Back to Life Drawing

It's been two years since my sister and I were planning to go to a life drawing group in town. I first posted about it on the 18th of August 2014 although we didn't go until later in September. It was something creative for me to do when I was waiting for my registration and company for my sister who didn't want to go on her own. I was dubious about it and a little uncomfortable to start with. I have actually missed it since and when Lorraine suggested we go again I didn't hesitate to say yes. As I mentioned in the last post it moved location. I think we both preferred the old location as you could stand and use a ledge but it was still a nice atmosphere and I recognised one or two people from before.

I used mainly pastels the entire time. The pencil drawing was the only one with a different medium which you saw on my What's New Post (therefore I won't show it again).  I prefer the pastels as I like the bold lines that they create. I also mixed it up this time by using different colours. I quite like the black with the navy and grey. I was also restricted to an A4 pad this time. Lorraine bought us both new sketch pads. It's just as well as I don't think there was enough space for us to use anything bigger although a few people seemed to manage it.

This one is my sister's favourite and I have to admit mine too. I used three different shades of green with this one and I quite like the way it turned out.

This one is one of my least favourites. I don't think I got the proportions right and I don't like the mix of colours. I am definitely a blue and green person.

Lorraine has let me show off a couple of hers. Now she has true talent.

I love the delicate lines of her sketches.

She even manages it with the pastels and gives it an ethereal look which I have said about previous drawings.

The main thing is we had fun and we are going back on Monday. I have also talked Lorraine into doing a guest post so that you will be able to see more of her art. This will be in a run up to her FINALLY starting her own blog about her art. Watch this space.

What's New In August

And it's about time! Feel like I have been waiting forever for Bake Off to return. First Sewing Bee was late and now Bake Off. To be fair it held off due to the Olympics. I can't really complain about that. There has been some press releases already showing the new bakers. Next Wednesday I am off and my day is booked! I will be on twitter no doubt while watching and my weekly Bake Off posts will be back. If you are interested you can follow me on twitter @Karencrafts.

Something else that's back is Life Drawing. Or rather I have been back. My sister and I returned on Monday night which is the first time since it moved to Sloans. I quite liked the new venue and I have the next few Mondays free and so I will be back. There is also one going near where I live so look out for more Life Drawing posts.

Like a lot of people out there I am a fan of Liberty of London. I love the fabrics and I have a few. I saw that there was a cross stitch book out and of course I ordered a copy. I have had a flick through it and I was a tiny bit disappointed with it. That was my initial reaction. I need to go back through it and then I'll review it for the blog. I got my copy from Waterstones.

I came across a new blog via facebook. There is a facebook group page which is for beginner sock knitters. It encourages people to knit socks and helps people from the start of the sock right to the end. The creator of the group is Winwick Mum who has her own blog and Sockalong. It doesn't matter that the sockalong started in 2015 you can join in any time. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to take up sock knitting.

Last but not least is an etsy shop I came across thanks to Homemaker magazine. The shop is by Made By Mrs M. It has a small range of London themed fabrics which I love for their bold colours. I haven't ordered any yet bu I am sorely tempted. The owner also has some items made with the fabrics. It gives a good idea of what the fabrics look like if you are only interested in making something with it yourself. Or you can buy a cute little gift for yourself or a friend.

Cake Off and One Last Drawing.

It has been a while and a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Well, not really, just in the last week. Everything I needed to start working has come through and my first shift as a staff nurse is tomorrow (NEED to remember not to answer the phone student nurse). Other than that I have been a lazy bum. Each day I have the days programming all planned out. This is not healthy! Thank goodness I start working tomorrow.

One of the things that happened over the last few weeks is that I made it back to my knitting group. My sister started her creative writing classes which clashes with the life drawing (and I certainly wasn't going myself). On the plus side I got to see some of my crafting friends and caught up with what they were up to before I disappear into the wards.

One of the things we did was celebrate the end of Bake Off by having our own Cake Off event. We baked and raised £80 for the Beatson while we were at it. Not too shabby and the cake was tasty. You can read more about the evening on the knitting group blog.

