London Scrapbook (part 1)...

Hi everyone. Sorry again for not posting in a while. I thought I'd share with you a fun little project I'm working on. Last October I went on my very first trip to London -this might surprise you, but I am from the very North of England and it's about an 8 hour drive. Anyway, I had a fab time, did lots of touristy things, went to see a show and generally took lots of pictures.

Strangely enough, it wasn't until May that I had the idea to make a scrapbook about my London adventure. I dug out this scrapbook that I had been given as a birthday present a couple of years ago as I thought it was more than ideal.

This particular book is from Paperchase and it has gorgeous, sturdy black card pages. It couldn't be any more perfect for a London scrapbook!

In my opinion silver gel pen looks FANTASTIC on black card ,and a page of text can look really effective.

Of course I had to include a little sketch with coloured pencils, just for fun. I think it adds a bit of cuteness.

 I tried to get a mixture of photographs and tickets, receipts, maps etc. on each page to add interest and make it look arty and fun. The most important part of making a scrapbook is the way you arrange the objects...

 

My advice is to get creative with things like plane tickets and maps and arrange them so that they can fold out like a pop up book. It'll make the scrapbook so much more fun to look through. 

Also I would advise you to arrange and rearrange your items on the page first before sticking them down. That way you can shuffle things round and get a more arty, quirky look.

 It's great to get a mixture of textures too, like the shiny photograph next to the plain paper soldiers. Collageing and overlapping always looks great!

 Writing round the edges of photographs looks great too!

I felt that my Wicked ticket was too special to stick into the book with glue, so I made a nifty little pocket by folding a page over and gluing the edges down. 

So there you go! a quick tour of my London Scrapbook so far. I'll be putting part 2 up soon, but I hope this has encouraged you to catologue your travels and adventures this summer in an arty and interesting way. I think it looks pretty great when everything is put together on the page. And just think how much you'll love looking back on these in a few years time. In my opinion scrap-booking is so much more interesting than just putting your photos in a photo album. Thanks again everyone!!!

Until next time...

Emma x 

Watercolour Orchids...

Now I'm not much of a flower person, but I have to admit, I do have a soft spot for orchids. They just have this exquisite elegant quality and just seem to be the most sophisticated plant in existence. So today, I spotted this beauty in IKEA and couldn't resist picking it up to take home and look after it.

Then in true Georgia O'Keeffe style I decided to draw/paint these wonderful flowers in close up. 

I did a few sketches with coloured pencils but wanted to try out a material that would give more impact so I opted for watercolour paints (my pallet is a bit of a mess...oops)

I wanted to get a faded effect and this is how I did it: 

Step1: I loaded my paintbrush with watercolour paint and made the initial outline.

Step 2: I then dipped my brush in water and dragged the brush outwards from the initial line.

Step 3: Finally I cleaned my brush of all paint and wet it, and dragged the pigment outwards until it nearly dissapeared.

And using the above technique here is the finished product. I feel that watercolour paint does justice to the delicate flowing quality of the orchid. Just shows how important the perfect material is.

Finally I'd like to apoligise for not posting very often recently-y'know exam season and all. However, summer is approaching which means tons more free time so I'm going to try and make one post a week. Thanks for having a nosy at my artwork.

Until next time...

Emma x

The Chapel in the Woods...

Oh how I hate artist's block! Let's admit it, it happens to all of us. Along with studying for my exams, it is the reason why I haven't posted in over a month (ouch!). But fear not my dear friends. I have a lot of very exciting things to show you!

All it took was an afternoon stroll in the beautiful Jesmond Dene to fill me with wonder and inspiration. Now for the eagle eyed among you, you'll realise that this post does not contain any of my own artwork (sorry about that) however, these pictures are jam packed with inspiration- something we all need more of from time to time.

Finally, I apoligise in advance for the quality of the pictures but as our walk was rather unexpected I wasn't carrying my camera. Instead, I went for te next best thing and used my mobile phone.

Let's get started...

Deep in the woods we uncovered this absolute gem! An old derelict chapel with gorgeous shrines tucked away in every nook and cranny; each one collections of perfect little statuettes and fascinating objects...

There is something very sacred and special about these pockets of remembrance on Easter weekend...

 You may also notice that I've put a film grain effect on these photos. I felt that they needed it in order to capture the incredible atmosphere of the chapel. It really is such a special place...

 So as I said this post contains none of my own artwork- actually I guess you could consider the photography artwork...anyway I just thought it would be nice to do a post solely based on inspiration. I just wanted to make a collection of interesting things to look at and get your creative cogs turning. Hope you enjoyed my photographs 

Until next time...

Emma x

Hair!

Hi everyone! 

So I've had this beautiful new set of fine-liner pens sitting on my shelf for some time now and I've been absolutely itching to use them. I decided to Google 'fine-liner art' for some inspiration and found these gorgeous hair pictures made up of separate spaced out lines. I had to have go...

In true Emma style, I felt like a had to take some photos of my own before putting pen to paper. I plaited my sister's hair and took a snap or two.

This is the initial line drawing before I added felt tip pen lines and pencil

For this next one I wanted to draw the back of a full head of hair

These last two were just little doodles

So there you go! Sorry it's not a very long post; i just wanted to do a little bit of drawing with my wonderful fine-liner set (in my opinion, one of the essential tools for any avid doodler).

Until next time...

Emma x

5 Reasons to Love Oil Pastels...

Sorry I haven't put up a post recently; I've been very busy. I haven't had my sketchbook out in a while so it was nice just to have a little play. My chosen material this time was of course (drum roll) Oil Pastel!

This very bright array of pastels are Farrel and Gold and I bought them really cheaply from the best place to buy art supplies: The Works.

So without further ado, here are the 5 reasons why I LOVE oil pastels.

1. Improving existing artwork

I did these pen drawings of faces a while ago and felt like they needed a bit of pizzazz. So, I went in with oil pastels and transformed them. It just shows that any failed artwork can be saved with a bit of imagination. 

2. Colour intensity

..need I say any more?

3.Blending colours

I love using different colours and shades and just mixing them together to create rich thick tones. I've used at least 5 different pastels in the picture on the right.

4. With watercolour

How fab does this effect look? The paint just runs off the pastel marks and creates this amazing blending effect. That's the beauty of wax resist.

5. Ease of use

It took me about 20 minutes to cover 2 pages in my sketchbook with a colour explosion. As a finishing touch, I cut these flowers out of a magazine and stuck them on top (as you've probably noticed, a favourite technique of mine). 

So, I hope this post has inspired you to have a play with oil pastels or maybe spice up some of your artwork.

Until next time...

Emma x