Paint Party Friday: A Badger and a Robin

This week there are some animals for Paint Party Friday.

First is a drawing of an European badger (Meles meles). I useed my set of Derwent graphite pencils for this. Still learning on how to put them to good use and which one to use for which purpose. Learning.

The second piece is as set of three little gift tags, I also shared with Tag Tuesday. Love to do those ittle pieces. Did you already check out the beautiful little pieces of art the participants share every two weeks?

Sharing this post with Paint Party Friday! Come over and have a look at all the beautiful pieces of art!

Paint Party Friday: Handlettering and Calligraphy

Note to self: handlettering needs practice! *LOL*

Hello and welcome to Paint Party Friday. I got myself a nice set of ink pens and brushes lately and tried my hand on handlettering with them. I laughed so hard about the "wonkyness" of my first attempt (and yes, I added lines to help me keep the letters straight). But I guess there's still time to practice until Christmas. *LOL*

I saw this idea somewhere online and loved it, so I chose an alphabet and added some color (it says "adventure").

Spring is coming with all its might around here and there are flowers are coming out everywhere and insects buzzing around. 

I also made a greeting card with one of my favorite succulents, the sempervivum.

I have a little collection of them in my garden. Easy to care for and the flowers are so beautiful. The bumblebees love them.

And I love bumblebees!

Sharing with PPF! Will practice some more for sure. :) Also make sure to have a look at all the other pieces of art shared by the participants.

Paint Party Friday: Huginn and Muninn

In my area you can see a lot of ravens and crows and the population grew over the last decade, so they really became a plague in some spots. But nevertheless I love those clever birds with their shiny black feathers(as long they leave the smaller birds and their nests alone). So it was time for me to extend my collection of animal drawings and draw a raven, a Common Raven (Corvus corax) to be precise. I used my Faber CAstell PITT ink pens and a black colored pencil, as I had no carbon pencil or drawing charcoal on hand. So here's the original drawing.

I usually copy and scan my original to make sure I have a copy, if the original gets lost. I took a print and added a passage from the Grímnismál, a song in the Poetic Edda, where Odin speaks of his ravens Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory).

I'm als a big fan of the art of Sue Coleman and am fascinated by her combination of real life animals with the art and the totems of Northwestern Native American tribes. I always wanted to try something similar, so I took my raven and added a mirror image of it with some old Norse designs and scrolls. Still a lot of work, until I'm really pleased with my work, but it is a beginning. I think I'd love to make something like that with a wolf I drew in 2017.

I hope you enjoyed my drawing and I'm sharing this with PPF. Have a look at all the wonderful pieces of art shown by the other participants.

Paint Party Friday: Mandalas

Over the last months, since I'm sharing my artwork again with Paint Paint Friday, I 've seen so many beautiful mandalas of the other participants. I love mandalas, but really, really dislike their construction. For some it's part of the fun, but not for me. ;)

And then I cam across this very useful tool, where you can create your own mandala adult coloring pages. I created the outlins of the mandala above and then added my own zentangle patterns. Not much time this week, so I didn't fill all the empty spaces. Might not be suitable or work for everyone, but for me it does and I can have art fun without thinking too much about how to construct a mandala. 

Sharing with PPF! 

Paint Party Friday: Spring Gift Tags and a finished yarn painting

Hello and welcome!

This week I felt the urgent need for spring and since we had a huge spring storm coming through, there wasn't much spring outside. So I decided to draw myself a bit of spring with these cute gift tags. Lots of small critters and typical spring flowers I can find in my area and also in my small garden. 

I used a black ink pen for the outlines and some details and then simple colored pencils to add some color to them (I always carry a metal box full of pencils in my backpack ;) ). They will come in handy for Easter gift giving or for upcoming birthdays.

Last Friday I shared with you my Van Gogh Tunic, crocheted with yarn inspired by the Van Gogh painting "Starry Night". Meanwhile the beauty is finished and I'm so in love with it. I'll wear it at my parents' birthday party in May. For further information on the yarn, hook size etc. you can visit my Ravelry project page.

