Athletics

Posted on April 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged athletics, chariots of fire, cheating, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1898, honesty, Morals, Olympics, record breaking, Sport1 Comment

What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

I actually like a lot of the sports in the Olympics, and that includes some of the newer sports such as mountain biking and climbing. But I guess my favourites are track and field events (including para athletics). I think that’s because I grew up watching people like Mary Peters and Sebastian Coe among others. So often you would see people beating World and Olympic records. My only regret was when they may have been found to be cheating. Using drugs to enhance their performances. Also I think more modern athletics has too much hype. I know the athletes need to fund their careers, but I liked the simpler times. One of my favourite films is Chariots of Fire. Where athletes were far more moral and honest than some of them appear to be now, or maybe that’s just my perception?

Tree abstract

Posted on April 6, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Art, Artrage, Colour, Digital drawing, Drawing, Experiment, Fun, Grey, Tree2 Comments

Tree drawing done using Artrage, the app I amusing has more options than the one on my old phone so I’m learning how to use the different tools. I’ve also found how to change the opacity. I liked using greyed colours instead of bright ones in this image.

Prompt: Easter

Posted on April 6, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Artrage, Digital apps, Digital drawing, Easter, Easter eggs, Fun, Metallic, Non metallicLeave a comment

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Easter. Instead of using felt pens, I give you the Artrage app. A mixture of metallic and non metallic textures and several different pen types including a digital ink roller, a brush, and other pens. Happy Easter!

Glitter spiral

Posted on April 6, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Experiment, Fun, Glitter, Maze, Metallic, Odd, Paint, Painting, Pattern, Poem, Poetry, Spiral4 Comments

Glue, Glitter and paint

Blue, green and black

Spiralling round

Like a maze on the ground

Metallic paint

Set with sparkles

Like an ancient mound

The path wound around

Playing with art

Staying happy.

How to change?

Posted on April 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Building, Community, Crafts, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1897, Environment, History, Industrial, Life, modernisation, Post industrial, RestorationLeave a comment

How would you improve your community?

How to improve my town? We are a bit of a post industrial area. A lot of industry has gone, mining, steel works, a tyre factory and a lot of the local potteries.

There are a lot of empty industrial buildings that have been left to rot. Our country charges less VAT on new builds than restoring old buildings, so a lot just gets left. We have recently had a spate of fires in these buildings, which is worrying and probably to the advantage of absent owners ( I have no proof they are involved I must add).

Our local government seems set on building apartments and car parks, but whether they are in the right places is open to question. Meanwhile plots of green land are threatened by the builders, and like everywhere else trees are cut down, roads are built and “levelling up” is touted as a great achievement.

But why are potholes in roads left unfilled? Why are historical buildings surrounded by fencing till they fall down, why aren’t crafts and arts, which bring a wealth of creativity into an area encouraged. This was once the centre of pottery in our country, no more? We have lost so much.

Then add trees and environmental improvements to the local canal and river and maybe people would take more pride in their surroundings. I just hope things can improve. It needs LOVE!

Doodling digitally

Posted on April 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Apps, Colours, Digital art, Digitally manipulated, Drawing, Ideas, Learning, Life, Pens, SketchingLeave a comment

When you get new apps you have to learn how to use them. There are similarities and differences. You try one app and then transport an image into another app and try and alter it by using different filters and pens and markers. Each of these started with the bottom left sketch and then I took a screenshot of it ( I had to find out how on this new phone), then added more on top. It’s not going to be my favourite method of altering images, but I’m learning. I have found recently that drawing tools seem to be limited. Instead you get backgrounds and filters to alter faces and landscapes but using photoshop like tools, not paintbrushes or pens. I know I can do more if I had the tools. Perhaps I will find something more satisfying soon.

Being pestered on Instagram

Posted on April 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Digital, dodgy, Instagram, Internet, Life, NFTs, non fungible, proposal, Suspicious2 Comments

A comment on my Instagram photo of my cat offers me the opportunity to sell my work as NFTs. I know NF stands for Non Fungible (transactions?). I noticed that a friend of mine has had a similar proposal offered to her. I immediately got that sinking feeling that this is dodgy. My images are covered by my copyright, but what happens if you start selling digital images. Aren’t they sold via crypto currency? How is it converted into something tangible. My art is OK but I wouldn’t say it was exceptional. Isn’t this just a bit of ego polishing? Like vanity publishing, and who gets any profit. I have friends who were going to set up an NFT gallery with a lot of friends art last year, but after a while I didn’t hear anything more. But the thing that really put me off was the silly Trump NFTs which were sold for masses of money, but almost instantly crashed a few weeks later. Until the whole thing is regularised I won’t touch it with a barge pole!

Swallow falls a year ago

Posted on April 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Colourful, Felt pens, old #bandofsketchers prompt, Old drawing, Sketching, Snowdonia, swallow fallsLeave a comment

I don’t remember when we actually visited Swallowfalls, it’s in Wales near Capel Curig. The water flows off the Snowdonia range. I think I drew this from an old photo. It’s one of my felt pen drawings that I do with #bandofsketchers. This was drawn in May 2022, when we were more restricted in where we could go and I was being so cautious I drew from references more than real life (I still limit where we go). I wish I was up to travelling over there. Wales is a wonderful, picturesque, friendly country. Visit if you can X

Furry friend

Posted on April 5, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Filters, Friend, furry friend, Life, Photo, Photodirector, Tuxedo cat2 Comments

Added a filter to emphasise the fur on my furry friend. It looks strange but I don’t think it looks bad. He’s sitting on the chair arm next to me starting to nod off. Black and white cats are so sweet. I might try some other filters to see how they come out. I might also try a black and white filter.

Going to a new home

Posted on April 5, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Atmosphere, Autumn, Blue, Colour, Damp, Fine Art, Life, misty, Orange, Painting, Red, Umbrella6 Comments

Autumn painting. A woman with a red umbrella walks through a damp and misty forest with leaves scattered around. I worked from a photo someone lent me so I don’t know who’s photo it was. If there is a copyright issue I will delete this post.

I had problems with the body length and the length of the legs, trying to get them and the arms in proportion. I had to play with the colours and shadows to try and get a realistic light on the figure. I also tried to make the trees bluer to send them back into the distance.