Tea in the Garden

This weekend has been a busy one as well as a record one - the hottest October on record, at a lovely 28 degrees! So in between drawing and painting, we have been making the most of it and going to the beach and also to a place called St Catherine's Breakwater, where we had a lovely walk along the pier, with spectacular views and clear blue sea. And of course the trip wasn't complete without an icecream.  But let me show you some work that I have been doing in between enjoying the sunshine. More painting and experimenting with colour to start with...

Aztec Rain Deity - painted in acrylics

Quick colour sketches

Using watercolour and pencil and pen

Using acrylics

Experimenting with colour

Today, Monday is supposedly the last day of our mini heatwave, so I thought I would make the most of the sunshine and use it to my advantage.  I have decided that I want to make my portfolio to look 'old' so I have stained each page with tea.  Working in direct sunlight certainly speeded up the drying process as each page needed two coats of tea to produce a decent effect.  It has been a whole day of painting paper in between entertaining Freya but it was very pleasant working in the garden, catching a few rays at the same time!

Tea in the garden

I have had a few more ideas for presentation of my portfolio and also my backup folder, so I will be working on this soon, as well as ploughing on with some more designs.