Linking to Paint Party Friday! Celebrating its 8th birthday today. Congratulations!

Frühlingsanhänger 2/Spring Tags 2

Nachdem ich gestern in einer meiner FB-Gartengruppen mehr Ideen bekommen habe, ist hier der zweite Durchgang.

I drew more tags, after I got some great ideas in one of my FB garden groups.

Frühlingsanhänger/Spring Tags

Heute hatte ich ein ganz plötzliches Verlangen nach Frühling und nach einem kleinen, schnell zu zeichnenden Motiv. Hier sind also meine Frühlingsanhänger. Ich denke, ich werde sie noch colorieren. Und vielleicht falle mir noch zwei weitere Motive für die leeren Anhänger ein.

Today I felt the urgent need for spring and something small and quick-to-draw. So here are my spring gift tags. I think of coloring them. And maybe I can think of two more motifs for the empty tags.

Paint Party Friday: Very Vincent!

No, today, there are no paints, pencils and crayons involved in my piece of art. Today I share with you a "painting" in yarn and hope it qualifies for PPF. :)

We all know Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, as this painting is one of his most famous ones, besides the sunflowers. And I love it! That's all. ;)

So of course I had to buy these gorgeous yarn cakes named "Van Gogh", when I saw them in the online shop of an independent seller called Zaubermausis Wollstübchen. She winds every single one of her yarn cakes by hand, carefully knots the color changes and gives them beautiful names. I bought them in late summer 2018, but what to do with them?

Then I came across the beautiful crochet garments designed by Christiane Brakhage, which can only be found in the FB Group "Coole Handarbeiten für starke Persönlichkeiten". Most of them are only in German, but some were also translated to English. And so my Layla Tunic slowly takes shape in Van Gogh's Starry Night colors. In LOVE!

Sharing with Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Sewing and all the handy tools

In 2014 I was trying to start and make my own clothes. Back then I wasn't very successful to sew myself a blouse. It just didn't fit my curvy figure and I didn't have the knowledge to adjust the pattern. Some years later, after a sewing class, searching the internet, reading books about pattern adjustment and sewing several test pieces from cheap fabric, I'm about to sew my first blouse. That's exciting and a bit nerve-wrecking, as I don't want to ruin a good piece of fabric. Gladly my Mom has a dress form, which comes in handy for sewing clothes. So here we go with an old fashioned version of a dress form.

Linking to PPF and Wandering Camera. Check out all the lovely pieces of art of the other participants.

Paint Party Friday: Lioness

Today I'll share with you my variations on a drawing I did back in 2011 during the 52 weeks of Drawing Lab 2011. I had lots of fun back then with learning to draw, trying out different techniques etc. (BTW, Miss Jeannie, I miss you!) So here's the lioness I drew back then. Isn't she majestic? Like Mama Africa.

Then a quote from the song "Read all about it" by Emeli Sandé came to my mind.

The drawing, yes, I like it, but the lettering..........nope! So back to practice some handlettering.

Much better, isn't it? Love the fake calligraphy effect on the writing. Also pulled out my crayons to give it some color. But now I'm missing my fixative spray. Got lost somwhere in my workshop.

Here's another version of the lioness with my pencil ink brush/pocket brush, which I found while searching for art materials. Also added a bit of color to this, but it doesn't show really well in the photo. 

Joining Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Deer Jawbone

I'm not a girl who's into skulls and bones, but every now and then I get bones, skulls, or teeth from befriended hunters to add to my leatherwork. This deer jawbone caught my eye and I had to do a quick pencil drawing.

All the lovely comments I received on my wild boar last week made me incredibly happy and hopefully I can continue with doing at leat one drawing a week.

Joining Paint Party Friday.

Paint Party Friday: Wild Boar

I didn't do much drawing this year, only about two or three pieces I needed for my leatherwork or for cards. I felt the urge to draw a wild boar this week. Although we have lots of them here with all the positive and negative effects, I love them. So here's my friendly wild boar.

