New paintings and regular art updates.
Most of the leaves have fallen. Now we are at the start of winter there is a bit more to see. The Holly Bush is getting in the way though. The bright sunshine and blue sky have gone. Today there is persistent rain gushing down from the sky with threats of snow. As far as I’m concerned I would sleep through winter and wake up in the spring if it stays as bad as this!
Doodle, Alien butterfly. Using a couple of apps again. It might look good on a tee shirt with some sort of logo. As with all my art I hold the copyright so if anyone is interested in licencing the image please contact me.
Another art package I was using a lot last year is ArtRage oils, a free drawing app where the pens in it look like oil paint that can be adjusted to look more or less metallic. The difference with it is the ‘painterly’ effect is more pronounced and more difficult to control. There is not really the precision of other apps but it makes up for it with robust colours. There is a paid for version has more pens and tools, so gives you greater variations and the ability to go to town on interesting images.
Misty and overcast, branches and twigs reach out like witches fingers. Darkening mist twists and turns. Hidden eyes watch as the gloom deepens. Footsteps trail through the bracken. Water lies in droplets across the dead and dying wood.
She had seen light from the footpath. A cottage.. A campfire? What was there. Goaded by her imagination she stepped off the path. Feet tangling in blackberries and vines. She stumbled and the branches reached down….
Butterfly
flutterby
fly quickly
Flutter
Flit…
Flap and fly
Stir forces
Flapping
Falling,
Fleeing
Fizzing
Chaos freeing.
Butterfly.
Watching Sky Portrait artist of the year. I couldn’t find pictures of all the sitters so decided to draw Catherine Grainger from a photo on the Web, ten minute sketch.
I want to watch the programme so leaving it at this. I might do another one later.
My photo of cut paper duplicated to make an interesting pattern (I think these photos are from a couple of years ago). The fact that the paper was folded makes for a more interesting image, increasing the texture.
When I cut the paper I tried to keep the cuts to a similar size. I might use this as the background of another image. I will have a play with it in another drawing app.
I always like to make paper cut snowflakes at Christmas. I did a few a couple of years ago. I always fold my paper into six so that you get a six sided shape. To do this I fold the paper in half, then fold about a third over at an angle, so you have the same amount on either side, then fold the last third over the other two. You end up with a pointed end, and the other end has different shaped areas. Then you need to cut off the excess so that you have a hexagonal shape. Cut patterns through the foldes sides to make a lace like pattern, unfold. (The paper might stick together and rip) Be careful. Flatten the paper out and put up on windows or hang of shelves to decorate. Fun for children but make sure scissors are safe and have rounded ends.
About fifty years ago I used to watch ‘Flipper’ on the TV. A 1960’s show it was all about the adventures of a dolphin called Flipper. I didn’t know then that there was more than one dolphin and I think I remember reading they were not well looked after during filming?
I remember finding a book in the library called ‘Dolphin Island’ by Arthur C Clarke. It had the effect of waking an interest in science in me. I remembered a boy being shipwrecked and rescued by dolphins. He ends up on a Pacific Island and goes through several more adventures until the inevitable happy ending.
Recently someone mentioned the book so I decided to order a second hand copy. What I got was bitter sweet memories. The book was a lot shorter than I remembered. I read it in a couple of nights. The adventures that had been in it are now seen through older eyes. Where I had been on the edge of my seat, the tension was no longer there. It was still interesting, and I would love to know if there is any chance of finding a dolphin language. But I don’t think I will re-read it. This is an old fashioned Children’s Book. Give me 2001 a space odessey any day.
A slightly confusing sign if you don’t know where the museum is. Turns out both footpaths lead to the same place, just by different routes. I don’t suppose it matters, but I think they should at least put an arrow on it for one way or the other. This is at the Etruria Industrial Museum, at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
Mallaband-Brown