when we got to the top of the hill

This, ahem, 'lovely' ashtray was a present from Rome (who'd have thought it, eh?). In fact I got a big bag of goodies from there. Including one of the more unusual souvenirs anyone has ever brought back from their travels for me; butter. Yes, I did say butter.

Here's a question, a little quiz actually; can you guess the what I used to create this drawing? Yes, obviously paper. And, of course, the trademark ballpoints were used but how many? Do you think anything else was used? Pencils? Crayons? Paint? There's a copies of How To Draw Like A Nut & Loon in for the winner, that's the person who guesses the closest (because I cannot actually believe anyone will get it spot on). Comment here, Flickr, FB, Twitter, all the usual places. And you might want to click on the drawing to get a better look.

Thank you for all taking part in this little quiz. It was hard to judge (again, I hadn't thought that through), in the end I made a little bar chart marking each item you got. The winner came up with the most correct items.

So, this is how I did it;
I used six blue ballpoints to draw in the ashtray - yeah, six! I drew around it but I went straight in with the pen instead of , as a few of you thought putting it in with pencil first.
I used two red ballpoints - actually no black, which a lot of people guessed.
The outline was made with a dark blue fine liner, as was the stippling in the centre.
Then I used two blue pencils - one was an indigo blue which can give the opaque look to the drawing.
Two red pencils.
And a touch of graphic tint pencil for the shadow.

That's it! Fourteen items in all, I believe. Yes, I know; totally obsessive. The person who got the most correct items (they guessed nine) was Maureen. Zines on their way to you.