“She wants to be an artist”

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

Digital drawing of a lion.

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.

Frodo portrait

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.

Tell everyone!

You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?

I want the world!

Another of my digital drawings

My background is that I come from a very talkative town, always willing to share our stories and jokes. I came to my current city over 40 years ago and found the residents were warm and friendly but had a different take on life.

That doesn’t stop me sharing news with everyone. Recently that’s been a lot of bad news but I’d love for it to be great news instead. I live in hope that I will be able to say one day that this is my news, it’s great, and I want everyone to know. After all if a trouble shared is a trouble halved, then maybe good news shared is amazing news doubled?

A Dragon for Chinese New Year

Just a sketch of a dragon using Artrage app. I tried to use metallic paints to give it a sheen. I have to say it didn’t turn out as neat as I would have liked but I’m using a stylus instead of my finger. It’s controllable but in fact I’m not used to using it that often. Anyway enjoy Chinese new year. X

Digital rose drawing

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.

Chocolate seashorses

What’s your favorite candy?

I can’t find a photo of one, but I really enjoy chocolate seahorses and seashells. I think they are my favourite chocolates. They are moulded shapes with stripey surfaces and have chocolate truffle centres. I can’t remember the name of the company that makes them Guylian? I think. Very sweet and tasty, hence the reason I don’t have them often. They come in flat boxes of twelve or more chocolates. There are seahorses (I tried to draw), seashells, starfish possibly? It’s a while since I had any. X

Abstract dragon

I see the yellow spiral as an eye, the greens emphasise the shape. This could be a garden from above. A dragons head?

There is a ground sculpture called Northumberlandia in the Northeast of England in the county of Northumberland. It’s laid out as a figure of a woman in a celtic form and built up in hills which you could do with this image, the orange and yellows could be paths. This is an Artrage app sketch.