Drawing in April

Posted on July 4, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Drawing, Food, Life, Lockdown, Nerves, Nervous, Sketch, Tense, Thinking, Time, Two months later?2 Comments

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22.4.20, about a month into lockdown. I wonder what was going through my mind? I don’t think I was as nervous then as I am now. I was thinking about food. Now I’m thinking about not going out, despite the pubs opening up carefully and hairdressers and other non essential shops. Do I feel like going out? No, I think this is too early. Especially where alcohol is involved. I’ve seen groups of four or five men walking past the house, looking like they are off for a ‘good night out’.

What can I say. I understand people need to escape. I feel so tense I’m shaking. How do refugees and people in war torn areas survive? We are lucky. The problem might cause massive problems with wealth but I want people to be safe and survive this. Ah well, maybe I will do another drawing x.

USK challenge, contrast

Posted on June 30, 2020 Posted in Cat, Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Acrylics on canvas, Art, Black and white cat, Cat, Contrast, Fun, Paint sketch, Painting, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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I’d got my paints out so I painted one of our cats on top of the washing pile. He was flat out for a few minutes. The theme is contrast, so I thought the bright colours, including the fluorescent jacket, would make a good contrast. I’m pleased with how it’s turned out.

Acrylic on cartridge paper. Its curled the paper a bit, but when the sketchbook is closed it should flatten out OK.

Horse

Posted on June 28, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, College, Corel Painter, Digital art, Drawing, Horse, Inspiration, Learning, Picture, Playing, Random, Sketch, WordPressLeave a comment

horse woodcut style painter

I’ve just downloaded a trial of Corel Painter Essentials 7

In English I mean I have downloaded a drawing package onto my computer. I hope it will be easy to use, I have got to explore it. What I ended up with after five minutes of playing is like a cave painting! so I guess that’s appropriate as I’m learning.

There are lots of things you can set on it, various AI things (artificial intelligence) like an AI Van Gogh. But I haven’t sussed out how to use them, I clicked on the buttons but wouldn’t say that I could see any difference to the mark making.

Later I’m going to read “Where the Wild Things are” by Maurice Sendak (if that’s how its spelled). Its a book I read in my childhood and I am interested in using it as part of a case study for my course, what fun!

Plotting an idea

Posted on June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Elements, Fun, ideas. 1980's, Illustration, lexicon, scan, self portrait, ShapesLeave a comment

EPSON MFP image

we have had to create our own lexicon of shapes to create an alphabet. But when we did it we didn’t know what letters we would be given for each challenge. in this case i just have 90 degree and obtuse angles, little squares and moon shapes. How do you fit them together to make a face? And as the subject was a self portrait I didn’t know whether to do something current or a piece based on previous work. In the end I based the final drawing in black and white ink pen, on my 1981 self portrait from when I was a fine art student. The resulting picture doesn’t really resemble the original (not publishing them here) but it was an interesting experiment.

One annoyance is that as I’m using sketchbooks the shadow where the paper does not make proper contact with the glass is really bugging me, I will have to either cut pages out or work out a way of supporting the sketchpad.

I am going to be busy in future so I may visit WordPress a bit less, but I like using this as a diary and sketchbook so I wont be far away.

Drawing

Posted on June 26, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Digital drawing, experimental, Hot, Learning, Photoshop, Thinking, TimeLeave a comment

illuminated i 2

One of the things I have to do on this illustration course is of course drawing. But I want to learn to do more digitally/visually. Its been a few years since I have drawn at websites or used photoshop. I usually use apps, which is fine, but I need to hone my skills. Finding out again how to shade and add texture. I used to be able to do it straight away, but after three or four years of not using photoshop it takes time to pick things up again. Plus I keep getting error messages- I don’t think Adobe know anyone who still has the programme I’m using, when I looked at a couple of YouTube tutorials the screen appeared different with a black background and far more sophisticated tools, I think I’m going to have to save up and invest!

So this is a little doodle based on an illuminated I. I actually submitted a pen and ink drawing, but there’s nothing wrong with experimenting and learning. In the meantime its hot and muggy and thunderstorms are due!

Catch up with urban sketchers

Posted on June 25, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Dots, Drawing, Dusk, Fun, Hanging baskets, Life, Night, Silhouette, Sketching, Sky, Spots and stripes, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

Two for the price of one! The first was tonight’s sketch… Environment. It was going dark so I drew the fence with some hanging baskets, with our weather station above them. It measures wind rain, temperature and pressure. The dusky sky is visible above the silhouette of the buildings opposite.

The second drawing is spots and stripes. It was due on Tuesday 23.6.20, but I forgot. The first time through all these challenges that I missed doing one. The stripey thing is a cover on our settee. There are spotty and stripey cushions on it and a spotty lampshade. Neither drawing is articulately exciting. They are just about how and where I live..

Doodles

Posted on June 25, 2020 Posted in SketchingTagged Adventure?, ArtRage app, Doodles, Drawing, Fun, Learning, SketchingLeave a comment

A few recent adventures in digital art. Trying for something a bit different to what I normally do.

Why? Its easy to say “because I can”. I’d rather say ” because its interesting” or “because I’m learning from my mistakes”.

What is the audience? Well, people viewing my page, also in this case my Facebook Art page. Maybe, one day, a wider audience.

Used ArtRage Pro app to draw these and my tablet and stylus.

Drawings

Posted on June 19, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Calendar, Covid 19, Lock down, Memories, Sketching, Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchers, Thoughts, Time2 Comments

17.4.20, after I had drawn for thirty days with Stoke Urban Sketchers, and I guess at that stage I thought we wouldn’t be in lockdown for long. Our government, and in particular our prime minister was giving out optimistic press conferences saying that we should be able to get over it pretty lightly. I think he even said it was like some sort of flu? Of course things didn’t go that well for us, and now over 42 thousand people have died from covid 19 in the UK. Its almost like the government thought we would be immune with our “stiff upper lips” and “gung-ho” mentality. Clearly they were wrong.

So here we are. How many more drawings will I do before it’s safe to go out properly and not just dash to the shops to get essentials. Who knows when that will be?

What’s in the bag?

Posted on June 18, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white, Blogging, Drawing, Ink pen, Plastic bag, Shopping, Sketching, Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchers, Usk challengeLeave a comment

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Today’s Urban sketchers drawing was to draw what’s in a bag. I have drawn a plastic bag containing different items obscured by the plastic.

Ink pen size 0.5,iI think I possibly should have used a bigger nib? But it did mean I’ve goy some nice fine lines. I think we are about half way through this set of challenges. The are happening three times a week. It’s keeping my mind occupied. I have other things I need to get done that I’m putting off!

Today’s challenge, water or washing

Posted on June 14, 2020June 14, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Charity, Drawing, Drawing challenge, Drinking water, Ideas, Sketching, Tap, Thinking, WaterLeave a comment

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It was another drawing challenge with Stoke Urban Sketchers, but I think it means more than that…. I am privileged to live in a country where we have sufficient rain, most of the time, to fill our needs. Last year we decided to have an outside tap fitted. It means that if there is drought we can use watering cans and a hose to water the garden. Ideally we need to fit a waterbutt to become more self sufficient. Drawing a tap is significant, a basic I sometimes take for granted.

The need for fresh water is a desperate problem across a lot of the world. There are charities you can donate to including Wateraid which is trying to bring fresh water to some of the poorest countries in the world.

So I’m just suggesting making a small donation. Each tiny drop of water from many people can turn into a torrent if enough of us give. If you can wash your hands it aids the health of people, the ability to grow crops and reduces famine and disease.

Mallaband-Brown

Category: Sketching