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

selfie drawing?

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This is part of a set of drawings I did to learn how to make a GIF. its more complicated that I imagined. I managed to do it but you have to optimise files and do all sorts of things. Trouble is Ive forgotten what I did – maybe i should have another go.

The drawing built up over several frames. In the missle was a wild swirling pattern and then it built back down to the original sketch.. I wish I could run it here but I dont think I have enough memory and I dont know if WordPress works with GIFs?

an old painting

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unfortunatley I only have this small file of a painting I did at college over forty years ago. It was a painting of a fellow student called Ann. I was really pleased with it and only parted with it because a friend really wanted it, I also gave my ‘friend’ a few other paintings for Christmas and birthdays. I found out later my ‘friend’ and her husband burnt them on a bonfire because he did not like them. Suffice to say I am no longer friends with her. I cant tell you how upset I was when I found out….

Oil on canvas about 1981?

Cat in a box

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What would Shrödinger say about my cat in a box? Curled up, unaware of the conundrum? What is the thought experiment? If I can remember it rightly…. A cat is in a sealed box, no one can see what is happening with it. Also in the box is a poison is in a sealed canister which can only be released by the radioactive decay of a chemical reaction, releasing an electron. You can’t tell when or if it will be released. The cat is therefore maybe alive or dead, but you don’t know until you open the box….

It’s a weird way of explaining quantum mechanics, but I don’t understand it very well!

Winter blossom

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This popped up on my Facebook memories from a couple of years ago. Winter blossom shows a face in profile hidden in the twisted branches. The idea of the tree is based on a tree across the road from us that actually blossoms in December. It’s just coming into flower now. But clearly my idea is a bit more abstract and surreal. I did the painting and it sold at an Orme Art exhibition in the November, where my friend had fallen in love with it.

Cat toys

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Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was games or toys. I have a scrabble game somewhere but haven’t seen it for years. I don’t have any toys, but the cats have plenty….

A lot of them are filled with catnip which drives the cats mad with pleasure. It tends to fade over time, hence the number of toys! Drawn in spectrum noir metallic pencil colours in a little sketch book with a bit of black felt pen to define the edges.

Tick-tock

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There’s definitely something odd about this watch, she said to her friend. I ordered it over the Internet and it arrived today. I needed a new one and this was cheap and cheerful……. She couldn’t explain what was making her uneasy. Is it keeping time? Her friend said, and she replied, yes, it seems to be fine.

She went home after her shift and changed into her pajamas. Put the watch on the bedside cabinet… Tick tock… Tick tock.. Tick tock … She woke in the middle of the night and realised what she had subconsciously been hearing all day…

Tick-tock, the watch was saying the words, not actually ticking or tocking !

Go to sleep Sarah it said, Gooo tooo sleeeep!

What the merry hell?

Morning glory dies

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The morning glory plants I nurtured in the summer have died back, their tendrils are collapsing. It took ages to get them to germinate, even in the heat of summer and I only saw one fully open flower. As the temperature cooled the flowers wilted, didn’t continue to grow. It was sad, but I think I will get some more seeds next year, possibly a different type, I would like to grow sky blue ones, not purple and pink which these were.

I jazzed up the photo in photodirector. Makes it more interesting.

Changing colours

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Have you tried adjusting the colours in a photo in curves? I had taken a bland photo of a tree outside my window and I decided to see what I could do with it. I wanted to increase the contrast, change the colours, add brightness to bring out where the light was in the photo to differentiate between the tree leaves and the background.

Curves is like a graph, by changing the height and depth of the curves you can enhance brightness and colour by making the curve higher, or lower the curve and the image loses brightness and can lose contrast too….. The curved graph representing this was up and down then back up again. All I can say is have a go and see what happens. You don’t have to accept the result and you can go back to how it was originally.

Face sketch

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Tried drawing Jane Horrocks in twenty minutes while watching Sky Portrait artist of the week. Done with a blunt spectrum noir pencil crayon. Where’s my sharpener when I need it? I couldn’t find an image from the day so I used a stock one. I’m afraid it looks a bit more like another celebrity, Annika Rice?