There’s a Hummingbird in my Garden

July 5, 2014October 5, 2015Leave a comment

Since I moved to California (from England) to be with my husband, I’ve become more appreciative of birds. Not that I didn’t like them before. I loved them. I have had for many years a pet Cockatiel which sadly had to stay in the UK with my parents. But when I came to live here, it was the first time I had ever seen a hummingbird. They are tiny, cute and beautiful and I was in awe. And when I found out you could get a hummingbird feeder! So we strung one upon our balcony and that was my solution to not having a pet for the first time in my life. Over the past 5 years I have watched the hummingbirds come and go from our feeder, bought a house with a garden, bought an extra feeder, watched even more hummingbirds come and go, even stay and fight off others.

I’m truly hooked and inspired.

Some of them are iridescent, with bright emerald greens and ruby reds. Others different hues of browns.

I was inspired enough to ask V to get me some photos….

Ruby Throated Hummingbird perched on a wire.

Then I was inspired to sketch….

Hummingbird sketches in pen

That inspiration moved on to create.

Hummingbird in black pen and pencil.

And create some more

Doodles of concept ideas

I did studies of the different aspects of hummingbirds that intrigue me….

Studies of cypress vines. Hummingbirds feed from what seem to be the most beautiful flowers.

And finally create something more detailed.

Unfinished perched hummingbird framed with cypress vine. Pencil and black pen.

I haven’t finished with my hummingbird inspiration….and I haven’t finished all that I have created so far. In fact I still am uncertain what exactly I will do with the different studies featured in this post. I know I will certainly revisit them as well as the inspiration of this post..

Not least because there is always a hummingbird in my garden. They really do enjoy the red sugary drink we put out for them.

Hovering Hummingbird Drawing Throw Pillow by InspiredMeStudio
Browse Hummingbird Pillows

I owe you a valentine.

March 5, 2014October 5, 2015Leave a comment

I’ve owed you this post for over a month. In fact I have been working on the artwork for this post since way before Valentines day. For one reason or another I got distracted by so many things I never got to finish the different drawings and idea I had going. Such is life I guess of the artist/mummy.

I was inspired to create an tongue in cheek annotated study of a Valentine’s card. When I started I was really enjoying it. I decided to create the artwork digitally and use watercolour paints and black ink pen effects.

I figured the art piece would need a title.

Ribbon banner…Annotated study of the best Valentine ever!

Love me, love you…..I figured there would be writing theres always soppy messages on a Valentine’s card.

Watercolour Heart.

Because love hearts are the quintessential icon of love.
At this point I decided it was best and easier to create individual elements that I thought would be obligatory parts of an awesome valentine. Then later on I could splice the, together to make one.

Cupids Arrow

I figured Cupid needed to feature somewhere.

Yarn Ball Heart

Yarn Ball Heart with shading.

The Yarn Ball Heart image is an illustration of a ball of yarn, in the shape of a heart. I was going somewhere with this, as you will see next.

Yarn Ball Heart gains a kitty. Screenshot of work in progress.

The initial makings of a teddy bear. Screenshot of work in progress.

Almost all Valentine’s have a featured cartoon person or character. Something or someone soppy, cute or funny. Which is where I was going with both the teddy bear and the cat. But this is where things started unraveling. I am my worst critic of my work. And I don’t really feel I can do cartoon work. I struggled to get a good flow from the start on both. And was never happy with what I made. Perpetually erasing and restarting. Till I got as far as you can see in these screenshots. The problem with not feeling like I getting it right over and over and over is I start loosing interest. The desire to continue wanes and I lose the energy to propel myself forward to the end. That coupled with the fact that I lost the inspiration behind my cat illustration just very recently (my awesome, front door knocking, mint and roast potato thieving, bigger character than any human, cat of almost 15 years. And whom we had from the very start of his life. Lost a fight with a car. The next artwork I finish inspired by him feel needs to be something as awesome as him……or at least something I’m proud of and feel connected to. I will probably finish this annotated valentine at some point. But for now I need to stop looking at it. And get rid of that “need to finish now” feeling.

So with all that said…….

I still owe you a Valentine.

