Fishink Drawing Day

Yesterday the weather was glorious. The first really sunny spring day and I felt inspired to have a day of drawing.

When everyone else seemed to be clambering to rush outside and take in the maximum amount of rays possible, I also felt alive and excited (about the good weather) but in a totally different way. I’m curious to know how many of you fellow reader-artists would feel the same way here, but sometimes when a good weather day comes along, how many of you think …. yes today is an excellent day to do my artwork ?

Some friends would think I’m crazy not to set off for a 5 mile hike at the slightest sign of the sun, and I’m not opposed to this either, but what I’m trying to capture is that feeling of when good weather puts you in the mood to create and stirs your imagination in a way that you really just want to go with it. This desire (at that moment) appears to overpower the urge to do anything else.

Another friend of mine likes to work, undisturbed by calls for lunch or tea and would carry on until her body needed food and her ‘creative flow’ had got to a point where it felt right to leave her work, or perhaps also at a point where the work was going so well, that it would be easy to return to. After all we all know how tricky that ‘creative block’ can be when it comes visiting. Please offer your comments below if any of this sounds or feels familiar.

I digress, lol and had a great, inspired day, visually soaking up the sun whilst trying out my new Pentel brush pen. I heard about this from my friend Laura Weston who happened to tweet about a new pen she was trying out. I ordered one from China and love the sense of line it gives my work. Quite different from my usual way of working, but sometimes… that’s a good thing too !  Thanks Laura for sharing your thoughts  : )

Here’s a wooden cat, don’t ask me why she has orange wood grain for a coat, sometimes you just have to go with these ideas. Lol.  I do like the way she feels quite 1960’s though !

I spent a lot of time playing around with elephant shapes. The pen allows you to make long continuous curves, where the ink splays out and creates wonderfully textured and expressive lines, that it would be tricky to create as easily, if done digitally.

I even did some mark making or just plain ‘dabbling’ on the page to try out the nib and later turned the ‘random shapes’ into whatever animal seemed to suggest itself from the scribble beneath. It does add another layer to the work that’s different again and sometimes a feeling of movement too.

I think some of my elephants will be heading over to the Yellow House Art site once I’ve ‘dressed’ them with some colourful textiles. More of my artwork can be found available for sale here.

I noticed that the Amaryllis, my mum had ‘donated’ at Christmas was now fully ‘exploded’ and illuminated, what a three headed monster !

At least the ladybirds in the garden had been enjoying an outdoor sunbathing session yesterday, even if mine was more indoor : )

Please don’t forget to leave a comment below, if sometimes the desire to draw / create / paint etc  grabs you in the same way I described at the start of this post. I’m curious to know how many artists need to go with their creative flow when it comes calling : )