February favourites

Well February went quickly didn't it!!!!....here's some of the things that have been floating my boat this month...

 

TAYLOR'S SWEET RHUBARB TEA 
I am not a massive fruit tea fan as I find that the flavours are often too weak but this tea is really flavoursome and sweet without being sickly. It's a limited edition teabag made by Taylor's of Harrogate , I picked this up from coop randomly and i LOVE IT. I hope I can find more of this AS IT'S AMAZING !


AVOCADOS 
I am beyond addicted to Avocados, I eat one daily. They are good for you and make your hair grow, reeeeeal well. BOOM!


PRIMARK PINEAPPLE CANDLE
Primark's new spring homeware range is really on point at the moment, they seem to have the most random candles in. I picked up this amazing ceramic pineapple candle for £2.50 i think. It's really unusual and it is a nice addition to my fireplace. It is strictly for display purposes  though as i'm a bit monica like that. 




MODELS OWN NAIL VARNISH - GUN GREY
I rediscovered this nail varnish this month, it's a great sparkly grey colour which has great coverage and dries quickly. I like wearing dark nail varnish and this is a great alternative to my usual matte black. You can get these nail varnishes from Boots and Superdrug. Try it. 

HYDRALURON 
I think this was in my last months favourites too and that's because it works. It keeps my face looking hydrated and is now an essential. I cannot rate this highly enough, still not convinced well ok then have a desert face see if i care ;) LOLZ

BOOTS BOTANICS HYDRATING EYE CREAM RADIANT YOUTH
As I'm no longer a radiant youth I need some help in the eye wrinkle department. I hate sticky eye creams and so was pleasantly surprised with the formula of this one, you only need a little bit around the eyes and it sinks into the skin well with no stickiness. I have noticed the results almost immediately and I will definitely repurchase this bad boy. Oh yeah and it's full of natural ingredients and protective ginkgo...don't get me started on ginkgo eh eh...yeah I've no idea what it is either. 

BOURJOIS BRONZING POWDER - DELICE DE POUDRE
I had been looking for a matte bronzer for a while, I was moaning about this to my friend Catherine and the babe gave me this as the shade was too dark for her; and I'm so grateful she did. It is a really lovely bronzer which gives you a nice radiant glow, the packaging is so sweet and it does smell like chocolate. I have it in shade 51 and it is now a permanent fixture in my make up. Thanks Catherine!! x

LOVE TANYA BOOK- TANYA BURR
For those of you that don't know Tanya Burr is a Youtuber and this is her lifestyle book. It ain't Pride and Prejudice but it is a lovely coffee table book. What I have been loving is the baking section of her book! So much so in fact that baking has become my new favourite thing to do, much to the joy of my work colleagues. I made her lemon cake and cookies and they were actually EDIBLE... #win
This book is not for everyone I admit but I like it so ner. 

What have you been loving this month? Leave me a comment below or get in touch on my twitter or follow me on instagram...

Amanda x

Starting out...

When you are first starting out with drawing you don't mind using basic pens and pencils but as soon as your skills start to improve and you begin to really develop a style you should take the next step and secure yourself some decent gear. 

However when I was trying to find out what materials or pens you need to use I found that people just didn't want to share that information (either that or I was just looking in the wrong place) and as a result I often used to spend a lot of time in the aisle of the art shop trying to work out what paper or pens I needed to buy. This resulted in a massive collection of pens and a lot of trial and error (and cash spent) before I ended up with a good idea of what I needed to have in my collection.  

Now I am the first to say that what you draw with is very much what suits your style and is very much down to your own preference but this is what I use and I hope that it's useful to some of you...

PENCILS AND ERASERS

One of my tips is to invest in a good quality propelling pencil. The benefits of using a propelling pencil is that you will always have a consistent nib and there is no need to buy a sharpener. I use a Rotring Tikky 0.5 pencil with a 0.5 HB lead. You change the lead by taking the end of the pencil off (the eraser end) and feeding in the individual leads. This pencil is great and whilst slightly expensive well worth the money. 

It is also a really good idea to buy yourself a really good quality eraser, one that actually removes pencil lines effectively from the paper (yeah I thought that was an essential for an eraser but it seems not to be the case for a lot of cheap erasers). Here i have the Rotring Rapid-eraser B30 , it's a nice quality small eraser.

PENS

If you want to start drawing detailed line work then you need to invest in some good quality pens. They need to have a good quality nib! And you will need to buy different pens with different nib sizes.

