The herring gulls have hatched and they are running rampant on our rooftops down here! I’ve painted these little guys on scrappy bits of watercolour for my free coastal blog. They’ve probably all fledged by now, but you can catch a couple more of these paintings in full fuzzball form over on NemobySea.com if this larger juvenile gully doesn’t quite call to you.
It’s my sisters birthday (again) and I’m expected to do something arty. She’s picked up my childhood interest in Pokémon, her favourite being “oddish”, so naturally I guilted myself into making her a small clay sculpture. How hard could it be?
I started with a wire armature which I enveloped in masking tape. I’m using air drying clay, the usual materials at this stage is wire and aluminium foil but I could use anything to bulk out the frame since I’m not putting this thing in the oven. Masking tape is also nice since you can trim and prune it into any shape you like without worrying about crumpling it into a hard mass you can’t unravel.
The tricky thing about air drying clay is the dreaded cracking. Cracks can appear everywhere if you leave your sculpture out to dry naturally. You’ll need a very slow drying process to stop this from happening. So every time I finished working with the sculpture I’d cover it in a light plastic bag to restrict the air flow, to really slow down that drying. If cracks did appear I mitigated against them by mixing the air drying clay with water to make a kind of slurry which is referred to as “slip” and fill in the cracks and smooth it over.
After it had dried, I wanted to sand the piece down to a nice smooth finish, I picked up some hobbyist sandpapers for this job since regular sandpaper is way too rough. After sanding the larger scratches away I continued using finer and finer grit. I went from 200, 400, 600, 800 to finally 1000 grit sandpaper.
I had to get this sculpture done in little over a week, and made many mistakes. The first one being that after I finished sanding the sculpture, I applied a couple of base coats of gesso. I then made the big mistake of painting it without sealant. Gesso is not water resistant so what happened is the gesso undercoat started to sag, tear and bubble in a few areas.
Major disaster!
Ugly draft sculpture being gesso’d
I then had to meticulously remove all the paint and gesso undercoat with sandpaper and pliers. I really thought that was the end for dear oddish.
Ugly draft sculpture ready to be painted!
But I managed to remove all of the gesso somehow which is a testament to how strong and durable I made the sculpture, but after all that fussing I had to sand it down again, and reapplied the gesso primer and once dry, I then applied Mod Podge to seal the undercoat and finally move onto painting the thing!
I painted this sculpture in simple acrylics, but since acrylics are essentially plastics you can easily overpaint whilst trying to blend colours directly onto the sculpture and making an uneven, blobby mess of things.
Yes, I am guilty of that too … you cannot sand down acrylics unless you want a patchy, shredded mess which is what happened to my draft sculpture. So you have to be very careful and skilled at blending colours, and acrylics are not my bag at all! I think doing this again I would use airbrushes to apply even coats of colour, using acrylics for small detailing.
After the hellish drama of painting the sculpture, with hours to go, I gave it two coats of Mod Podge (being careful not to make it clumpy) which gave it an excellent glassy sheen and presented it to my sister who unceremoniously fumbled it for a moment, thought I bought it from a shop and set it down, because lets face it — it was kinda crap.
I was the selfish one for indulging in this for my own sake, but I learned a lot from this and am very grateful her favourite Pokémon isn’t anything more complicated than a ball on legs, that would have showed me up for sure!
Is there anything better than a hefty caterpillar? But what about that spike on its behind, is that something to be worried about?
Thankfully not! I won’t lie though, I was a little bummed that this wasn’t the caterpillar of the large elephant hawk moth, but Convolvulus was something I didn’t even know existed until I found these brown-green logs in the garden in late summer last year.
What all the hawk-moth caterpillars have in common is that horn on the end, it’s not dangerous, it’s in fact quite soft. Did I touch it? Of course — anything in the name of science and … art?
This little piece is a commemorative commission that was a joy and an honour to paint. I used hot pressed watercolour paper which has a unique glossy quality to the surface. I’m so happy with how this tiny little A5 came out.
