Knitted "Vampire" Bat

I have been so terrible at blogging that it may have seemed like I had retired. I have seen other blogs disappear, but I am still here. I realise having a blog is not quite the thing it once was, but I think of my blog as a little bit of a diary, so hope I will not give up on it. 

I used to put on posts to pad out from crafting, with other things - gardening and walking. I have less to show from my gardening this year in the new house, as I have not quite got to grips with the raised bed, or greenhouse. Keep looking at the lawn and thinking perhaps part of it needs to be dug up!

I decided to make a bat from my bat knitting pattern, as it is approaching that time of year. I have given him vampire teeth, but I think it just makes him look not very scary but like a debonair gentleman bat.  

 

No pumpkins, but I managed to grow one Turk's Turban Squash. It is not very big, but is very pretty.

You can find the Bat Pattern on ravelry or Etsy. They do not take long to make, and it would be nice to have a whole chain of them. You could mix them up with some knitted Little Pumpkins. 

Just looked up that a group of bats is called a colony, although a group of flying bats can be called a cauldron.

 

Watercolour Buildings

Final week of my watercolour course, and I enjoyed this one much more. To me this looks a bit Italian.

Bits could be done better, so I may have another try at home. I wish I had done the church on the hill a bit smaller, so it would look further away, and the ghostly white tree did not work well. 

Watercolour Flowers

Some more weeks at my watercolour art class, and although I am not overly happy with my efforts, I am trying to think to them as learning exercises. 

 

On this first painting we used a gum masking fluid on the areas of white flowers. All seemed to be going well, and I was happy with the watery background. But then when I got to the stage of peeling off the masking gum it just wouldn't come off very well. Blobs were left, and in some places my efforts meant the paper was flaking. No one else in the class seemed to have this problem, and I was getting left behind as they all went on to the flower details. So in the end I gave up trying to remove all the gum, but was then rushing to catch up with the other stages. Was not happy with the end result, but the teacher said that I would perhaps like it a bit better when I got home, and she was right.

 

The next week we painted echinacea flowers, and although a bit of a mess I did enjoy the process much more.

 One more lesson to go, which is going to be buildings.

 

Watercolour Class

I've started going to a new painting class, which followed on from the ink drawing. This is watercolours for beginners, which is actually what I thought I had signed up for before. I'm not overly happy with my two paintings so far, but I am trying to view the class as a way of learning techniques, which is obviously going to take a while.

I was not sure whether to post them, but then thought that this is just a personal blog, so not everything has to be great. 

The first week we did seascapes, and my picture was really quite insipid compared to the rest of the class. I was thinking Scottish isles, where I think everyone else was going tropical. I was not too uphappy with the sky or foreground, but realised that part of my problems were because I had bought the wrong sort of paper. I think that is why my distant islands ran into the sea. We were shown how to use masking fluid to make the waves. But when I look now, I actually prefere this one to the next painting.

What can I say? The hills are too dark, the tree a complete mess, the hillock too blue, and what is all the white space meant to be? I didn't want to use red for the blossom tree, and was toying with the radical idea of green leaves. But I was not brave enough to do my own thing. Maybe the rocks and foreground are not too bad. 

In the class we are all essentially doing very similar paintings, and although we looked at some beach scenes and trees, it does seem a little bit "Bob Ross". Please don't get me wrong, because I love Bob Ross, but I think I want to try and make pictures that are realistic, and not purely from my imagination. But I guess these are really exercises in handling the paint and learnings techniques, and we will then be able to do what we want.

Another problem may be that I don't really want to paint landscapes. There seem a lot of amateur landscape and seascapes around, and I think I might really like to have some buildings in a scene, or even do some still life, or animals.

But next week we are moving on to flowers, and I think after that maybe buildings, so watch this space ....  

This is a Knitting Blog

Although I occasionally get side tracked by other things, gardening/sewing/walking/art, this is essentially meant to be a knitting blog. I don't seem to have posted much at all this year, on knitting or the other things. I am working on a new pattern, but it is slow going. Here is a little peek at what I have been knitting, just to remind you that this is still a knitting blog! 

Ink Bird Paintings

Final week of ink painting class, and we could do whatever we wanted. A bit scary, and I was tempted to go back to flowers or trees, but decided to be a bit brave and try to paint some garden birds. This was my second go at a blue tit, my first attempt looked like he was wearing sunglasses.

I was quite pleased with my watery robin.

Nuthatch is bit darker than I think he should be, but not to worry. 

This a a fledgling longtailed it. They really are like little pompoms.

 

Sudddenly it was nearly the end of the class, so I decided to try to use up some of the inks on my palette. Mr Pheasant is a little bit odd, I think perhaps because he looks a bit annoyed. But I enjoyed splashing on the bright colours. I wish now I had thought a bit more about backgrounds for the birds, but will definitely tray again at home.

Trees in Ink

 
This time on the ink drawing and painting course was tree week. Above was drawn with a stick, and more spattering.

Below I outlined the trunk of the tree. Then painting with water and dropping in the colours. On this exercise we also used white ink for the first time, which I found quite good at calming down my bright colours.  

Then at the end we did some very quick exercises. First blowing the ink through straws. I think I should perhaps call this "Fire on Dartmoor"

And finally a way of just using black ink with lots of water, and drawing in the tree. This was a bit of a rush, and my inky background did not really spread with the water very well.

 

Next week is the final session, and we can do whatever we like. I am tempted to return to the flowers, but not sure yet.