I don't often make any time to go arty, but I inspired myself while making another piece of art for an invitation. I liked how that one turned out and naturally wanted to create a second. It is a cool messy style that looks a bit like watercolour, except it is Photoshop brushes.

So here is a splash of colour to brighten your day.

It has been requested of me to share some more of my blackout art. So here it is, these got  a lot more arty than the first one I did. The umbrella design is one I found another place and copied the idea but what the picture says is of course of my own creation. 

Yes I have a bible that I rescued at the book fair from going to the tip and yes I do use it for craft, and yes I do feel terrible every time I cut a piece out of it and yes it was even worse cutting a page out it it, but also very effective!

I really like how you can add so much by taking away. It is so fun to change what the paper says into something completely different. 

These other pictures that contain people were first sketched from a photos of people I found online but I generally looked at a page and then knew just what picture I needed to find and put on it. 

 The wind idea also came off another persons blackout poetry art piece. I liked it, so I flicked through the pages of the falling apart poetry book I have used for some of these pieces until I found a page with the word 'wind' on it. It turned into this. 

This one was fun. My parents thought I might die from the smell of the permanent markers. It was quite different removing everything else and making the white/blank parts what was there. I also did not intend to make the lady quite so thin, but I forgot that the outline was more like an inline since not the outside of the line but the inside would become the outside. (Sorry if that confused you)

This last one is my favourite though. I saw the words "THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN" and some of the other words on the page that I have brought out in the image, and I knew instantly what I wanted it too look like. The problem was I couldn't find a photo of an old man with a stick in the position I imagined. Eventually I found one that I could flip and then sketch from. Resulting in this. 

 Do you sketch?
Do you like playing with words?

Have you ever tried any blackout poetry?

Shalom means the same as peace, but it just sounds like such a beautiful word. This piece of word art I drew was inspired by Nadine Brandes, Out of Time Series. Shalom is a key word in the books. I just wanted to share a few bible verses about peace along with the pictures, because they are such good verses to be reminded of.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. ~John 16:33

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:6-7

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 

~Colossians 3:15-16

Whoever desires to love life

and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from speaking deceit;

let him turn away from evil and do good;

let him seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 

~1 Peter 3:10-12

Shalom, peace be with you.

I realized that one of my current favourite book series had no fan art to go with it, other than one sketch of the most horrible character in the whole book. (the character is horrible not the sketch) And so I set out to remedy the fact, that these amazing books lack fan art. This one is from a scene in book two A Time To Speak, by Nadine Brandes. And yes you should read the books.

If you are interested in seeing some before images than just keep on looking. I did actually remember to take a snapshot of the Photoshop document after I had done the base colours. So you can see what I started with. I also kinda cheated with some colours and used a colour picker to seal them from the book covers, so they were at least colours from there.

This scene came to my mind instantly when I was trying to think of one to draw, I think it is one my my favourites. As for the quotes they don't follow on from one another in the book but are spread over two pages, where this scene is happening.  Hopefully I have managed to make it look cold enough.

And by the way the third and final book is coming out later this year, in 65 days! I am so excited I pre-ordered the book yesterday.

Have you ever drawn fan art?

Does the picture look cold?

Have you read any of Nadine Brandes books?

 Are you getting sick of posts about The Songkeeper  Chronicles yet? I promise the next one won't be.... but the one after that probably will! But this one is mostly about how I drew this fan Art anyway.

The scene is from the same place as this quote, quite near the very beginning of the book. I just liked that quote so much, and I wanted to draw a griffin, so I did. (I mean seriously who does not want to draw a griffin, if you can't have a live one of your own then a cool drawing is better than nothing!)

“Hurry, aye, but hurry where?" Amos halted midstride and spread his arms wide to encapsulate the view. The Vituain desert surrounded them, vast in its nothingness.

~ Gillian Bronte Adams, Songkeeper

 I always start with a sketch, which is the trickiest part. I google pictures of people in the positions I want them in and even griffins, or if say I can't find a photo of a griffin. Apparently they are very hard to get a photograph of. A mixture of a lion and an eagle will also do. After lots of sketching and erasing, I scan the sketch into the computer and open Photoshop. This time I wanted a more watercolour or painted look so I picked a brush that looked a bit like a paint brush and most of the time I had the transparency of that brush around 20% but sometimes 9% for really light colours I only just wanted to see and another time 40% for the first layer on the rocks. Oh and 100% for the base of the background. 

The base of the background is also the base colour of the Griffin. Because even though he had a lot of layers of colour there were still some places he was transparent. I made so many layers and changed colours slightly, lots and the fact that the brush was transparent allowed the colours to mix and blend. 