I planned on making my banana bread which went down well.  I wasn't going to add anything to it this time. I thought plain old banana bread would make a nice change. However, a few packs of chocolate chips fell out the cupboard and I decided to try it with that. I think it could have used a wee bit more of the chips otherwise I was pleasantly surprised.

My attempt at a jaffa cake style Swiss roll didn't quite work as I thought it would. It tasted good but you couldn't tell that there was orange curd in there. It just tasted like the chocolate butter icing was orangey. I maybe spread the chocolate on too thickly.

Do you think Mary Berry would have approved of the swirl? I'm not so sure. To be honest I wasn't thinking when I rolled this and once I did it it was too late. Next time I might attempt a basic Swiss roll and pay attention to the swirl.

Speaking of Bake Off, I loved it this year. I was very happy with the end result. I feel bad for Nancy that there are many people out there who claim she didn't deserve it. In my humble opinion they all deserved it. This years talent far surpassed last years AND they were all nice to each other. Nancy did better on the day and congrats to her.

I have also been working on this. I had so many other plans. Like getting started on my Christmas makes. Attempting to make bread. Have a gut out (I at least started that one). Oh and I had a few blog post ideas too. Instead I have been plonked in front of the tv making these square. But look how pretty they are.

I also made this which sadly doesn't count as preparing for Christmas. It came free with this months Cross Stitcher magazine. It's supposed to be a broach but it is much too large for that so I attached ribbon instead and then handed it over to my mum.

Now though I am off to chill before tomorrow and I may start my sister's birthday socks.

For not though I leave you with my last sketch from the life drawing club. I did this in charcoal and it has become one of my favourites.

More Life Drawing.

Last week I had my second session at the life drawing and once again I enjoyed it. It's quite nice to do something different for a change and discover that you aren't as horrible at it as you thought you would be. Don't get me wrong, I had did some crackers last week. The kind that will never see the light of day but I still enjoyed it. So I am showing you my best ones. My favourite is right at the end. Oh, and if you hold on to past that my sister gave permission to show a couple of hers.

This first one is unfinished. They are all kind of unfinished. The poses only last so long and there is always extra work you would like to add into it. This one though I wasn't even halfway done. On the plus side it means you don't have time to add in the detail. I am crap at the detail.

Oh, and nothing gets your adrenaline going in a life drawing class when you momentarily think you might know the model (I thought I knew the person before they took their robe off just in case you wondered). Thankfully I was wrong. It would have meant I would have had to leave or never look the person in the eye again.

This was my last drawing of the evening and again it's unfinished. Mainly because this was my second attempt. There was a lot more shading that I wanted to get in there.

This last pose was my favourite. It still has errors in it but I am quite proud of it. In the very first drawing I tried out my charcoal pencils (and discovered I prefer plain old charcoal). In the last two I used my sisters oil pastels. I quite enjoyed using them. Mainly because I love to smudge my lines and this makes for excellent smudging. I highly recommend them. They are good fun. Plus you can blend them with other shades. I just used a white to blend but my sister used other colours too.

As I said, I promised that I would show a few of my sisters drawings. You can see the expert here. I drew this pose to but it will be kept only as a reminder of what not to do. My sister on the other hand has actual talent. I think this one was her favourite. I can't remember what she used here. I have a feeling it might have been graphite pencils but I could be completely wrong.

I love this one that she did. Actually I liked all of them. You can probably see that I feel the need to fill the entire page whereas my sister manages to get the entire pose in. She used oil pastels here and you can see she used different colours in there. Hers have an ephemeral quality to them. I mentioned that to here and was rather proud of myself when she said that other people have said that to her in the past. Unlike me she is also good at the detail but time is limited.

Tomorrow will be the last time we can go for a while as my sister starts her creative writing class. Meanwhile she has been scouring the internet to find other untutored life drawing clubs in Glasgow.

Please Don't Laugh!

