Birds.

It's been a while since I posted anything here.  In fact, the last post was about Anna's birthday.  So's this one...
I found some nice watercolours of birds in a local shop.  I thought they'd make a nice pressie.  Then I thought I'd have a go at doing them myself (while keeping the shop ones in mind as a competent backup!).
Having not done watercolour before (or at least, not since school days!) I had to go and get some kit (don't worry, I had a £5 off voucher).
Once kitted out, I had a few practice rounds:

Then I did four paintings (three based on what I'd seen in the shop, one from a bird book we have):

The goldfinch is probably my least favourite (sorry goldy) and was the one that relied on the book.

 I think it looks lie a crow in disguise, perhaps because of its beak...
There's the diminutive wren, not exactly vibrant, but I thought he was quite sweet:

The blue tit seems to have a nervous twitch, but is blessed with a little more colour than the wren:

Then my favourite, the robin:

So there we have it - really quite enjoyed trying my hand at some watercolour! 

Another mural...

So, Little Boy has been hassling me for a while now.  He's been lying in bed asking me to take Charlie and Lola off the wall, and paint Peppa Pig on there.  It went on for quite a number of consecutive nights.  'Want Peppa Pig'.  'Paint Peppa'.  'Don't like Charlie and Lola'.  And on it went.  So I eventually got around to actually doing something about it.  (Don't worry, we addressed the not liking Charlie and Lola by watching it every night for a while.   He soon changed his tune)
I used tester pots of paint, so it cost somewhere in the region of a fiver.  If you happened to have leftovers in the right colours, you could probably use them.  I used proper wall paint, not kiddy paint.  Here's the morning's work:

The virgin wall.

Same method as before - trusty OHP :)

Which allows you to do this!

Add some more outlines and the mud and flowers

More facial features...

Limbs and the beginning of colouring in.

And this is how it ended up.

We even splashed out and bought a George Pig duvet set.

So, all in a morning's work.  I did it on a morning where both boys were out, otherwise it would have taken considerably longer!
If you don't have an OHP to hand, you could try asking to borrow one from a local school or church.  If you do a good job and show them the results, they might even be happy for you to do a mural or two for them!