As with any drawing the most important part is the shading. The colours being lighter where the sun would hit and gradually darker in places where there should be more shade. While 'painting' the colour I thought constantly about where the sun was coming from. And of course when drawing you have the power to determine where the sun comes from, so make good use of the power! Don't forget to add actual shadows too.... and lots and lots of layers, don't be afraid to experiment moving the layers around trying different ones on top.

Though if you use a sketch like I do you better keep that as the top layer and on 'Multiply', because if it were set on normal.... then you could only see the sketch.... but the cool thing about the different effects you can have layers appearing on is you can just make all that white disappear completely. 

The skyline was not working so I added a bit of a coming sand storm which happens later in the book. I used the same brush to do that part but a different brush to add the more textured part of the sand, again with multiple layers of colour at different transparencies. 

The rocks were also described in the book so I put a few of them in. And then along came Amos. Again a different drawing than the griffin... probably a good thing too because I drew him about three times before I was happy... before Jane was happy.

Now to the inadvisability cloak part.... I just happened to paint his cloak last and I had to save a picture of it because it looked like he was wearing an invisibility cloak! See it has turned the colour of the sand... If only you could pull things out of drawings and into real life.... 

But since Amos did not actually have an invisibility cloak in the story, at least not that he told anyone about, I had to paint it too. I thought I was done but Jane informed me that you could not see his dirk, so I fixed that by making a slight bulge under his cloak and a bit of darker brown. So just letting you know there is a dirk under there.

So here is the finished piece of art: Gundhrold and Amos hurrying across the desert.

“Hurry, aye, but hurry where?" 

I completed this a while ago but it only just came to my attention that I had not posted it. It is another scene from Orphan's Song by Gillian Bronte Adams. Yes you should go read the book I reviewed it here. Especially since it is only 15 days until the next book "Songkeeper" comes out. And that one is good to.... Ah yes I am already reading it and drawing another character from it, well the Griffin anyway, because he is one of my favourites, we get to see a lot more of him in Songkeeper than in the first book. And you see a lot more of him than a shadow in my next drawing. Anyway here is the completed drawing, which I did in colour, regretting it all the while... until I had finished anyway.

Have you ever drawn any fan art?

Do you prefer this colour one to the one I drew of Ky?

And what about the texture over this one, like or not?

I am part of the Songkeeper Launch Team! Songkeeper is the second book in Gillian Bronte Adams Songkeeper Chronicles. And it is a really fun launch team because it is competitive and there are all these things we can do to get points. One of them is drawing fan art, and I really like drawing but don't do it often enough so this is a perfect excuse! I chose Ky Huntyr, because he is one of my favourite characters from Orphan Song, the first book. Actually I don't know who is my favourite I like a lot of them.

I shall be doing a book review of Orphan Song shortly and then one of Songkeeper after that. They are both Fantasy, Christian Fiction, books.

And don't forget to enter into my giveaway if you have not already!

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I drove past a house the other day and it inspired me to write, this;

Once this was not a sad little house, I am sure. Once a man, or maybe more, laboured on its foundations. Each wooden slat, cut and placed by loving hands. With joy and laughter, looking forward to a brighter future, this house rose up from the steep hill. Finally the wife arrived, the furniture, and the corrugated iron for the roof. It rumbled up on a slow moving wagon, drawn by a team of oxen, maybe. Maybe they had trudged the tree boarded track up the mountains for days, weeks.

Once, maybe once, the young wife ran up and into her husbands arms,  so glad that they were together again. So glad of the beautiful house, a house of her own, with wooden boards to sweep the dust from. Together they would make this their home, possibly.

As the rain fell, it drummed down on the roof, horrendously noisy, but they sat together, knowing that the house was solid built. It would not blow away, or collapse like a tent of canvas. Maybe soon after that children could have come.

Once they could have leaped off the bottom step and run down the slope, crossing over the fallen tree that bridged the creek, and jumped into their fathers arms as he arrived home. Did he come from taking their cattle to market? Or selling the furs of the animals he trapped? Or from the homestead where The Boss lived? 

Other times the children could have run with buckets down to the bubbling mountain stream and tried to catch the little mosquito fish, that darted through the clear water. Little trousers, or skirts, hoisted high. Maybe muddy little feet ran back up the hill to show Mother their prizes. Or maybe they fished out the fat black tadpoles, and kept them in a jar, watching as they grew legs, squiggly tails shrank and then disappeared. 

