I actually got round to a bit of painting and playing with this one, that’s certainly new!

To join in on the List It Tuesday fun, please pop over to Aimee’s blog Artsyville here!

You’d think a 16 year old girl in central London would have seen an impaired pigeon before…

Of course, it’s only now that spell check throws up that my automatic spelling of “pigeon” (“pidgeon”) is incorrect that I realise this, and the spelling error in my illustration for this week’s topic. Oh well, here’s to spontaneous illustrations with the odd error. It’s not the first time! ;) Perhaps it’s a good theme for another List It Tuesday week: words that trip you up every time! :)

Joining in – on time this week – with Aimee’s wonderful List It Tuesday initiative. To see more entries and find out next week’s topic, join the fun here.

I’m excited to be joining the wonderful Aimee from Artsyville in List Tuesday.

I don’t know about you, but I love a good list – it helps focus the mind and keep track of things. If you write it down, you don’t have to worry about remembering it any longer. Handwritten lists are the best, because you get the satisfaction of crossing items off.

This week’s theme is “goals from now until the end of 2012″.

For next week’s topic and to join in, you’ll have to check out Aimee’s post!

This is the gift I put together for my lovely friend Alice. I’d recently received some beautiful twine as part of an order from Studio Carta (credit where it is due: Geninne posted about this wonderful webshop last week).

The wrapping paper was made using some thick A3 copier paper and a hand-carved stamp. I used a blue stamp pad… Mostly. (Can you see the smidgen of pink on the top edge of the parcel? :)

I used washi tape to secure the paper and then tied the cotton twine. It also looped into a small glassine envelope with a made-to-measure light blue card. I stamped the message on the front of the card using one of these, and scribbled a personal message on the back. Done!

It was so much more fun than using store-bought wrapping paper – I’m itching to try more!

PS. The gift inside was a copy of Nora Ephron’s inspiring and funny “I Remember Nothing“.

I’ve got next week off work, and apart from a two day trip to the south west of England (more about that later, I hope), there is absolutely nothing I have to do. After all the travelling back and forth between the Netherlands and Cambridge and London and Cambridge, that feels so good.

So what do you do on days off with no purpose or tasks? You draw and paint a bit at your new desk. I decided to try something new – ink lines with very loose watercolour painting.

Mint, because with my sore legs, the cooling sensation of fresh mint is the stuff of dreams. I’m about to jump in the tub with this soothing mint foot scrub stuff from Rituals to see if that’ll bring some relief.

PS. As per usual, I’m still getting the hang of this scanning business so the colours look better in real life.

This week’s word for Illustration Friday was BOUNDARIES.

A white picket fence, clichéd but comfortable, guards the flowers in the garden, the comfort, safety and joys of home. It’s the physical barrier that symbolises, to me, a mental boundary. I’m home now – no more stress or worries.

Small detail – the picket fence has ten vertical slats, because the world boundaries has ten letters.

PS. Turns out the hardest part about sharing your painting online is the scanning… this looks a little softer in real life.

I subscribed to Illustration Friday weeks ago, but decided to “watch the cat out of the tree”, as the Dutch saying goes. Essentially, I thought I’d witness from a slight distance before I got involved.

Turns out low expectations beat perfectionism. I’m visiting my parents. I have none of my good paint, nor any decent brushes or watercolour paper, let alone masking fluid.

But I have Mysterious Butterflies.

Illustration Friday gives us a word a week as inspiration for a bit of creativity to be posted online before the next Friday, when a new topic is announced. This week’s word was MYSTERIOUS. However, the e-mail also contained a quote:

Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.” ~ Giorgo de Chirico

I am, of course, first and foremost a linguist, and something about the phrase “mysterious butterflies” grabbed me. So here they are, my missing, mysterious butterflies.

Cheap children’s watercolour on linnen paper, painted with brushes that refused to point. Based on the silhouettes of an Old World Swallowtail and a Large White butterfly.

Not taking things too seriously is a good place to start.

PS. Just found this Paige through Illustration Friday: Fox in Socks by Paige Keiser. Love it! This Illustration Friday business is already paying off in the form of new eye candy!

I painted a whale on a piece of postcard-sized watercolour paper a little while ago, to send to my lovely American friend Mags. Mags has a serious whale obsession, you see, and I an itch to draw.

The postcard’s finally made it’s way across the Atlantic, to rave reviews from Mags that made me glow with pride. Isn’t it funny how a compliment on something you didn’t think you were all that good at can make you feel two inches taller, especially when you’ve taken a leap (and sent the damn postcard already)?

Whale design by Sachiko Umoto (again).

I’ve been buying lots of creative books lately, mostly focusing on watercolour and illustration. I’m still mulling over ways to show them to you that won’t be overload.

But recently, I’ve found a cool new way to get inspired and become acquainted with new illustrators. Postcards! It’s cheap and addictive (…).

From left to right: Amanda Ross – “Spring Border”; Lisa Jones – untitled; Kate Wilson – “Fruit Fragrance”; Jane Ormes – “Birds Nest in Blue”.

Cards lead to websites, which are full of images that make my fingers twitch for the nearest pencil. Click at your peril.

I’m still scribbling away. I’ve found that drawing and painting in my journal is much less intimidating than using proper watercolour paper, a lot of the time. I do use actual waterpaper too, but I normally don’t have any on me when the mood to draw strikes.

I tend to bring my journal and an artsy book or two to work. At lunch time, I start scribbling in pencil, then drawing the outline in black waterproof pen when I’m happy with it. When I get home, I throw some paint at it. Caran d’Ache Neocolor watersoluble crayons and a bit of Cotman watercolour, in this case. Then I recycled my stamp. The paper in my journal doesn’t buckle nearly as badly as I feared it would, and straightens back out when it dries.

This little hamster is from Sachiko Umoto‘s Let’s Draw Cute Animals. I’ve given myself permission not to be the most origional person out there. Does it get me drawing and painting? Yes? Brilliant.

That, and I have a total soft spot for hamsters, after a childhood of keeping them as pets.