I was looking through some older sketches the day I drew this. I know I shouldn’t care but I used to get several hundred likes on Instagram. Now I struggle to get close to this. My sketches from before also seemed more…careful? So with this one I took more care, used a finer pen and didn’t obsess about filling in all the detail.
Fri-21-Nov-2025
Here is a simple sketch of another of my ‘go-to’ subjects – whatever fruit that we happen to have in the fruit basket. This basket is actually half of a “Bangchung” – a bamboo container made in Bhutan and traditionally used to carry your lunch or for serving food and snacks to guests. With the other semi-spherical half, it snaps together to make a container.
Sat-25-May-2024
This sketch was done for the first day of #WorldWatercolorMonth (I am a bit behind in posting) – following the prompt of “train”. Of course I couldn’t find a train around the house and I prefer to sketch from life, so this image came to mind. We bought this copy of the first Harry Potter book when we lived in Bhutan (hence it’s rather dog-eared appearance) and the series were the first proper novels we read our daughters (every night for many years). I think we enjoyed reading them more than they enjoyed listening to them, as they were still quite little.
Fri-1-Jul-2022
I bought some orange paint the other day (Mission brand)… convincing myself (without too much difficulty) that this was a colour I have missed having many times. Then, the other night, deciding I would make use of it, I struggled to find anything in the house to paint, that has orange in it! I did find this wooden pot though – something we picked up during our time in Bhutan.
Thu-5-May-2022
This hat is a beautiful piece of handicraft work that we were given when we hiked to Laya in Bhutan (about 20 years ago). Laya is an area in the Northwest of Bhutan on the Tibetan border inhabited by the indigenous Layap people. If you Google Laya you can see them wearing these hats. Our trip there was the first big hike we did in Bhutan – it was exhausting but fantastic.
Tue-25-May-2021
This is a late post of a little sketch I did yesterday. We have three of these little wooden carvings from Bhutan – just about 2 inches big. I think they are supposed to be used on one of those light switch cords.
Wed-11-Nov-2020
We accumulated a lot of bits and bobs when we lived in Bhutan – plenty of sketching material! This little enamel mask has been hanging around our house for a long time (literally because it hangs from a little loop at the back). I think he looks sad rather than scary.
Wed-23-Sep-2020
This is a gong that we bought in Bhutan years ago. Sometimes I use it to rouse my daughter in the morning. It makes a lovely sound but my daughter (who is not a morning person) says she has been traumatised by its sound!
Sat-15-Aug-2020
The #HomeboundSketching prompt for 21 May was “basket”, so here is one of the fruit baskets we use – with a huge melon in it. The basket is actually half of a traditional Bhutanese ‘banchung’ (I hope that’s the right word) – two woven baskets that fit together to make a little container…I used to use them to put my lunch in.
Tue-26-May-2020