Thank god for Artists

Hi all,
  As you can see above I have been zentangling in between doing my other stuff, and I find this to be a superb way of wasting time or perhaps getting a little more creative! I do like doing this type of stuff, and have created a sketchbook which is starting to fill with all my tangles, however this one is ACEO size and have to apologise for the rubbishy scan.
If you read my blog you will know that my last post was about trying to get samples of paper from Art suppliers, and I have to say that I did have a good response from all my art/blog pals and I thank you for your input. It does seem that a lot of you feel the same way as myself and have come across this problem before, however Gayle Mason from Fur in the the Paint made a very valid point about actually going to to your local art supplier and asking for a sample/samples.I myself have not actually given this a go mainly because nowadays I shop online for my supplies which will give me a wider variety of choice and at times I can get offers/discounts. I am not sure that a lot of shops will do this partly because they may not have samples and don't think they would be too happy taking a piece from current shelf stock. Another thing to consider is that how many artists live in an isolated area, with no access to a local art supplier, or perhaps are disabled and do not have the facilities to get out often. The Internet is such a huge resource and you can practically get anything online today and I imagine for a lot of people, a life saver by way of keeping them connected with the outside world.. I am still finding this all very frustrating but have not given up the fight yet, so instead of emailing suppliers I think I may make a few calls instead and see what comes from that.Gayle and Karen have kindly offered to send me a few samples of Pastelmat and I thank them for the offer so will be getting in touch with you gals later on today. I will keep you updated on my progress and who knows a miracle may happen and I might get lucky!

Keep your input coming and if anyone else has successs with this I would love to know how you got on, email me or comment.

Free Sample Papers

Hi all,
         What a busy week it has been, visiting dog shows,bathing dogs, decorating the home, doing a couple of boot fairs, gosh I am feeling a bit knackered lol.
        No art at the moment, but instead a bit of moan really, about trying to attain some free sample paper from Art suppliers. If you are anything like me, you will have a love of paper, art paper,handmade, etc but as  artists most of us will be on a budget. I don't want to go out and spend my money on paper that I have not had the chance to at least try out first, who knows I may hate the surface, find it does not suit my style of drawing or any other number of reasons, which has happened to me in the past.. Admittedly I could buy a single sheet perhaps but even so these can be expensive and I don't see why I should have to...what happened to "try before you buy". I have emailed a couple of art suppliers this last week making this request,and I am still waiting an acknowledgement of my emails let alone an answer, would this make your blood boil, because it sure does mine!
I am not asking for a full sheet, not even a blooming A5, something along the lines of 3" x 3" square small enough not to cost too much to post and big enough to get a reasonable feel for the surface. My current hankering is to try Clairefonatines Pastelmat, so if anyone knows where a free sample can be attained, (preferably in UK that would be great)
 I would be interested to know what all of you think about this subject as well, have you tried to get any samples paper ? Drop me a a comment on this post or contact me.
Last but not least a call to art suppliers please make it possible to request some sample paper!

Latest Spaniel Update

Hi all,
     Thanks for all your recent comments, it always gives me a nice warm feeling to receive them.
      This is where the Spaniel is currently at and almost done now, the ears still need tweaking but yet again my scanner is not picking up the grey/blue tones of the white fur. I am quite pleased with this and I might do a profile picture of the same dog.
     My next project was to to do the red little sheltie type dog, but I have something else I must do which is a gift from me to a friend by way of thanks for bringing me back some CPs from the states when she went on holiday . It is a dog and the photo I am using is one that I took some years ago when he was a puppy, all wrinkles and paws,very cute so that will be underway in the next day or so and hopefully I will have time to do the Sheltie alongside.

Do you Zentangle ?

Hi all,
         Just a quickie post today as I still have much work to do of the housework kind yuk ! I took a break from the Spaniel and decide to do a bit of Zentangling in my sketchbook of which you can see above. It is kind of strange because I have been doing this sort of line work for many years now in one form or another but it has gone to the next level with its own name Zentangle, and there is even another website where you can learn to create the different strings/patterns to make one.  I myself love to do this type of work and again it is a stress breaker much the same as Mandalas......This is a Zendala a cross between zentangle and mandala, but not quite finished yet.