In this life drawing session I enjoyed experimenting with drawing on pre prepared gel plate printed backgrounds with conte crayon. I incorporated bird imagery into the gel plate prints to link to some of my personal projects this year that feature birds and vessels. Ellie- conte crayon on gel plate print 2x5 minute poses Ten …
Continue reading Life drawing- Ellie on mixed media backgrounds
Aimee- negative space In my sketchbook I have been enjoying reworking old and new life drawings into new compositions using collage and mixed media techniques. I used old paintings that I no longer liked or needed and cut them up to create new pieces in my sketchbook using them as backgrounds or parts of the …
Continue reading Life drawing mixed media sketchbook: playing with figures
Gil- sad fairy Sketch book collage composition I had a great time drawing the model Gil in a recent life drawing session at Whalley Life drawing group. In this session I enjoyed exploring different mediums including collage, graphite pencil, soft pastels, charcoal and conte crayons. I had pre- prepared a collaged background made from hand …
Continue reading Life drawing- and the start of a mixed media sketchbook
This year for Painting Padiham Plein air competition I decided to challenge myself to using pastels instead of doing a painting. I am pretty new to using pastels so knew it would be a bit of a risk but I like to give myself a challenge! I decided to do some practice in the run …
Continue reading Painting Padiham 2026 : practice and the finished work
A watercolour painting of beetles from a series of artworks capturing the artist’s recent trip to Florence
A look at the last 7 days of the mini collage a day challenge and what I learned from the experience of making art everyday day.
A collection of recent life drawings in pastel and conte crayon by Rachel Crawshaw
A look inside the artist’s sketchbook exploring the symbolic interpretations of birds and vessels. Mixed media artwork featuring gel plate printing, collage, pastel and conte crayons.
Here is a quick catch up of my Mini Collage a day challenge. At the end of the week I seemed to be drawn to bright, warm colours such as reds, pinks and oranges, as well as imagery like fruit and flowers. At the beginning of the week I experimented further with using text in …
This February my family and I took a special trip to Florence, Italy to celebrate my husband and I's milestone birthday. One of the places I enjoyed visiting most during the holiday was the Museum of Natural History, La Specola. This painting is from a photograph I took of one of the museum collections of …
Continue reading Watercolour butterflies: memories from Florence
Mushroom Moon Designs 