Homemade gifts for my friend's baby - Part II

For my friend's Baby Shower I've prepared a baby gift basket. It contains:

• Muslin cloths
• Two baby bids
• Three soft baby blocks
• Homemade card

To keep it in the theme I've also changed the lining of the basket.

One Year of Botanical Painting

I took on a botanical painting class last September at the Landmark Art Centre in Teddington with botanical artist Marcia Hughes. I've always been fascinated by botanical illustration but never actually thought that I would have enough patience to try it. Still a long way to go, but I'm loving it...

Pen & Wash

Water Level Indicator

St Paul's Cathedral

Canary Wharf

I was reading the SAA July issue last night and I found the article on Allan Kirk’s sketching technique quite interesting. He uses Stabilo Fineliner pens for quick pen and wash studies to ‘capture the moment’. I had some coloured pens for some time now, but don’t use them very often as I prefer sketching with watercolours. I thought I would give it a go as the technique allows for really quick sketches on the move. I used some pictures I took during a boat trip on the Thames; it took me about 15 minutes to do all three of them and the results were not as bad as I thought. I used heavy cartridge paper to minimize buckling, although I’d like to do some further tests using watercolour paper.