Art Club - How to Draw an Elephant

For this edition of Art Club we are finding inspiration at the zoo and I will be showing you how to draw an elephant.

You will only need very basic materials for this drawing; paper, pencil and a rubber. If you would like to draw along with me, please feel free to pause the video any time you like! We will be looking at ways to use simple shapes for creating a guide for our drawing before adding in all the details to complete our elephant.

I hope you enjoy this video - don't forget to check out my other Art Club videos! If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments section below. I would love to see your cat drawings too! If you share photos on social media tag me @hazelfishercreations (on Facebook or Instagram) or use #hfcartclub

Art Club - How To Draw A Cat

In this video for Art Club I show you how to draw a cat. You will only need very basic materials for this drawing; paper, pencil and a rubber. If you would like to draw along with me, please feel free to pause the video any time you like! We will be using simple shapes as guides for our drawing before adding in details and I also share some ideas on how to draw different types of cats, like cats with stripes or long hair. 

I hope you enjoy this video - don't forget to check out my other Art Club videos! If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments section below. I would love to see your cat drawings too! If you share photos on social media tag me @hazelfishercreations (on Facebook or Instagram) or use #hfcartclub

Art Club - How To Draw A Barn Owl

Welcome to Art Club!

With current lockdown restrictions in place the art club I have been running at a local primary school is currently on hold, so in the meantime I have decided to start up an online art club. This has the added benefit that even more people can join in! Art Club is for anyone who wants to learn about drawing and improve their art skills, whatever your age or skill level.

In our first video I will be showing you how to draw a barn owl, using simple shapes as guides to help you with your drawing before adding in details. All you need for this is a pencil and paper and if you want to draw along with me feel free to pause the video at any time.

I hope you enjoy this video - don't forget to check out my other Art Club videos! If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comments section below. I would love to see your barn owl drawings too! If you share photos on social media tag me @hazelfishercreations (on Facebook or Instagram) or use #hfcartclub

Inktober 2018 Round-up - Days 1-10

I began Inktober with the best of intentions to draw everyday, however, as it often does things got busy and I've fallen behind. I will still complete my list of 31 prompts, it will just end up being 'Inkvember' instead of 'Inktober'!!!
Here's a round-up of my drawings for days 1-10...

Inktober 2017 Roundup

I took part in Inktober again this year - a month long drawing challenge where thousands of artists (both amateur and professional) from around the world make a drawing in ink every day of October and post their pictures online.  Last year I joined in but didn't quite manage to do a drawing every day, so this year my aim was to just do something, even if it was small, every day - and I did it!
I kept my drawings small this year, so it was more realistic to be able to finish them. Mostly I was drawing in the evening and I have to admit there were a few nights when I was feeling tired and not particularly wanting to pick up my sketchbook, but I didn't want to miss a day.
I think it's a great challenge to take part in and I'm sure my drawing has benefited, it's also nice to draw just for fun on a variety of subjects.  If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you will have already seen my drawings, but I wanted to share just a few of my favourites here too.  Which ones are your favourites?

Inktober 2016 Round-up of my Drawings

This year I decided to join in with Inktober for the first time - Inktober is a drawing challenge started by Jake Parker to make one ink drawing a day for the whole month of October. (You can find out more about Inktober and see Jake's fantastic artwork on his website).
I wanted to join in with the challenge to practise my own ink drawing and to have some fun drawing different subjects. It was also great to see what other people were drawing each day.  I started the challenge with good intentions to draw every day, however, I did fall behind and ended up continuing the challenge into November. I have been posting pictures of my drawings onto my facebook and instagram pages but thought it would also be good to share a round-up of them all here...

(Days 1 - 9)

Spoonflower Tennis weekly contest and SpoonChallenge a month of drawing

I’ve had a couple of weeks off from entering contests on Spoonflower – my last entry to the rhinoceroses themed contest came 65th (with 102 votes) out of 251 entries.  Thank you to everyone who voted!

This week the contest has a Tennis theme so I created this design with tennis balls, rackets and strawberries, inspired by Wimbledon.  It was a fairly quick design to make as I used elements which I had already drawn to create a repeat pattern.  You can see all the other entries (and vote for your favourites!) here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=260 

I’ve also just started Spoonflower’s SpoonChallenge: A Month of Drawing – each day has a different theme to inspire you to draw.  Today’s prompt was mountains and this is what I drew…
Even though my work involves a lot of drawing, some days I can be caught up in other things like sorting supplies, packing orders, paper work and keeping up with things online, so don’t always draw everyday.  Just doing a quick sketch shouldn’t be too hard though, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with the challenge for the month! :)  Are you taking part?  What have you drawn so far?

Spoonflower Fabric of the Week Contest - Farming

It’s been a while since I entered one of Spoonflower’s weekly design contests (almost exactly a year since the Citrus one!)  Sometimes the theme doesn’t immediately  inspire me but next week’s ‘Sewing Notions’ one caught my eye.  I decided to try the Farming one too and really enjoyed drawing lots of different farm animals (along with the tractor and ears of wheat) to create this repeat pattern…

I am going to try and enter the weekly contests more often, to make me draw new things and be inspired to try out different ideas :)

Voting is now open for the Farming contest - you can vote for your favourite designs here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=253

Clockwork Rabbit

I recently received a commission to design a Clockwork Rabbit to be used as a tattoo.  Although I have drawn several different clockwork birds now and the odd fish I have not done anything like the rabbit before.  I enjoyed the challenge of working out how to illustrate the bunny so that it looked like a clockwork animal that could work but still looked like a rabbit.  Here are some pictures from my sketchbook…

This is the final illustration drawn in dip pen and ink… 

Although I can’t see myself ever having a tattoo (not a fan of needles!), the idea that someone else would want my designs permanently drawn onto their body is such an honour!  Here’s the finished tattoo of the rabbit…

Butterflies Printable Wedding Stationery

I’ve been working on some butterfly themed designs and have just finished the first set of products featuring my new drawings!

While researching butterflies to draw I found some beautiful species – I love the colour of the blue Ulysses butterfly and the patterns of the Monarch butterfly (above).  All of the butterflies were drawn in pencil first, then scanned and coloured digitally.  I’ve been using the drawings to create patterned papers as well as a variety of other printable products.  This wedding stationery set is the first of my butterfly designs to be finished and listed in my Etsy shop...

The stationery set includes an invitation, save the date card, rsvp card and thank you card.  I really like the simplicity of these designs and think they would be lovely printed on textured card stock.

There are 5 different butterflies to choose from;

* Cairns Birdwing (green)
* Ulysses (blue)
* Monarch (Orange and Black)
* Postman (Red, Ochre and Black)
* Peacock ( Red with eye spots)

This set is available to buy from my shop, the invitation, save the date etc can also be bought individually.

A peak at my sketchbook...



I've been spending some peaceful hours sitting in my garden drawing flowers whilst listening to the birds and watching my guinea pig munching on the lawn.  (Kitty made an appearance too but soon got bored and disappeared again!)  Here's a peak at some of my sketches...

I'm planning to use these as inspiration for new pattern designs.  I've taken lots of photos but sometimes there's nothing better than to draw something from life to really understand how it works. 

Pick of the Week

Can you believe this drawing is only 1 inch square?  Amazing!

Doctor's Treatment - miniature by `Cataclysm-X on deviantART