Tag Archives: wildlife

Knitting For Wildlife

9 Jan

knitting for wildlife

 

I’ve just started knitting a Joey pouch to fit a small kangaroo rescued from the Australian fires. There’s an international group on Facebook co-ordinating the making of pouches, nests, beds, baskets, bird jumpers, bat wraps, koala mittens and hanging bags and there’s a local group too for the Swansea area. I’m knitting this with some spare pure wool (DK in the UK, 8 ply in Australia) and a set of 4mm knitting needles. There’s a list of instructions in the Files section on Animal Rescue Craft Guild Facebook page for knitting, crochet and sewing. If you have a few hours to spare, maybe you’d like to make one.

 

knitting for wildlife header

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Bad Hare Day

22 Jan

22 bad hare day

Yesterday was a good hare day, today a bad hare day. The expression on the face is OK but the ears are WAY too small. Drawn into my A6 spotty sketchbook with Derwent pencils in B and 3B from a photograph. Oh well, can’t win ’em all. I’ve done enough hares now, so no more bad puns from me 🙂

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Wild Scribbles

18 Jan

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Day 2 at Creative Bubble and I carried on drawing large-scale studies of British wildlife for something I’m planning to do in coming weeks. Alongside the two hares I did yesterday I scribbled a hedgehog and badger.

badger

My drawing style changed slightly with each animal; quite jerky with the hares, spiky on the hedgehog and quite blocky on the large, ponderous badger. I guess that reflects the way the animals look but I wasn’t expecting such a difference in the way I did my drawing strokes – it just happened.

4 animals straight on

I also like drawing onto newspaper. The overall piece is about 10 feet long and maybe five feet high and I’ve enjoyed working on such a huge scale after spending several days drawing hares into a tiny sketchbook and into a Samsung Galaxy Tablet. It’s much more physical and my shoulders and neck are aching now. Back to a tiny sketchbook tomorrow, I think.

The art collective I’m a part of, 15 Hundred Lives, will be doing these 2-day monthly events regularly throughout the year. If you’re around in Swansea, come and check us out or keep tabs on us through our Facebook group or website. Those hares look like they’re disco dancing 😀

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Sedum And Spartapuss

8 Jul

Today there was sunshine. Lots of sunshine. No rain. I was up and about really early and took a cup of tea into the garden to sit in the sunshine. Sparta the puss had the same idea [without the cup of tea, she prefers milk]. She was sitting sunbathing on a little brick wall behind an enormous clump of sedum. I like the sedum because it provides flowers quite late in the year which is really good for insects. I try to make the garden friendly to wildlife. We have bats visiting each evening, hoovering up the insects over the pond and there’s a good range of birds.  I quickly sketched Sparta and the sedum. I don’t particularly like drawing nature, it’s hard to draw plants without making them look like botanical drawings. I find it challenging to come up with a visual shorthand for them but this drawing isn’t too bad, I’ve never drawn the sedum before.

Sparta and I had a big argument just before I did the drawing. She ran into the kitchen with a newly murdered sparrow. I took it off her and gave her a row. Like she was bothered! That’s why she was sitting with her back to me in the garden. Sulking.

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