I’m excited to share my latest little illustration called “Blackberry Picking Mouse”. It’s done mostly in watercolors with only a tiny touch of gouache and it measures 6″ x 6″. It’s not for any book in particular, I just enjoy making up little scenes using mice, bunnies etc., especially when they are in nature.
“Blackberry Mouse” watercolor, ink and a touch of gouache.
I’ve created a video on my youtube channel where I talk a bit about it and then show a slide show of the stages of painting beginning to end. It’s really great to watch and see what parts appear next and see how I’ve changed some things. When you watch it, keep an eye on the butterfly!
I have a few little (square) mouse paintings I’m working on, they make such a nice collection! I’m planning to make a note card collection with them if I can save up enough to buy a printer.
Follow this link to watch the video on my channel, and please leave me a comment there of what you think about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qef86aFeI It would be doubly great if you subscribe and share my links, that would really help me get started on the channel!
I’m finding it fun to shoot videos when I’m out in the garden, where I’ve been spending most of my time. Capturing from the beginning, our living here in Scotland in a very old stone cottage. I’m hoping to do more sharing there of my going out field sketching or maybe to show stages of painting like the “Blackberry Picking Mouse” illustration.
It really fires me up when my readers leave me comments so please do leave them here or definitely on the Video! Cheers and enjoy!
PS. I have a private video I’ll be sharing here on the website soon, of a walk Gary and I took, it’s just music playing, no talking. I really like it but we’ve decided for this one to keep it just for the folks who find it here on my website!
Sketching from my new little book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T. S. Eliot, illustrated by Edward Gorey.
I used to watch a show on Public Television that was called Mystery Theatre and the introduction to the show used animated illustrations by Edward Gorey. I’ll never forget his style and I really liked that intro, I found a clip of it on YouTube, click here to go to it. And there’s a second one with a few different scenes, click here to see those. It really brings back memories! So when I saw this book for sale on Abebooks I just had to get it, not just for the illustrations but I was curious to read the poems by T. S. Eliot.
I did a whole page of cats based on the illustrations in the book.
I had fun sketching the cats from this book because they’re whimsical and all done in ink. The difficult thing is I did the sketches in the car while Gary was driving, do you know how curvy (and bumpy) the roads are here?! It was hard to draw! So it was when I got home that I went over the pencil drawings with permanent ink pen.
What a great expression! Cat #1 after Gorey.
Above is the first cat I did after Gorey. Though the cats were pretty simple I did learn some things by studying Gorey’s illustrations. I really like the way the pattern on his back looks and the close ink lines to shade him. The eyes I did on the cats are a little bit different, you can’t help adding your own take on things.
Cat #2, pretty simple, love those eyes and whiskers!
Cat #2 was a simple black one, I liked the whiskers and eyes and how he looked on that curved ball. In the book he was actually on top of a pillar with a ball shape on it, it’s right on the cover. I changed it to simplify and draw all the cat, I also gave him eyes that I wanted!
Rah Rah, shish boom bah!
Cat # 3 looks like he’s at a sports event, clutching a hamburger! This one was loosely based from another cat on the cover holding a flag, I made him lighter and changed his face a bit.
Cat #4 is wearing spats, what a dapper fellow!
This is Cat #4, “Bustopher Jones”, the cat about town. He was cool, I liked that he had spats on his feet! But I had to laugh, when I looked back in the book just now to get his name, I realized I forgot his tail in my drawing! haha
Cat #5, I love his mid air jump and expression.
Cat #5, what a face! I love his spots and the expression on his face. Gorey sure liked to give his cats long whiskers too!
Cat #6, another jumping cat!
Cat # 6 is another jumping cat, or maybe he’s flying? I like how the spots were made with small ink strokes.
Bustopher Jones returns.
Cat # 7 our friend “Bustopher Jones” has returned. I really liked this one and the poem wasn’t bad either. I didn’t love all the poems in the book, but I still haven’t read the whole thing either.
Cat # 8 is a sleepy old cat called “Old Deuteronomy”.
Cat #8 is “Old Deuteronomy”, I liked his sleepy expression and fading stripes, also the way Gorey simplified him with no back legs and great position of the front legs.
Now we’re onto ‘my’ cats, inspired by Gorey.
