‘Namaste’ – Indian inspired drawing, 25 progression photos

May 7, 2020Leave a comment

Hi, welcome to my personal blog, UnicornPostbox! My latest blog post is 25 progression photos of ‘Namaste’ – an Indian inspired amateur art drawing. Hope you enjoy 🙂 🙂

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Firstly, I used my A3 light pad to trace the outline of mandalas from my mandala adult colouring book, the outline of an Indian lady was traced from my art therapy colouring book also (I admit I am only an amateur artist, drawing as a hobby!). I took inspiration from another art therapy colouring book for the elephant, but I actually drew this one, my own design, freehand. I coloured in the entire ‘Namaste’ drawing using Boldmere colouring pencils, and I lastly used a black ballpoint pen to make the images really ‘pop’ 🙂 🙂

I am interested in Indian culture, in particular I am intrigued by Hinduism. I have the upmost respect for other people’s religious beliefs, whatever faith they may follow, however Hinduism resonates well with me. I have bought books on the subject, and have tried to educate myself and learn more about this fascinating (in my opinion) religion. I just love the bold bright colours associated with Indian culture, and gorgeous intricate patterns, and I have tried to incorporate this into my drawing. I have titled my artwork ‘Namaste’ which is well known to translate from Sanskrit as ‘bowing to you’, e.g. bowing to the divine within you, and is a traditional Hindu friendly greeting. My Indian lady and elephant have closed eyes, two sentient beings, bowing down in mutual respect and admiration of one another 🙂 🙂

And here is the finished artwork:

Thank you very much for taking the time to read / view my latest blog post!

I am not certain what I will draw next, maybe I will continue to gain inspiration from my art therapy and adult colouring books, with animals, paisley patterns, mandalas, flowers etc – I think an Owl themed art piece could look really good, likewise, a sea-life themed drawing would be ace and enjoyable to draw! Or perhaps I could incorporate lots of flowers into a design, maybe lotus flowers alongside more Indian inspired mandalas or a girl meditating. Just a few ideas, we shall see!

I do hope all my followers remain well during these unprecedented and difficult times, please do stay safe everyone! Sending a huge social distanced hug!

All the best, peace and love, Lauren xx

‘Beautiful Mum’ drawing – 15 progression photos

March 27, 2020Leave a comment

Hi welcome to by personal blog UnicornPostbox, hope you enjoy my latest blog post ‘Beautiful Mum’ – 15 progression photographs of a pencil drawing of my gorgeous mum Debbie…

I firstly used my A3 light pad to draw the outline of mum. I sketched mum using Derwent sketching pencils, and I used coloured pencils for the background. The red love heart / pink background is really mum-esque, it certainly reflects her loving nature, she’s an angel on Earth 🙂 🙂 Plus pink is her favourite colour, she’s a girlie girl definitely, hehe. I likewise opted for delicate soft calligraphy for the ‘Beautiful Mum’ title, using a Pilot FriXion rollerball pen.

Here is the finished product! I am actually really pleased with the way this one has turned out 🙂 🙂 I am only an amateur artist who draws as a hobby, but I’d like to think I am improving the more I practise. I am nowhere close to accomplishing hyper realism, I realise that, but I seem to be getting back to the level I was at when I studied Fine Art at A-Level many years ago. So that’s good 🙂 🙂

I love drawing so much and find it so therapeutic. Mum was absolutely over the moon with her drawing, so that makes me an incredibly happy daughter. Mum is a very poorly lady in the later stages of early onset Alzheimer’s disease dementia, so anything that puts a smile on her face means the world to me!

I know I promised in a previous UnicornPostbox blog post I would try and deviate from the norm of portraiture and try drawing something a little bit different, perhaps amateur art inspired by famous artists, but I think I will do a couple more family portraits first. My sister has asked me to draw her and her boyfriend, and I may do my auntie and uncle also… so please do keep a lookout for more art blog posts coming soon!

On a very serious note, I do sincerely hope all my followers are well during these immensely difficult times, in regards to the coronavirus pandemic 😦 😦 Please stay safe everyone!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read/view.

Much love, Lauren xx

(Please visit my Facebook page ‘UnicornPostbox’ to ‘like’ and ‘follow’)

‘Jack and Jessie’ Springador drawing – 35 progression photos

February 11, 2020February 11, 2020Leave a comment

Hi, welcome to my personal blog UnicornPostbox, please see below progression photographs of my latest amateur art A2 size drawing of two Springadors, Jack and Jessie…

I used my A3 size light pad to trace the outline of Jack and Jessie, Derwent sketching pencils to shade, coloured pencils for the block background, and a black Pilot FriXion pen to make each image ‘pop’…

Hope you enjoy 🙂 🙂

I drew Jack and Jessie as a gift for Paula, mine and mum’s great friend of many years…

I explained I am not a professional artist and only draw amateur as a hobby, but she was absolutely over the moon with her surprise present, and says she will cherish the drawing forever of her two lovely dogs…

