koukla carolyn

This is a very simple colored pencil sketch that I did a few days ago and I thought that it was perfect for this week’s Illustration Friday topic: spring. I used my Derwent’s for this and it was more of an experiment than anything else. Unfortunately, the flowers wilted before I got to do another, more detailed drawing.

I was so happy when I saw that the topic for Illustration Friday was “tea” because I absolutely love tea and I’ve been thinking of doing a tea themed series for a long time. This is a little teapot that my mother gave me a few years ago—it is a personal size teapot with a cup on the bottom part. It’s not really blue and I didn’t draw the shape exactly as it exists either, but I really do like this sketch because it seems very playful and childlike. I think I’m going to draw all the teapots in my house one of these days. We have about six or seven of them.

I asked my boyfriend for a word that started with “e” and I promised myself that I would illustrate it no matter how obscure a word it was. Thankfully, he picked something easy. I was inspired by a silk scarf I have with this design on it. This is a detail of the larger piece because I thought it was too busy to display the whole thing. I drew the flowers with pen and ink (no pencil) and painted them with watercolor and gouache.

Tea! Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable liquid, thou innocent pretence for bringing the wicked of both sexes together in a morning; thou female tongue-running, smile-smoothing, heart- opening, wink-tipping cordial, to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest moment of my life, let me fall prostrate thus, and … adore thee. -Colley Cibber

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This is a quick sketch of the remnants of my breakfast this morning: earl grey tea and a slice of cranberry bread. Of course the only evidence of the bread is the crumbs I left behind. I used my Tombow brush markers for this—they are very fun to use especially for quick things like this.

I hate to admit this folks, but I look like a man when I wake up in the morning—or at least in this drawing I do. This sketch is for this week’s Illustration Friday: cold. Although it hasn’t really gotten cold yet in Massachusetts, I know it’s coming. And it doesn’t matter because I’m cold all the time anyway, although I’m going to wait until Thanksgiving before I break out the long underwear.