Broccoli

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It’s a particular type, but I can’t remember what it is called. Something like romancero…? Not sure. Anyway I think its spirals are based on fibonacci numbers. You see the same pattern in flower petals or the seeds on a sunflower head. These remind me of fractal patterns and apparently there is computer code you can use to draw patterns like the Mandelbrot set. A attern out of chaotic numbers. Nature is amazing!

Green Woman self portrait

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Suddenly I’m painting again! I decided to do something with this picture. It was only roughly worked out. I decided I wanted to make a self portrait as a green woman. I used a photo of myself on my phone and overlaid leaves onto it. I don’t know if it’s finished but I liked trying to bring out the shaping and shadows on it.

Sitting in the living room, I should go down the studio, but my cold is worse. Anyway I will work on another partially painted picture.

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Looking out

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Painting from a few years ago. It’s one that I did about imagination and the mind. I don’t know where it went. It may have been sold. The foreground is meant to represent axons and synapses in the brain. Thought happens, but how do you describe it? How you depict it? The eyes are supposed to be the window to the mind.

And how do we know the mind is in charge. Only a few centuries ago, the heart was seen as the centre of emotions. Hence the phrases like “letting your heart rule your head”.

I’ve done similar pictures in watercolour pencils, but they are probably in a sketchbook somewhere. I’ve got too much stuff.

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A tail….

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Last week she had ended up halfway up a tree, and this is the story of how it happened.

She had woken feeling tired and the base of her spine was sore. Like she had sat down hard, or fallen over and bruised herself. They had been to a party, got ‘slightly’ tipsy, and come home. The rest was hazy. Something about Halloween, and trick or treating, and What was that all about? Then each of them had drunk from a cauldron, yes that was it, sip a drink from the cauldron of fate and see what happened? Except that she had knocked back the whole glass full. Then she had felt really squiffy, fallen over, yes, and hurt her spine. Ow.

Now it was the morning after, and she felt awful. A proper hangover. But it was time for work now, better get ready.

It was when she was showering that she felt a lump down at the base of her spine. She rang the doctor for an appointment. She was scared it was a tumour?

Two days later at the surgery, she was told it was some sort of bony growth, but the surface was covered in skin, and it was not any form of cancer the GP had ever seen. She had told her that they would probably need a biopsy, but that would take a few weeks to arrange.

She had gone home, wondering what the hell was going on. The ‘thing’ was growing at a fast rate, she couldn’t face calling it a tail. She realised she had control of it, like a prehensile tail of a monkey? Why?

The tail continued to grow. She had to wrap it round her waist to hide it under her clothes.

It was after about three weeks that she made the mistake of telling her friend. He laughed, serves you right, he said. You upset the witch! He said. Drank the cauldron dry. He laughed again. Wait till I tell the others. She must have cursed you.

The next day they came knocking at her door, ‘ let us in’ , ‘ show us your tail’ ‘you’ve been cursed’. Things were getting out of hand. She ran upstairs and opened her bedroom window. The group were hounding her now.

Suddenly she jumped. She was falling…. Then the tail snapped out around the branch, holding her weight, she swung back up to onto her feet. Using her tail for balance she clambered and swung into the trees. It had saved her life. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing after all…..

Toothache

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You don’t need to see my teeth, just know I grind them at night and something has caused me to have toothache. Argh! It’s worse now because of this cold, my throat is sore and it’s hard to put up with the extra pain from my tooth. I  will try and get in the dentists tomorrow. Sucking madly on  anaesthetic sore throat lozenges and have taken pain killers. I’m also using toothpaste for sensitive teeth BUT ARGH, I shall try and sleep…..

 

So then I drew a dragonet

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Another four year old picture from my memories. Another one done in ArtRage. Just a bit silly and fun. I think it started out as an attempt to draw an egg, then I got a bit creative. I’ve illustrated a book before, and this could be used for that sort of thing.

Drawing from your imagination is more difficult because you have to have an idea of what you are drawing in your head. I often describe what I’m drawing to myself so that I have an idea of how to depict it. I want to get my mojo back!

Dog drawing

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This is about four years old too. I think I drew it in ArtRage oils, but I don’t really remember. I like the way I managed to get a flowing, wet in wet effect. I don’t generally copy photos for my digital drawings, but I think I remember working from a picture for this? It’s either a labrador or a golden retriever? Eople who own them will be able to tell the difference.

I’m looking at old images and using a colouring in app to try and break through my current artistic block. I’m beginning to recognise this is a winter thing with me. I hope once there is a bit more bright sunlight I will rise like lazarus ( OK that’s a bit over the top!). But at least start creating again!

Watch the birdie…

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These images are about four years old. Drawn in sketcher free, then altered in another app that I don’t have anymore after changing phones. I wanted to get a feeling of printing, maybe a monoprint or an etching. I like doing things in one app then playing about with it in another. That way you get more effects than using just one digital application. I want to do more with other filters. I’m thinking of downloading other art apps.

Leap Year

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It’s a leap yer this yer, 2020. That means February gets an extra day. As it says in the rhyme “30 days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, except February alone which has 28, but 29 each leap year…”.

So why the extra day? Because the year is actually about 365.25 days. So if you didn’t add the extra day on every four years the year would drift and that would throw the calendar out. So in a few years new years day, for instance would be earlier and earlier.

It’s for the same reasons that we have lea seconds added every few years, that makes our time more accurate. The fact that our year isn’t exact effects things like GPS, so it has to be adjusted. When we had old fashioned clocks it wasn’t so important, but even a few centuries ago it was recognised that the year had drifted and the calendar was changed. People actually complained about it. I don’t remember exactly, but I think they had lost a few days of their lives.

I feel sorry for people born on the 29th of February, they only get to celebrate their birthday every four years.

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