Doll clothes.

I have been busy today. I made a skirt for myself. I haven't yet taken any photographs. It was a very easy to make skirt but I am pleased with the results. I have also finished three doll dresses. All the dresses are based around a simple bodice but I ring the changes with different skirts and different trims. All good fun.

This particular doll suits these styles of dresses a treat.

Doll clothes.

Went shopping today and bought some lovely fabric to make a couple of skirts. I also bought some squares of fabric to make doll clothes. I have made a doll dress which looks ready for summer. I love this print and it is just the right scale for the doll. Great fun. More doll dresses on the way.

Pansy painting continued.

Today my students continued painting the pansy flowers. We started by painting the stems, sepals and the very centres of the flowers with a light green wash (Cadmium yellow pale, Prussian blue and a touch of Alizarin crimson). The next stage was to paint the top surface of the leaves. Two green colour mixes were made (one mid green and other a darker green) using Cadmium yellow pale, Prussian blue and Crimson alizarin. The leaves were painted one at a time and the paper was moistened with clean water before applying the paint. The two greens were applied to the leaves to correspond to the light and darker areas. On the demonstration leaf, I painted, I also reserved a pale area to represent the light shining onto the leaf. Whilst all the washes were wet I used the tip of a dry brush to lift out the veins. The next stage is to add shading to the leaves and to define some of the veins using a combination of the two paint mixes already used. The final stages will be to complete the stems and sepals and paint the under surface of the leaves.

I have finished dying the fabric for my City and Guilds embroidery course and have now to draw up the design for a wall hanging and prepare samples of the techniques I will use. I have a good rough plan of the wall hanging but have yet to decide on the size and scale of each section. I will be using a design based on a pattern taken from Tutankhamuns sarcophagus. I am also cutting out some little doll clothes. Definitely keeping myself busy.

Peony painting.

I have finished the Peony painting today. I am very pleased with the leaves. I have decided to use an oval double mount around the flower which I think really echoes the shape of the flower nicely.

Painting a Peony

I love Peonies and now the flowers are back in the shops I thought it would be lovely to paint one. I have spent part of the weekend painting a small study of one bloom of these beautiful flowers. I completed the flower yesterday and today I have painted the top surface of the leaves. I have the sepals, under surface of the leaves and the stems to finish. I hope to have these completed tomorrow.