Colour me happy

I have finally found a silver lining to the yearly 'kids back to school stationery buying drag'

These little beauties just leaped out at me while I dragged myself and two kids through the parent packed isles of Officeworks.  I swear, they did jump out, they did leap up and down and they definitely screamed "you need me"

Happy happy days when I get to sit down and draw with colour, and here are some of the doodles I came up with.  Some of these are for sale on my facebook page.

I was having so much fun creating these images that I also added white pigment in, acrylic paint and colour pencils - fun fun fun!!

Eye Candy

just some eye candy for your viewing pleasure.......all colour pencil on paper.

Free Dream Angel Download

I recently had so much fun drawing the faces of my Flower Girls, that I wanted to try some more, slightly different little girls.  

I am thinking of doing a series of them and shared some WIP pics on the Sugarbird Facebook page of the first one.  A lovely lady suggested it would make a nice embroidery pattern.  So, being the caring, sharing individual that I am (stop laughing) I thought I would share it with you for free!!!!! 

All you have to do is click on the image below and you will be taken to Mediafire.  

You can then download the image and print it out on A4 paper for yourself. 

Feel free to use it for stitchery, colour it in, paint it, zentangle it, it's up to you.

**All I ask is that you use it for personal use only.  Please do not on-sell my image**

And please, please, please let me see what you do with it!!!!

Making a Mandala Part 1

One of my favourite designs is the mandala.  There are so many pattern possibilities with it.

Once I start working on one I can loose hours of time being so absorbed with it.

Part 1

**Part 2 Click here**
**Part 3 Click here**

Tools of the Trade
  After lots of trial and error these are the tools and materials I like to use.  They are good quality without being ridiculously expensive.  And they can mostly be bought from office supply and craft shops. 

Metal ruler - Always has a straight crisp edge.  My wood and plastic ones always end of with dints and nicks in the edges.

Staedtler Eraser -  I always have at least 3 of these handy.  They very rarely smudge when rubbing out pencil marks and they don't tear or rough up the surface of the paper.

Pacer pencil - with a 2B lead - Easy to erase and does not need sharpening.

Pigma Micron Pen -  Black 02 pen.  Archival, waterproof and fade proof.  I use these on all of my drawings.  They are accurate, rarely bleed into good quality paper and don't smudge.

Staedtler Compass - One of my fave tools.  I have had it for more years than I care to count.  Very accurate and easy to use.

Circle Templates - The orange one is Fiskars and came from a scrapbooking shop.  The Clear one is a Celco maths one and came from Officeworks. These are brilliant because freehand circles can be a bit tricky.

Quill Paper - 200gsm XL Multiboard Paper - Crisp white colour, good thickness, does not pill when eraser is used on it.  Holds colour pencil colour well.

The other three very important items I need when creating mandalas are........

Indie the cat  - she is great company and she can always manage to walk off with the pencil I need! 

Coffee - A good hot cup of coffee (sadly I haven't found a bottomless cup yet)

Patience - I don't really start out with a design in mind.  It just sort of evolves as I put pencil to paper.  A bit of patience and time is a great starting point for anything creative.

***********************

Be sure to check back in a couple of days for the next instalment of Making a Mandala

And if you have any questions or comments so far, I would love to hear them. 

Pretty in Pink (Skull)

I just couldn't help myself....I really enjoyed drawing the first sugar skull, so I had to do another one.......enjoy!

Sugar(bird) Skull

skulls? no, I don't draw skulls, why would I?

Oh, with patterns and flowers and swirls....well of course I can give it a try!!

Citrus Doodle Bird

Oh I do so like doodling birds...........

 

 

Free Flowers for you

See the flowers below?   Do you like them?  They are for you!!

As my way of saying THANK YOU so much for all of your support and lovely comments both on this blog and on the sugarbird facebook page.

As some of you may know,  I am really really really technologically challenged, and had no idea how to make some of my prints FREELY available.  So I finally bit the bullets and asked my 14 year old for his help. 

 All you have to do is click on the image and you will be taken to Mediafire.  You can then download the image and print it out on A4 paper for yourself!! 

The original drawing was done using colour pencils, fineline markers and white pigment ink.

If you have any problems downloading the image etc please let me know.  As I said, this is my first attempt and I would really like to share more free prints with you, as time goes on.

Flower Waves

Call me weird, but I LOVE drawing little circles, colouring them in and then filling them with little doodle designs.  Here is how one all came together for the lovely Claire.

It is created with Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and fine line markers on A4 acid free paper. 

Floral Heart

A floral heart commission and how it all came together.  This was one with fine line markers and colour pencils.  Blue and yellow are not my normal colours, but I think they came together rather nicely.  I hope you like it.

Black & White

Oh I do like a crisp white piece of paper and an assortment of black fine line markers.  Here are some of the designs I have been playing with recently.......

Colour Cardstock

I am working with colour cardstock at the moment.....and loving it !