Then another day I did some sketches inspired by Gorey’s drawings but I tried to change them up a bit with poses, expressions, markings and shorter whiskers! See my individual cats below.
Cat #1, our for a stroll with a walking stick.
For cat #1 I used that fur pattern I liked here and had fun with the expression on his face. Is he saying hello to a friend or is something coming and he’s putting his paw up to say stop?
Cat # 2 sitting easy on a satin pillow.
Cat #2, there’s a lot I like about this one. I like his eyes, the shape alone gives him a kind sort of look, and wide eyed. Then there’s those graphic spots and before I knew it I drew a pillow and a mouse for him! But he doesn’t look like he’ll eat the mouse.
Cat #3 is a pretty cat with longer fur.
Cat 3# ended up a white cat, with a bit more furry looking coat. I added a ball of yarn to give it something to play with.
Cat #4 is fun, either dancing or maybe ice skating?
And Cat #4 was fun to draw, making up that pose. It looks like he’s ice skating or maybe dancing? A few light spots here and there and some cheek puffs for good measure.
Cat #5 is like the other laying down cat by Gorey.
Cat #5 is like the other laying down cat by Gorey but I changed the position of the feet and added back legs. I like his little surprised expression.
Cat #6 is a typical old style black cat.
Cat #6 is a typical old style black cat like you’d see in Halloween illustrations. Usually when the back is arched the cat is shown as scary, but mine is just stretching, I can almost feel him pushing his shoulders up into that ‘cat’ stretch and stretching his claws out as they do. I was very careful to leave a white line for the mouth when I drew the black ink on his face, and his eyes have that friendly shape too.
Cat #7 is plump and wearing a tie!
Cat #7, I like this one! He’s plump and has huge eyes. I also tried to not fill him in totally with ink so there was a bit of texture on him. A little shadow helps to show off his white toes too.
That’s it for all the cats! Please tell me what you think of the sketches and what you thought of how I made up my own. I really had fun doing these, they were pretty easy for me so it was relaxing if anything. Hope you enjoyed them!
You can also find me on Instagram as “mary_mcandrew_artist” and my facebook art page is “Mary McAndrew Painting and Illustration”, I post random things I’m working on and sometimes views outside.
Honey Bunny left a message for her friends at Long Lane.
Honey Bunny made her decision, she’s moved away from Long Lane to England. But her little friends and she have promised to write to each other. She wants to know what happens back home and they want to hear about her adventures!
The little flowers of her garden are sad.
Her leaving has made the little flowers of her garden very sad. Honey Bunny always cared for the little living things at Long Lane and they all will miss her.
Her little mice neighbors were sorry to see her leave.
Her mice neighbors had lived near her at Long Lane for such a long time, they were very sorry to see her leave.
Even the little insects were sad.
When friends leave it can be very sad and lonely feeling but it can also mean something new and exciting is happening.
Life keeps expanding if you let it grow.
Well life has been expanding for me, as I am now sitting at my laptop in a cottage, in Northumberland England. Expansion doesn’t happen all at once, I guess if it did it would hurt! What I mean is I think it’s going to take me some time to settle in and feel like this is home. Before when I came, it was for long visits and it was all new and exciting. I’m not saying it isn’t new and exciting now, just that it does feel different. We don’t have that countdown of ‘days until I leave’ now and that’s such a relief!
But I do keep referring to the place I left, back in Clarence Center, New York, as home! I’ll give myself some slack with that; I still refer to the place I grew up, Endicott NY, as HOME. “Going home to Endicott”…I referred to it like this all the years my boys were growing up, so much that even they used to say…”when can we go home to Endicott and see Grandma and Grandpa?”
Walking down the lane in a small village.
But as they say “home is where the heart is”, and my heart is here with Gary, my soon to be husband. We share a love of nature and walking the hills, listening to good children’s stories and old tales and just being silly and laughing a lot. When I have a new idea for a story or character, and share it with him, it usually expands effortlessly, as he just ‘gets it’.
Gary and I on a walk by a burn or creek.
So as I explore my new gorgeous surroundings, I promise to share lots of photos here. The drawing, painting and felting are a bit on the back burner because we’re still working on arranging things to make room for my soon to arrive shipment. “Groan”….I have a lot of boxes and plastic bins coming!! (Remember all those boxes I kept packing?) But I DO miss my ‘stuff’ and can’t wait for it to arrive!
