A spot of colouring

The weekend was not particularly conducive to going out with strong winds on Friday so with even bigger and strong people than myself struggling I needed to stay indoors which as you probably aware isn't something I like at all, being an outdoor girl.
One thing you can do when it is like this is colour and so I had my colouring book out on Friday.

 Normally when I colour I use Staedtler colour pencils available in the Noris Club 36 colour pack as they respond well to different pressures for shading and don't easily break in the way some cheaper ones found in convenience stores do
They also sharpen well.
That illustration is from the Jacqueline Wilson Colouring Book published by Penguin UK and illustrated by Nick Sharratt who does the drawings in her stories.

Back in time

A warm start to the week on the other blog after the usual discourse around different groups on Tumblr saying "If you're a friend of theirs, you can't be a friend of mine" and "if you don't join us you're a nobody who won't be allowed to go nowhere" that can get tiring.
In dealing with that and blogs listed as disrepecting others wishes blocking them, I spotted something that was rather good.

Sadly lacking original artist credits, this illustration is charming in its child-like state suggesting to me they were clearly in a regressed state of mind at the time as the writing is very much of the 'child within' lacking any adult sophistication.
That to me is very much what this thing is about whatever props we may use and however we may present-getting back to that childhood state, enjoying the moment without an adult care in the world.
In her world the teddy bears are going for a walk hand in hand caring and looking out for each other, her response to them will be that of a child.
That is why protecting littles is a very important thing because when we are in that state our adult guard isn't around so we don't do 'adult' things  and any Caregiver shouldn't push them on you.
Boundaries DO matter.

The lead makes the colour...

Yeah I know, Tuesday isn't it but the groan ups mess my routine up yesterday that left me super tired  so yesterdays post comes a day later than scheduled and I might of gotten it done before bedtime had it not been for Marmalade playing hide and seek over over half an hour, tearing the lower floor of house apart trying to find him. Grrr.
Anyways, as you know Colouring is a pretty big thing with me and a large portion of us too but one problem I have is gripping and pressing on to pencils due to my disabilities.
It's no lie I can sometimes struggle to write me own name  at a times which makes colouring difficult as with most childrens pencils you need quite an impression to get darker shades and they can break real easy.
At the suggestion of Poppie, I decided to get some more pencils.

 

For one thing my pencils came in 12 colour pack so some of the colours I may need aren't there although I'm pretty good at blending colours to create say Fawn -some packs have different colour shades in them too - and these don't break so easy.

They're also designed  so you don't need to press much on them which is a very real boon for some of us and easier to blend.

Down in our wood

Things in my wood are on the go now so I thought this week, we'd look at some pictures starting with these Bluebells that I came by while walking a few days back, covered up from bity things.

Here you can see all that lush green foliage where the birds locally have built their nests from twigs.I just love hearing birdsong.

Meanwhile over in our Meadow there's plenty of life and you can make a wish with the Dandelion 

And this lovely blossom was out too

Finally in my garden  these flowers are have a great time and look so pretty.

Technical note: all shot on Canon  A470 digital compact with just a touch of exposure correction and cropping, that's all.

Never forget

Junior Art

Most of us encountered art either around us on maybe on the things people bought us such as books, packaging of toys and so on.
As you slowly and for some of us definitely slowly developed your fine motor skills  you may of started to doodle on pieces of paper, done some colouring before doing art in the nursery or infants class usually around the things you know starting say with faces of siblings and so on.
Later on in juniors you'd of had lessons where you might be given a subject to interpret and draw which in my case included drawing things like branches, pussy willow, acorns and flowers that we'd seen in nature study. In my case we went outside to draw them too!
A while ago I did draw some Canada Geese in pencil as I'm a bit of a techophobe when it comes to using tablet and computer software and here is the picture.

Yes that's a Hello Kitty pencil I used to draw it with!

Colouring

This week I've been thinking about colouring.
Colouring is an activity most children do from an early age when you take a drawing with the outline image in printed usually in black and colour in between the lines.
Colouring can be helpful in improving your hand to eye co-ordination as you learn to colour in tiny areas neatly.
It's also quite useful in encouraging you to exercise your own imagination, by choosing what areas to colour in whatever colour you prefer although for some subjects  you may prefer to follow the examples such as drawings of Disney Princesses.
It came to me a few days back in part through an ongoing conversation and also while listening to a podcast, that I did very little colouring when I was younger and by the time I'd reached nine it was deemed to be 'childish' although I did draw in colour trees and houses cause that was called 'drawing' which was said to be 'okay' for me to do.
Colouring is in my opinion one of the easiest ways of getting into a younger headspace especially if you live away from any local  littles community because you can do it pretty much anywhere making very little demands on apartment space.
You'll need a supply of coloured pencils (mine are Hello Kitty ones for extra cute appeal), an eraser to remove mistakes, and colouring books that you'll find most newsstores stock so you can get out of your chair and go buy it in person as after all it is for you!.
I tend to keep mine by the computer as a stress relief tool when the interwebs go wonky but generally after changing to my littles clothes, I either lay on my front on the floor or across my Hello Kitty festooned bed with the book and pencil case out in front of me. You could if you wished, sat at a desk to do this too as if you were in a play group or school setting.
I find it very relaxing just lying there colouring completly free  from any groan up stuff that may be about affecting my head.