Once upon a time, long ago, many things could have happened in and around that happy little house. House of promises, hopes and dreams, once. Now though, it sits a weathered grey. On a hillside, far from anywhere, a dull house rots, silent except for the clatter, bang, and scratch of the rusted iron roofing, that has now come loose. Each gust of wind, pulls at the house, and it succumbs, sinking away, slowly returning to dust, and memories.

What memories it must hold though, if only I could hear it speak. If only the creaks, could, be interpreted, or the language of old things found out. But the people who lived there once, have gone, grown old and died. Maybe the children still live on somewhere, I wonder have they forgotten, the once happy little house on a hill. Or are they no longer, here to be able to remember, have they too passed away. I do not know, but I wonder, what does that sad little house remember?

 Green and gold light speckling the grass. Vibrantly green buffalo grass, a lawn. Birds call, ever so softly from every side. The grass is soft against your back, for a while. Your checked, long sleeve shirt and jeans stop the grass from itching its way to your skin. Trees block out the suns glare. The leaves above rattle and click in the slight wind. Secrets are whispered from air to tree that travel down into the earth. 

Past the branches and leaves fluffy, white clouds float in the blue sky. The leaves shake with gladness. Soft music plays. All is beautiful.

Eventually you realize your head is lower than your feet because of the slight incline of the lawn. The grass has found a way through your shirt to itch your back. So you shift over and lean against a rock, it is rough and cool, but comfortable. Where you lie is actually a tamed ridge line. Rocks, like the one you lean against poke  up like breaching wales from the green lawn. Rocks of a volcanic sort. The one you lean against sucks warmth from your back. The breeze is almost cold. 

Insects are on the move around you. Ants trail up a tree, bees fly around and around a mosquito hums. Which in the end destroys it all because in this life nothing is quite perfect, not for long. But we have assurance, that one day, we will be brought home. To a perfect home, the perfect home, the perfect place, perfect for eternity.

And here is the last part. If you have not read parts One and Two then it would make much more sense to do so before reading part three.

To refresh your memory; Turning, she gazed a moment at the children. Jill stepped up next to her, “They are so sad. Can we help?” she whispered. The lady’s eyes sparkled. Keeping her voice low the lady replied, “Yes, help me get their halters off.” Her eyes went to Col’s pocket.

I thought this photo I took yesterday would go well! I did edit a little horn in...

Jill held out her hand with the shining figure in it, “Are these yours?”

“No dearest, but they are a sign. Keep them, and guard them well.” The lady’s pure white hair fell glimmering over her shoulder as she bent and closed Jill’s fingers around the unicorn.

Jill, Col and the white lady moved among the carousel beasts, and the harpist played. Col struggled with a silver buckle, but finally it undid and he slipped one halter off. He put it over his arm and slipped another off. Jill watched the woman, she had only to touch a halter and it slid off or broke with a tinkle. She placed each one into a pouch at her side.

As the last halter jingled into the bag, the lady spoke again, “You may hop on if you like, they won’t mind.” She motioned to the carousel beasts.

Who won’t? Jill wondered, but she did not intrude on the sound of the music which now swelled, humming along shafts of moonlight. The carousel began to spin, faster and faster. Wind whipped saddle cloths and tassels and gripped at the children’s delighted grins, the mystical unicorn appeared. This time something different happened though. The creature galloped forwards. Loud cracking and snapping noises pierced the night. Both children felt a strange warmth under them. Hair blew into Jill’s face, and she lost grip of the twisted pole. Her hands found only soft hide of an animal and hair, long thick, silver hair. Jill’s teeth clacked together as hooves hit the ground. Wide eyed, Jill looked at the moonlight shimmering all around her. The moonlight had hair and legs, hooves and bodies. Jill felt herself slipping and grabbed larger handfuls of the hair. The saddle fell to the ground, but Jill stayed astride. Col, on one of the inner unicorns had not yet broken free.

All the beasts that had transformed cavorted around, making it hard for Jill to see exactly what happened. In a moment all the creatures were free. Shouts came from the town, focused illumstones flashed out into the moonlight. Jill noticed that the music had stopped, and the black haired minstrel completely disappeared. People came running. The unicorns ran too, with the same speed that the carousel had turned at before. The last coloured saddle and blanket thumped to the ground. Forty nine gleaming unicorns disappeared into the trees. All glowed white except for the one which had a mane and tail black as the deepest shadow. That one had a different horn to the rest and also still carried a pack of some kind, very oddly shaped.

Col and Jill found themselves standing just outside the entrance of the inn they had crept out of only minutes before. The white lady touched each of their heads. “Guard your charges well, they are not living but they have power, when you are older you may find it. Peace now, in you go.”