Well here’s a selection of photos from some of the walks I’ve taken. I’ve done a few little sketches but will share them later.
Edlingham Castle and viaduct, right next to an 11th c church.
The viaduct was built in the Victorian age and was part of a railway line; I’d like to do some sketches of it someday. The views are spread out here, that is you can see really far especially if you get up a hill, and I’ve noticed people just walk to things they can see.
“My Northumberland!” from on top of the Crags looking down on the village.
Like above, we walked up to the top of the Crags and you have an excellent view for miles and miles!
This is the upper or back lane to the village.
This is the upper or back lane to the village and it’s one of my favorite (favourite 😉 ) places to walk…do you blame me?
Another view on the upper lane, coming back.
This is usually how the upper lane looks as I come back, with the sun low in the winter sky.
There are sheep everywhere!
Most of the fields and hills have sheep on them. I can guess at three breeds- Norfolk, Scottish Black Face and Texel. They’re all nice but the Scottish Black Faced ones are especially bonnie!
A tiny beautiful bird, the Blue Tit.
There are all new birds here for me to learn too. I’m frustrated when I hear them sing or twitter and I have no idea ‘who’ it is! I’m getting good at identifying them on sight though.
A male Blackbird, in the thrush family and closely related to the American Robin.
This beautiful bird is a male Blackbird…the same that were baked in a pie and that the Beatles sang about ‘singing in the dead of night’. They are thrushes just like ‘our’ American Robin; so things it does reminds me of it, and yes they’re known for their song!
Walking down by the burn, wearing my gators!
It’s spring. It’s muddy. When I go out walking and I put on my leg gators first, I’m always glad I did. The gators wrap around your lower leg and ankle and zip up. They stay put because of a strap that goes under your boot and a hook at your laces. I bought them years ago when I came here and just love them!
A walk along the burn in January.
Can you see how beautiful this is? I love the tangle of roots, the moss covered trees and the branches that scraggle in all directions. I just hope I can start to capture it all when I start painting.
The livestock fence across the burn.
Farmers use old pallets strung together across the burns or streams, to keep livestock in the proper pasture. I really like the way this one looks, like it’s blended in with it’s natural surroundings.
Well I’ll leave you here, time to go get busy. I’ll post more pictures as I go and hopefully some sketches. Please leave comments below as I love to hear from you all!
Good news, I was granted my Fiance Visa! Yay! I can finally move forward and go to be with Gary and start my new life in England. I hope to settle in and get sketching the British landscapes and nature again and focus on my children’s books.
There’s someone else who’s making big changes in her life…(please click to see nice clear image).
Honey Bunny thinks about her future.
I’ll try to post updates as I can but have so much to do! Almost all my art supplies have been packed away forever and my little furry friends that give me inspiration are packed away too. Moving can’t come soon enough for me.
“Should I stay here at Long Lane or should I go? Mr. McCuddles is waiting for me.” thought Honey Bunny to herself.
“Should I stay here at Long Lane or should I go? Mr. McCuddles is waiting for me.” thought Honey Bunny to herself. I think we all know what she’s going to do! (Mr. McCuddles is an English Teddy that she met years ago).
Do you remember when I took that walk in November, hunting for acorn caps? Well I wrote about a little White Aster I came across, alone in the field. Here is what I wrote in that post:
“And one little Aster in the middle of the ‘Maze’, an overgrown field with paths I cut years ago. The white Aster looked up at me with it’s tiny little face, and asked if winter was coming soon? I told it to prepare and go to sleep before the snow falls. It was sad but missed it’s friends, as they had all gone, so it nodded it’s head and drooped a little in it’s tiny stem.”
“Sad Aster go to sleep, before the snow falls cold and deep.”
At the time I saw it, I just saw a white Aster and thought about it alone there, but I didn’t give it feelings and talk to it. That was my creative mind putting my feelings onto a tiny flower and as soon as I wrote that paragraph a new character was born! Yes, as soon as I wrote that post I wrote a poem called “Sad Aster” and then I did some sketches.
“Your friends are gone, the field is empty, Where once they stood in numbers plenty.”
I’m quite pleased with the little poem and now will work on illustrating it, creating more of a character.
