

Inktober is probably the largest art challenge going around on the internet at the moment.

Last year I participated and I wrote a blog post about it: https://www.makingsandmusings.com/post/inktober-2021

You can watch my finished pieces here: https://youtu.be/ifOwO1yvtFQ

Inktober is a lot of fun and I will likely join again in 2022. Let me know if you will be participating with me!

#artchallenge

Slowvember is all about slowing down. Instead of making an art piece every day, in this challange you spend an entire month on one large piece.

In a time where production is so prominent, I really like the idea of this slowing down.

The challange is created by Jake Parker who also created Inktober.

When posting your work, you should tag it #slowvember – and don’t just post the finished piece, but show your process and progress as you go along.

#artchallenge