The twins crept back into the inn. Out the window they thought they saw a last flash of silver hair and heard hoof beats, yet not a trace of the lady that just bid them farewell. “Unless,” Jill and Col whispered in the same breath, “Unless…” They both looked at each other sharing the thought. As sleep pushed their eyelids closed, a fiftieth unicorn, whiter even than the others, and with a smooth horn, galloped in the direction of the others.

A sketch I did with some other randomness added...

I hope that finished in a "finished" way, but after all it is just a small story set in a greater one..... the greater one is just not finished yet. If you have any questions though I'll answer them if there are answers to them. So ask away and tell me what you thought.

The Godolphin Arabian started his life in Yemen

Before he sailed across the seas wide

But he could have been a barb or as thought Arabian

In his new home they counted only the height of his side

No longer prized, but to pull a weighty wagon sent 

Underfed and yet undaunted without a pedigree

For years to work unworthily he went

But somehow someone later, his worth did see

So sold to a stud where he had his first offspring

With Lady Roxana he sired Lath a leggy colt 

Lath a gold-touched bay beautiful for admiring

And when running went like a wind or crossbow bolt

Lath won the Queen's Plate nine times out of nine

Then from the pair more colts came, Cade and Regulus

Gold-touched bay again with crested conformation fine

To have the Godolphin as sire was a plus

Though he himself could not race, as a race stud

He excelled, and all equine were exceptionally fast

If they had in them the Godolphin  blood

He was a prized stallion, much sought after at last

Now as a fast Thoroughbred forefather we see

The great Godolphin Arabian gallop 

Through many a most marvelous horse’s pedigree

And make their fleet feet pick up

Along with Darley Arabian and the Byerley Turk 

Stallions from which all Thoroughbreds do descend

We see the magnificent Godolphin’s blood at work

And that brings this tale telling to an end

A sketch I did years ago.... 

The Story: Hope to those Left Behind                                             

After The Great War, many countries fell into a depression. Australia, still such a new country, got hit the hardest. Countless young lives had been lost during the war, lost and nothing much gained. People were without work, food and hope. Then Phar Lap came and brought the hope Australians needed.

He came of a fine pedigree so for a low price trainer Harry Telford convinced David Davis to buy him. When Phar Lap arrived in Australia, they both got a shock. The colt walked awkwardly and his face had warts all over it. Only Telford believed in him. So Telford became a part owner and commenced to train the ugly but fine pedigreed horse. 

Phar Lap lost his first race. He continued unplaced until April 1929 when he won the Maiden Juvenile Handicap. He didn’t place in the next few, but ran well, then a second and another winning streak. The horse that seemed so unlikely, so hopeless to begin with now captured the public’s eye. Everyone watched as he won race after race and otherwise got second or third place. 

An attempt was made on Phar Lap’s life, just before he won the 1930 Melbourne Cup. It failed. Having won renown in Australia, David Davis took Phar Lap to America. Phar Lap proved himself in the Agua Caliente Handicap, winning his first and regretfully his only international race. Now called one of the handsomest horses ever seen on an American track, he became the world wide star of racing. 


Tragically only a few days after the race, Tommy Woodcock -Phar Lap’s strapper- found Phar Lap, with tremendously high temperatures, obviously in great pain. Nothing they did helped. Though they tried all Phar Lap passed away on the fifth day of April 1932. Though his life is gone, he left behind his great story and fighting spirit. So the Legend of Phar Lap continues to bring hope to those left behind. 




If you do not wish to read the short report (Above) that does not really do justice to the great horse, here is an even shorter version of the Phar Lap saga.

The Poem: Phar Lap: Never Really Gone                                      

Truly the horse, raced with all his heart
Though at the beginning, he had a hard start
Gangly, with warts upon his face
Then on his first appearance he took last place
His trainer, Telford became a laughing-stock 
Till one day, when everyone got a shock
Never before had Phar Lap even placed
But now he had won, the fifth time he raced
He won stakes, derbies, The Craven Plate  
Now he had to carry a very great weight
He raced across the Australian hearts
He battled to the front in nearly all of his starts
An attempt on his life in November 1930
Whatever the reason it was dirty 
Still he continued, and won the Melbourne cup
This wonder horse could truly gallop 
Gallop he did, off into history
The truth of how he died, forever a mystery
Some say t’was arsenic, a poisonous thing
Phar Laps death much sadness did bring

But his tale lives, forever on
And his story shall be retold, so he’s never really gone

It started way back in 1853, by a man called Freeman Cobb

He came to Australia and to the Goldfields, looking for a job

Starting a coach service was the plan he devised 

Cobb & Co pioneered the roads, though very small sized

They started out with only horsemen a few

But soon to thirty thousand, their number of horses grew

The government got interested, and gave them the royal mail

Cobb & Co made so much; Freeman put it up for sale

Cobb & Co expanded, across Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales

Out across this vast land Cobb & Co spread its trails

When at its peak six thousand horses were harnessed each day

Australians’ built the coaches, and painted them colours gay

The colourful coaches each pulled by a beautiful team

They had a great reputation for speed and went like a dream

But then came the trains on many a rail road track

And passengers for the coaches started to lack

Now they are finished, but never them will we forget

Through the stories they come and we hear their hooves yet

This started out as a report, but turned into something much more interesting. I did the sketch to go with the poem. 

