New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was radio. A bad and wobbly drawing of my old bush radio. Bought it at a car boot sale years ago. It was covered in emulsion paint that I managed to scrape off. It works, takes a huge battery. Can only get long wave.. Which is OK when there’s a test match on.
Doodle in gold and silver pen. Originally a contoured drawing in three quarter position, I added chequered squares to fill in the spaces. That left the image surrounded by blank paper, so I added silver triangles. The gold ink had covered some of the original drawing so I added black pen shadows. I thought this was a fun idea.
After several weeks away from the yoga class I went back tonight. I do chair yoga as I cannot get up from the floor, but our teacher allows me to adapt positions so I can get the same effect. I also join in the breathing and relaxation parts of the session. The only thing I cannot do are inverted postures, where your head is on the ground and your legs and arms are raised so the blood goes to your head.
I have been doing yoga on and off for a few years, I don’t feel like I’m an expert, I’m not capable of doing some of the moves, but I try my best, which I think is a good part of yoga’s ethos. I am never going to be to do all the balances and postures, but it does help me relax.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was framed. I rarely frame my pictures, I think it’s nicer for the person buying them to chose something. If I do it’s usually quite simple. I do use ‘I wis framed’, in Liverpool Road, Stoke, sometimes as they help you chose what’s best.
It is foggy today, the mist started this afternoon, a cloud coming down low, covering the sun as it set. Blurring and shadowing the skies colours. Now it is more dense, I drove up our hill and the lampposts disappeared, like white smoke was hiding them. It was hard to see through the fog, obstacles hidden until you were almost on top of them. There’s a set of traffic cones half way up our hill where a car partially knocked a wall down. I didn’t see it on the way up! I came home along a different road to avoid it.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was ‘date’ I was going to draw an old mechanical calendar (one that you turn round to change the date) but I can’t find it. So then I decided to sketch a log, cut in half, to represent tree rings (dendrochronology) you can count the rings to find out the age of the tree and as the widths of the rings change with the weather you can also work out the years it was growing.
What have I got to paint…..
It’s a tiny matchbox sized canvas. I painted a pink rabbit for a lady’s grand-daughter while I was at our annual exhibition today. Since I managed that I then was commissioned to paint a dinosaur for her grand-son. Help! I managed the rabbit, after all they are quite like cats with a longer, deeper snout. But there was no WiFi in the hall so I had to say I would do this one at home. I will have to Google what they look like, in the meantime I sketched it out to remind me to do it!
I was thinking about when I used to cycle several years ago. I used to be able to ride for miles. Unfortunately I was knocked off my bike and sustained a head injury. When I recovered I carried on cycling, but I did not know the brazing on the front of the bike had been damaged. I was cycling up a hill when the headset and down tube seperated. The front wheel bent forward and the forks collapsed!
I decided to have the bike repaired as I only have short legs, I’d tried getting a new bike, but it wasn’t the right size or shape of frame. Unfortunately the bike shop I took my bike to was a little disorganised. They lost the frame for a year. I didn’t have a bike, so I took driving lessons. By the time I got the bike back I had a job that I had to commute to, so I used the bike less and less. I eventually gave up. I keep thinking I will try and get on my bike again, but my hips and back are too stiff…. Life, sometimes it really gets you down.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was fish. I drew a Sixty Seven pound goldfish caught in a lake in the UK this week. It was the largest one ever caught. I think it was a world record weight. It was released back after it was weighed. Quite difficult to draw in felt pen, the colours are a bit off and I should have done a better job of the background.
Sketch I did of a friends dog. He’s a cross between a Husky and a Spaniel. He looks like a giant Corgi, because his legs are a little short in relationship to his body and he has a curly tail. He’s a real personality and is called Rassie or Rasputin. He’s very handsome and dark grey and white. I drew the outline when we met him on the back of an envelope then redid it and added shading at home.
Mallaband-Brown