New paintings and regular art updates.
Instead of just finger drawing in an app I’m trying to get a more realistic portrait using a Sketch app and a stylus . I am finding that using the stylus stops the slipping that makes more irregular lines that happens when I try to draw with my finger alone.
The drawing is being made up from the airbrush tool and I’m changing the thickness and opacity depending on the thickness of the lines I want to draw.
It’s again a work in progress so we will see how it turns out.
I’m still doing the drawing a day challenge with our group Stoke urban sketchers. Today I drew the corner of a £10 note, basically I need to do simple drawings every day the Challenge runs. I’m mostly trying to draw sketches of local places together with people when they appear on them.
One inch square is not easy. You need a fine nibbled pen. Careful observation, and care in drawing. I don’t know how easy drawing in a 1 inch Square is for people but I’m definitely struggling.
More sketches. These are of the restaurant by the river in Otley (finished), a pine tree outside the wizard tea room at Alderley Edge on the way home where we stopped for lunch. A woman and her dog sitting outside at a picnic table at the wizard tea room.
We travelled about 140 miles on that day so I was desperate fit a sit down and it was good to sketch while we were waiting for our food. A similar thing happened at the restaurant. We had a bit of a wait so I sketched the view but the food arrived before I could finish it so I added a few details when we were on the way home.
Someone just asked me about urban sketching so I looked some information up from the urban sketchers page on Facebook. The following text is copied from their page so apologies to them in advance if this is not acceptable. Urban sketchers are a world wide group. This is what they say (edited) :
Dear fellow Urban Sketchers,
This post serves as a reminder that images you post to the Urban Sketchers Facebook group must follow the Urban Sketchers Manifesto.
Your post will be removed if we find your sketches & content not in line with the manifesto.
URBAN SKETCHERS MANIFESTO
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• We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
• Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
• Our drawings are a record of time and place.
• We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
• We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
• We support each other and draw together.
• We share our drawings online.
• We show the world, one drawing at a time.
GUIDELINES
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Before sharing your drawings in the group, make sure they meet these basic criteria and they are done in the spirit of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto.
• You did the drawing on location, not from photos, memory, or your imagination.
• You have written the location of the sketch (town and state/country) in the headline or caption.
• We encourage members to write descriptions and stories associated with each sketch.
• We post our OWN work, not that of someone else. Please don’t share other people’s work here.
• Your post must be public, not private. If you post a private picture it will be deleted because the group can’t see it – all we get is an “Attachment unavailable” notice.
• No sketches from figure drawing sessions or posed models.
As long as your art conforms to the above, the medium used is not an issue, be it anything from a pencil to an electronic tablet.
DRAWING PEOPLE
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Draw VERBS, not NOUNS (Thank you, Walt Stanchfield!)
That means draw people doing stuff in context and not just noses, faces, hands and feet. Please avoid people that are posed or without an urban context. Posed people includes self-portraits, too.
Giving an environmental cue to a portrait is very helpful. Drawing the ENTIRE person is even more helpful.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
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Anyone is welcome to join, but please DO NOT ADD SOMEONE ELSE! These requests will not be approved. This group is huge enough without adding people who don’t necessarily want to be here. It’s a public group so they don’t need to be members to see the art in it.
Below is a quote from it, and note that he includes rural:
“The way I see it and try to convey in The Art of Urban Sketching book, being an urban sketcher isn’t merely about drawing cities, big or small, urban or rural, with a pen or with your fingers on an digital tablet.
“It’s about drawing places that can be put on a map, and everything that happens in those places. It’s about showing the world with drawings, taking people to locations they may never go through artwork you can only create.
“You were there, you saw it, you sketched it, you told us what happened with your hand drawn art, sketched in the moment but perhaps touched up later because you ran out of time or can’t resist the urge to fix something up.”
I’m in a group called urban sketchers. Today we braved the wind and cold and went out to draw and sketch there. I got quite chilly and damp but it was worth it. There were about 8 or 9 of us there.
There is so much to see at the Gladstone Pottery museum. Plus there is a nice little shop with Pottery for sale and a good friendly cafe upstairs.
Sited in Longton, Stoke on Trent, the Gladstone Pottery museum shows you the history of ceramics. There is a flushed with success section about toilets and a display of ceramic flower making, pot throwing, an old engine house, a doctors house and surgery. A selection of historical tiles and much more.
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I found a sketching app on the new phone. The result is a lot smoother and neater than my tablet computer. I think it’s because I have a protective layer on the screen so my fingers don’t drag and judder. I may try and get the same for the tablet. Also the touch sensitive screen seems more sensitive. It’s easy to be seduced by new technology. The more helpful it is to you the more you want to use it? No doubt I will end up with a neck that is permanently bent downwards towards a screen….
I am lost! Note, the picture I’ve added is not the sketch because I can’t find it on the phone…. Nothing changes, technology eh.
Ah… Found it! Learning…!
Late last night I stared to write a little story about this woman I had drawn, it was called Charlis and it was about her rescuing her village from a flood using powers that she did not realise she had. It was not meant to be a superhero / comic type story, I was hoping it would be deeper than that.
I had got about half way through (it was only short) and was concentrating on the plot when my tablet ran out of battery power and closed on me. This morning the story has gone.
I find it difficult to write stories, to put myself in other people’s lives. Doing something like this is quite daunting, would it be too verbose? too convoluted? did it make sense, could I take people with me into the story?
I can’t remember half of what I had written, and I don’t want to inflict something on you that might not be any good.
So what should I do, recreate it, is it worth the hassle? I tend to write things spontaneously, without any planning. Late night writing when you are tired is not the best way of going about things. I don’t think I’m much of a writer, I don’t feel my words flow, I am just learning. At least I have age and some experience to fall back on.
I will ponder on this. …
