This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today has been another beautiful day in the Valleys. I spent the morning sketching mountain views (with Daisy!). The first image is overlooking Treorchy in Rhondda Fawr. The angle of the sun made the contours very prominent, which I've tried to highlight in preparation for a more detailed study.

The second sketch is of the wonderful Bwlch mountain - again, a contour drawing. I was trying to understand the topography of this side of the valley. All morning, the sky was full of birds of prey - as I've tried to capture in the image.

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today I have done a study using black ink and white gouache, from a photograph that I took of a beautiful garden spider - whose web was across our garden path this morning. I knew of its existence as I had already walked through a neighbouring web - so I realised that spiders had been active during the night!

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today I have been drawing another sketch of Mephistopheles and friend. I've used a sepia ink wash with white goache, depicting details with black ink using a pen nib. I just love these two characters: their mournful expressions and slightly dilapidated state make a wonderful subject matter, and they play off each other.

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today's image is a sepia ink drawing of a pencil sketch of the Thames near Hammersmith Bridge, that I made recently. In this sketch I have really tried to explore and push the tonal quality in preparation for a possible wood engraving that I would like to do of this image. I think the houseboats make a really interesting subject matter.

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Following on from yesterday's sketches, I am continuing to draw the same bird skull. It's such an exquisite object and is in perfect condition.

From the base of the skull to the beak is 3.2cm. I am using a lens with a small magnification to help me pick out the detail. My aim is to create a larger drawing of the skull.

The top image is in sepia ink, white gouache and pencil, and the bottom sketch is pencil only.

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today's studies are of two different angles of a bird's skull. I was really trying to depict a close and true study of the bird's cranium, beak and orbitals, along with the vertebrae and several rib parts.

I found this little bird one day lying on the mountain path, on the way back home. It wasn't there when we set out, so it must have recently fallen out of the sky. There was no sign of attack, but it was a very hot day. I took the body home and tried to draw it (lower sketch). I then put the bird under a plant pot to wait for it to decompose, so that I could draw the skeleton.

It was such a young bird that heavy rain damaged much of the body, leaving only the skull and part of the backbone. That's what I've drawn for today's picture.

I have also included a photograph of the bird. At first I thought it was a house martin, but the olive-green colour with a white front does not seem to match, and I have been unable to find another match using the RSPB's bird identifier tool. So if anyone has any idea of what species of bird this is, please let me know!

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today's image is a sketch for a possible new wood engraving. It's based upon an incredible rainbow that I saw on my morning walk up the mountain. It appeared almost solid, like it had just been painted into the valley.

In this pencil drawing I am trying to convey the water droplets reflecting the morning sunlight, and the illusion of the rainbow - which appeared over the Blaencwm valley.

This month I am taking part in a month of drawing, posting images every day. Today's image is a still life called Old Acquaintances. It is drawn using sepia and black ink and white gouache. I've used the ink very thickly as this helps to give a really deep and dark shadow. I feel that this lends a sinister atmosphere between the two characters.

Earlier this week I was thrilled to learn that my image At Dawn the Ridge Emerges has been selected as the featured work for the Society of Graphic Fine Art's DRAW 14 exhibition. It's also the Image of the Month at their blog: http://sgfajournal.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/image-of-the-month-at-dawn-the-ridge-emerges-by-rebecca-coleman-asgfa. Details of the exhibition at the Menier Gallery, London can be found on the events page.