Behind the scene. Sketchbook by Tanja Russita

Tanja is a fine artist. You can see her previous guest post where she was showing how she has created a custom book here.
Have you ever wondered how does an artist's sketchbook look like? Tanja will show you hers!

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I've finally fallen in love with the sketchbooks and often carry a few of them at a time and sketch everything I see in them. This made me wonder how some artists manage to publish their sketchbooks in their web-sites, that are just scanned and only slightly retouched. My attempts to fill a sketchbook with the drawings worthy to be shown in the Internet keep failing. 

I've scanned a few pages from one of my sketchbooks to show what I mean. I took a couple of sketchbooks to our trip to Alikante and filled one and a half of them with the sketches, that was 60 pages. I can show only 17 of them as other 43 are not worthy showing at all.
Let's start with the most decent and complete sketch. It is an imprint of my hand that I sketched at the beach. It is drawn very thoughtfully and carefully, because my son Jasha was sleeping on my laps and I had nothing better to do at that moment:

Now I will show a few pages in order. First of all, if I sketch what I see, it will probably be a portrait of Sasha with Kindle in a position like this one:

This is because I am most likely to do any sketching when we are sitting at a restaurant and waiting for our order while our kids are busy somewhere else or sleeping or sitting next to us (in this case I usually need to place myself in a not so comfortable position if I'm trying to sketch them). I am also likely to use the same page for the notes on the discussed subjects at that time. 

I also can do some sketching when we are at a playground. I love sketching ears and noses (Sasha is my usual model for these sketches). The ears are my fetish, but I am rarely happy with how they turn out in my drawings. I usually try again and again... This does not help me to achieve my goal to create a beautiful sketchbook for showing it in my web-site! ...and the architectural elements with their right corners are not helping either... and that fish is not working out right away also...

Playground is also be a good place to sketch kids. They even turned out well, but I had just a pencil and I used the same page to sketch a piece of olive bark before that (too late to go back now!)

Here is the whole olive tree. It is very beautiful and even colored with a juice of an olive that was laying beside it:

There are also other children at the playground. They are good sketching objects too with their scooters! I managed to sketch one before they were gone. Somehow this page got filled with some ladies and some legs in the meantime:

Suddenly, a notebook is taken over by my daughter. Well, I cannot really reject her when she is having a creative moment!

Sometimes I would draw a few dramatic guys in a tram, then my kids would come and take over the sketchbook again:

The most usual situation is when one successful sketch of some old man counterweights by four unsuccessful ones:

Here is another typical page that is full of not so great sketches. I am happy with only one little sketch (that face of a person who was passing by). Should I show the whole page in this case?

The same is here! There is one successful tiny sketch and a portrait that is detailed, but not that great. There is also a note here:

I went on a drawing trip to sketch these ficus trees. Are they successful or not?

Speaking of men, here is Sasha's father. By the way, he is quite recognizable:

Immediately a profile of some castle is wedged right in. Why is it here? It is just a simple sketch that and I do not consider necessary giving the whole page to! It would be just a waste...

Here are two pictures on this page that need to be looked both ways at. You look at one picture, then you would need to turn it upside down to look at another picture. It is sleeping Jasha's hand and some guy resting on a bench.

Well, here are a few pigeons in the end. One of them maybe is worth keeping:

How do other artists manage to create a masterpiece blog post out of their sketchbooks?!

Tanja's web-site: www.tanjarussita.com

Books in English and Russian that Tanja sells on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Tanja-Russita/e/B00JT9QF7A

Eight books in Russian: http://www.labirint.ru/books/479911//

Bead Day. Wearable art by Anamaria Ghiata

Annamaria Ghiata

Jewellery masterpieces. Antique pendant by Cartier

Pendant, Cartier Paris, 1912, platinum, old-cut and rose-cut round diamonds, two cabochon-cut star sapphires (13,45 and 1,98 carats), round and drop-shaped pearls, engraved rock crystal, millegrain. Origin: Mr and Mrs Stephen Silver. This is one of Cartier’s first creation using rock crystal.

Jewellery history. Multiple ear piercing

I have come across this curious article (it is in Italian, so you will need to use an automated translation to read it). In case you had multiple piercing and thought you were modern... In fact, you are very much old-fashioned! :) The lady in the picture is Infanta Maria of Guimarães (12 August 1538 – 7 September 1577) was a Portuguese princess. 

She was not the only one who had multiple ear piercing! Follow the link above to the original article and you will find more portraits of the ladies who lived at the same time.

