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 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.

Cat washing

Posted on August 4, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage, Cat, Digital drawing, Fun, Life, Picture, Washing2 Comments

Cats are hard to draw when they are washing, they move from one position to another and when you are trying to capture them on a drawing tablet its harder because of changing tools mid drawing. My hubby just chimed in that its harder to draw flying bats! True, I just haven’t seen any recently.

Anyway I will try and do something different next time. I’m just a bit stuck in a rut today, so please excuse my lack of posting today.

Watering can

Posted on August 4, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, #uskstoke challenge, Art, ArtRage app, Design, Drawing, Illustration, metallic effect, Sketching, watering canLeave a comment

Todays Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge was ‘metallic.

I decided to draw our zinc watering can that hubby has kindly left in the middle of the living room floor after watering the plants infant of our house.

I decided to draw in my Artrage app as I don’t use it often enough. Its the pro version so you have lots of tools, including pastel, pen, brush, a roller, and lots more. It took a while to get used to it. Because it has metallic colours it meant I could get some interesting effects on the can, and there are also settings so i gave the background surface a canvas look.

And back to cats, patterns and photo editing

Posted on August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Cat, Celtic cat, Design, Drawing, Filters, Instagram, Photodirector, Pictures, Sketching, StylesLeave a comment

Sometimes when you ‘tidy things up’ with photo editors, you lose some of the character of your art work. Yes it may look more interesting in one way but you can lose colours or small details that you might have struggled to get into the image in the first place. I guess it’s a matter of choice. The first photo here has been enhanced slightly with filters in Instagram. That’s because the drawing I did originally is about twenty years old and hangs on our stairs. The inks I used to draw it have faded so i had to try and restore it slightly back to how it was. The second is another one that I’ve adjusted in Photodirector.

It’s down to personal opinion if you like them or not?

Cat in a box

Posted on August 2, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white, Black and white cat, Blogging, Cat, Drawing, Life, Sketching, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge today was to draw an animal. It was easy to choose my cat. He loves sitting in his box in the kitchen. He’s got a few boxes around the house he sleeps in. He likes putting his paws out and was after my pen as I started to draw him. He didn’t stay very still, but I’ve got a good idea of what he looks like.

Going a bit ‘van gogh’

Posted on July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Drawing, Edited, Fun, Inspiration, Instagram, Mobile, News, Photo app, Photodirector, Sketching, Van gogh style2 Comments

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I looked at last night’s sketch and wondered what I could do to maybe tie it more together? I decided to use one of the style options in photodirector. This is a phone app that allows you to edit your photos and drawings and change their appearance.

I was very pleased with this. I definitely think it has a Van Gogh feel to it. Probably having the chair there with my easle on it adds to that feeling.

All new urban sketchers challenge

Posted on July 26, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black ink, Challenge, Colours, Drawing, Media coverage, Mobile phone, Parrot, Permanent marker pens, Usk challenge Stoke-on-TrentLeave a comment

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Today’s challenge was media coverage. I didn’t have a paper and we haven’t seen the news so I decided to draw my phone with the news on it. But I couldn’t hold the phone and the sketch book so I balanced it on my arm. Then I drew the chair in the background. As I had the page of my sketchbook in my image I decided to duplicate the view again and then again. The parrot was on my tee shirt. You don’t realise how much you are moving around when you draw something like this, so my hand was in a differentvosition the second time I drew it, (and the third). I know it’s sketchy but I enjoyed the freedom and looseness of it

Neddy

Posted on July 25, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Fine liner pen, Grass, Horse, Life, Mane, Misty landscape, Permanent markers, Picture, Pony, Sketch, Watercolour background, Watercolours2 Comments

‘Neddy’ named by my hubby. Used the watercolour background I’d created and found an image of a horse or pony with a long mane.

I used fine black nib marker pens to draw him, then permanent markers to add some colour to him and to the tall grass around him (fading the colours as it went higher to give a feeling of depth). I then used a 6B graphite pencil to soften the strength of the marker pens. I drew this because I liked the overgrown mane. If the pony ran it would flow out backwards like a billowing curtain or long ribbons.

I did this today because I didn’t have a prompt from stoke urban sketchers so I thought I would still draw something to keep going.

Mallaband-Brown

Category: Sketching