So that makes me very happy indeed! 🙂 🙂

Thank you so much for taking the time to read/ view this latest UnicornPostbox blog post. Your ongoing support means so much…

Please keep a look out for some new Travel/Theatre blog posts coming very soon! 🙂 🙂

All the best, much love, Lauren xx

(Please visit my Facebook page ‘UnicornPostbox’ to ‘like’ and ‘follow’)

‘Charlie the Chocolate Lab’ drawing – 45 progression photos

August 23, 2019Leave a comment

Good evening followers! Sorry it’s been a while! My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is progression photographs of an A2 size original amateur art drawing of Charlie the Chocolate Labrador, my sister Beth’s dog, I drew as a late 21st birthday present! Hope you enjoy! 🙂 🙂

I started off by tracing the outline of Charlie using my new A3 size light pad. I sketched Charlie with Derwent soft sketching pencils, and used different coloured pencils for the colour block background. I thought it would be a nice touch to incorporate some paw prints and bones in keeping with the dog theme. I also defined each shape, outlining with Berol handwriting pens, to make each individual image ‘pop’. Like my last drawing ‘Psychedelic Elephant’ (see previous blog post) I’m becoming fond of contrasting grey shades against bright bold colours, developing my own artistic style I guess, hehe 🙂 🙂

And here is the finished art piece! 🙂 🙂

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Charlie is getting really old bless her, she’s 13 nearly 14 years old! Our Beth has always wanted a drawing of Charlie she can cherish forever; she was so over the moon, happy and grateful when I presented her with the gift today, hehe!

Thank you so much for reading / viewing! 🙂 🙂

Hope you all have a fantastic bank holiday weekend, enjoy the sunshine!

Please keep a look out for more blog posts coming soon, including an upcycling project and a travel blog (me and mum are off to see ‘Grease – the musical’ soon in Leicester, ohhhh can’t wait!)

Much love, Lauren xx

(Please visit my Facebook page ‘UnicornPostbox’ to ‘like’ and ‘follow’)

‘Psychedelic Elephant’ – 50 progression photos

May 18, 2019Leave a comment

Hi everyone! My latest artwork is ‘Psychedelic Elephant’, an amateur A2 size original art piece, drawn with pencils and coloured with oil pastels, produced purely for therapeutic fun 🙂 Please see below 50 progression photos, hope you enjoy viewing 🙂

I started off by sketching my cartoonish ‘Psychedelic Elephant’ with professional Derwent soft graphite pencils.

I then concentrated on the background, using colormate oil pastels to create my psychedelic effect original art.

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And here it is, the finished artwork, hehe! 😀 😀 😀

Hope you enjoyed seeing my ‘Psychedelic Elephant’ progression photos! 🙂

Please keep a look out for a Prague travel blog coming very soon. Art wise, I have a few pet portraits in the line up as well which I am drawing for friends/family… so watch this space!

Peace and love, Lauren xx

(Please visit my Facebook page ‘UnicornPostbox’ to ‘like’ and ‘follow’)

Valentine’s Day 2019 – portrait progression photos

February 20, 2019Leave a comment

For Valentine’s Day this year, 14th February 2019, I decided to draw an A2 size portrait of myself and my lovely boyfriend, Howard. Please see below a collection of photographs illustrating the progression of my drawing, from start to finish. I do hope you enjoy 🙂

Drawing Howard:

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I started off my portrait by firstly drawing my boyfriend, Howard. I worked from a photograph of us both when we went for a meal in Yates, Doncaster. I traced the outline, shushhhh, lol – however, many hours were spent on the shading, trying to achieve a good likeness. As shown above, I also drew a rectangular line around the drawing to match the size of the frame I had purchased, in doing so, eventually losing a small portion of the sketch (my own fault for not checking sizes sooner, silly). Overall, I was pleased with how Howard turned out 🙂

Drawing Myself:

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The second subject I drew was myself. Because I have done quite a few self-portraits over the years, it did not take me as long to draw myself. Saying that however, I wish I had spent just a little bit more time on the fine details as I feel the drawing of myself looks more cartoonish, and less realistic than I was hoping to achieve. I definitely think the portrait of Howard is a better, more detailed sketch, nevertheless I was still quite happy overall with the final piece 🙂 I then started drawing vertical lines with a ruler, in preparation for the portrait background.

Background:

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I decided to do a colourful rainbow background as I believed this would make the grey pencil portraits distinct from the background, and both would ‘pop’ as a result. I drew vertical lines with a ruler, and coloured each strip with a different colour bright colour pencil. I also used a black fineliner pen to distinguish the colours, and the sketch, again for a ‘pop’ effect 🙂

The finished portrait:

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And here is the final framed product! It took me about a fortnight in total, a few hour blocks every day or every other day. Even though it is not the best drawing in the world, as I admit I am only an amateur artist, I think it has turned out rather well 🙂 Hope you agree?? Something this scale on A2 paper is pretty time-consuming, so I am very glad it was well appreciated 🙂 …