Makings and Musings Community

Sorry I didn’t join in sooner, I haven’t been feeling very well and I always tend to mess things up when I'm under the weather. But this was a fun way to ease back into things. I loved the inspiration photos

Started Froggie week early lol. Today I felt like a blue frog instead of green frog. And it is so hot hear that even though my page is 19cm x 19cm one part of the frog dried before O could paint the whole frog I got blooms but I did not want blooms this time, so I tried to “fix” them. Not sure if it worked because now my frog is splotchy, but I’m okay with that. But I am happiest with the spirals of the snail shell on his head lol

In my first two portraits I was so excited to get started that I skipped some of the 'how to start this drawing'. For drawings 3 and 4 I watched in full and it was really helpful! I feel like my proportions are much better and it was much easier to visualise the face using the triangles etc because it stopped me being distracted by what I expected to be there.

I have loved this course. I've learnt a technique I would never have been brave enough to try that also just makes portrait drawing so much more fun!

Thanks again, Irene, for this enjoyable session. Struggled a bit with perspective, but very much appreciated your reassurance about the freedom we can all employ whilst sketching and use of water colours.

Thankyou Irene, this was a lovely session. It was really fun to just be free with the lines and the paint. No 'mistakes' just extra wobbly lines ☺️

I made a tactical error. I saw Irene creating the peacock pattern with Neocolor 2 pastels within 1.5 hours on A4 paper.I thought I could do it in 3hours. Six hours later (spread out over 2 days) this is what I’ve got in Neocolor 2 pastels on A5 lol. But I will say it was very meditative. I will evaluate it again when I come back from my trip to see about adding spots of surprising color and filling in the white spaces with a creamier pastel

Hi Irene thank you sharing such a lovely hour with us from sunny

Albania. It was lovely to chat and ask 'art' questions in a in

relaxed setting. Whilst we were chatting I just doodled away at

this sunflower not really concentrating too much and enjoyed it

very much. Thank you

I had some Woody’s but I never really used them, so this was a good chance to bring them out. The rough finish on my watercolor paper combined with the chunkiness of the Woodys created an interesting texture. I am very happy with my big L panel, esp the distant mountains and the trees a on each edge of the square. The panel on the bottom, the close up of the mountains got darker than I wanted as I struggled to keep the mountains from looking flat.

This was fun though I struggled with my white gel pen and the whiskers.

I think I made the skin too dark. The skin was darker than the shoes in the photo, but…I do like the pink colored pencil over the ink on the slippers.

I am going to Lisbon for first time this weekend, so I wanted to do this tutorial. I am letting it “rest” for now. I kind of like the blobby texture of my forest as contrast to my wonky architecture. Maybe when I come back I might add colored pencil to the forest.

I spent a lot of time on the drawing. I kept reminding myself that this is just practice but….I dint seem to listen to that part of my brain lol.

When i first finished the trees I didn’t like it so I walked away for a day without adding leaves. Then I liked it so I added some leaves using my sponge. And I’m satisfied with it. I really need to practice with the old credit card on a practice piece of paper lol.

Trouble with the hand lol

I love making scenes like this, I did the Abstract Landscpes course last year and really enjoyed it. It gives me a chance to play with all my toys at once!

Another very enjoyable painting session, thankyou Irene. I enjoyed learning about tube watercolours, and the use of a piece of card as an applicator, the effects looked very good on Irene's painting. Something new to try another time 👍😊

I usually find painting trees quite hard and avoid it but I perservered today and quite like the end result! 😊

Thanks Irene!

I enjoyed this and got lost in the moment. The proportions are not

quite right but I was not confident to change it

I really loved doing this. The preliminary sketch was a great idea because it made me feel confident when I started the real drawing.

Another really enjoyable class, thankyou Irene. It's good trying to keep up with you, forcing me not to worry too much and work more free.

I really enjoyed this evening's class.

My first line and wash class. Really, enjoyed the process and felt like I learnt a lot! Thanks Irene 🙂

Another enjoyable session, thankyou Irene.

My new watercolour paper absorbs water very quickly, I don't think its for me 🫣, so Ive ordered a watercolour sketchbook from Amazon especially for our Thursday sessions 😊

I really enjoyed doing this and I felt my brush control and feel for how much paint to pick up on the brush are much better since the tutorial you made for us, Irene

My first session with you, and I really enjoyed it. First time I've actually had fun and relaxation with watercolours. Thankyou!

I really enjoyed this class last night it really cleared my mind after

quite a crazy day. I was wondering about doing a bright border

around each panel but not sure

I love our mixed media sessions, it means I get to play with all my toys! And I always learn something new new about how they interact with each other, or which are best to layer over others.

I painted a few schools of fish on my way to fishie mastery. I am now ready to add it to my background. I am having a lot of fun with this process! Thanks, Irene!

It was very relaxing to paint the little fishes.

Another very relaxing and meditative session, yet the feeling of movement in the finished picture shows that those poor fishes are very much NOT relaxed. Thank you Irene for such a lovely lesson.

I used oil pastels throughout for this. It was very relaxing, just what I needed!

The rare Rainbow Pangolin! I really enjoyed doing this, I love the look of line and wash, there,s something very "finished" about it. I added some metallic gold watercolour to some of the scales

This is my second charcoal drawing and I really enjoyed the process.

Hope you enjoy the picture

Very relaxing

I haven’t used gouache much and I think my brush control needs more work. But I’m very happy with the blues and greens in the sea

I found the class for this drawing of great tits in the library of coloured pencil classes. Lovely and relaxing to draw.

What a lovely expression Irene used to describe this fun session.

Having not previously used oil pastels for a whole picture - I enjoyed this