“..before the snow falls cold and deep.”
I just thought it’d be interesting to share with you how one walk in nature, when combined with my emotions and thoughts, will sometimes evolve (in my mind) into something other people can relate to.
“Little Aster cold and white, Go to sleep this cold, dark night.”
I wish I could share the whole poem but I guess I should wait until it can be published properly.
Worried little Aster
While I’m warm in my house, I hope she’s sleeping soundly out there under the foot of snow we got this weekend! 😉 Well for now I have to put “Sad Aster” aside while I catch up on some mice illustrations I started, it never ends….so much to do! I’ve also created some small needle felted animals in wool with wire armatures so they are pose-able, and continue to do small experiments with wet felting. One of these days I’ll open an Etsy shop so I can sell them, but for now I must concentrate on my illustrations!
PS. Don’t worry, it’s a happy ending for Sad Aster! 😉
My New Sketchbook! (please click pictures for clearer view)
I had fun decorating the cover of my new sketchbook!
Sometimes you just need a new sketchbook. A fresh start along a new path. Something that allows you to jot down all your creative ideas, no matter how small. I’ve put so much of my art career on hold this past year because of preparing to move to England. Lately (as you may know) I’ve been exploring the art of felt making and silk painting and that ties in here too! I wanted a sketchbook that I could draw ideas in and tape things in like a scrap book. So I created this big sketchbook that is meant to stay in the studio, not venture outside for hikes.
I surrounded myself with color pencils and just had fun!
A sketchbook to an artist is like a living thing; we tell it our inner thoughts and ideas, inspirations, by drawing, writing and painting in it. It becomes the very closest, best friend you’ve ever had! Sometimes we share what’s on the pages freely, enjoying the reaction and feedback from those we share it with. But it’s also nice to have a sketchbook that is just for you, that you decide how much of it you’ll share. Most of my sketchbooks the past few years, have been very public; nature sketches done while walking here in New York or in England. I LOVE sharing them! When I was in England it was enjoyable to let interested strangers look through my pages, finding out what they liked best, hearing their comments about places I painted that they recognized. But my new sketchbook I’m ‘allowing’ myself to share only what I want, PHEW! It’s funny the feeling of freedom you get just making that decision as a teacher and one who loves sharing their work.
The first page in my sketchbook, totally geared towards felting and silk painting.
This is the first page in my sketchbook; you can see it’s all geared towards felting and silk painting. Instead of worrying about this new love distracting me from my illustration and painting, I embraced it because I saw it as good practice while my mind is occupied with other things. I taped some watercolor studies in later used the space around for more notes and ideas.
Working on the letter “S”.
I drew the letters free-form on the cover (which by the way is a piece of colored mat board), later realizing that I should have made them fatter. So I added onto them and it still worked alright. I had fun making the letters look like shiny ribbons.
Ok, what I love about my new sketchbook is the size! I used full sheets of 9 x 12″ papers from various sketchpads. I put bristol board, watercolor papers, card stock and plain drawing paper for an assortment and labeled each in tiny letters along the edge. This way I can continue to test and evaluate what paper I like best. I’m used to working in sketchbooks half this size for drawing and painting in the field.
My sketch in progress, for a new poem, “Red Dragonflies”.
The very best thing I’ve found use for on these big pages, is that I can jot down a new poem and then right next to it do sketches of my ideas for illustrating it! I was in the garden in September and enjoyed watching two red dragonflies, landing on the leaves, sunning, glittering. When I went in the house I started writing a poem about them and did four stanzas. The next day I added two more and then at the end of the month I tied it up with two more! But the best thing is I sketched an idea of an illustration right next to it, while looking at photos I took of the dragonflies. As I have time I’m adding a bit of watercolor and working on the little sketch.
I also put notes around sketches for ideas of what to put in the painting, like colors and subjects, as below.
An idea I had for a funny illustration, while walking around my backyard.
One day while walking around my yard I noticed the little paths that go into the tall grasses along the edges of my yard. I always look at these and imagine the critters who walk on them and think they’re great subjects for my stories. Well there’s a stray black cat that hangs around my yard sometimes and after seeing the paths and thinking of the cat, I drew this funny little sketch! The cat is waiting in the shadows…but he doesn’t look mean, is he going to eat them? Or is he a friend? The one mouse beckons to the other, “C’mon”….as you wonder what will happen. The little wren at the top looks on.
