Painted things and Pencils

I've been having more fun with a few quick repainting projects. This bowl started out white, but I painted the inside and top band shell pink. For some reason, I'm really drawn to pink at the moment. I keep painting things pink, buying myself pink shirts, and I even framed a watercolor with a bright pink mat. You can see that I used quick dots and dashes to paint this, so it didn't take long at all.

 This little guy on the other hand, took a bit longer. It would have been easier to paint him in disassembled pieces, but he was already glued together very strongly. I tried to use old colors on him, but looking at the photograph I think I could have done some real aging to him as well.

This was the last bit of work. I've been feeling guilty that I haven't done much with my draw plate (from Micro Mark.) I don't like tools to sit in a drawer for months on end! 

So I pulled out the smallest basswood strip I had on hand. In my experience, it's definitely better to use long, soft pieces of wood with this tool. I always break the wood several times in the process of pulling it through the holes, no matter what I do though!

These extra thin dowels are perfect for miniature pencils! I still need to finish detailing them. They need the little metal caps that hold the erasers still, and I want to dip the points in black paint. I went with traditional yellow pencils this time, but it would be easy to make them in any color.