Let's Draw at the Ekka - Brisbane Drawing Day Video

Art Supplies Galore

I got an amazing gift from the fabulous Kakibot so I thought I'd make a video and test out some art supplies:

How to Refill a Copic Marker Pen...Or At Least Try Too!

I love marker pens. I don't know why I only started using them a few months ago but I feel they are really helping me improve my art skills. You can't 'ctrl Z' a piece of art work that's really on the page. 

I love them so much that I used up all the ink in one of them. It's taken using it every day for about 5 months for this to happen so it's still impressive that it lasted so long but it was either time to learn to refill or to cop out and just buy another pen. 

I watched some great videos on YouTube on how to refill my pens and gave it a go. Links can be found in the video description if you want to watch the pro's that taught me to do it :) 

My steps summarised are: 

1. buy the correct refill

2. Take both lids off of your pen

3. Lay down a material you don't mind getting destroyed (just in case of spillage)

4. Slowly drip the ink onto the nib of the pen (I do it on the driest end) 

5. I'm still not sure the real amount of drips but it can be anywhere between 17 - 25...depending on how empty it is. 

6. When you think it's full drip one or two drops on the other end of the pen to wet it. 

7. Leave lids off for about 20 seconds to let the air circulate and the air pressure to normalise (not sure if this helps but it seems to stop blobbing...be warned...this is made up Tania science) 

8. Test on a piece of paper you don't care about

9. Use pen and be proud that you refilled it like a boss

I hope this works for you guys x

What I've Learnt - Drawing Vlog

I love drawing. I always have but I also suffer from artists burn out. I wanted to see if I could change my way of thinking and get more creative.

In work, I work so hard that by the time I come home I'm so tired that I only have enough energy to watch some telly. This was getting me nowhere both creativity wise and it meant I always had a lot of washing today at once. I got annoyed by this. I have mentioned on here before that I have started drawing more over the last few months so it seemed about time that I threw myself at a drawing challenge. It was a month long challenge where I tried to draw every day. It's funny how something can seem impossible before you do it and afterwards it seems impossible that you could think it was ever going to be that hard. It was great fun. I got a drawing out each day and although I wasn't happy with the level of skill they showed, I learnt a lot.

Here is a video talking about the lessons I learnt while sketching. Hopefully, they can help someone like me to not be afraid to pick up a pencil and scribble something:

Pink Hair - The Lazy Vlog

Hi there ,
Last weekend I took the plunge and dyed my hair pink (and a little purple hidden underneath).
I really love it. I did it last year but chickened out after a week and washed all the colour out. This time I'm really enjoying it. Hurray to being a big kid.
I have some art videos coming out soon. I'm excited to start my next big art challenge. The next one is one I've devised myself. I'm calling it 'A Copic a Day'. It's going to be a different copic colour every day. I can only use the one colour. I'm excited to practice (and a little embarrassed that I have over 30 Copic colours).
I'm getting ready for Inktober and trying to practice as much as possible. It will be the first one I've done and I'm really excited. Inktober feels like the exciting illustration event of the year. It's when artists do an ink drawing every day for a month under the hashtag #Inktober. I'm happy that I'll get to be part of it. Hopefully I'll also be good enough at making videos to attempt Vlogmas this year...we will see. :D

What did you all get up to this weekend?What colour would you love to dye your hair?

Have a great day guys,
Tania xx

The Lazy Vlog - A Bookfest & Brisbane Weekend

Happy People's Day!
Peoples day is when everyone in Brisbane gets a day off because there is a famous county fair type event that happens. It's weird to have a day off for this but ...hey...I'm not going to complain.

I managed to find a little time to edit this together. Here is a little mini Lazy Vlog for you to watch. This is what we got up to recently.

How did you guys spend your Wednesday?

My Art Haul - or Why I Love Etsy

About 5 months ago I was living a very minimal life . We'd moved to Australia with just two suitcases and I felt great not having 'stuff'. Then I decided, for reasons I'm sure I'll bug you with another day, to start getting back into non-digital art. This, it turns out, is an expensive hobby.

Why are markers so expensive?!?!?

Anyway , this one hobby has gotten out of control.

Of course this lead to me getting to know other illustrators, which lead to me discovering Etsy.
Oh jeez! So many things I want to own. So I started off by buying just one enamel badge. This lead to another and before I knew it I'd signed up to Patreon because I'd buy these people a coffee so why wouldn't I help out their art. It was dangerous rabbit hole.

I have it under control right now (not that you'd know it from this video). So I thought I'd show you guys all the things I got from the talented people I know and have discovered.

And yes....that is the Gilmore girls on in the background at the end.

The Lazy Vlog - Us Attempting To Taste Wine

Hello Lovely People! 

Last Friday Lee and I got home from work. We had no plans and decided to go a little crazy and get some nice wine for our dinner. We tried to buy a nice bottle but quickly realised we still knew nothing about wine, even after two wine tours that we recently went on in New Zealand and in Western Australia.
So we did what all good people who can't decide on one bottle do...we bought two. We wanted to test our knowledge and see if we had learnt ANYTHING.....just a heads up....the answer is: no ...no we didn't. 

What we drank: 
*Oyster Bay - Sauvignon blanc - $20
* Wahu - Sauvignon blanc - $7

Our New Zealand Road Trip - Part 2 - Skipping Stones, Sketches, Fog Hidden Mountains and Lots of Adventures.

Here is the 2nd part of our road trip around New Zealand's North Island. It was stunning, beautiful and we laughed until my face hurt. Here is a video of us making fools of ourselves...sprinkled with some doodles I did along the way.







I'll post all of the drawings on here soon :)

Thank you for watching. I can't wait to see the South Island soon. Travel is addictive!!!!

Our Day at Hobbiton !!!

Guys, guys, guys !
We went to Hobbiton. I feel it is almost criminal to go to New Zealand and not go to the rolling hills of The Shire. We are massive nerds and we loved every bit of it. I read The Hobbit when I was about 8 and The Lord of the Rings when I was 12 so I was raring to go.
It was expensive (about $79 each) so maybe decide how much you  love the books/films before you go but t was beautiful there any felt like the Welsh hills of the UK.

Here's us being 'filthy Hobbit-sis'








Some sketches to follow :D

What's in my art / travel bag

We are heading off to NEW ZEALAND!! Here are all of the deliciously lovely art supplies I'll be taking with me on our tour of the North island:




I'm trying to make a few more videos. I LOVE YouTube art videos and although I'm no where near as good as the hotties online, I'm gonna give it a go. If you follow my Instagram you my notice i've gone a little art crazy. I'm a cg animator but I really want to be a better drawer so I've been life drawing , filming , painting, sketching and editing like crazy....as well as animating. My poor old art brain hurts.  Improvement is slooooooow but really fun.

Fingers crossed some vids of our trip will be up on here soon.