So there is the evolution of my new sketchbook! Lots going into it and I’ll try to post more soon! Please leave comments below, I love reading them and responding!
Happy to say I’ve finally finished it! My little mouse family playing in the leaves, the mother being surprised by a spider (she doesn’t much like spiders!) I’m happy with how the colors came out and really enjoyed painting these fall leaves. If you saw my past post showing the beginning stage of this painting, I mentioned I might darken the leaf in her hand (paw!) and I did. I added some glazes of Alizarin Crimson and some other colors, for a purpley cast. You can also notice I made the spider more defined and added more reds to the right leaf. Have a look at the other post to compare the differences. What do you think of the purpley color instead of the brown? (it blended in with the mice too much I thought.)
As usual I’ve created some really nice things in my shop using this illustration, it makes a lovely card for any occasion, I’ve already ordered a few for myself! Click the picture links below to have a look! Please leave me comments or questions below, I love getting them.
Glossy Note Cards (customizable)
Glossy “Happy Birthday” Cards (change text if you want) picture inside too!
Glossy Note Card- Close Up of Baby Mouse
Glossy Stickers (I LOVE the stickers, they’re shiny and colorful) You can add text on it if you want.
Prints in many sizes!
Ok…off to work on “Liam and Quinn” and some more mice!!
I thought I’d show you the progress on my illustration of the ‘mouse family’ and some other little studies.
(click on them for larger view)
Work in progress, adding watercolor to the ink drawing.
It looks so different than it did as just a pen and ink drawing! They are starting to come to life more with the added color and fur. I’ve been so busy with other things that this illustration is going slowly. What I did here I did in one evening while watching a movie, if I could just sit down one more time it’ll be finished. So she says!
I’ve run out of opportunities to paint from ‘real’ colored leaves as they’ve all gone to the dark side in my yard, they’re all brown and blackish. But I did take lots of reference photos and that will serve me well as usual. I have a decision to make about the leaf in the mommy’s hand, it blends in with her and the baby maybe a little too much? I may add a purpley maroon, something with alizarin crimson? I’ll be adding just a touch more color to the leaves but I don’t want them to overwhelm the mice either. I do like the touch of blue in the background, it helps to show the mushroom better.
Before I forget I’ll show you a little study I did after Beatrix Potter’s mushrooms.
Watercolor study after Beatrix Potter
It’s from a painting with more mushrooms but this little one and the grasses were all I needed to study the colors she used. This was great for me to do before diving into the color of my painting, especially because I wasn’t working outside from real life. I just love and adore her paintings!
A small watercolor study of Moneywort done in springtime.
This is a small study I did in the spring of Moneywort. It likes to grow in wet areas so my land is filled with the stuff! Wonderful in late spring as it covers itself with little yellow flowers; my ditches along the lane seem to be filled with gold! I don’t know if the name refers to the yellow flowers (like gold) or the round leaves looking like coins? I found out something interesting, it’s a native to Europe and was introduced to America for use as ground cover and as an indoor hanging plant. Ha! I never would have thought to use it inside! Well anyways, I remember sitting in a lawn chair on a cold spring day, in a flooded area of my yard when I did this. I watched the little Nursery Web Spiders scampering over the water and over the plants. How great it is to study from life! That’s why I love Nature Sketching so much.
Study of a small wildflower (weed) that grows in my grass.
And this is another favorite ‘weed’ I like that grows around anything not moving! haha…It seems to grow at the edge of everything but I don’t mind, it has tiny pretty flowers and neat rounded leaves that remind me of a tiny geranium. I haven’t yet looked it up, guess I should. Oh by the way, the bees love it! Don’t go killing everything that grows in your grass, as long as it’s green it looks fine! Look closer at some of those weeds, they can be pretty and the bees need them.
I just thought I’d show these because I feel it’s important to always study from real life. Even if it’s a tiny study done quickly, it will help you to look closer at what’s really there, and you will remember it. Especially when it comes to color, the photos you take will not be as accurate as what your eye sees at the time, in that lighting.
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress and other studies. I’ve been playing around with adding some new colors to my watercolor field palette, so we’ll see how that goes. Leave me comments if you like, I always love hearing what you think!
