A walk around my village

Happy New Year to everyone.  I have been thinking about what I might do this year and then decided to not make huge plans and just have fun and enjoy.  Last year I bought lots of new colours in the acrylic inks which I want to try, colours I am not familiar with and so that will be something new for me.  I also really love the concertina books and have plans to work in one of them again. The most exciting plan I have is to work in sepia and brown inks, fill a book with only brown drawings, using dip in pens with different sized nibs and  paint brushes. I love old drawings in browns and after drawing the dead crow I was reminded how I love using ink pens.  It will enable me to draw  and record greater detail in my work. So who knows what it will bring, what I will draw and where  that will lead me.  I have been looking up and reading about different sepia inks, which is made from Cuttle fish,  now there is a link from my shore project.  I hope to try out different kinds of browns and experiment.
I have bought two new Sketch books, one for the ink which is the same size as the one I used last year and the other is a square book which is the same as I used in 2010.  So here is the first page for my new square book.  We went for a walk around the village last Saturday.  I have to admit I was glad I did not have to venture on the wet grey and gloomy looking shore.  It was drizzling and there was low grey mist hiding the view of the hills.  Instead we walked a loop around the village which included a footpath through the beck fields,( a beck being a small river).  It was wet and muddy but I love this walk as you follow the beck as it winds its way from the hills to the sea.  I spent a lot of my childhood here happily paddling and fishing about collected bits of china from the beck and learning about  wildflowers and insects.  Today it felt damp and dreary with empty hedgerows and we slipped along the muddy ground with places like a mire.
I picked up the oak leaf and then the red berries on the little branch with a single leaf.  This piece did not make the grade for Christmas but I will have it.  A new section of footpath looked neat and tidy, it was the first time I have walked on it and then I spotted the pile of earth dug up and the little pieces of china poking through the soil.  Several blue and white pieces went into my pocket.  The hedgerows yielded the blue snail shells and I knew that was to be my first page in my square book.

I painted it with my acrylic inks and a number 3 sable brush.  It felt strange changing the size of my page.  So whatever catches my eye will be recorded throughout  the year in this book.  Now off to start having fun with the sepia drawings. Watch this space.

Thank you for the really lovely comments about my Shore project.  I will eventually answer you all if you have a link.  I did not realise just how many people were following along until I have had over a thousand views since I posted week 52,  from all around world, so thank you again.
Please join in the Give away...leave a comment  on Week 52.....I will pick the winner on Saturday 14 th January  from the comments on the post Week 52.  The winner announced on Sunday 15th January.
 Millyx