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I've been busy at college. Started learning metalwork recently and it's wonderfully fascinating. I've done a couple of rough, small pieces and will show them off soon. Meanwhile I've managed a few doodles when time permits, adding colour to my Float Like A Balloon drawing and sketching a few ravens for fun, all in my moleskine blank book ...

So yes, I'm still fascinated by the black birds and their mythologies and fables, so will pursue that further whenever I find spare moments to do so. Right now I'm occupied with filling in college sketchbooks and drawing tons of shoes ... so expect to see loads of footwear up here soon.

Wishing you a week full of blessings and lightness. Cheers.

This piece was drawn in coloured pencils as an assignment for my MATS Bootcamp e-course. It started off as a preparatory sketch in my moleskine, but I got carried away and ended up putting down layers and layers of colour. This was the result, "I Choose to Embrace the Unknown":

As always, I'm offering all the "I Choose" designs monthly as A4/A3 free printables to those who sign up for the Floating Lemons newsletter, so if you want to print them out at home for your personal use, or pass them onto friends, just click HERE to subscribe.

I sketched out quite a few ideas before the drawing above insisted on picking itself as the final. Here are some of them, and the prep sketches that refused to stay preparatory ...

All in all a wonderful nautical exploration. Hope you've enjoyed a peek at it as much as I enjoyed working on the whole project. Wishing you a fantastical day. Cheers.

I was supposed to post this two days ago ... but real life got in the way of finishing it up. So a quick sketch it will remain.

I had to remind myself halfway through that I'm trying to loosen up in my drawings! So the delicate structure I set up to start off with became a mass of sketchy lines instead. I'm quite pleased with the results, unfinished though it might look. Well, that's probably because it is .... not quite done. Here's the final scan and a couple of images of what I did to get there:

Drawn in my large moleskine journal with an assortment of coloured pencils. Cheers.

All in the spirit of gift-giving - some wrapped boxes I've drawn at different moments in the past to while away the little time I don't have :)

Drawn in coloured pencil, in my moleskine journal, just for fun. Cheers.

I'm trying to make time to draw/paint regularly. We've been so involved with work recently that this somehow made it's way to the bottom of my priorities list, when in fact it should be at the top for various reasons, not least being that it's super-therapeutic for me, and, hello, without art I really have no business to speak of!

As I have a long queue of designs and patterns waiting to be placed on gifts and cards on the stores, I actually now have the luxury of drawing whatever I please, without having to consider its commercial value. I know, I know, I shouldn't anyway -- but unfortunately that's what has been happening of late as I do need to fill the empty pockets.

So. I managed a quick sketch of a cupcake ... completely from imagination (which just goes to show what I think about during the day) as it's not easy finding the real thing in the countryside. Not surprising really, as the French have such delicious pastries of their own. And I love them, especially the lemon meringue tarts that I have a particular weakness for -- and my Patisserie in the village makes pretty much the best ones I've ever tasted. Still, there's just something about cupcakes that's, well, different, wouldn't you say ...?

Drew this in coloured pencil, in my moleskine journal. And as it really is a very quick sketch, completely from my sweetly warped imagination, I'm sure you'll be kind enough not to notice the horrendously obvious errors that I shan't mention either. I now have a cupcake craving, sigh. Cheers!

So. I'm in the middle of updating one of my older drawings. Well, a set of drawings ... three white ducks drawn, ATC-sized (that's 2.5"x3.5" to those who have no idea of what Artist Trading Cards are) on coloured backgrounds, all in coloured pencil. The originals are at this post: Ducks ATCs.

I decided to play with them a bit in Corel Painter and now I'm not sure of which ones I should put up on my cards and gifts online - the original drawn in coloured pencil, or the new digitally re-painted ones!

I'd love some help deciding, so here is the original:

And here's the 'painted' version:

To tell the truth, this isn't the first time I find myself stuck at having to make a choice. Am not too great at decision-making anyway, and when it comes to my art I think I get far too emotionally close, so it's difficult to stand back and be objective. I can get stuck for hours just trying to pick two different shades of the same colour! It's so not amusing that it's funny.

I'm seriously considering starting up a regular "dilemma" section where I ask for help picking out colours or different versions of a piece of art or illustration ... we shall see ...

As far as my Ducks are concerned, I do think I know which one I'm leaning more towards, but am still unsure and haven't made up my mind, so I'd love and appreciate any comments and help. Which one do you prefer?