I also added a little art display to my office with all my favorite animal drawings I did from 2011 to 2018. I'm joining Paint Party Friday today. Have a look at all the other participants and see some wonderful art.

Paint Party Friday: Transformation of an Owl

Last week I had fun with zentangling and while I was looking for patterns online I found some very cool zentangle animal drawings. So I took my owl drawing from August and......

...zentangled it. If that is a word. *LOL* Not 100% happy with it, but it was fun and a good start.

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

Paint Party Friday: Vögel/Birds

So happy that I'm back with Eva and Kristin for Paint Part Friday and with the wonderful artists there. Here are some birds I drew in August: an owl and a kestrel.

 

 I always enjoyed drawing and some of the pieces, especailly animals, find their way into my leatherwork.

Paint Party Friday: Painting on leather

I have many hobbies and I'm always happy, when I can combine two or more of them in one project. These are leather patches I made by customer requests. They show favorite animals, totem animals, pets or just fun things like the frog. Enjoy! Happy PPF! :)

Sharing with Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Drache/Dragon

Um ein Logo an meinem Rucksack zu verdecken, arbeite ich an einem rechteckigen Lederpatch. Dieser Drache soll in blau mit schwarzem Hintergrund gestaltet werden.

To cover up a logo on my backpack I'm working on a rectangular leather patch. This dragon will be painted in shades of blue against a black background.

Linking up to Paint Party Friday! :)

Paint Party Friday: Zendala

I found a great source for starting Zentangles online and thought I'd share this with PPF, so those of you interested can have a look, too. You can download the PDF on the Artist's Network homepage. I took one of the Zendala tiles and drew one.

 

 

The grey lines where in the tile before and the black lines are my own ink pen lines. So now grab your own Zendala tile and draw! :)

 

Sharing this with the crew over at Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Hawaiian Flowers

Today I was inspired by a wonderful piece of crochet designed by Sarah London called Hawaiian Flowers. Aren't they great? So colorful!

 

(photo by Sarah London)

I plan on crochet some of them, maybe for a table runner or as decoration. If you like the pattern, too, you can download it via Ravelry or directly via Sarah's blog.

And here's my piece, sharpies on cardboard. Enjoy!

 

Sharing with the wonderful artists over at PPF.

Paint Party Friday: Colored Zentangles

Vor einem Monat habe ich zwei Zentangles gepostet und Nancy, die mich dazu ,,angestiftet" hat, meinte, die wären super zum Ausdrucken und Colorieren geeignet oder würden toll auf Grußkarten aussehen. Und los ging's:

 

A month ago I posted two zentangles and Nancy, the lady who inspired me, wrote that my zentangles would look great with a splash of color or on greeting cards. So here we go:

 

Mit ein bisschen Farbe und Eddingstiften: Der kleine, rote Akzent rechts unten war schon vorher da. Den haben alle meine Zentangles.

 

A little bit of color with waterproof pens: The little red accent in the bottom right corner was there before. All my zentangles have that.

 

 

Und komplett coloriert.

 

And completely colored.

 

 

Die Rückseite sieht auch interessant aus.

 

The backside looks interesting.

 

 

Was meint ihr? Müssen Zentangles immer schwarz-weiß sein oder darf auch mal Farbe ins Spiel gebracht werden?

 

So what do you think? Do zentangles have to be black and white or is a splash of color allowed?

 

 

Sharing with PPF.

Paint Party Friday: Floral Snowflake?

 

In my little library I found this beautiful book about winter (yes, although it is still summer here) named "When the World Becomes Quiet". The cover is decorated with lots of what I think must be snowflakes, but many of them have floral designs in them, so maybe they are more like mandalals. Whatever they are I was inspired by them. And here's my version, done with an ink pen and colored pencils.

 

I enjoy the use of squared paper lately, as it makes drawing easier and the piece more geometric/even/symmetric. That way I can judge better if a piece looks good or bad or if it just looks bad, because I messed up.

 

Sharing with PPF.