In today’s post, I’d like to share a picture of some earings I made to match my recent bracelet.

Earings with glass beads

They were made from the same strand of Solid Oak brand beads. The beads are glass and bronze coloured with turquoise bi-comb beads in between. In fairness most people would have just had enough beads to make the necklace only from the single strand, unless you were spacing them out further with other beads. I just have wrists like sparrows ankles, and made the bracelet with stretch cord, so I had enough spare.

Links

• HobbyCraft
• Solid Oak; Creative Style; This gives you the option of downloading the catalogue of designs.

There is quite a collection and they have a PDF catalogue you can download too. It really helped having wrists like sparrows ankles as thanks to that I was able to make this stretch bracelet and a set of earings too.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

In today’s post I will be reviewing; Watercolour Flower Portraits with Billy Showell; DVD

Watercolour Flower Portraits DVD

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Teaching Art
• Item number: TABSFPD
• RRP at time of writing: £25.52 or £20.40 to SAA members

Reason For Buying

This year I’m hoping to improve my skills with watercolours. My favorite subject to pain would be old buildings, but there have been few opportunities to visit those lately. My garden however is full of lovely flowers and plants and this DVD looked a great way to find out more about how to paint them.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Superb content.
• Billy clearly shows the whole painting process and explains what she is doing at every stage
• Projects on the DVD
• Tulip
• Arum Lily
• Hints on Composition
• Phalaenopsis Orchid

Cons

Haven’t got any.

Build Quality

Excellent. Lighting, sound and camera work are all excellent and complement the superb content. No distracting music over the narration. There is music during time-lapse parts of the demo’s but it is gentle rather than over loud and annoying as some DVD often suffer with.

Value for Money

Excellent. Although the DVD doesn’t have a large number of projects on it, this has allowed for a detailed and full description of the painting process. Planning, drawing, colour mixing and blending are all shown, which is extremely helpful to newbies (like me).

Would I buy it Again?

Yes. I would highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in flower painting, learning to mix colours and wanting to paint in a realistic style.

Summing up

I really enjoyed this DVD and also have the book of the same title, which I will review at a later date. I have learnt a lot and although I have a lot of practicing to do, Billy clearly has a passion for her subject and the love and care she puts into her paintings really show in the finished pieces.

Billy is an inspiring tutor and thanks to this DVD and the book, have given me the confidence to keep practicing with watercolour. I was lucky enough to get this DVD and book for Christmas along with her choice of artists colours. Billy is so right when she says materials do make a big difference to the results you get. Painting on proper watercolour paper with artist quality paints makes a massive difference, the colours really are brighter and easier to work with and behave totally differently on watercolour paper.

Links

For more information about Billy Showell please visit her website.

The Watercolour Flower Portraits DVD is also available from the SAA. You can also buy the Watercolour Flower Portraits book either on its own or as a set with the DVD from the SAA too.

Later in the year I’ll also be reviewing the following Billy Showell products;

• Watercolour Flower Portraits; Book
• The A-Z of Flower Portraits; Book and DVD

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

Today I’d like to share a digital card I made in Craft Artist software to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Celebrate the Chinese New Year

The digikit I used is called Forbidden City and is available from Daisy Trail. I’ve just found the feathering tool! Loved the feathered edge to the background paper it gave. What do you think?

Links

• Daisy Trail
• Forbidden City Digikit

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

In a twist to the popular ‘What’s on your work desk’ I wondered if it would work with books?

What are you reading?

At Christmas I was lucky enough to recieve Billy Showell’s book and DVD set; Watercolour Flower Portraits. I’m hoping to get to grips with watercolour and learn how to get the best from colours, mixing and blending. Once I’ve finished reading it, I’ll post a review.

Book; Watercolour Flower Portraits by Billy Showell

There are few opportunities to get to the kind of architecture that I would most like to draw and paint, but there are plenty of plants and flowers in the garden. The DVD has been excellent and being a visual learner,it has really helped. I’m going to carefully read the book and practice as much as I can. Maybe leaves at the moment, till the flowers come back out.

How about you?

What are you reading?

On the novel front I really enjoy Jack Sheffield Teacher series of books. Thank goodness for the Kindle. Being dyslexic, the options for altering how the text appears on the Kindle has made a huge difference to me. In the past if a publisher printed a book in a text style I couldn’t read, no matter how much I loved the author, I couldn’t read the book. Now with a Kindle I can choose a font, line spacing and font size. It’s so much better, also the E ink that the Kindle uses makes it much easier to read too.