Something really important to how I develop a piece now, especially a commission is to create multiple preliminary paintings, which is how I really narrowed down and simplified what I wanted to do with little miss Olive here.
I remember when I first started painting, and maybe 1 in 15 paintings would have something going for it … I’ve narrowed that gap quite a bit in the decade I’ve been painting all under my own guidance for better/worse.
“One must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with.” — was the quote from Vincent van Gogh, 1889 which makes me feel better about my own art making process!
Painted in watercolour, acrylic inks, Brusho and white pigment.
This little guy was one of three alpine newts that I presented for a commission. I’ve included a little of the “behind the curtain” typical evening scene.
I used Brusho which is appears as a dust of heavily pigmented colour. You can sprinkle it in water, or mix it to produce super saturated colour.
The grey I used on this newt is extremely strong, and I was asked to strip out some of the grey, specifically in the tail area to get in some blue accenting. I thought this was impossible, Brusho is very stubborn, but with freshly boiled kettle water I was able to lift the colour and get a decent amount of blue in.
What a revelation! And then I found you can use extremely hot water to lift quite a lot of colour from paper, including regular watercolours and ink. It’s not perfect but as you can see, I got a really good result removing a dark colour.
These three were a bit of a handful, and I still can’t believe I managed to squeeze all three onto an A4. They were a commission which I struggled with, the thing is when there is more than one kitty to go wrong, it means throwing the whole piece away, and that weighed pretty heavily on me.
Two of the cats were also mostly black, so I had an interesting colour challenge on my hands. There was no way I was painting two completely black cats … not when the commissioner said she “liked colour”.
Somehow though, all three pulled through - I even introduced chunky textural pastels into the mix as you know, the painting wasn’t chaotic enough!
If you’re interested in their names, Ms Green is Slinky, Mr Yellow is Pudding and Ms Purple is Kushkat! Lovingly painted in watercolour, Brusho, ink and pastels.
My dad has a thing about hippos, I don’t really know why, and like most idolisations, I don’t think he can explain it either.
He wanted a handmade card for his birthday, so I was happy to hippo it up for him using these new inks I’m sweet on.
Since discovering my inks and in particular my beloved Indian ink wasn’t vegan friendly, I decided to find replacements. It thankfully didn’t take me long to find an almost identical alternative, Daler Rowney’s FW acrylic ink! It is silky smooth, glides across the paper, doesn’t clog my inking nibs and is literally a drop in replacement for Indian ink.
It even does that awesome texture when you apply it to soggy paper making grainy, spontaneous clouds just like Indian ink. I’m glad it wasn’t a time and purse consuming search. The FW white acrylic ink in the same range is very good too and would recommend it over using white gouache for “poppy” highlights.
I probably should add that I wasn’t sponsored by Daler Rowney or any brands on my entire website, it’s all my own fumbling on the internet to find products that I enjoy using.
Front and back covers of my dad’s birthday card, using Daler Rowney’s FW acrylic ink and Stuart Semple watercolours.
The winter is wailing on us hard now, the late summer months are foggy to a lot of people, but not for me. Taking up wild swimming in the spring (still not sure if I’ve mentioned it!) has made my life so much more fulfilling despite the numerous jellyfish stings I endured.
Being in nature is far more powerful than I imagined, seeing and being a part of it all has been an awakening. I’ve found even more stuff on the bays too! To read more, head on over to my blog Nemo by Sea.
I’m utterly addicted to open water swimming now, not sure if I’ve mentioned it?
I know I’m a bore, but I think everyone would be as enthusiastic if they tried it too. Especially as in September I got caught up in a cloud of swallows flying straight into me as I swam out away from land.
Their ruby eyes taking me in as they swooped close as all birds seem to do when I’m out in the sea to satisfy their curiosity, and in turn I got to see how shimmery their blue armour was.
