Hello to all our lovely readers - we do appreciate you taking time to catch up with us here on Substack and we’d love it it you mentioned us to your creative friends too. The more the merrier!
You’ve got me writing today because Laura has gone for a few days in the sunshine. I can’t blame her for seeking summer after the endless rain we’ve been having here in the UK. I thought I’d start today’s newsletter with a photo of some wild visitors to our garden pond. We complain about the squirrels eating all our bird seed but we enjoy the ducks and they at least don’t mind the wet weather.
When Laura is away it falls to us to fly back and forth between our houses so we can take care of her cats, chickens and plants whilst still taking care of our own garden and greenhouses. Luckily we only live a few miles apart. Her cats are no trouble, they seem to sleep most of the day. The hens are another matter however. I realise it’s the summer solstice and our nights aren’t very long now but the henhouse has an automatic door programmed to close at a set time. Last night that happened before all the chucks had gone to bed and we had two little stop outs. One was asleep on the roof of the house and easy to catch, the other was determined to avoid us as we chased after it by torchlight. Fortunately all was resolved without too much drama. This is what passes for evening entertainment in the country! It’s a fine thing when you can’t go home to bed until the chickens are in - I thought that worry stopped when children left home!
I’ve spent the last couple of days sewing. I found out the pattern for this studio tunic by Sew Liberated. I’d had the pattern and the fabric for ages but hadn’t got around to using it.
I bought it online and so had all the instructions downloaded to my iPad. Looked like the perfect thing for me - who doesn’t need a studio tunic? It has some nice little touches like the hanging loop on the back.
And three useful pockets, two enormous ones and a narrow inner pocket maybe for pencils and other small things. I can’t wear anything that doesn’t have pockets!
I’m pleased with how it turned out and I’m sure I shall wear it for years.
The denim will look even better when it’s paint splattered!
Despite this year’s cool weather everything in Laura’s garden is coming along nicely. We are picking more strawberries than we can possibly eat so I may have to make jam. Wandering round the garden I also spotted these lovely dark red apples yesterday. They are only tiny yet but showing promise.
Last night while watching (half watching actually) the endless Euro 24 football games on TV I was tempted to make a quick sketch from my photo. Following Laura’s recent advice about having portable art kits ready at all times I used very basic art supplies. I had a black, fine liner pen, a sketchbook, a selection of Inktense pencils and a paintbrush.
I made the initial drawing with the pen and then began to add colour with the watersoluble Inktense pencils that you all know I love so much.
The paper in my sketchbook has a noticeable tooth to it - this makes the pencil colour look quite grainy because it picks up on the raised texture of the page.
Of course all that changes when I add water. How rich and delicious is this!
And here’s the whole thing in my A5 sketchbook.
If you like this technique we have lots of videos where we use Inktense pencils both on paper and fabric over on our Designmatters website. Just type Working with Inktense into the search box to find them or browse the extensive menu to see if we can tempt you with any of our hundreds of videos on all manner of subjects. If you can’t find anything that appeals to you let us know what technique you’d like us to explore and we’ll do our best to include it.
We’ve been posting regular features for our paid subscribers to Substack. A paid subscription is only £5 a month and you can unsubscribe at any time. Take a look at the home page to spot the latest posts about me dyeing an old linen sheet with tea and then painting on the dyed fabric with acrylics. All the posts are archived so you can reread them whenever you fancy. There’s plenty to keep you occupied for hours!
Thanks for reading - take good care of yourself and normal service will resume when Laura is back next week.
Linda x
PS I’ve just checked the forecast and warm sunny weather is promised - summer at last!
Love the tunic. Aprons hanging off my neck drive me crazy so the tunic would be perfect…and all those pockets too! Your drawings are always inspiring and the courses have really helped me develop my drawing and painting skills. Thanks!
Brilliant post!! The studio tunic looks so good on you, I am tempted…and I notice such a delicate touch with those pencils…really lovely sketch. Thanks, Linda