If you are struggling reading ‘regular novels’, do try a few e readers in the stores at the moment, they could make all the difference to you too.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

In today’s post I will be reviewing; Jackson’s Retractable Sable Brush.

Jackson's; Retractable Sable brush

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Jacksons Art Supplies;
• Item Name: Sable Retractable brush
• Item number; BRSRET
• RRP at time of writing: £7.55

Product description from Jackson’s site

A very useful pocket brush. This light weight sabe hair brush has fully protected hair when retracted.

Reason For Buying

I wanted a light brush but with quality hair rather than nylon. Something that wouldn’t get damaged if taken on field trips.

Pros/Cons

Jackson's; Retractable Sable brush. Compact for field trips

Pros;

Nice and light

• Well fitting lid, which is easy to remove and turns into the handle of the brush in use.
• The brush has quality sable and returns to a good point
• The barrel has a ventilation hole in the end, so if you do have to pack the brush away while it is still damp, during field trips it can still air.

Cons;

• Haven’t got any

Build Quality

Excellent. Good quality sable, well-fitting lid. Not too heavy for travel and for poor dexterity, making it very comfortable to use.

Value for Money

Excellent. A fair price for a good quality product.

Would I buy it Again?

Yes. I highly recommend this to everyone.

Summing up

Jackson's; Retractable Sable brush (open)

This is a truly excellent brush, which is a joy to use. Perfect if you want to take it on field trips as the barrel protects the brush trip in transit or storage. Well worth the investment and would make a perfect present for an artist.

Links

• Jackson’s Art Supplies
• Jackson’s Art Blog
• Jackson’s Retractable Sable Brush

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

In today’s post I’d like to share a picture of a bracelet that I made using glass beads.

Bracelet with Glass beads

 The beads were from Hobby Craft in the Solid Oak brand, there were lots of style and options, wooden and stones. If my dexterity was better I could really collect a lot of those

Links

• HobbyCraft
• Solid Oak; Creative Style; This gives you the option of downloading the catalogue of designs.

There is quite a collection and they have a PDF catalogue you can download too. It really helped having wrists like sparrows ankles as thanks to that I was able to make this stretch bracelet and a set of earings too.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

Today I would like to share a free download with you. A calendar page for February 2012.

Free Download: Calendar Page; February 2012

How to Use

• Click on the image to open the calendar picture to full size.
• Click on File, then choose landscape option for paper orientation.
• Click Print

To Change the size of the calendar

• Click on the image to open the calendar picture to full size.
• Right Click and choose ‘Save As’ from the list of options.
• You can print it as, is or open a Word Processing programme and insert the image. (Once it is on your machine.) This will give you more control of the final size of the calendar page.

Feel free to tell your friends about this offer and forward them a link to this site. 

Let me know what you think, of these calendar pages. If comments suggest this is popular…it just might become a regular feature. For those wondering what the bird is, its is a Field Fare. The picture was taken in the back garden in last years snow. When the weather is bad we sometimes put out half apples for the birds and the fieldfares in particular love them.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon 

Billie

In case you missed it, here is a link to the January 2012 calendar page.

In today’s post I will be reviewing;

Teaching Art: Botanical Art Techniques with Bente King

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Teaching Art; SAA
• Product Name: Botanical Art Techniques; Painting & Drawing Flowers & Plants
• Item number: TA BKBATD
• RRP at time of writing: £18.37

Reason For Buying

I’ve always wanted to paint in a realistic style, not necessarily to the extreme accuracy of serious botanical painting, b ut well enough that you could see what flower etc I was representing. I saw a clip of this on The Painting and Drawing Channel (also on You Tube)  and really loved it.

Pros/Cons

Pros:

• Bente Starke King is encouraging and inspirational in her art work and presentation style
• DVD covers watercolours, working with coloured pencils,
• Ink and wash
• Drawing techniques
• The run time on the DVD is 73 minutes

Cons:

This is mearly a niggle. Since the DVD was created in 2004 it is in 4:3 aspect ratio, which looked a bit odd on a larger wide-screen TV. It is simple to get round this, change your TV screen setting to 4:3 and the shapes of everything come out much better.