Even in late October I saw the odd, lonely, straggler which is strange. But I have plenty of other bird and mammilian company in the water …
It was only until I was getting through my stocks of ink did this truth emerge. I needed a few inks and Indian ink and whilst looking around the web for the old favourites and doing a little more reading into how they are made, I came across the ingredient shellac.
Shellac originates from the lac beetle (Kerria lacca), they are found in India, Thailand and Southeast Asia and are farmed commercially for the resin the females produce when feeding on tree sap. This resin is secreted as a vital protective cocoon for the lifecycle of the beetle and its offspring. Once this has concluded, the cocoon-like resin is scraped off the tree branches along with some of the insects and refined further into shellac.
So it’s a similar process to honey, but not only is the honey taken and some bees crushed, but the farmed bees displace huge amounts of native pollinators in the habitats they are installed. In Asia, like any sort of farming practice there is a similar negative impact on the ecology, especially the monoculture of host trees and the eradication of the lac beetle’s natural predators, fungi, moth and wasp species, leading to a loss of biodiversity.
I’ve been vegan for over 10 years now, and I’m still learning and tripping up it seems. I know we must all be pragmatic, none of us live in a vegan world but still, I am very embarrassed about this. I was also surprised when my favourite brands like Winsor and Newton listed shellac in their drawing inks as a binder, I never even thought about that before. The shellac in Indian ink is for similar purposes and of course that delightful sheen is also accredited to the shellac.
Shellac is pretty widely used too, in varnishes, sealants, primers, even on fruit like apples in the supermarket. It’s just one of those niggly ingredients that isn’t often listed on products containing it which makes avoiding it all that more tricky.
All Indian inks contain shellac, and trust me I was desperate to find an Indian ink that didn’t! My only option now is that I will explore black acrylic inks and see how they fair, Indian ink was such a staple it’s going to be sad to no longer use it. I loved it so much … but there has to be alternatives and when I find a good one, I’ll be sharing it.
Please enjoy this lovely fat caterpillar I found in our “weed” filled front garden. It was about 10 centimetres long. I hope he grows into the beautiful convolvulus hawk-moth he ought to be, insects need our love and consideration too.
My mum loves flowers and would frequently bore my sister and I to death with the names of them. I’m not really into flowers especially the commercially grown varieties — and pansies just plain freak me out.
But I made some simple paintings to accompany her new flower stall, with a few more likely to follow. I’d like to paint some dandelion, nettles and snails for her too but I wouldn’t like to give my mum another complex on top of the many she already has bringing me up!
In the summer our weedy garden and house was aflutter with these beautiful hawk moths, they look way too exotic for humble Blighty. You get this critter also in a smaller size namely the small elephant hawk moth, the more obvious difference is the pink stripe going down the back of the insect which is absent in the smaller, yellowy species.
I really enjoy these moths and can’t believe my eyes when I encounter them. I’ve yet to discover the ‘elephant trunk’ like caterpillar which gives this species its name. But sadly with the rapid urbanisation and large housing developments going on, tearing up the countryside in Kent, I suspect these will be an increasingly rarer sight. The neighbours don’t like it, but we’re trying to keep our garden healthily wild, you just don’t know what you’re missing when caking the world in turf, tarmac and cement.
Here’s another painting for the book my friend is writing about wolves. I’m allowed to use fantasy colours but not go too wild with the background. This guy will be named Talo and is the reluctant aggressor of the story.
No Brusho was used here which is against my nature but I’ll make up for it very soon with my next painting!
I’ve been staring out at the North Sea for eight years, wondering if I’d ever take the plunge …
And I don’t think I ever would have, if it wasn’t for being inspired by all the wonderful things washing up on the various bays of Thanet. The plan was to take photographs, expecting the water to be crystal clear. The reality is like swimming in an ice cold cup of coffee, but it was still worth it. Read about my new finds and swimmy adventures in my Nemo by Sea blog!
