Friends bean and tomato plants.

Posted on August 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beans, Blogging, Friend, Garden, Gardening, Happy, Life, Plants, Tomatoes, VisitLeave a comment

Visited a friend who has some bean plants growing and some tomato plants.

I was jealous, my tomatoes only have a couple of fruits on them. And we don’t have any beans. But I admire her ability to grow them. It’s good to go out and visit people at a distance. It’s better than sitti g in my house. I still wear a mask even if I’m outside. That made it hard to have a glass of elderflower cordial so I relented because I was thirsty and we kept a good six feet apart. Now I’m back home in the cool. It was 36° C in places today. The hottest August day since 2003, and it’s forecast to get hotter!

Dog drawing 2014

Posted on August 7, 2020August 7, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged 2014, Blogging, Boatband, Dog, Double bass, Fun, Happy, Howl, Music, Singing, WoofLeave a comment

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Woof!

I drew him in 2014. It’s in amongst some drawings of the Boatband that I did in 2014. But this cheered me up, I think he was howling along with the music as dogs sometimes do. We had a great time as usual. I’ve even found a picture of someone playing a double bass, not something that occurs very often.

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I can’t imagine anyone wanting to bring this into a crowded pub very often. I think I’ve got the proportions wrong!

Cat got to the vets!

Posted on August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Bag, Blogging, Cat, Cat in a bag, Inoculated, Life, Planning, Vet, Visiting the vet4 Comments

It was time to take my cat to the vets for her second inoculation. But she knows when I’m planning things, she’s very bright. What to do? I got some nice cat food but didn’t give her any until just before we were due to go out. She followed me into the kitchen and I shut the door. Next I shooed her into the bathroom and shut that door. I had prepared her carrying bag so I quickly scooped her up. Put her in the bag and flapped the lid over… But I couldn’t hold the bag shut and zip it. So I called hubby… He didn’t hear me! The doors were shut! I had to carry the bag with the flap closed by holding it shut and carry it into the living room where my hubby closed the bag.

Result! My cat got her shot!

Flower power

Posted on August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bees, cracks, Flowers, Kerbs, Pavement, Photos, Roads, Streets, Urban landscape, Weeds, Wild flowersLeave a comment

Took a few photos of wild flowers (or weeds) this morning. Things for bees to feed on. But I didn’t see any bees.

The city seems to be full of plants pushing themselves up through cracks in the pavement and along the kerbs of roads. I also saw that green areas which were once lawns now covered in wild grasses and flowers with just a meter round the edge cut back. I did notice that the local main road that was covered in wild flowers a couple of weeks ago have now been weedkiller. The worry is that any bees that sipped from them when they were sprayed will have been poisoned. Madness. I’d rather have weeds than dead bees.

Slow

Posted on August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bad jokes, Blogging, Exercise, Funny, Humour, Life, Snail, Tired, Trying, Up hill, Walking1 Comment

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I was walking up our hill today and this passed me….

I’m not saying I walk slowly but paint can dry before I get back from a walk.

My feet are so flat my arches are basements?

I walked about three miles today. I couldn’t find the off switch for the treadmill!

I’m not saying I’m tired, but I can’t walk to the fridge now!

Bad jokes…..

Usk challenge ‘what’s good for you’

Posted on August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Escape, Etruria, Etruria Artists, Etruria Industrial museum, Life, Lockdown, Meeting a friend, Morning visit, Stoke-on trent, Urban Sketchers, Urban sketchers challenge2 Comments

Drawn outdoors, we met with an old friend today, properly socially distanced. I was wearing a mask and gloves, and with my glasses on I feel reasonably safe. I ended up drawing my friend and when he went off for a walk I drew the landscape. There were some big trunked willow trees with wrinkly bark in the background, there tiny leaves contrasting with their aged, thick branches and trunks. It has been an overcast day so the colours were not brilliant. After this I took some photos of some interesting views of the area and some of the weedy plants growing along the track. I might post pictures later. When I got home I saw the USK challenge was to draw what’s good for you, and this was it!

I want to be out!

Posted on August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beauty, Before, Blogging, Countryside, Garden, Life, Memories, Missing the world, Pandemic, Photo, Scents, Thinking, Waterfall2 Comments

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By a waterfall, in the countryside, with friends. A little picnic, some cheese sandwiches, a flask of tea? An apple or a banana. Sunshine, a scent of flowers on the breeze. Driving a few miles further than I have for the last few months. Out of the city. Where my feet can touch grass. Where my eyes can be dazzled with colour and the clouds are as white washed cotton. I want time to go back. Before pandemics and Covid, before corruption and death..

Is it too much to ask?

I love the LOTR

Posted on August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Aragorn, Art, Digital art, Digital drawing, Digital portrait, Digital sketch, Drawing, Lord of the Rings, LOTR, Portrait4 Comments

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A drawing of Aragorn I did about ten years ago at a website called sketchfu. I loved drawing there. I miss it. But it closed. I really want to find a simple drawing application that I can do this kind of thing in again. Any suggestions? Everything these days seems to be on Google play. But that’s not how I want to draw. Yes I’m moaning about this again. I did a couple of months ago I think. I just want something where I can get the freedom to do what I want to do. Even if it is just drawing portraits of my favourite stars!

Moan over.

Sketching

Posted on August 5, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Cross hatching, Drawing, Fun, Life, Pencil, Poem, Poetry, Shading, SketchingLeave a comment

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Draw something fast

Draw something quick

Sharpen a pencil

A conte stick.

Shading and hatching

Playing with angles,

Draw lines and curves

Twisting and turning

You know drawing makes me happy.

Portfolio submitted

Posted on August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, College, Drawing, Illustration, PDF, Pictures, Portfolio, Submitted, Word documentLeave a comment

It’s taken me three or four days to put my college portfolio together. Lots of images in a word document. I had 51 pages in the end. I presented it as a landscape document. Word is a pain. Every time I tried to fit images to a page it jumped. So that meant I had to delete lines and insert lines. I tried putting numbers to pages, but because it was automatically numbering pages my document started with number 11! I had to work out how to delete 1.

Then I decided to put frames round each image, but the one I chose overlapped the edges of some of the drawings so I had to choose something with a slimmer frame.

Then I had to convert it to a PDF. When I looked all the images were too small. I had to resize most of them. So frustrating….

I hope I learn to do things better. I need advice in using Word, and everything else.

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown