I've now started to paint the Irishman I mentioned in an earlier post. I'm using oils and have applied some light and mid tone and now working some darker tones. I have been working from a book called "Colour Mixing Recipes For Portraits" by William F. Powel and finding that I spend more time colour mixing than painting. To be honest it's a bit like painting by numbers and building up the image with glazes.

Still lots to do and will post more as it progresses.

Colours from Nature

I recently spent a day with Eve Studd from Cornhill Crafts learning how to dye raw fleece using natural dyes and plants from her garden. I expected fairly soft muted colours and was really surprised by the results. Check out these colours from indigo, madder, St.Johns Wort, elder, walnuts, sweet sicily, nettles,.....

In case you wondered what can be done with coloured fleece here is an example of some of my spinning using coloured roving. I'm a beginner so the yarn is a bit thick and thin but I like to think that this gives it a more organic quality. Apparently as you become more experienced your spinning becomes more even and it is more difficult to produce this unevenness or interest in your yarn...... a bit like painting really.