You will need:  A sketching pad/art book/piece of paper, pencil sharpener, erasers normal size and thin, another sheet of paper, something to draw off like a photo and some pencils. With the pencils I usually use at least three; one 2H or harder, a HB or B, and a 4B of softer. An eraser brush would be useful too. I don’t have one, so sometimes I do end up smudging my drawing or spitting on it in an attempt to get rid of the little bits of eraser. I want one though.

First find everything. Then select a hard pencil like 2H, sketch. Roughly and lightly outline the animal or whatever you are drawing, keep your eyes flicking from the picture to your paper. To get distances realistic, measure the eye/ear or something on the screen/book (the picture you are drawing form) and see how many of them would fit in that distance you are trying to get right. This way is especially good if your drawing is not the same size as the photo. 

Use the rubber.

Don’t rub it all out, you have to start somewhere. 

Now get a softer pencil like the B and start to darken in the shapes. Don’t press to hard, and don’t be afraid to rubout a big bit and start over. Next ad more detail. For the eyes leave a little ‘reflection’ of white in them.

From now on I switch pencils a lot of the time using the B and the 4B and sometimes using the 2H again.

If you are drawing something like a horse, look where all the muscles are and what way the hair lies. Horses faces are not flat they are curved and have bones in them, the eyes stick out (a bit). Horses have big nostrils and their hooves have interesting shapes. THEY ARE NOT LITTLE SQUARES ON THE BOTTOM OF STRAIGHT POLES! Look at all the curves in the animal. If it is a dog, cat or other long haired animal, use strokes to shade its body. Yes it takes a long time but it is worth it. Well At least I think it is. Close ups of a horses face can also be done with little strokes, pay attention to what way the animals hair it sitting. 

I drew this a few years ago, it could definitely be improved.
Two of the things it needs are more shading and reflections in the eyes.

When you draw the details/shading work from left to right and/or use another sheet of paper and rest your hand on it. This is so that you do not smudge the parts you have already drawn. It is extremely annoying if your drawing gets smudged now. 

Don’t forget shadows. Think where the sunlight is coming from and what parts of the animals body or the thing you are drawing will get in the way of the light and cause shadow. When you shade turn the pencil on its side to get more coverage area. 

Thin erasers are good for making highlights. Also as I said before an eraser brush would be useful. But it is not necessary. There is no right or wrong order to do thing in or how to hold your pencil, do whatever you feel most comfortable with. 

This Horse took me half an hour to draw. Sometimes they can take a lot longer. It also depends on how many times I get interrupted to... I really enjoy drawing and never used to be anywhere near as good as I am now. Practice.... Practice is what it takes, and a lot more practice. I started drawing horse by tracing them, tracing any picture I could find. Now I can look at a photo and make it on paper. Not quite a photo of anything, but a lot of things. I have never tried drawing cars... never really wanted too. They are rather well deadish. Certainly they do not have the beauty and grace and fluid movement of horses. Some people might argue otherwise, but I will not be swayed.

People on horses look better than they are.  People in cars look worse than they are.  ~Marya Mannes

A horse is poetry in motion.  ~Author Unknown

I paint the spirit and soul of what I see. ~Brian Froud

One last thing; If the animal in your photo is in a weird or unusual position, the drawing will be more difficult and has more chance of ending up looking strange. They can work but they are a lot harder. And (yes it wasn’t exactly the last) If you are drawing a person, I would suggest draw one with his/her mouth closed (well all open mouths I draw look well.....) and from the side, then you don’t need to make the faces symmetrical (Not that faces are entirely symmetrical.) 

A drawing I did a few weeks ago

"Brunby Eyes" Another sketch I did today. The camera flash makes the eye look a bit strange in this picture.

And some more quotes.

All art is but dirtying the paper delicately. ~John Ruskin

Drawing things makes them seem more real and makes me feel more alive. It also makes me pin down and remember things - landscapes, season, weather, occasions, incidents, people - that would otherwise have melted from my memory. ~David Gentleman

One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil. ~Balthus