Dino dinner

Cousin R's birthday gave me an excuse to finally buy some porcelain pens. As you can guess the little guy, he turned 3, loves dinosaurs. What he doesn't like are greens. He says no to all green food. I hope these plates will trick him into trying. On the question 'who eats the vegetables on the plate first, dino or R?' he answered R. So there's hope. My inspiration came from these funny plates.

Zanglijster

Day two of the drawing challenge: draw your fave animal. Do you have a specific favourite animal? As a child I did. Every month another one. But now, I do not think in terms of preferential animals. The song thrush popped in my head first, when exploring my favourite animals. Why? I don't know exactly. Might be it's the lean shape, the speckled plumage, it's friendly glance or beautiful singing. But drawing birds is so difficult! I googled for a picture of a thrush and tried so copy the shape.

Just start

I had a copy of this drawing challenge in my planner for some time. But the first assignment, a self-portrait, was a difficult one. Today I took the hurdle. Me drinking a lovely chai tea from one of my new mugs. A sweet birthday present from my parents in law. From the Iitala Sarjaton series (we also have these amazing glasses). Personal drawing challenges are a great way to practice your skills with pen and pencil. On Pinterest you'll find many lists. Choose one and enjoy being an (beginning) artist some minutes a day.

Vincents of the future

For those of you living close enough and having kids in the age group of 9 to 12 year olds, I 'd like to draw attention to the masterclasses in Vincents Tekenlokaal in Tilburg. It is so nice that kids get lessons from serious artists. This time, last sunday, Sophie Heijkoop taught them how to draw faces. The second hour the children use the learned techniques on a digital screen. Next year these masterclasses will take place twice a month, so there will be more room available to take part. Our youngest is already looking forward to next year when she will be 9 too.

New look

As you can see I've been working on a new header for my blog. There are always unexpected problems in that process. Like backgrounds turning grey instead of white after uploading. I solved that problem, but there are some more to tackle before the new look is complete. Patience.

Modigliani

Since my recent renewed interest in illustration I treated myself on a new box of aquarel paint to add some colour to my drawings. Better colours than those from the children's water paint set. On the right a little trial project, again from my favourite inspiration book Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim. The book makes it easy to practice different styles, while trying to find your own handwriting.

Addictive

Can't stop drawing these days. So here are more decorated easter eggs. Some went back to the family that gave us the goose eggs. Others are hanging in a hazel branch over our dinner table. I used golden wraps of small chocolate eggs to add golden details on the egg with the chickens. The kids also started drawing eggs this way. I'll show you when they've finished their pieces of art.

Black & white

I had very little (read 'no') time, but was very eager to decorate these easter eggs. I got the beautiful large goose eggs from Neeltjes friend. I blew the eggs out, which was not easy. And for the drawings I only used black permanent markers. It started with the idea of an easter bunny and the decoration grew by adding more and more details. I was surprised by the result.