Mandy in Oz

                          Day 6 (Miss B) - yep, more portraits :P  watercolour this time. Day 7 (Miss Lily) - a sabre-toothed tiger cub, not a scary one (acrylic) I think little J must have missed a turn...oh well, his go tomorrow!

Miss Lily requested a Clouded Leopard in crayons....after some discussion, it was decided that oil pastels and Slick Stix count as crayons ;)

Earlier this year, I arted along with 'One Drawing a Day', it's a great book of daily drawing prompts, which you can find out more about here .  Well, even though I completed the book some time ago, I've continued with my daily drawing (which is really the whole point ;)  ).   Anyway, it's school holidays here at present, so I decided to do my daily drawing with a twist - my darling children are taking turns choosing both my subject *and* medium for the day.  The choices - and results - have been both predictable and somewhat surprising! (I don't know how that's actually possible, nevertheless it's true).   The children have thrown themselves into this game with great gusto and I've found it both challenging and refreshing to meet the briefs of my little dictators :P   Here are our first four days:   Day 1 - (Little J) - Dino-rex in gouache (have you ever heard a 4 year old say gouache?  It's adorable.) Day 2 - (Miss Lily) - A R...

A charcoal sketch of a fave character, in my One Drawing a Day journal.   Looking forward to the return of TVD......mmmm, Damon :P

is how best to describe the time between my last post and this one.  You know your muse....the one that is sometimes very vocal and other times appears to have gone on an extended holiday?   Well....mine had been *very* quiet for quite some time....I'd even begun to wonder if she'd left me.  Apparently the answer to that particular question would be a resounding *no*. I saw a post about 'The Mermaid Circus' by this lovely lady   and it triggered....something.  Something strange and wonderful.  My muse didn't appear with a little cough and polite tap on the shoulder....oh no.  It was more of a *running full speed at me hollering 'oh my god howthehellhaveyoubeen' and dropkicking me to the chest* kind of return.  The kind of creative drive that means you have no choice *but* to draw, paint, make.  Being unable to sleep, because of all the ideas that are trying to make their way out of you, onto paper, fabric, yarn.... So, I've been cr...