Last week of class ... this year

Well today was the last of my painting classes, but, I have signed up for the follow on classes next year! Hurrah!
Last week we started a picture of Houghton Mill...
today we carried on with it ..





I've still got a fair bit to do ....

Happy Days!

Shopping Evening

Last night I took my cards (there's lots of them!) to a friend's shopping evening ...



Had a really lovely time, sold a few cards, one plaque, a couple of gift boxes, got an order for a plaque and an invite to have my cards at the Christmas light switch on, tomorrow, at the end of the road which, this season, is collecting for Help The Hero's.!
HURRAH!

Happy Days!

Washes

Having a go at doing washes .. this one done ..

Happy Days!

Week 8

Hmmmh! Wet in wet painting .. TOTALLY out of my control!!!! Not sure if I like it .. I think I'll play more, but, for homework I need to add some foreground stuff ...

There ....Finished!

Lookie what I found!

This was fun .. I found photos of my o level art that my teacher took and gave to me ... We didn't have a camera then .... Still I got my o level!

Happy Days!

Busy bee ....

There a busy few days and I've notched up a few gift plaques and boxes! Hurrah!

Happy Days!

Week 7 .. gosh only three more to go!

Well today's class was about colour mixing and was really interesting for me .. never did things like that on my 'o' level studies ... and all I did was add black to make colours darker and white to make them lighter .. mind you it might work like that with some mediums, but not watercolour ..anyway on the way home from class, and, thinking about what we learnt last week about the colours in the distance etc I might tackle this pic again

I did it a few years ago and was struggling with making things look distant and working the trees ... so maybe I'll make a better job of it this time!!

Happy Days!

Thursday was colouring in day...

Week 6

Well this week's painting class had me wetting myself ... I was so out of my comfort zone it hurt!!!!! I had to use a size 10 brush!!! I might as well have been painting the walls the brush seemed so big! I'm used to 001, 01, 1 and at a push 2 or 3 ... Anyway we did an imaginary landscape, mountains in the background, a lake mid distance and some heathery scrub foreground. We did washes .. now that's hard and I think from looking at my pics that they were indeed too washy!

Still, I'm there to learn .... since I've been home I've added to it ...

but I think more details than David, the tutor, would expect, but I can't help it!!

Happy Days!

Busy bee ...

I've been busy today ... putting up some of my cards for sale

http://www.misi.co.uk/handmade/designbyniki.html


and doing a bit of painting ..

Yay! Homework done ...

Finished .. I'm happy with this tree ...

Happy Days!

Week 4

Now this week at class was something different ... we did a tree ... and talked about the three distances needed in a pic .... Hopefully I'll finish this off for homework ...

Happy Days!

Homework done!

Happy Days!

Grandparents

Had a couple of designs to choose from for this commission ...
A lady wanted to give a card to her friend who had become a grandparent ..

Week 3

This week we were talking about the 6 rules of drawing and then had a go at one point perspective ... The 6 rules were interesting, but I still need to get my little brain around the 'using your pencil to measure' and the 'use of construction lines' rules!!!!
Still, my attempt at the one point perspective, was, as David said good! Hurrah! My difficulty was deciding where to start!!! Tee hee!



Happy Days!

Thanks for the flower ...

My parents came for the weekend and bought us this beautiful flower .....


I loved painting it and I am very pleased with the result!

Happy Days!

Week 2 ...

This week we talked about perspective and the use of shading ... another interesting class I must say.



Well the homework's done too ... that was a tad hard trying to do the objects on the different plains...



Happy Days!

Painting and drawing course

I started my drawing and watercolour course this week ...
We drew this table then discussed where all 13 of us had gone wrong ...



Homework was to try and do more perspective drawing ...


Done it!

Today's the day ....

.... that I start trying to love myself again!

I have fantastic children, a lovely house, friends, a caring husband and a family yet I'm unhappy ....

In June someone hurt me and sent me plummeting down into my pit of self loathing and hate again, I'd been there before, but slowly over the years, I'd been clawing my way back out and I got to the point where I thought "You know what! You're not too bad!"
Well here I am again at the bottom, not wanting to go out, not looking people in the eye (cos I'm so disgusting to look at) just wanting to sleep and let it all go away! That person doesn't understand and gets cross that I don't want to do things but it's they who put me there! That one thing, seems so insignificant to them, but it's so big to a person who was walking the tightrope over the pit!

Anyway suffice to say while wallowing (yep! easy enough for people to say oh she just needs to sort herself out and stop wallowing in her self pity, but it is hard!) in my pit of self loathing and self hate I've gained weight so I've also started in the circle of DEPRESSED so I'll EAT so I GAIN WEIGHT so I get DEPRESSED so I EAT ..... you get the drift!
All this has resulted in another kind of pain ~ physical ..... my feet hurt, my hips really hurt, my back hurts, I get dizzy and more headaches! Since June I've put on OVER a stone and my body doesn't like it!!! I don't like it! I don't like the way I feel, look or the fact that I don't do things with the children! I DON'T LIKE ME .. again!

Today I saw a video blog about liking your true self and I thought about that and realised that I don't even know who my true self is ... I think I've spent all my life wanting to be accepted and loved and never quiet making it and in the process losing myself in the ... 'maybe ifs'
Maybe if:
*I'd been a boy my Dad would have loved me more and given to me and my sister all the support, opportunities and great things he gave his son.
*I'd have been thinner my first husband wouldn't have gone off with his secretary who was younger, thinner and didn't have two youngsters under two screaming at home.
*I'd have been more confident I'd have had the promotions at work that I watched others getting.
*I was cooler my Son would want to do things with us rather than his Dad.
*I was thinner with nice legs and nice boobies this June thing wouldn't have happened.
*I was more confident I could get a job.
and so it goes on ..... but at the end of the day I still don't know who I am ...
I know
I'm a daughter (rubbish at that as far as my parents go, should have been a boy, should be like my sister!)
A sister (ok as far as one goes but not the other)
A wife (rubbish as far as one goes, don't know what number two really thinks, maybe there's always better round the corner ... So he'll keep a look out!)
A Mother ( could be cooler like Dad!)
An Aunt (OK ~ I think)
A friend (Ok)
But who am I ???

Hopefully I'll start to find out, and in the process love myself, my body ... me!


I know I can write this on here as nobody reads this! But I can look back on it!

Enjoying painting ...

Wedding card

Well hello .... Been away for a while .. lost in summer! I picked up a couple of commissions recently .. done the urgent one ...

The 'bookmark' pictures fit in the pouch on the front of the card ... I'm pleased with the results!

The 'A' frame one that I did I kept simple and elegant, I took the photo of the wording and rings, that became more complicated than expected as even though it was on bright white paper in bright sunshine it kept printing out blue!!! Don't know what's going on there!!!

Happy Days!

Nails ...

Been having fun with my Little Pink one's nails today ....
What fun!

Happy Days!

Oh Dear!

I've been very naughty and have neglected my blog ... it's not totally all my fault ... the computer I had was so old and so very slow ... even typing a simple letter became a real chore in the end .. then it finally died!!! I'm still coming to terms with this new laptop ... bear with!!!!!