I’ve started open water swimming, inspired by my Nemo by Sea blog. When I started dipping my toe into the North Sea in late May, I was having a real problem with cold shock in the 12 °C water. Anyway, I found this polar bears picture on my computer and set about painting him on some scrap I had lying around.
I wonder if they even feel the chill leaping into that ice cold water of the Arctic? The water in the North Sea has risen 2 °C since I started swimming, but the water still takes your breath away every time.
This is a first for me, painting like an actual watercolourist, no hard black lines, no fineliner, just a pencil and watercolour paints.
Initially I was following an online watercolour course which went laughably and terribly wrong …
But that little mouse I painted before the tutorial gave me hope I could paint the bird better myself.
Using the reference image provided which happened to be an American robin (not that you could recognise from my first attempt), I feel like I have stumbled upon something much different. I guess online tutorials aren’t for everyone!
I have a bit of a war on my hands with Yupo, although I love its smooth texture and the way it makes paint swim and dance on its surface, I’m always trying to mess with it. Make it do things it doesn’t want.
I have this crazy idea that I can make Yupo perform similarly to a drypoint plate, except without the printing. I love the idea of carving out an image instead of building one up.
I find with watercolour I sometimes get bored with what I’m doing as I use too much water, making it take longer to dry and most efforts just go in the bin. On reflection, I may be a little abusive with all art materials …
I thought I’m going to give oil on Yupo another go to achieve a drypoint effect and contrast it against my watercolour on Yupo version.
As you can see I didn’t get too far with this. Although I initially loved applying thick, black layers of oil, scratching into it, and smearing it around, the heavier spots aren’t even dry and it’s been weeks. Applying watercolour or alcohol inks at this stage would be a disaster.
I also found that pulling and manipulating the oil around made my reference drawing disappear underneath as it was rubbed out of existence, which I did not like. It was also really messy, slippery and hard going, taking in the fumes from the turpentine all the while.
It’s a shame as I was liking the carved out polar bear head but the image was too much of an uphill struggle to really get rolling with it. One other thing I noticed, the coloured oil paints started to separate and go ‘gloopy’, which looked pretty awful.
Another experiment I tried was with water-based block printing inks. Contrasting this time with a regular watercolour on paper image. The aim with the Yupo this time was more of a mixed media experiment, I wanted to create that drypoint style whilst incorporating other materials I often use.
I firstly used alcohol inks to create more interest in the background (which I stripped as I found out that washing up liquid and alcohol inks don’t make for good bedfellows, oops).
I then applied the black, block printing inks to the image which started out as quite abstract but rather foolishly, I fell into old ways and boom a full rabbit head appeared. It’s easy to get carried away in art. After the block printing ink was dry I went in with watercolour, Brusho and ink to finish it off.
I’m not pleased with the image itself, but I am pleased that I could carve and manipulate the block printing ink with absolute control, without the stink and without waiting weeks for it to dry, easily thinning or removing the ink with water or washing up liquid for tougher areas.
Where does the time go? Nemo and I have been over the rocks a lot last year, here’s some of our finds from 2021. We’ve quite the collection of British beach finds now, and we’re still going strong into 2022!
You can see more over at NemobySea.com
I was looking out into the garden and along the fence, to my shock, was a robin with the steeliest eyes.
I don’t see many small birds around much with neighbours cutting away hedges and shrubs in favour of American dream style lawns.
This robin reminded me how little birds have to themselves. It made me very sad, and naturally, I made some small paintings. I really like these paintings and i don’t think the flat glare of the computer screen do them much justice. These A5 paintings feature crêpe paper, watercolour pencils and Brusho, and I’ve put them up in my shop in case someone likes them as much as I do.
One of my favourite paintings are of grey seals, so I decided to try painting some fun images of harbour seals on A5 paper which are locals to the South East coast of England. I saw a massive harbour seal wash up on Viking Bay in Broadstairs and was completely shocked on how big these guys can grow.
