Artrage oils drawing

Posted on August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Digital art, Digital drawing, Digital sketch, Dots, Face, Mark making, Metallic, Non metallicLeave a comment

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Just did a drawing in artrage oils. It’s a drawing ap where you have a few brushes and a pallette that makes apparently oily colours. You can turn up a metallic look between 0 and 100.

This was done with a thin, dry brush tool. The marks are short so you are forced to draw lots of marks to cover an area. I could have changed it but this gave some uniformity in the mark making. Then I tried to add dots like halftone but because I was drawing with my finger it’s not very accurate. I changed the metallic effect up in some places. It sort of works.

And back to cats, patterns and photo editing

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Cat, Celtic cat, Design, Drawing, Filters, Instagram, Photodirector, Pictures, Sketching, StylesLeave a comment

Sometimes when you ‘tidy things up’ with photo editors, you lose some of the character of your art work. Yes it may look more interesting in one way but you can lose colours or small details that you might have struggled to get into the image in the first place. I guess it’s a matter of choice. The first photo here has been enhanced slightly with filters in Instagram. That’s because the drawing I did originally is about twenty years old and hangs on our stairs. The inks I used to draw it have faded so i had to try and restore it slightly back to how it was. The second is another one that I’ve adjusted in Photodirector.

It’s down to personal opinion if you like them or not?

Hedgehog in the shed

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Light, Night, Food, Life, Blogging, Dark, News, Nature, Environment, Shed, Random, Cat Food, Hedgehogs, TorchLeave a comment

I just went out to check if there were hedgehogs in the shed. One was eating cat food but scuttled over to the corner as I shone my light in, so I took a quick photo and came out again. It’s quite a cool night so at least the poor thing has some shelter, food and water in there. There is a smaller one somewhere so we might have Hoglets soon. I think the shed needs tidying up a bit. Hubby seems to leave everything on the floor, but as long as there isn’t anything dangerous for the hedgehogs to eat they should be fine. I’ve got details now of the local hog charity so I might get in touch tomorrow. X

Buddlea

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Buddlea, Colour filter, experimental, Fun, Garden, Photodirector, Photograph, Plant, Playing, Splash filterLeave a comment

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I’m playing with Photodirector. This part of it is called ‘splash’.

You can outline an area and make the background black and white. Then I changed the hues in the app. The buddlea in our garden are a slightly more red colour. It’s also changed the green of the leaves slightly too.

I think people should play with different apps and learn how interesting they can make editing photos. Not just to enhance photos and airbrush them but to get creative and have fun.

Eyes

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Design, Editing photos, Eyes, Eyes painting, Painting, Photo directorLeave a comment

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The top image is a painting of my eyes reflected in various ways, the second has been adjusted in Photodirector that can change the style of your image and has lots of tools that I have used, but this is my favourite. It’s interesting to see how a painting can look if you were painting it in a different style. I don’t know if I could achieve this in actual paint. It also gives you new ideas that you could maybe use instead.

I do like experimenting with art. The original painting is a bit different. It was about looking into myself. Possibly a failed experiment. But I like it.

Old cat paintings

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Acrylics on canvas, Art, Cat portraits, Cats, Colours, Old friends, Old paintings, PatternLeave a comment

Two of my old cats. From these you can see I’ve been interested in patterns and cats for a long time.

I did have a box kite someone made me for Christmas although I never actually flew it. The cat jumped into it and I drew a quick sketch. This was the result. I wish I had taken a photo. The other painting was my old cat lying on a colourful throw. She was very old when she passed away. In her twenties!

I’ve done many portraits of animals from photos but these are more personal and painterly. I also enjoyed playing with colours.

Remember the kittens?

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Abandoned cat, Blogging, Cats, Happy cats, Inoculations, Introduction, Kittens, Life, Looking after cats, Love, Rescue cats, Three years agoLeave a comment

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Three of the four kittens our female rescue cat had. This was three years ago. They went to new homes soon after this. I know they are happy and I’m glad we rehomed them. Six cats would really have been too much for us.

As it is our cats are starting to be introduced to the stray that has been hanging around for a couple of years. I managed to get both of ours down to the vets for their first inoculation. Now I’ve got to get the abandoned cats microchip changed and have him taken to the vets for a health check up and shots. Suddenly things are getting serious. We have decided he’s not spending another winter in the shed if our two will tolerate him. We are going to gradually introduce them to each other. I hope this will work out. X

Cat in a box

Posted on August 2, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white, Black and white cat, Blogging, Cat, Drawing, Life, Sketching, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge today was to draw an animal. It was easy to choose my cat. He loves sitting in his box in the kitchen. He’s got a few boxes around the house he sleeps in. He likes putting his paws out and was after my pen as I started to draw him. He didn’t stay very still, but I’ve got a good idea of what he looks like.

Mural of The F Frame

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 1990's, Art, Emulsion on board, Florence Colliery, Florence near Longton, Mural, Painting, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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This was a mural I painted quite a few years ago of a local colliery at a place called Florence, near Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. I was commissioned to paint this as a piece for the working men’s club there back in the 1990’s. The image is based on various historical pictures and photos. I had fun putting it together. It took me about six weeks to complete during weekends and evenings. It was painted in the corridor inside then installed later. X

Colour combinations

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Afternoon, Flower, Grey, Grey cloud, Grey sky, Lily, Photo, Pink, Pink and grey, Pink flower, Pink Glass, Stormy, SunshineLeave a comment

Pink lily, pink glass with grey shadow, lowering grey cloud. Just three things that I noticed today. Pink and Grey really do work well together. I’d say never be afraid to allow colours to clash. Enjoy what you do.