New paintings and regular art updates.
I used to do a lot of collages like this. I just looked back and saw this. Blue sky and wispy clouds with an old building suspended in the sky. I think I might try and do a few more if the rain ever stops! Grey skies and lack of sunshine makes me a dull woman. I need to try and do more art and experiment more. I don’t want to come to a stop. I hope when the sunlight comes back I feel more bright myself.
Oh I am forgetful! is this Cate Blanchett? I think she played the lady Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings films. I drew this about the time the films came out and it’s another sketchfu digital drawing. It’s not perfect but I am quite pleased with it and have good memories of the site.
Artrage oils drawing from several years ago. This is the free version of the app. You only have the oil pen tools but it certainly can be used to create interesting effects. I like this a lot, I used the metallic option to give it this sheen. If you tone down the metallic effect the colours become paler and you can draw over the darker parts (where I have outlined the bird) as it seems to be more opaque and covers over the darker areas.
It didn’t happen
No rose
No wine
No sweet kiss
Just your presence
Missed.
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
If someone wrote a biography of me it would be about my art I think.
But I have a lot of lights hidden under a bushel. Lots of knowledge about different things, science, music, nature, history. I’m definitely one of those “Jack of all trades”, I seem to absorb information and retain it.
I can remember songs I haven’t heard for years. Name most of the bones in the body and know where they are located. I’ve had various jobs and worked for over twenty years for one company. I won a student award whilst studying on a college course. I’m reasonably good at using computers in this digital age. I believe I’m well read, but know my knowledge is not all consuming.
But, what gets me really going is art, ancient and modern. I love skill and technical ability, but also innovation and experimentation. I think I have good expertise at art. I must have done much more than 10,000 hours as a painter. But I can still learn. Education and thought are important. That’s me.
Here’s the portrait I painted of my friends dog and a photo of him with it x.
I think I posted it a couple of weeks ago but it’s only just winged it’s way over to America. His owner is really pleased with it. It’s a watercolour painting. Quite small. I enjoyed doing it although it took me a few months because of everything going on in my life. Happy it’s arrived.
Write about your dream home.
I need more space. I could build a small studio on the side of my house if I had the money and planning permission. It would be somewhere that didn’t affect the fruit trees in the garden. I would move all my art equipment and works in. That would make more room for all the other things we collected over the years.
I’d also insulate it and add better windows and doors. Maybe underfloor heating.
My income is too low so this is all a pipe dream. Unless of course a Millionaire or Billionaire reads this and feels like making a generous donation? (or I might win the lottery). I would take over the empty house next door to offer accommodation for friends and family and make a gallery downstairs. Then I’d also add a lift to save my knees and hips that are starting to ache more and more x.
Another digital portrait I did on the Sketchfu site. I’m quite pleased that I could use simple tools and create images like this it’s sketchy round the edges because you could only use set sizes of pens, there was no sliding scale of thickness. But there was a good pallette, opacity and transparency tools so I could blend colours to some extent. This is based on a photo of Frodo from the Lord of the Rings film. He is holding his sword Sting.
I used to draw at a website called Sketchfu before it closed. It had simple tools to draw with, no complicated applets, and consequently it was open to a large number of people.
Eventually it became a massive site and the owners lost interest in it. I was a moderator and had to deal with a lot of problems over the years I was there. I won’t go into details but it included bullying and inappropriate language and messages. There were a few of us that were allowed to remove inappropriate content but it was hard work. (I also moderated another site but did not disclose my role). When someone draws the same rude or racist image over, and over again for hours, but you are there deleting them as they appear, they eventually get fed up and stop. But if you admit you are a moderator you get a lot of stick, so I kept quiet. At one stage I was working in a full time job and coming home and doing four or five hours moderating!
Anyway I loved creating digital drawings, including portraits. I loved doing challenges. Someone would post a photo and we had to try and copy it. I’ve just found some of my old pieces so I might post a few of them over the next few days.
Narrow boat painted on the car park of Westend village in Stoke. It’s on the route of the Newcastle branch of the Trent and Mersey canal that used to run alongside London Road. This photo was taken from the hump in the road in Corporation Street that used to be a canal bridge. I hope they repaint it! It’s much more faded than this but I’ve upped the contrast and saturation because it’s really dull and the paint has peeled off.
Mallaband-Brown