Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown

I'm an artist based at the Spode factory site in Stoke on Trent. I paint, draw and create digital art. Contact me at mallabandbrown@aol.com

always an artist

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Daily writing prompt
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
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I always drew for as long as I can remember and I knew I wanted to  be an artist. I stuck drawings up on my bedroom walls as I got older, i would copy pictures of Asterix the Gaul, or draw Elizabethan people with ruffs round their necks and wonderful clothing. When the walls got covered I strung string across my side of the bedroom and hung my drawings and paintings on with clothes pegs or sellotape. As I got better at art I was asked to do a painting for one of the deputy head teachers who was retiring. I remember painting portraits of some of my school mates as if they were in the school playground in clothes that would look very old fashioned now. Eventually one of my paintings got sent to a display of childrens art in our twin town in Germany. That was a big highlight of school life. Luckily I got to go to art college, and here I am, still doing art all these decades later!

my phone is dying!

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My phone got very hot tonight and the USB lead almost burnt my hand when I disconnected it from the phone. I tried another lead and the same thing happened. The charge actually went down on the screen by ten percent when I put it on another charger. My guess is that the battery is playing up and instead of charging it has lost the ability to charge. I’m hoping I can get a replacement tomorrow,

The problem is I do everything on it, and having golfers elbow makes it hard to type on a normal keyboard. Plus no one can email me or phone me…..I hope i dont have to buy a new phone, I can’t afford it! Wish me luck!  

Spooky Stonehenge

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I did a digital drawing of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plane ages ago and I’ve tried to add a misty, foggy, mysterious effect over the top of the original drawing. Because I drew it in layers, the image in the bottom layer shows the stones and this stayed in place so I could distort the upper two layers of black that I had added and then a blueish grey with a smudging tool. The overall effect is slightly spooky, I could imagine shadowy figures or spooky silhouettes detaching themselves from the stones and moving towards anyone visiting the ancient site. What ghosts of druids reside there?

Digital doodles

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Spring and flower themed digital doodles using ArtRage oils. Then edited in Photodirector for one of the four images and layout app to create symmetry for all four. Finally I stitched them together in layout and have published the variations on my Instagram account. I could imagine this as a woollen blanket.

Rose doodle

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Gold felt pen doodle coloured in with more pens then filtered through photodirector. Made up of dashes, squiggles and dots. I do like playing with images. I tend to use the same filters quite frequently. I may try variations on a theme. I added the thorns afterwards. I decided to leave a white background rather than adding another colour to it. Felt pen sketch.

Pawprints 🐾

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Footrest with paint pawprints. The cat jumped onto my pallette on the way up to sit on this footstool a few years ago. I could have cleaned it off, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it. Luckily it was acrylic paint so it was easily wiped of the cats paws. When I look at the photo now I’m happy I kept it (upstairs covered in sketchbooks now).

Digital drawing

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How has technology changed your job?

When I first started using technology in art it was at a conference and there was a stand with a digital drawing screen. It was a large flat screen with a stylus attached with a wire. There was a limited pallette and you drew by picking brush sizes and colours. I have always been an artist, but because it was a science based conference no one knew. I started drawing a horse I think and the people on the stand were surprised by what I could do. But I was hooked. As soon as I could get a small drawing tablet I did. I even had a digital drawing I printed off exhibited in a local Open Exhibition because it was not something they had seen before. Since then I’ve got bigger and better tablets, drawing with styluses attached with wires and then wireless ones. Now you can draw on a phone screen with your fingers. I’m glad I went to that conference.