“Portrait Gallery” by Rachel Crawshaw I was very pleased to hear that my submission for the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Open 2026 was given “highly commended” at the opening on Saturday. I was unable to attend the opening but am looking forward to visiting the exhibition and witnessing in person all of the fantastic …
Last month I started a mini project in a tiny sketchbook of creating a little collage everyday. Here are days 8 to 14 of the project! During this week I began to explore adding more hand painted and printed papers to my collages such as in days 8, 12 and 14. I also enjoyed introducing …
Here is a selection of my recent life drawings! Recently I have enjoyed practicing drawing faces and trying to get a likeness from life rather than from reference photographs. This is pretty challenging and has various degrees of success! But I am enjoying the process. I have also experimented with using Conte Crayons, a medium …
This month I continued my theme of vessels and flowers, but wanted to experiment with a slower process and a more traditional technique and style of painting. I decided to try out the Grisaille technique. This is a process where you create a greyscale underpainting first to establish light, shadow and tone before adding colour …
Miniature collages in a tiny sketchbook- creative rituals to help show up to your practice everyday
A collection of life drawings from Rachel Crawshaw at mushroommoondesigns.com
In a previous post I shared with you a vase of flowers I’d captured in my sketchbook using colour pencils. Tulips sketch by Rachel Crawshaw I have since translated that drawing into a painting in acrylics, and on to it I have added the symbol of a blackbird. Receive joy by Rachel Crawshaw In the …
A collection of Rachel Crawshaw’s life drawing sketches from January 2026 in pencil, colour pencil, watercolour pencil and ink
Recently I have been interested in exploring vessels in my art work. Here is a sneak peek into my sketchbook to see some of the ideas I have been playing with. I have a dedicated vessels sketchbook that I have been working in for a few months to collect ideas. Enjoy!
This week I focused on my word of the year RECEIVE by honing in on small moments of joy. This included moments of joy I'd created for myself as well as moments that occurred naturally in my environment. One of those sparks of joy that I received this week was the simple act of buying …
Mushroom Moon Designs 