 When you look at these drawing please keep in mind that I have never ever done life drawing before. I have also not drawn at all since I was 16. Unless you count doodles in the margins of note paper (which I don't). A while ago I promised my sister that I would go to a life drawing club with her. She even gave me some materials to practise with. Which, I didn't get the chance to use. Oops!

When we first got to the bar it was filled with people with folio cases. There was me with my cath kidston bag and absolutely no experience and definitely not one of the arty types. It didn't bother my sister since she did get her degree at Glasgow School of Art. This was her set really and she was used to it. Me, I'm used to swapping poop stories with fellow nurses while we eat lunch.  To say I was anxious and felt a little out of place was putting it mildly. Not even the glass of wine was helping. However, I had promised my sister and decided to see it through.

Eventually we all went through to another room where three areas were set up. We had all of our materials there (well my sister had brought everything we would need). The organisers though had materials there such as paper, charcoal and drawing boards should we need it. We chose our seat and I was still quite anxious. Looking around me and seeing what others were doing.

The model then came forward and we were told it would be quick five minute poses. All anxiety left because I felt like it was a challenge to get the drawing in on the time allotted. My sister was highly amused by this. She said at one point she thought I was going to leave and when she next turned round I was scribbling away. I haven't posted those images as my sketching was too light to photograph well. Thanks to my sister though I got to try different materials. Including charcoal which I quite enjoyed. I think I was 14 the last time I used charcoal.

Halfway through the models changed round and it was longer poses again. This time I tried a wax pencil. I wasn't as big a fan of that because it couldn't be smudged. Thankfully though I had truly relaxed by this point. No one was interested in what others were doing. There was some friendly chatter around and people were trying out different things and at different levels.

For the last post I went back to using graphite pencils but a softer one.  I quite liked working with those. It is better for shading and easier to work round mistakes of which I have plenty. Overall I enjoyed the experience and was pleasantly surprised by that. I am under no illusion that I am an amateur but I am enjoying myself. My sister starts her creative writing classes again next month which clashes with the life drawing club. So for the next couple of weeks we'll be returning. Of course I will also want to get back to my knitting girlies as I haven't seen them in a while and we have a special event planned.

Until then I thought it best to get my own supplies. I still had some birthday money to spend. Looking forward to giving them a bash. If any of you are curious about the bar that has a life drawing club it's the Flying Duck.

This Is Happening!

Between finishing university and getting my registration there will be two months where I will be a little bit free. During that time I have promised my sister that I will go to a life drawing club with her. Not a class but a club. Lets face it, my sister hardly needs tutoring but she does enjoy her life drawing and it gives her the chance to work with other forms of media. A club and not a class also means that I won't have the embarrassment of being told what I already know - that I am rubbish! You know that episode of 'How I Met Your Mother' where Lily has her paintbrushes snapped in two for being so crap. That would be me but without the paint brushes. I suppose I could have my pencils snapped in two.

The other positive side is that this takes place in a pub and so there will be alcohol to numb the pain. As a future healthcare professional I really cannot recommend the use of alcohol to get you through any situation. In this case I think I will need it. Funnily enough it was this fact that my sister used to sell the idea to me. Anyway, my sister has me all prepared. I now have my very own little artist model dude and sketch book. I think that means I have to get some practise in.

In other news my room is slowly being taken over by knitted woodland creatures. Not that I am complaining. My mum has been knitting up these kits which have come free with various magazines. The squirrel even came with it's very own acorn. Don't be worried. There was no favouritism. Sister got her very own camouflage cat.

In my own crafting world my final secret project is going very well. I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I had also started my auction socks. Look how pretty the colours are. Now that you have seen it I am starting again. I feel they should be done in a smaller needle size. The stitch feels a little too loose and it will annoy me if I don't start again.

Lastly, I have yet more yarn bombing for you. It's from the same project as the last one. I just didn't notice until the weekend there that the posts at the train station were wearing hats. I also just noticed that some of the yarn bombing contained little tags with information on the project. It's by a group called Scattercraft and they have their very own blog. Worth having a look.

Oh, and my final piece of news for you. I was successful in my first interview and will be employed (at least part time) in the next two months.