Pebble Mandala

 

I have been painting pebbles and exploring inks and supplies.

 Some of the tools and inks I used for painting and drawing these pebbles: Black Faber Castell Pitt artist pens, Staedtler 0.4 technical pen with white Staedtler ink, Royal and Langnickel Clear Choice 00 round synthetic brush with white Daler-Rowney acrylic ink or white Pergamano indelible drawing ink.

Some of my unique pebbles are available at my Etsy Shop

New Gouache Set

I have been using watercolors since 2008 and have to say it is by far my favorite medium.

For sometime I was thinking of trying Gouache paints, curious to see how different they were from my beloved watercolors, I had heard they were opaque watercolors but only had tried the gold, silver and a the very bright Linden green.

I found this Winsor and Newton Designers Gouache Introductory Set on sale at half price at Ken Bromley Art Supplies and immediately order one. It just arrived so I haven't try it properly yet to say much, but I couldn't wait to make a little color chart. 

I will tell you more about it when I use them and get to know them better.

Magic Rainbow

Illustration Friday. Round

Andrew wearing his t-shirt

Special Gift

Tomorrow is Andrew's Birthday. He loves T-shirts with beautiful designs and every time we travel he buys one with a design from the place we visit.

I made him a special one with an image from one of my art journals. I can't show it to you until he opens his present tomorrow but I will. I promise!

I hope he likes it, I had such a great time making it.

UPDATE: Andrew opened his present, he liked it very much (wants another one!)

Plant

 

Watercolor and Ink

Illustration Friday. Vanity

more pebbles... Pebble Drawing

Still having fun with the pebbles from Kaikoura.
The white pebbles are painted with black Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens... but the Chinese brush pen my sister brought me from her journey around the world looks better in the picture!

You can find a list of the tools and supplies I use here and here.

Some of my pebbles are available at my Etsy Shop

Pebble Painting

I brought some beautiful round pebbles from the beach at Kaikoura to paint with white ink. I fancy to paint some mandalas and I think they look so pretty! What do you think?

Some of my unique pebbles are available at my Etsy Shop 

Baking the Perfect Loaf of Bread at Home

Today I decided to be brave and try Geninne's favorite bread recipe from Sullivan Street Bakery.

After watching the video many times and much thought I gave it a try. I have to tell you it is really, really easy to make and almost like magic.

After no effort at all you get this delicious crunchy crusted bread, with a gorgeous smell that fills your entire house, attracting your family for a nice breakfast, morning or afternoon meal... any time, any occasion, it is absolutely scrumptious.

Just try it, you won't be disappointed.

Illustration Friday. Silent

Temporary Studio.

My sister and her partner will be here for a month. They will be visiting us as part of their trip around the world. 
I arranged my studio as a guestroom for them and set my table with some watercolor and sketching essentials in my bedroom. 
I can't wait to pick them up in Christchurch on Sunday! We'll go whale watching on Monday in Kaikoura and spend the rest of the week traveling around. Will post some photos of our little adventure.

Illustration Friday. Stripes

Beetle project sneak peak

 

 Today I went to the library to choose a bunch of books about flowers, butterflies and beetles. I just love them and want to sketch and paint some.

I started with this beautiful blue beetle. What do you think?

...and the winner is!

...and Magdalena Gast is the lucky LollieCake Fairy Birthday giveaway winner!!! Congratulations!!!

Please send me your address at mmtrujilloa@magamerlina.com

Thank you all for your lovely comments and birthday wishes!

 

Illustration Friday. Scary

Saturday Afternoon

Today was warm and sunny. 

Just after noon we headed off to the Taieri River for a picnic. It was fairly quiet and there were some playful dogs chasing the stones we were throwing in the water...so funny! We had our picnic and then while Camila was playing in the water, Andrew had a little snooze and I collected some colored little pebbles.Afterwards we drove to the Taieri Mouth and paddle around for some time. We just came home tired but happy. 

Lollie-cake Fairy birthday give away!

Lollie-cake or Lolly-cake is a kiwi children's favorite, I have never seen it anywhere outside New Zealand.

On my new project I am drawing and painting New Zealand icons to make cards and prints.

Since tomorrow is my birthday I decided to celebrate it kiwi style which means you bake a nice cake for your friends.  It is a little bit tricky to send a cake overseas so  I will be giving away a lollie-cake fairy print and 5 lollie-cake fairy cards.

To participate just leave me a comment on this post and I will randomly choose a winner from all of you who do.

Winner will be chosen and announced on 31st of October.

Illustration Friday. Fuel

Holly

I'm starting to make some Christmas "things"
I made two pages with collage as well, which  I'm going to turn in to Christmas cards with beautiful red envelopes.

15.000 views on Flickr!

I just reached 15.000 views of my Flickr's Photostream.
I uploaded my first picture on the 5th of July 2009.  Never thought I could reach this number.

I've learned a lot in this time, from my contacts and the groups I belong to. Flickr is a place that keeps you inspired all the time for new ideas, new techniques, tools, etc.

 The picture below was the first one I uploaded.

Japanese Masking Tapes

I got these beautiful japanese masking tapes at Etsy.com from geluk and ititems

Illustration Friday. Scattered

Illustration Friday. Contraption

Job done. New Cards

Today I finished printing and packing all the cards from last week's order. I am very pleased with the job done. You can view the cards here

I made this six cards prototypes today as well.

Now I can do my Illustration Friday for this week, didn't get to do last week's and I can also sketch a gorgeous pheasant's eye daffodil a friend gave me. Will post them as soon as they are done.

Busy and very happy...little scared too.

I have been very busy the past couple of days. 

I had my first big order since I started my shop at the beginning of September.

I made few cards to show locally and had a huge surprise when I had more than 20 orders...100 cards in total! I didn't even had enough paper and envelopes to print and had to rush to get some and materials for packaging.

 I just finished half of the job which I have to hand out tomorrow and hopefully more paper will arrive on Monday to do the rest.

I'm thrilled, surprised and very very happy, but the thought of this being just beginners luck scares me.

Next week I will go around town showing my products...will tell you the result.

I'm also planning to sell my cards on my Etsy Shop.

Will be telling you about this journey I am starting and showing you my cards.
Please wish me luck!

Finished Shipping Tags

They look so pretty together!

Set of cool colors

Set of warm colors

hand painted with watercolors.

We had a beautiful day and Andrew invited Camila and me to a delicious picnic in our garden. 

After lunch while they were playing I spent a wonderful afternoon in my drawing room making this collage shipping tags and finishing the ones I was painting with watercolors.

They are all now available available at my shop

Illustration Friday. Ferocious.

Crocus and Butterfly

 

I finished the watercolor painting I was working on yesterday. The print is already available at my Etsy shop here

 It looks gorgeous framed!