The oak tree in the kitchen.

Posted on April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Fun, Gardening, Greens, Kitchen, Oak tree, Plane, Sketching, Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchers2 Comments

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The oak tree in the kitchen… Hubby planted an acorn in with a Christmas cactus plant on the kitchen windowsill. The cat in the drawing is a big doorstop that we have put on the window sill.. Must find somewhere to plant the tree before it gets too big…. I have a friend who owns some land in the countryside. When this is all over I’m going to give her this little sapling together with some baby walnut trees.

This was for day 12 of the Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchers new challenge. Lots more to go!

When you can’t get a birthday card or a cake for a friend…

Posted on April 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Birthday card, Can, Candle, Candle holder, Card, Design, Drawing app, Graphics, Photo, Picture, Sketch app, Text3 Comments

I wanted to send a friend a card… sketch-1588070609298

I found a tin with a slight dent in the rim so I could push a candle holder into it. Then I added a tiny birthday cake candle and lit it and took the photo.

Added the text later in a sketch app.

I sent this to my friend with her name edited onto it. What is it they say ‘necessity is the mother of invention ‘?

Disco ball

Posted on April 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Design, Experiment, Fun, Learning, Photo, Playing, Poem, Poetry, ThoughtLeave a comment

I shone a bright torch on our disco ball (yes I’ve got one) took a photo, then another one with the torch on a lower power. Duplicated the photos, and ended up with a couple of interesting pictures that are quite abstract…..

Playing with shapes and light is fun.

Experimental things teach you

How to make new things.

If you don’t try,

You never learn….

Age

Posted on April 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white drawing, Design, Doodle, Face, Fun, Life, Pen and ink, Sketch2 Comments

I was playing with a similar face to the previous one, and wanted a change of style and mark making. More patterned, lines, dots and dashes. Trying to get a feeling of age. The grey areas were done by wetting a brush and running it over the papers surface. Spreading the black ink gently into the shadows.

Age seemed an appropriate title.

Drawing faces

Posted on April 29, 2020April 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white, Cartridge paper, Cross hatching, Drawing, Face, Life, Pen and ink, Renaissance, Sketch2 Comments

Last night I was watching a programme about the European renaissance. You know, one of those ones where you get a glimpse of paintings for a few seconds, before they are on to the next face or body. Impossible to draw a face from there.

One revelation was that the Greek and Roman statues would have had painted patterns and faces coloured when they were first carved. As the centuries between then and the renaissance passed, the colours would have faded or washed away. The response of sculptors like Michaelangelo was to carve their figures out of bright white carrera marble. Because what they were seeing coming out of the ground was sculptures that had lost their paint.

That is why I drew patterns and shade on this drawing, it’s an imagined figure. If I had some good colouring pencils I might colour it in… I will look.

Vehicle

Posted on April 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Daily challenge, Drawing, Sketches, Staffordshire, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent6 Comments

I drew this today. Its part of the urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge day eleven. I think most people drew their cars outside their houses. Few are moving anywhere. Batteries will be going flat. Spark plugs are dry, oil has settled in the bottom of the engine.

The tree shaped marks on the drawing are the pattern on my net curtains. Well you can’t have people walking past and looking in, can you?

He won’t put books back!

Posted on April 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Annoyed, Bookcases, Books, Fun, Imagination, Life, Short story, untidy, Very short storyLeave a comment

We have bookcases, but the books from them are on the floor, on tables, on footstools, in flurries and drifts. So I asked him. Why won’t you put the books back? I will do, he snapped back. He is the one who puts them there, often opened and left unread.

When I change the bedsheets his side of the bed is six inches deep in books. I have to force my way through a tidal wave of them…

I plot now. I think about what to do. I want one of those camouflaged book cases, where you tilt a book back and a door opens. I would like that.

Open the door, fill it with books, or push him in and throw away the key. Oh don’t get me wrong, food would be delivered three times a day. There would be a laundry chute and a bathroom. A comfy chair and a bed. A secret trap door would be there to pass in things, or hook things out when he’s asleep. He would be happy, I would be able to tidy up….

Life goes on in lockdown. Ideas spring to mind. They are not serious.

I wish I was….

Posted on April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Danger, Health, Hoping, Ideas, Luck, Poem, Poetry, Poverty, Sad, Thinking, Thought, Values, WishingLeave a comment

Dancing at a barn dance,

putting up an exhibition,

displaying art on my craft stall.

Walking along the canal,

cycling through the countryside,

taking tea at a posh teashop.

Visiting a castle,

looking out to sea,

feeling the wind in my hair.

I’m glad I’m not

suffering from hunger,

hiding from bombs,

frightened and missing my family.

Too poor to buy medicine,

and all the time oppressed.

I may wish for things,

but I’m lucky to have things.

Trying to make banana cake without all the ingredients.

Posted on April 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bad baking, Banana, Banana cake, Cooking, Food, Ice cream, Kitchen, Learning, Making it up, Sticky, Tasty, Toffee, TryingLeave a comment

I give you (please take some).
Home made banana cake with toffees melted on the top.
Ingredients.
Half self raising flour, half plain flour, about 8oz with a bit of yeast. (what I had in the cupboard).
Some granulated sweetener, about a tablespoon full.
4 oz approx of butter
Two eggs
A small mug of milk.
A bit of orange juice.
Two sliced bananas.
Toffees melted on top for the last twenty minutes.

Method
I added the flours together with the yeast, added the sweetener, then added the butter and broke it up until it was crumbly. Then I added the eggs, mixed in milk. It was still a bit dry so I added a bit of orange juice, till it was quite soft. A bit like wet mashed potatoes.
I then chopped the bananas up and mixed them in. I left it for a while to see if it rose (it didn’t!)
Cooked gas mark four for an hour and ten minutes. About forty minutes in I noticed it was rising but split in the top. So I got some toffees we had at Christmas and placed them on top. The mess is where they melted.
Not pretty but tastes OK. Served the first bit with some ice cream while it was hot. Not bad!

Bread making, USK S-O-T challenge.

Posted on April 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Baking, Black and white, Bread, Cooking, Drawing, Food, Ink pen, Kitchen, Oats, Rye flour, Sketch, Sketching, Staffordshire, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Making not made! I found some rye flour and half a pack of yeast in the cupboard. Hubby and I both worked on it. Really tough to knead. We added porridge oats because it was too squidgy and I’d run out of flour. It’s taking time to rise but hopefully it will be OK… X

Update, cooked OK its a bit doughy in the middle. Not bad. Had some hot with butter.

I did the drawing as today’s challenge was something you’ve made for the urban sketchers new challenge. It’s black ink pen in my A5 cartridge paper sketchbook.

Mallaband-Brown

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