Click the picture above to see another cute mouse painting I did! If you hover over it (in my shop) you can see an enlarged image. Go to this link to see some other new children’s illustrations in my shop!
Though I’m working on illustrating a story with Teddy Bears at the moment, I just can’t leave behind my love of nature. I haven’t had much time for my usual nature studies but what I have been doing is testing out different papers to use for illustration. Arches, Fabriano, Canson…cold press, hot press, dual sided even!, they are all getting tried. I was surprised to find the ones I thought I’d love I hated and the cold press was feeling pretty nice. Cold press paper is rougher and can show nice textures when working with watercolors, but not as nice if you’re doing fine detail.
"The Mouse Family" in Windsor Newton Nut Brown Ink on Arches 140lb watercolor cold press paper.
(please click the pictures to see larger)
So I combined my experimenting with papers with wanting to draw some mice, my subject in many, many little children’s poems I’ve written. I want to keep a realism but cross the line into children’s illustration…make them a bit cute and giving them humanesque qualities.
Just showing the start of my drawing; I did it without a pencil sketch first!
I started by drawing freehand in permanent ink (no pencil sketch) this mouse on Arches 140 lb cold press paper. I used Windsor Newton Nut Brown, a really nice brown ink. (Forgive the yellow picture quality, I snapped this with my camera at night-time so I could record the stages of drawing.)
Windsor Newton Nut Brown Pernanent Ink
Then I went outside and grabbed up a bunch of leaves to add around it, and drew some of them.
my pile of leaves I first brought in to sketch from
What started all this was a cute sketch in ink of the mouse (mother) but she had to have some leaves to be tucked into. I brought in a good variety from the yard, they looked more colorful than this in the beginning. They all curled and dried but that’s ok, I like keeping some dried leaves around in a small box, for sketching.
Here it is on the easel, you can see my dip nib pen and brown ink there.
This is my set up, a small table easel that has a little drawer you can slide out. I like to put my watercolors there and anything else I might be using to draw. You can see my bottle of ink and my small ‘dip nib pen’ laying there. I have my paper on a piece of plexiglas. This is great to use when you are tracing a sketch onto ‘good’ paper, just go over your sketch with dark ink, put good paper on top, stick a lamp behind and sketch lightly with pencil. I didn’t do that with this drawing, as I said, I just started in and the drawing grew.
Here’s a picture of my “dip nib pen”.
Small "dip nib pen" with a little study after Beatrix Potter's Dormouse in the background.
You can see my two favorite pens here, when I want to use loose dip ink that is. I just love the detail I can get with this little nib! There’s something nice about using loose ink. I decided I liked when it ran out of ink regularly, it gave me a pause to check my drawing and think before making marks!
Just a little more drawn in...
As I drew the mouse I started to think maybe it could become a story, so I felt I needed to leave the area in front of it open to possibilities. *Very important when working with permanent ink to take your time and plan a bit!
A little close up of the mother mouse and baby.
I was going to put a grasshopper in because they are everywhere in the grass right now, but I decided on a baby mouse. At this point I started sketching with pencil…the rest of the leaves, mushrooms and babies, because now it had become an actual illustration to NOT mess up! haha. You can see I changed the mouses face, added an open mouth, eyes a bit bigger with lashes, just a touch! I’m looking for my ‘mousy style’.
And a close up of the other little baby mouse!
And you know with mice…where there’s one there’s many!…so I added this baby on the right. It’s good for the composition because it leads your eye around the page. Keep this in mind too when arranging your leaves, all the curves, waves and curls can really be exciting to draw and look at as they lead your eye around the composition.
Below are a few photos of what inspired me to keep adding to my drawing.
baby nursery web spider
I’m fascinated by the Nursery Web Spiders in my yard. In spring I see them living half under water and half above, then all summer they have their webs in the tall grasses on the lanes. Now as I walk through my yard in fall I see tiny baby spiders darting across the leaves everywhere! I couldn’t wait to sneak them into an illustration!