Build Quality

Excellent. Good lighting, sound and no distracting music or backgrounds. Well presented and quality content.

Value for Money

Excellent. There are lots of techniques covered in the DVD making it good value for money.

Would I buy it Again?

Yes. I highly recommend it o anyone wanting to start drawing and painting flowers and those wanting to increase/improve their skills with pencils, inks and watercolours.

Summing up

Bente is  simply wonderful, full of enthusiasm for her subject which is very contagious. When she says you can do it, you believe you can and that is half the battle when learning something new. I painted a leaf using her methods after watching this DVD and it was the best I’ve ever painted.

If you want to paint realistic style with watercolours this is an excellent place to start.

Links

SAA. The Society for All Artists. This is where you can buy the DVD and your art materials too. Become a member for excellent savings on products and postage costs.

Botanical Art Techniques DVD

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

Seth Apter is a superb mixed media artist and I was lucky enough to take part in his art collaboration project ‘The Pulse’. The Pulse is an interview with artists from around the world.

This sunday my comments were included in the latest part of The Pulse to be published; The Masterclass 5; Familiar Faces.

Master Class: Part of Seth Apter's mixed media art collaboration project; The Pulse

The question was asked: ‘If you could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including the present, who would it be and why?’

To find out which artist I chose, please visit Seth’s blog, the link is shown below. I am also super excited for the publication of Seth’s book in March; The Pulse of Mixed Media, as he’s told me something I submitted will be included in it.

Links

Do stop by Seth’s amazing blog, his art is fantastic and really inspires me to get the paint out, every time I visit.

• Seth Apter’s blog; The Altered Page
• The Pulse; Style file; Chapter 10
• Master Class 5; Familiar Faces

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

For those of you who like to make New Years Resolutions, and those like me with bad memories. Perhaps you want a quick n easy way to remind you when birthdays are coming up. A short tutorial today, that is quick n simple to do but should help you to remember the birthdays of those you cherish.

Birthday List with Serif Craft Artist

You Will Need

• Computer
• Serif Craft Artist
• Digikit: Season of Giving
• 160 gsm card stock
• Printer

Method

• Open Craft Artist Program
• Go to Blank Projects and select your paper size, I wanted A6 so I went to the custom section and typed in the dimensions there.
• From the digikits choose: Season of Giving
• Add the ‘Gift log’ from the embellishment section of that kit, by doing a single click onto it, you could add the whole digi kit if you wish or just the specific items you want. Also add a material in the colour of your choice.

You will now see a blank page on the work area of Craft Artist, this is where you put the items you want to print. On the left of your screen, the items you added from your digikit will be in the tabbed sections marked; Backgrounds, embellishments etc.

• Drag the gift log picture from the embellishments tab area, on the left, onto your blank page. As you ‘drop’ the embellishment will stay on your page, you can move it around, or resize it, till it is where you would like it to appear.
• Next go to the materials section and bring over a piece of material. Click on the SCISSOR tool, then choose PUNCHES and the square punch to cut a narrow strip from the material. Place the strip of material over the words Gift Log and drag on the corners of the piece of material until it fits the area you want.
• Go to the TEXT tool at the top of the page, click it once, then click on your page, this activates the tool. If you go back to the top of the screen you can select from any font on your computer. Type the words ‘Birthday list’ on top of you material. When the text is selected like this, you can also drag the corners of the box around it, to resize the text larger or smaller. Move the text to where you would like it on the page by dragging it there using your mouse.
• Click save and then print onto your chosen cardstock.

You can create this project any size. The original is for you to list all the birthdays on one page. If you have lots of people to buy for, an alternative would be to make a separate page for each month. Like this one.

Birthday List with Serif Craft Artist.

Hope you can follow this tutorial ok and I’d love to see what you make, do leave me a link to your projects with your comments. If I can work out how to add pictures from screenshots, I’ll try to share more complex tutorials with Craft Artist.

Links

I highly recomend the Craft Artist Professional Program and the Photo Project software too. If you haven’t got the Craft Artist software yet, get in touch with Serif as I believe the PhotoProjects programe includes Craft Artist Professional and gives you even more tools.

• Serif Software
• Daisy Trail
• Craft Artist Professional
• Digikit: Season of Giving

There will be more projects from me using these programs, so if you want to join in, rush over to Daisy Trail and get some software and digi kits

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie