Day 26 usk challenge

Posted on April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Biro, Daily challenge, Drawing, Ink, Pen, Sketch, Sketching, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent, View through a window12 Comments

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Quick sketch in biro, looking out of our back living room window into the yard. You might be able to see a dream catcher in the window. There’s a lot of brambles out there growing through from next door. But in the summer it’s full of colourful flowers. I usually cut the brambles so only bits with flower buds re left, then I pick the crop when the fruit is ripe sometimes a squirrel comes along and harvests them before I get there!

I had already ordered hanging baskets that generally arrive in June. I hope they still come. Its something to look forward to.

Waiting for it to warm up a bit, then I’ll go outside and do a bit more.

Easter egg photo

Posted on April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art apps, Easter, Easter egg, Experiment, Flipped, Garden, Helibores, Layout app, Multiple images, Photo, PlantLeave a comment

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My friend made a beautiful picture of some tree branches, she mirrored them (flipped one side to mirror the other) then somehow surrounded the image with a black egg shape which was fuzzy at the edges. It’s beautiful and complicated.

I asked if I could use the idea. But didn’t want to copy. She said yes. So I put two photos of helibores through layout, an app where you can add different pictures together. I had to crop the image in my editing app, I then opened it in another sketching one. I drew an elipse round one side of the image, and freehand filled the background in with black. I used a spray tool so the edges were softened. I made sure to narrow the top half to give it more of an egg shape. Finally I cropped the image so that only half an egg shape was in the image. I went back to layout and duplicated the image. Then I flipped one side over so that there was finally an Easter egg shape on a black background. I don’t know how my friend did hers, but I respect the effort she must have put into it, and I thought I would describe what I had done in case anyone else wants to have a go.

Old digital drawing

Posted on April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Astronomy, Design, Digital drawing, Drawing, Expressing myself, Fun, SketchfuLeave a comment

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Ten years ago or so I drew this at sketchfu. It’s an astronomer and a sort of face. I wonder sometimes where I get my ideas from. I enjoy astronomy programmes but I guess this started out as a doodle and then I embellished it. This was what I was talking about when I said about being experimental in a previous post, this isn’t controlled. I didn’t have to use ellipses or straight lines. I was not constrained by any rules.

I have a deviant art account and I used to draw in photoshop and post the results there. I might go back to doing that. Using a phone is simple, but it’s limited.

I have drawn so much in my life. I want to continue….

Someone asked about the garden…

Posted on April 12, 2020April 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #forestwood, Cherries, Garden, Gardening, Growth, Hard work, How to Ping back?, Land, Nettles, Pear, Plants, Trees, Walnut, Weeds7 Comments

A fellow blogger asked if I used permaculture in the garden, I actually don’t know what that is? We’ve been here about twenty five years and when we moved in the garden was a patch of land fenced off by the woman who used to own the house. It had three lilac bushes a patch of what turned out to be Japanese knotweed and lawn. We rented it off the old owner of our house for twenty years then bought it. I only used weedkiller at the start because of the knotweed. Since then we put in a pond, planted all sorts of trees. Some of its too shady. The walnut tree must be forty foot high. Just put a bit of fertiliser on occasionally. There is rubble and broken pottery under the soil. You get archaeology when you dig it.

I did not believe that we could get mature trees in a little over twenty five years. Some of them seem to grow like weeds. The back of the garden has had a shed and a summerhouse put on it. I’m hoping to do some art in there. We are trying to get perennial plants to grow. I have lots of geraniums but most of all we have a lot of ivy growing everywhere.

It is good to sit in the garden, but I feel sorry for people who don’t have anywhere green to sit.

Stay safe,

Keep well.

The garden

Posted on April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bees, Blossom, Cherry, Environment, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Hover flies, Life, Nature, Pear, Plants, Tomatoes, TreesLeave a comment

This is what I was trying to draw. As you can see it’s very complicated. Lots of trees and branches.

Behind me when I took this photo are two greenhouses with green plastic covers, ones got tomatoes in it, the other is waiting for tomato plants that my friend says she will drop off over our gate when they are ready to plant out.

