Japanese sketchbook pages

The latest pages in my sketchbook.

Chinese guide

This woman was a guide at the place where reproductions of the terracotta warriors are made. She spoke very good English.

Wedding kimono

Here's my latest coloured pencil drawing - of a Japanese woman on her wedding day at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo. You can see a couple of other drawings of her here. This was the first time I've drawn on Arches paper - expensive but lovely to draw on. The green background of the drawing was inspired by a Japanese film called All About Lily Chou Chou.

And here's a photo of the drawing when it was half-done:

Doll details

Some details of my Russian dolls.

Japanese Russian dolls

My Russian dolls are now complete. The largest doll is painted in red, brown, pink and gold and has a design of cherry blossoms. The middle doll is painted in shades of blue and features some fish (which were initially supposed to look something like koi carp) and The Great Wave by Hokusai. The little doll is painted in pale green and gold with a design of bamboo.

I used a variety of paints including cheap acrylic paints (Anitas), more expensive acrylic paints (Golden) and some tester pots from the local DIY store. My favourite paint of the lot was the brown paint and it was one of the tester pots - it is by Jeff Banks and is called Lazy Paint. It went on very smoothly and had good coverage.

Pencil roll

I've been looking for something to store some of my ever-expanding collection of coloured pencils in. I'd been thinking of buying a cheap set of pencils just for the tin, but I couldn't find any cheap pencils in a tin! So I whipped this up this evening. My sewing may not be perfect but at least now I can store and transport my pencils. The fabric was from a curtain bought from a charity shop many years ago - this fabric has come in handy for a number of projects and there is still lots left. The ribbon was from a box of chocolates.

China souvenirs: Olympics

We're having an "Olympic Week" at work this week during which the pupils' lessons will be based on various aspects of the Olympics. So to go with the Olympic theme here are some of my souvenirs from China, bought at the airport in Beijing. They are all based on the Olympic mascots, the Fuwa.

The dolls get a touch of colour

Here's how the dolls are looking so far.

Gardening

I've done some more work on my design for my garden and here is how the actual garden looks so far.

Russian dolls ready to paint

After having sketched out my designs, I have transferred them to the dolls and they are ready to paint.

Feeding time

I spent about an hour on Sunday photographing the blackbirds again.

Russian doll designs

I've started doodling some ideas for my Russian dolls and I've given them a base coat. My next step will be to draw a design onto each doll.

Fathers' Day card

My Dad's been giving me some help with my garden, so I decided to do his card on a garden theme (complete with my friendly little blackbirdie).

Blank Russian dolls

Look what I got at the Red Door Gallery in Edinburgh yesterday. I've been looking for a set of these for ages! Now I just need to decide how to decorate them. I think I will draw various designs in my sketchbook before starting to paint them.

Here are some of the artists who inspired me to look for a set of blank Russian dolls:

This set of dolls based on computer terms are hilarious! The Wurst Gallery has Russian dolls by a number of different artists on their site. Irina Troitskaya is an artist whose work I really admire and her animal matreshka dolls are amazing - they look like something out of an old fairy tale. Another exhibition of dolls is at Music Art Forum. There's a nesting doll swap group on Flickr. I must have missed this exhibition at the Lighthouse in Glasgow.

Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo

I went to the Botanic Garden to see an installation called Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo.

Unfortunately the sound installation in the Temperate Palm House didn't seem to be making any sound, and the bamboo sculpture on the birch lawn was just a load of bamboo poles stuck in the ground - but perhaps it will look more impressive when it is used as a stage for dance and musical performances.

At least the squirrels kept me entertained!

Edinburgh College of Art degree show

Today I visited the degree show at Edinburgh College of Art. The departments that I found most interesting were Textiles and Illustration. In Textiles the floral patterns of Lauri Patrick and Nanette Foran were very beautiful, and I particularly liked the intricate cut out designs by Ellie Griffiths-Moore.

In Illustration I liked the work by Emily Sutton, Atika Bennamane, Sophie Martin and Ryoko Tamura. But my favourite by a long way was Lucy Roscoe with her beautifully cut out and embossed white paper designs, and her designs based on A Room With a View.

Baby blackbirds in my garden

Over the past few weeks a friendly blackbird has been making frequent visits to my back garden. When I arrived home today I found it feeding two young blackbirds. Although the parent and one of the young flew away soon after I brought out the camera, the other young bird stayed for a while as I photographed it from the other side of the garden.

The parent feeding the two young birds

More pages in my Japan sketchbook

I finally got round to adding some more pages to my sketchbook all about Japanese culture. Each of these pages takes about a day's research! I'm not sure whether I will add some colour to the ones that are just drawn with ink - I quite like them the way they are.

Garden ideas

I was trying to decide what I could do to improve my garden, so I began by drawing a plan of the garden. This was not easy, as it was mostly done while standing on the lid of my toilet and peering out the small window in the bathroom! When I drew and coloured in the plan I decided that my garden actually looked better than I had originally thought, but I still wanted to break up some of the straight lines. So below is one of my ideas for what I can do. I also want to fit a flowering cherry tree or plum tree in somewhere.