Colouring in

Colouring in is terrifying to me.
Colouring with layers of tissue paper, or fabric or thread I can handle, but paints, pens and pencils? No way!
All my drawings so far have been in black/grey pencil or pen. If I'm to progress with my drawing though, I really need to get to grips with colour, so over the past couple of days I've forced myself to colour things in.
I'm starting with some nice colouring pencils, to ease myself into it. Paint is the next step I suppose, but that is too much for the moment.
So I've gone from this -

to this - 

I've got a long way to go before I'm confident in using colour, but I'm on my way there.

What happens in tech...

I've spent the past few days in technical and dress rehearsals for 'The Conquering Hero' at Orange Tree Theatre. 

This means very long days, far too much tea and cake, and a lot of sitting around punctuated by flurries of manic activity.

So I've been doing a lot of doodling....

It's show time again

I'm back at Orange Tree Theatre for a few days, but it's not a fancy Muswell Hill kitchen this time. This time we're going back to the First World War for 'The Conquering Hero' by Allan Monkhouse.
The costumes are gorgeous, and there's an awful lot of them. A cast of eleven, most of whom have three costumes each = some very full dressing rooms!
We start the tech and dress tomorrow, and the show opens on Wednesday. It's a really great play, I watched a run through on Friday and the writing and acting are spot on.
I'm really excited to see them all in costume tomorrow, it makes a huge difference when it's a period play.

An itty bitty papercut

Hello birdie

Puppet Making at Little Willows

All was calm.

I was wearing my brand new blue suede shoes.

Then the children arrived!

We stuck.

We squidged.

We sculpted.

We created some amazing rod puppets.

With fabulous clothes,

and crazy coloured skin,

cute faces,

and BIG eyes!

Each one was different,

and the children amazed me as ever with their creativity.

Hopefully we'll make more soon!

Two mornings of workshops with ten year olds

Yesterday was the first of my Easter holiday workshops, we started with knitting and having never knitted before they managed to cast on, knit, purl and cast off. All in 3 hours! I was seriously impressed.

We even had some time for making some pom poms and using them to create funny creatures with the knitting.

Today we did some hand sewing, we made corsages and bags and purses, they're such a brilliant group. I was very impressed with their concentration and neat stitches.

Next week it's puppet making time!

Another papercut from start to finish...

This one will be a first anniversry present, I started with this photo and a quote from one of the readings at their wedding. The finished piece is just slightly smaller than A5 size, and definitely the fiddliest one I've done yet!