I liked the twist of this leaf so I used it in my drawing
Well these leaves aren’t colorful but I love the curve of the big one, and the other small one fit in nice. You can see them on the right side of my drawing. I used this photo on my computer screen when I drew these leaves.
dead fall leaves in the grass
This is another one I added on the right side by the baby mouse. I tried not to go too heavy adding the shadows, since the leaves were all photographed at different angles in the sun. I also looked at this on my tiny computer screen while drawing, late into the night!
little golden mushrooms in the grass
One day when I was walking through the yard I spotted an area of mushrooms, each were about 2″ across at least. They blended in so well I almost didn’t notice them at first, but looking for “things in the grass” for my drawing they were a nice find. It wasn’t until the next day I went out to photograph them and they were all gone! I searched and searched and finally started noticing these tiny mushrooms around under blades of grass. NO, my lawn is NOT neatly mowed, I’m lucky when my son comes and gives it a cut, so I get all kinds of things growing and hiding in the long grass!
more tiny little golden mushrooms
I love looking at mushrooms, though I admit I don’t know too many species names. If anyone can tell me what these are I’d be grateful (Western NY-wet area)
This is the small Ink Cap mushroom I used after the first one disappeared
This one was the best find! It’s a Shaggy Ink Cap mushroom and I’ve never seen one here before, I’ve only ever seen them when I was in Ireland and England. One day I spotted a big one growing in the yard, I wasn’t able to get out to photograph it until the next day. To my great disappointment it had all but disappeared! I never saw one ‘roll up’ as fast as that! For those who have never seen this, the mushroom will start to roll up from the bottom, disappearing until just the top is left, surrounded by a black inky goo. It’s really quiet interesting and yuchy at the same time!
But lucky me, walking my laps around the yard the next day I spotted this small one growing not far from the other spot. So I grabbed my camera right away and got some good shots. I couldn’t wait to use it in my drawing and already knew it would be perfect as a backdrop.
"The Mouse Family" Ink on Arches watercolor paper.
So there you have it, all the parts together! Now that I’ve scanned it, I can play around with watercolors on it and we’ll see how that goes! Please visit my shop to see the Note Cards and Gifts I made using this and other photos in this post. I’ll add a few picture links you can click to visit it, please please share my shop links with friends once you get there! 🙂
Glossy Note Card with plain white background
Glossy Note Card with changeable text and brown background
Customizable Mug
Shaggy Ink Cap Glossy Note Cards
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As I warned you before, I’m not just working on nature sketches, beautiful landscapes and interesting portraits, but lately have been concentrating on my children’s stories and poems. I’ve been writing them for years but never have settled down to concentrate on illustrating them, until NOW!
I have many, many characters to create that are in my head, but need to come to paper with pen and paint. They’ll get born eventually, I have to start somewhere and it’s with my two newest pals.
I’d like to introduce you to my little friends, Liam and Quinn. They are actual teddy bears that I named after my two newest nephew’s, don’t they have the greatest names? They (the teddy bears!) were made years ago from my own pattern design when we were sewing bears to donate to Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. I say ‘we’ because I had a charity sewing club where high school students earned community credit by sewing the bears (from donated fabrics) and the younger kids would make the felt vests and decorate them with paint and glitter. It was fabulous fun and the kids all learned about creating for other children, just wonderful! Maybe I should write a book about that and put patterns in it? Ok, ok…one thing at a time!
Liam color sketch, three quarter view
This is Liam, the younger of the two bears, his face is shaped a little different and his eyes, nose and mouth are different from his brother.
Liam sketch front view
He is a little smaller than his brother Quinn, but that’s not surprising.
Liam color head study, what a cutie!
Here’s a study of Liam’s friendly face and what cute ears! The most obvious difference is Liam is yellow orange and Quinn is blue.
Quinn sketch front view
This is Quinn! I love drawing him because he’s a bit more rounded, has a bigger nose and big smile! I still need to paint him so you can see his wonderful blue color and purple vest.
Quinn thinking sketch
Here Quinn is thinking about something his little brother said, I really like this pose.
Quinn pointing up sketch
This is from the part of the poem where he points up to the top of the toy pile.
Quinn climbing the toy pile sketch
And here I’m trying to animate my little friend using my imagination to show how it would look if he climbed up the toy pile.
And now I’ll leave you with the first two stanzas as I go to work on painting Quinn and work on my storyboard!
“Liam and Quinn”
This is Liam
and this is Quinn,
and where do you suppose
my story shall begin?
I’ll start at the top
and work my way through
and end at the bottom,
as all stories do.
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