I’ve been drinking wine and doing arty things. Not sure that I’ve done this before. But it’s quite a good mix. The wine has a relaxing affect and that reduces the fear of not being able to do things. It also enhances the ‘hey, why don’t I do this thing and see what it looks like?’, which is awesome. I’m also listening to some strange music which helps.

I’ve been having fun with this lot …

The key element is the stuff in the blue bottle. It’s drawing or masking gum. You paint it on to your paper and let it dry (or use a hairdryer if you’re impatient, like me). Then you can paint over it and rub it off later to reveal the white paper underneath. Sounds complicated. However, it’s anything but. Here, take a look.

I’m getting used to watercolour washes. It’s quite amazing the colours you can get by washing one diluted colour over another. These are a bit messy in spots. Again, that’s more to do with my impatience rather than anything else. I like to get on with things and I often use a hair dryer to dry things rather than letting them dry in the air., I don’t like spending a lot of time preparing and I certainly have a great aversion to clearing up afterwards.