
Using sketchbook app to draw tree branches. It’s interesting how you can import images and add to them, this is all a bit scruffy but I had fun doing it X.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Using sketchbook app to draw tree branches. It’s interesting how you can import images and add to them, this is all a bit scruffy but I had fun doing it X.

Two versions, one digital drawings. When you have done something don’t be afraid to play with filters. It may or may not pay off, but you don’t know if you don’t try.
I need to get my paints out and do some real painting instead of doodling here. It’s OK, but a screen isn’t ideal for artwork. It gives me pleasure to do things, keeps my hand in, but it’s not much more than finger painting? Although looking at David Hockneys digital work it can be so much more. Just keep learning and practicing…

Drawn with dots at a now defunct site called sketchfu. The site had a colour picker, about six round brush sizes. An opacity/transparency setting, zoom option and a pallette. Not many tools, but simple to use and it attracted a lot of traffic (thousands of users). In the end the owners abandoned it, they ghosted us moderators (I was one) I think they sold the site off.

It dawned on me this morning, the walls around me have grown… I’ve felt hemmed in by the pandemic, and tied down by ropes attached to concrete blocks. Not physically but mentally, emotionally, sadly.
Why? It stems from fear of what might happen. There is a word ‘catastrophise’ that I’ve heard recently. Maybe that’s what I’m doing. Plus hubbys situation bothers me, I feel very protective. Then again, as I age, bits of me don’t work properly. I tried to do something about it, but the authorities don’t seem to understand. It’s made me despondent to some extent. My prevarication is getting to me.
Sorry to lay all of this at your doors, I think by speaking out it allows me to order my thoughts. Those walls need to come down, and I need to let some light in, I need to be less of a scardey cat… But it’s not easy..

Bit late with this prompt of flow. It was posted on Tuesday but I missed it. I drew two lines in curves by holding a blue and a green felt pen together to give me a meandering river shape with vertical banks, the used blue, green and turquoise colours to give an idea of flowing water.
Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt flow.

Are you a leader or a follower?
I am not a leader,
so I must be a follower?
Following up a hill,
Always behind
Lost in a maze
Following my gaze
Happy to be lead
As long as its fair
and honest advice
Why don’t I lead?
I’m not bombastic
Or over confident.
I can and do try
But I prefer
Supporting
Caring and thoughtful
I hope….

We are singing at Audlem music festival in a few weeks. Loud Mouth Women are learning some new songs, and last night we were a bit short on numbers. In one particular song I was the only person to sing one of the parts! I was a bit nervous and forgot the tune on at least one of the lines. When you sing in a choir you try and tune in with other singers. So much depends on memory, pitching the right notes, getting the beat right and knowing if you have to do a movement or a clap…. In some of our songs that are international we do a Maori wiri-wiri. Next week is the last rehearsal and then we have an hour long performance. Wish us luck!

List your top 5 favorite fruits.
Bananas, with custard or on toast, my number 1.
Apples, sliced or in a tart with cinnamon.
Blueberries, stirred into my morning porridge.
Oranges, freshly peeled, or squeezed for their juice.
Finally strawberries. Either with cream or ice-cream. Or mixed into an Eton Mess.. Cream, meringue and strawberry all smashed together.
Well that was a boring list! It must be hard to try and think of a prompt to get people to write. Finding a specific idea, and then trying to find out everyone’s opinions. Maybe I should have chosen some less well known fruits, but I don’t know exotic ones. I’ve seen jackfruit on the TV but I’ve never tasted it.
And what is classed as a fruit? Some things are more like vegetables, some berries, do you have to have the seeds on the inside? I should have looked up a definition.
The thing I have to remember is that not everyone can afford fresh fruit. When I was a child, Sunday afternoon tea was canned peaches with evaporated milk and white bread and butter. We didn’t know, but our parents could not afford much. To us it was a treat and when we got maraschino cherries in our orange squash at Christmas it was so delicious. Now, with the cost of living crisis people cannot get the food they need, and that’s in the 6th most rich country in the world. If you look at the rest of the world, there is so much poverty that it must be a dream to get fresh fruit. What a strange world we live in.

“We should be sitting on this!”
“But I need a table to pot on”
“Yes, but you have one”
“But it’s got my trains on”
“Well can you move them?”
“No, I’m making a layout, I got some ‘n’ gauge stock” “I want to build it up”.
Sigh, “OK but the plants can go in the garden, the bench needs varnish or something to protect it”.
I didn’t mention to hubby that the last bench was treated in the same way, the wood rotted and the bench collapsed. I bought new wooden slats, but ‘someone’ (hubby), nailed them on to something else….

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
I need to start going to bed earlier. I’m always up late and it’s not good, then I get insomnia and I get up late. It’s a real dilemma to face. Not working also means I don’t have a routine to follow, and recent events have made me worse. I need to get out in the sunshine and boost my vitamin D but it’s easier to sit and feel anxious.
How do I do one thing to get me going again? Perhaps I should set my alarm every morning? Yes I could sleep through it, but at least it might give me the incentive to do things. Normally by the time I get up its after noon….
Why? Social media to some extent, and a constant need to watch the news. I’m caught in that dopamine trap of wanting to keep checking my phone, and yet I want to break away from it. I don’t read click bait but I do look at sites about politics a lot. I’m well informed. But why? it just ups the anxiety levels..
STOP!