Christmas Competition!

As we approach the festive season (Just over a month away)! As I'm sure all of you are aware,the christmas gifts in shops is a it of a giveaway! So, to celebrate I'm doing a competition!

THE PRIZE:

Should you be the winner, I will be emailing you a template, complete with scanned, high quality images of my paintings, so you can print it out as a perfect Christmas stocking filler!

So all that you have to do is leave your name and answer to a question appearing in one of my posts in the next week as a comment below, then on December 15th (10 days til Christmas) then a name will be randomly selected to be the winner!

Merry Christmas!

Castle Hedingham- Essex

Done using mixed media on watercolor paper; hope you like it!

Charcoal Pencils for the windows
Watercolor paints for the background
Derwent Watercolour Pencils for the castle

Derwent Watersoluble Sketching Pencils Guide

The picture below shows a guide on shades included in a 6 pack if Watersoluble sketching pencils.

Derwent Watercolour Pencils - Parrot

At the NEC - Birmingham I brought a pack of 36 watercolour pencils and here is my result!

Again this is taken with the iPad camera!

Derwent. Watersoluble Sketching, Magpie

Fulfilling my earlier promise of adding more pictures - well here it is. This one is of a magpie sat on top of some foliage. For this one I focused more on the dark pencil (8B) as the body of the magpie is obviously dark!! I hope you like it and comment below.

Again the picture was taken using the iPad camera so forgive the slight blurriness!

For more hints and tips check out Derwents website www.pencils.co.uk

I do have more on my list to upload- instructions for actually using these pencils and a couple more pictures using the Watersoluble sketching pencils!

Derwent. Watersoluble Sketching Demo

As I mentioned in my previous post one thing I was definitely surprised about was how smooth they were,yet they still retained the shade that it was supposed to.

For this picture I did use watercolour paper, just because I didn't want the paper to disintegrate, but seeing how the sketch came out standard cartridge paper you find in most sketchbooks would have been fine! So this adds to the value of these pencils as they don't come with so many other added costs!

The pencils apply just the same as normal ones do, though perhaps a little softer!

This picture has been taken using the iPad camera, so forgive the slight blurriness to the picture!!


I will be adding a couple more sketches that will demonstrate these pencils!!

Head to www.pencils.co.uk for projects,advice,hints and tips!


Thank you so much Derwent for sending me these pencils!!

Derwent- Watersoluble Sketching

Recently I received from Derwent Watersoluble sketching pencils,hopefully this post will tell you more about them! You can pick up this great value set for approximately £7 in most arts and craft shops (£7.49 -Hobbycraft) These pencils can also be purchased separately! The pencils come in a pack of 6, 2 of each shade:

2 x HB
2 x 4B
2 x 8B


If you like the versatility of watercolour pencils,yet the convenience and tones of sketching pencils then these combine the best of both worlds!

The pencils come in a metal tin to keep them together,complete with a free sharpener, great for sketching out and about!! These pencils are similar to standard graded sketching pencils, so for example (6B,4B and HB) They also have labeled the pencils to show what type of wash they create, just for added assistance!! They also come pre-sharpened so there isn't that annoyance of opening a pack of pencils and finding you still have lots of sharpening to do before you get started!

I first imagined these pencils as being quite scratchy and to be honest not that Watersoluble, so leaving indents in the paper! However these pencils were extremely soft and didn't leave any of these marks as you will find out in my next post - a demo of these pencils!


Overall if you like experimenting, creating different tones then I would totally recommend these to you!

Contacting me

Another update on my contact!!

Twitter: @claire_12heart
Email: clairesart123@live.co.uk

London Eye by night

This is my latest, done using watercolours. I didn't use standard black out of the tube I mixed it up using burnt umber and ultramarine, this is because black out of the tube can look a bit too "bold" on a picture.

Take a look at the London eye website for more information: http://mobile.londoneye.com/

It's a Puffins Love!

I couldn't think of any better titles for these two puffins having a rather "intense" moment!! But anyway this is a watercolour picture!

The Conclusion of Summer 2012

The clocks go back tonight, we had snow this morning. Winter has officially made it's first mark! What an end to a very British summer of sport! London had the Olympics/Paralympics, as I'm sure many people found the Gamesmakers definitely made the games! Also Andy Murray's victory at the US Open and the runner up at Shanghai. Not forgetting the jubilee in June.

I've also updated a few of the pages to the right of this post so take a look and don't forget to leave me your comments!

I'm sure that you have probably heard on the news that Alex Partridge and Hannah Macleod had their bronze medals stolen, Hannah's has been recovered but Alex's hasn't yet, if you know anything contact crimestoppers on 0800555111. The medals were stolen after visiting the Queen, at a nightclub in Mayfair (London). Alex Partridge had his Team GB jacket stolen which had his bronze medal in, this has been returned, its just the medal that needs to be returned. If found hand it in to your local police station or  anonymously to: GB Rowing Hammersmith.

http://www.london24.com/news/crime/alex_partridge_issues_new_plea_over_stolen_london_2012_bronze_medal_1_1672466

St Malo,France

Hello again! This time this is from inside the intra muros so I hope you like it!!

St Malo is on the Brittany coast next to the ferry port- you can get a ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo in 10 hours on Brittany Ferries, that's what we did summer 2012, which was REALLY good! No delays. We went on the overnight sailing on the way out to St Malo then the daytime sailing on the way back. Check out the brittany ferries website here- http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/quote-book?gclid=CI6T1q3ysLMCFUfJtAodOmYA2w

Just a reminder..

If you would like to take part in any competitions or contact me then email clairesart123@live.co.uk or leave a comment on any of the posts!

St Malo - France

Intramuros- Basically the walled city. We went there for our summer holiday this year via Brittany Ferries. The only bad point about it was that I really want to go again!