Mandalas

Original
photodirector and layout apps

A doodled mandala and adjustments in photodirector to add lens flare and playing with the drawn lines (gold and silver pens on black cartridge paper).

I wanted to cover the paper in patterns, it started out as a reasonably balanced pattern at the centre, but I soon went off on a tangent!

🌃 Night and bonfires

The apple tree shimmers in the wind, shadows envelope it and suck out the colour from the leaves. The sky shades from dark brown to black as the clouds flit by. Sulphur Street lights making orange highlights.

Overhead a firework flashes, the whizz bang startles me… Laughter from excited children in a neighbours garden…. No bonfires on bonfire night, but fireworks for the week before. Some so loud the cats jump and startle. Frightened by the sparkle of unexpected explosions.

So many people seem intolerant of pet’s needs. They don’t seem to care how frightening it is for them. I tell mine that it’s only a loud noise and to be calm. I think if I talk quietly to them it helps…

Ker-ak another rocket flies overhead. Meanwhile I wait for a clearing in the sky. A meteor shower is due. No chance, it stays cloudy, more rain and cloud forecast…

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt

Drawing every couple of days to a prompt helps me keep my hand in and makes me think about drawing things slightly differently to a straightforward image. Hence the bike wheel…. Can’t say I got it right with its wonky spokes and dodgy perpective but I did find it enjoyable. The only thing is the radiator in there doesn’t give out much heat so I drew the circles for the wheel in the kitchen first (it’s warmer). Then I tried to draw the spokes in the bathroom but I was shaking too much to get straight lines!

By the way I didn’t draw the oil cans and the old rags… I think he think his bikes are horses and need stabling….. Lol

China cupboard

The ‘stuff’ you collect

The stuff in this ‘cup’board is mainly cups and egg cups. I’m pleased that some of them are ones we have decorated ourselves. Plus I found the Maggie egg cup I was looking for.

It’s amazing what clutter I’ve collected over the years.. I guess I can call it a cup collection…

Manorbier Castle

Painted a few years ago while we were on holiday in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.

I ppainted this while we were staying in a caravan in Pembrokeshire, I’d decided to take paints and a canvas for a change (I usually just take a sketch book or watercolours). I did some sketches of the castle but used a guide book for the castle to find an image to work from.

Manorbier is still in private ownership (a lot of places are now owned by the National Trust and other charities). Its really close to the coast, you can walk down a valley to the sea and if you look back you can see the castle up on a hill on the left and the church tower of the village on a hill on the right.

If you ever go to South West Wales it’s worth a visit……