Watercolour ~ Dunstanburgh Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle

In my one watercolour a month challenge, I didn't get a chance to complete one in April because I was so busy with wedding photography. So I'm hoping to get two done in May. This is the first one. Dunstanburgh Castle seen from the walk from Craster.

I just wanted to do a simple landscape with a few washes and not get too fussy. It worked mostly but I ended up messing about too much with the grass in the foreground, although I am pleased with how it's worked out.

Available as cards and prints on my fine art website. Just click on the picture to get the link.

Here are a few progress photos.

Thanks for looking - I'd love to know if you like it :-)
Gillian.

Watercolour ~ Tynemouth Priory

This is March's painting - although I've realised that I never blogged about February's painting! I did paint one in Feb but I love this one so much that I'll show it first.

A view of Tynemouth Priory from along the coast. I painted this from a photo I had previously taken but wasn't happy with the quality of the photo. I love the composition so decided to paint it instead of doing a re-shoot.

Tynemouth Priory

As usual, here are the progress paintings. I used different shades of paint in this painting, choosing Cerulean Blue Hue for the bright blue sky. I always have trouble with my greens, so I used Sap Green and Olive Green instead of mixing yellow and blue. Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber were used for the stonework and some of the grasses and Payne's Grey was used to get some depth in the shadows.

Slightly paler as they were taken on a different camera.

I'd love to know what you think. As usual, giclee prints are available to purchase.
My Fine Art website will be coming soon!

Gillian.

Knitting Notes ~ Blocking

I have only blocked two knitting projects - a sewn up cardigan and the pieces for my Art Nouveau inspired jumper. Now I don't know why I only just discovered this technique recently!

I am not the best knitter at keeping my stranded colour work loose enough to not pucker so I decided to block the pieces before I sewed them up to get the pattern to lay nice and flat. It worked a treat.

I put a large bath towel on the floor under a radiator and pin the pieces onto it and the carpet. You can stretch the work to the correct size (if it contains wool). I then dampen another bath towel and put it flat over the pinned out work. Then wait until it's dry.

See the results below!

Unblocked knitting

Blocked knitting

Amazing and almost professional looking!

Happy knitting :-)
Gillian x