These Staedtler pens are one of my favourites to use, I use 0.2, 0.1 and 0.05 for all my pointillism drawings. You can get these pens from ebay for about £3.00 each. I'll review each of these pens in detail in another post. 

PAPER

Treat yourself to some nice quality sketchbooks, I like to use paper by the brand Daler Rowney. I use a heavy weight white Acid Free A4 220g paper for art work which I want to have an aged vintage feel, like this hand illustration of mine...

I have also been known to draw on watercolour paper, like my bird skull drawing here...

And when I really want to push the boat out and use the best paper I go for Bristol Board, like when I did this drawing...

Bristol Board has a smooth almost shiny surface, it doesn't absorb ink in the same way as the other papers i mentioned in this post will and in my experience it is also the best paper to use and blend promarkers on. 

I hope you found this post useful, please leave me a comment below on what art materials you recommend or if you try any of my suggestions let me know via twitter . If you would like to see more of my art work follow my portfolio instagram account here or my personal instagram.

Amanda x

Latest illustration...

Finished the first of my floral print series 🌹 #illustration #pointilism #dotwork #flower #flowertattoo #tattoo #tattooart #print #pigmamarker

A photo posted by amandainateacup (@amandainateacup) on Feb 9, 2015 at 12:35pm PST

Black and Gold....

Black and Gold by amandainateacup

I love making sets on Polyvore...if you are not familiar click here it's a great way to make a visual wish list of things you can only dream of owning...I like to think of it as the grown up electronic version of Fuzzy Felts. Yeah you're right they were awesome!

I'm in the mood for a little bit of black and gold on this fine Sunday post-valentines day afternoon. I'm not sure exactly how practical the gold rucksack is but I am loving the Jeffrey Campbell brogues. 

January favourites

January Favourites by amandainateacup 

Here are some of the things I have been enjoying during the past month.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I am really bad at finding the time to read but I have been really enjoying this book. It won't shock you to find out that it's about a circus that runs at night, it's set in the past and I don't want to ruin it for you but it's full of magic and a mysterious game and seemingly based on where I am up to a bit of romance. Well worth a read. 

2. My new TV

My life has been revolutionised by my mum buying me a lovely big Samsung TV for Christmas, now I'm not watching stuff on an Ipad sized old TV I'm really enjoying watching films again and of course lots of Youtube videos. I also watched Frozen for the first time finally and as I'm not really a Disney fangirl I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. 

3. White Gel pens on black paper

I have been loving drawing with white pens this month. I bought a white manga gel pen when I was in an amazing art shop in San Francisco which I really enjoy using. I'm also really into sacred geometry which this ram skull design incorporates. 

4. Hydraluron Moisture Booster £24.99

This is a serum that you use before your moisturiser and it increases the skins ability to absorb moisture by up to 1000%. Google it if you are not familiar as it is so so good and really makes a difference to your skin. I love it. 

5. B. Stunning Vibrant Eye Shimmer in 097 Golden Sand £6.99

This eye-shadow is only available from Superdrug's B. range, it is a cream eye-shadow in a gorgeous true shimmery gold colour. It applies really well and the pigment is very true and long lasting. I use this either on its own or when I am doing a smoky brown eye. I will be doing a tutorial using this eye-shadow soon. 

6. Herbal Essences Dry Shampoo- Uplifting volume Citrus Fragrance

I tried this by chance because Boots had run out of my usual Batiste Volume dry shampoo and this was on offer for £2.99. I am really impressed with it! Unsurprisingly it has an orangey smell which is really nice and refreshing, I wouldn't say it gave my hair a lot of volume but this is well worth trying and I am actually considering re-purchasing which is saying something as I had been brand loyal to Batiste for so long!  

7. Kerastase Resistance Ciment Anti-Usure £16.00

I love this whole range and regularly use the Thermique heat protection fluid but I had not tried any of the shampoos or conditioners. I treated myself to this conditioner and it's really really good. My hair can get dry and this conditioner restores it back to being silky smooth. It's pricey but you don't have to use a lot of the product and the results make it worth it. 

8. Primark - Minty Choc Chip lipbalm £1

I love this lipbalm, so much so in fact that I bought it twice this month after I lost my first one at my graduation. Considering it is so cheap the formula is really great, my lips feel really smooth and it doesn't have an overpowering mint or chocolate chip smell. At only £1 everyone reading this should pick one up and let me know what you think of it! 

Have you tried any of these products? or think you will now go and try some of them? Let me know in the comments below what you thought or tweet me here

Amanda xx