Finally, I found a space in my busy (!) afternoons to begin watercolour painting again. I’m pretty crap at it, but found that the greatest benefit was how calming it is to do, and time passes very quickly as I dabble away. My brush strokes are too heavy, the colours too dark and the book makes it look too easy! Yet it is enjoyable, almost meditative.

The carrots turned out quite well, probably because I drew the shapes first. Maybe I’m just better at colouring in. The cloud is a blob and the eucalyptus lacks the delicacy of the illustration in the book, to put it mildly. Perhaps drawing the lines first would be a good idea. I noticed that Quentin Blake does that with his illustrations for the BFG, sketching first, then applying a wash of watercolour. I did a funny wee sketch on the beach this week in which the proportions of the Port Hills are all wrong and the edge of the sea just looks weird. I quite like the little figure of the dog walker though, even if he looks as if he’s wearing an aqualung and the dog looks kind of pig-like.

Today’s efforts are similarly mixed. I gave up on trying to create the delicate petals of flowers but had greater success with a bunny and a lemon, both using previously sketched outlines. Colouring in may be the way to go!