Interesting how it works... You know how people see some star wearing something and everybody wants it? That never worked for me. However, knowing that that was a style of a medieval princess... makes me regret that I do not have multiple piercing like this! :)

Throwback Thursday

I was very jealous when I was taking this picture of my husband feeding three kangaroos! Just until that moment when I got to feed a kangaroo mommy with a baby kangaroo in her pouch :) 

Round-up of Paper Gems patterns for party decor

When I decided to find paper gems patterns I did not even expect to find anything as nice as the first two links. What I was looking for was the schemes of paper crystal systems just like those that I had in my gemology course. Unfortunately I have not keep them for all these years, but I hoped to find the same. I've found them. The 3rd link will take you to a pdf file  with a few simple crystal systems' schemes. The forth link is for those who wants to do something really nerdy :)   

Fancy paper gems

3d paper diamonds

Crystal systems (pdf)

Crystallography and Minerals Arranged by Crystal Form

More ideas on my pinboard:

Follow Natalia Khon's board crystal models on Pinterest.

Beautiful nature

I took this picture at the Botanical garden in Brisbane, Australia. Brisbane is a warm place with no winter, but this plant grew in a greenhouse! Not sure where it originates from, but it should be even a warmer place for sure!

Apple pie

Anna keeps treating us with her delicious recipes! Cannot wait to have a reason to cook this one! (Yes, I do need a good reason, as I am not nearly as good at cooking)

You can see all Anna's guest posts here.

Ingredients:

To make the dough you will need:

Flour - 0,5 lb (250 g)

Corn flour (needs to be very fine). You may use another kind if you do not have corn flour - 3 oz (85 g)
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Butter - 6 oz (180 g)
Sugar - 3 oz (90 g)
1 egg

To make the topping you will need:

4-6 apples
Sugar - 5 oz (140 g)
Butter - 1,5 oz (40 g)
Lemon juice - 1 tablespoons
Cinnamon - 1 tsp.
Wheat flower - 2 tablespoons
Water - 3 tablespoons
You may add some nuts if you like (I like adding almonds)

1. Sift all the flour and the baking powder into a bowl. Add finely sliced butter. Stir the dough using your hands. You will get a very dry dough that falls apart. This is normal!  

Add the sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix everything well. Beat up the egg lightly; add it to your dough. Knead the dough thoroughly using your hands, until smooth. Sprinkle it with flower and wrap it with plastic wrap. Place it in fridge while preparing the topping.

2. Peal the apples and remove seeds. Melt the butter in a deep frying pan. Put the apples in it, add lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon; mix everything well. Cover and simmer until tender. It will take about 10 minutes.

3. Mix flour and water together; then add it to the apples. Simmer for 2-3 minutes; then remove the topping from the pan into a bowl for cooling down.

4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll out the 2/3's of the dough to the size of your baking dish. Oil the baking dish with the butter and place your rolled dough into it. Spread the topping. Use the left over dough to make a lattice and join the edges of the bottom dough and the lattice.

5 Bake your pie in the oven at 395 F for 40-60 minutes until golden brown color. Note, the baking time depends on the diameter of your baking dish.

Bon appetit!

Jewellery masterpieces. Jewellery by Eve Llyndorah

Persephone brooch by Eve Llyndorah

Christmas tree ball decoration

Katya Ryazanova is kindly sharing her second DIY in our blog. Thank you, Katya! (Katya wrote a few guest posts for the blog. You can find all her DIY posts here.). I have never seen a Christmas decoration like this before. Just magical! 

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This is a list of supplies that I needed to decorate this Christmas tree ball:

- a plastic or papier-mache ball

- a white acrylic primer or an art primer

- a napkin or a decoupage card with a desired picture

- two colors of acrylic paint to create craquelure surface 

- A one-step craquelure lacquer

- An acrylic lacquer 

- Contour for glass

- Paint to create "pearls"

- Strips of organza and/or atlas

- Abrasive sponge or fine sandpaper

I chose a spot on my ball where I wanted to place my decoupage motif; then covered it with the primer (you can also use the white acrylic paint instead). I let it dry, then attached my motif. I attached it with water and then soaked it with the acrylic lacquer right away. Then I let it dry well and coated it with the lacquer again. I used fine sandpaper to polish it. 

Now it is time to take care of the rest of the surface of the ball. Go with your sandpaper over it if the ball is plastic. You will need to make the surface slightly rough for the better adhesion of the acrylic paint. 

I applied the bottom layer of the brown acrylic paint with a brush (or a sponge can be used instead). Then I let it dry and covered it with a one-step craquelure lacquer. 

It needed to be left to dry until I could touch it. Then I applied the second layer of the pink acrylic paint. The cracks appeared immediately!

I left it till the next morning to dry up. I covered the ball with several layers of varnish (letting each layer to dry well). It also needed to be polished with a fine sandpaper at the end.

Finally it was time to decorate  the ball with some "bronze" and "pearls"! I used acrylic contour for glass. It started to look even more delicate and elegant when I added "pearls" with the pearl paint!

The last touch is to attach a ribbon. The toy is ready to take the best place on my Christmas tree!

Katya's etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/KatyaCoil

Katya's shop for the Russian-speaking customers: http://www.livemaster.ru/coil

Follow Katya on Pinterest