Yarn Ball Heart Tee Shirt by InspiredMeStudio
Check out Black and white sketch T-Shirts online at zazzle

Peaceful is a toddler napping!

January 21, 2014October 5, 2015Leave a comment

We’ve been quite busy this week. Especially with S. So I haven’t been very creatively productive since before christmas. But this evening, a rare long nap, gave just enough time to progress on a few works in progress. And even start and complete (only just), a quick sketch of what exactly was enabling my rare opportunity to work.

Peaceful is a toddler napping <3

sketch of S sleeping. Pen on paper

And the end of that peace is said toddler waking up in a cranky mood!

What’s your peaceful moment of the day?

Trick or Treat!

October 26, 2013July 11, 2014

Full Moon.

It’s that time of year again. Halloween madness is right around the corner! Or already in full swing if you’re inclined to “celebrate” the whole month. Not that I mind that, as it’s one of my favorite holidays since S was born. Most probably because it was the first holiday that came up after her birth.

After my last painting and the lengthy blog post, I needed to try something quicker, easier, and requiring less of an essay to explain. So I decided to try out another app, called iOrnament on my IPad. And get into the Halloween spirit by making some simple Halloween patterns and scribbles to share, along with some apropos photos. I’ve quite enjoyed learning about patterns or as Jürgen Richter-Gebert, (mathematics professor at the Technical University of Munich, and creator of the program used for the app) refers to them, wallpapers. Although the mathematics aspect does go over my head some what (I’ve never been that gifted in that subject). Either way it’s interesting to read and fun and easy to use my daughter has even made some patterns). It also also reminded me that at some point I would love to design fabric prints. I think that would be fun, if not just because its bringing me back to fashion design which I loved.

Daddy Pumpkin, Mummy pumpkin, and Baby Pumpkin. Our first Jack O’Lanterns after S was born.

So here are some Halloween themed patterns or wallpapers, which ever you would like to call them.

Beetles, Beetles everywhere. Beetle inspired pattern in black and white.

Dancing Spiders. Probably my biggest foe on planet earth. I am not embarrassed to say I suffer from pretty bad arachnophobia.

Cobwebs. Because when you think of Halloween, there has to be spiders and cobwebs.

Zoomed out image of the above cobweb pattern.

Bat print.

A less symmetrical cobweb print, complete with spiders.

Jack O’Lantern faces.

A close-up of one of the Jack O’Lantern faces.

Bats, second attempt. More details in the silhouette of these bats and the spacing is different.

A zoomed out capture of the second bat print above.

Swirls in darkness. I was trying to create an abstract interpretation in print, of a night sky. My intention was to use it in another image.

Cats eyes circle print. Inspired by cats eyes. Overlapped in a circular fashion.

Zoom out of the same, cat eyes circle print.

Spider meeting. Eight spiders of red and green.

Spiders meeting as a print.

It was really enjoyable and relaxing just doing whimsical and nonsensical prints and doodles, after all the energy the Newfoundland beach painting took. I also really enjoyed playing at patterns.
I think in the near future I would have fun playing with fabric print patterns.

But for now I’ll just wish you all a happy Halloween.

Spider Dance Print Teapot by InspiredMeStudio
Browse more Spiders Teapots

Inspired Me Studio blog has gone Deviant

March 4, 2013July 11, 2014

Just an announcement between posts that I have set up a Deviant Art profile for Inspired Me Studio blog!

I’ve actually had this account since I set up the Inspired Me Studio blog, but did nothing with it till now.

You can find Inspired Me Studio at Deviant Art here

I’ll try to post most if not all, hell maybe even more my my artwork and photos on there and it can be used as more of a gallery page.

I’m currently working on artwork for my next post. In that post I will tell you how I made all the Valentines artwork.

For this posts imagery I’ll share an old photo of mine that shall feature in my next post. It was taken in Colorado on my old phone. We came across the longest line of tanker cars I have ever seen stored on some side tracks. They actually curve around in front of us far off in the distance. I lost sight of where they ended.

Tanker car train, Colorado.

Inspired Me Studio

A Pictorial Diary

Category: drawing

There’s a Hummingbird in my Garden

I owe you a valentine.

Peaceful is a toddler napping!

Trick or Treat!