The weather is set to turn, it has been warm and sunny, but the wind whipped up this evening and you could feel the temperature starting to fall.

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I took these photos of cherry and pear blossom. As you can see the sky was starting to darken. There have been reports on the weather forecast of thunderstorms nearby. It certainly was getting windy, I hope some of the blossom gets pollenated before it blows away. And then there was a warning of Frost!

Drawing our Easter Garden

Posted on April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Blossom, Easter, Flowers, Fun, Garden, Life, Plants, Sketching, Spring, Trees, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent3 Comments

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Day 25, urban sketchers challenge. Suddenly the blossom has burst in the garden, where there were buds a couple of days ago, now tiny pinky white flowers are sprouting out of the branches and twigs. I’ve seen and heard a very loud bumble bee, and also worker bees and hover flies. Hopefully they will do their job of pollinating the blossom and we will have cherries and pears and plums as the summer progresses.

The garden was hard to draw because of all the details. I can get the branches approximately right, then adding leaves and blossom complicates things. Distinguishing between leaf shapes and colours for instance.

I used two thicknesses of black unipin pens, fine line water and fade proof pigment ink (0.5 and 0.8). I also used a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen black 199*** S size. Then I shaded in with a 3B graphite pencil and a charcoal pencil. I would have liked to add some dabs of colour, but I think the overall effect is quite good. I’ve taken a picture and used a black and white filter because I took the photo under electric light and one corner, a bit turned up, was reflecting back quite a bright yellow.

Mask for today?

Posted on April 11, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Digital art, Drawing, Drawing apps, Fun, Mask, Owl, Sketchfu, SketchingLeave a comment

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Digital drawing I did at the now defunct sketchfu web site, several years ago now. I called it owl mask, which is what it is. The site got too popular and the owners couldn’t afford to keep it going. I have lots of art from there and other websites. Luckily I saved a lot before it closed.

These days there seems to be less freedom, more colouring in images that someone else has drawn, for instance. Less chances to do different styles and ideas.

I think it’s also because of the ubiquitous play stores. It seems hard to find pure drawing websites that aren’t about gaming. Why aren’t more ideas are allowed. It’s hard to know what is going on.

Keep drawing, stay safe.

Time for a poem

Posted on April 11, 2020April 11, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Hide, Ideas, Keep calm, Life, Lockdown, Micro poem, News, Poem, Poetry, Stay safe, VirusLeave a comment

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Chaos abounds

Knowledge unfound.

How do we live,

How to survive?

Stay alive.

Keep your head down,

Stay and don’t roam.

Keep to your home.

Stay safe,

Stay secure,

In lockdown.

Trains

Posted on April 11, 2020April 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cabinet, Finding, Fun, Humour, Kitchen, On surfaces, Too many, Toy trains, Tribbles, TroubleLeave a comment

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The stuff we have in the house. As I start to tidy up, I find my progress impeded by things like toy trains. They seem to be proliferating. I don’t know if they are multiplying or just coming out of the woodwork…. This one had no undercarriage or whatever its called. Marooned on the kitchen cabinet, awaiting a swipe from a cat?

If they multiply any more they will become like star trek tribbles, falling off cupboards and blocking the sink…..

Things that go bump..

Posted on April 11, 2020April 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Choice, Fear, In the dark, Life, Monster, Night, Night-time, Thinking, VirusLeave a comment

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In the night…

Funny how monsters always come out of the dark. They are huge, spikey, or furry, look like giant animals or insects. With mouthparts from squids or tapeworms, and massive claws.

In stories, someone brave, normally male, but more frequently female these days, stands up against the monster and wins the day. Usually after recovering from several setbacks, and getting injured in the final fight.

So why, when it comes to it, are we fighting a tiny virus? Not zombies. And it’s happening in daylight, morning, evening and night. A virus far tinier than bacteria. Basically some RNA (ribo nucleic acid) wrapped in a coating. It invades your cells and uses them to replicate. The disease happens because your body fights back and damages the bodies cells. Touching infected surfaces and then your mouth or nose infects you.

So a tiny virus, a giant monster. I know which one I’d rather fight. See you down by the woods tonight.

Mallaband-Brown

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