Clematis

Clematis on the fence. Duplicated photo, magical early flowers before the leaves come out. Pale pink, fresh looking, giving the Spring a start. Daffodils over, bluebells opening. The new season is coming. Hardly any rain for a month. We’ve been trying to hand water every day but I haven’t got my pot plants sorted out yet. That will happen in May. Hanging baskets to come soon. It all needs a good tidy up.

Cat amongst the plants

Houseplants and the cat sitting in a box. He looks so comfortable. He sits here in the afternoon when the sun comes in through the window. It’s a lovely sight. Now that the weather is improving he goes and lies in the neighbours garden in the grass which is about a foot high. He comes in when the sun starts to set behind the high privet hedge. I think I would like to be a cat, no responsibility, food at regular intervals. Care and attention. I love this little cat.

Finished drawing?

I think this is done. I hope they like it. I’ve tried to get the tones right but it’s hard to get it right. I think I’ve got the features close to how they look on the photo.. I decided not to draw the whole figure as the little boys head would have to be a lot smaller and I’ve tried to simplify the background. Anyway it’s going to it’s new home soon. X

Looking out

I decided to play with a previous drawing. It’s fascinating how you can rotate and reposition images in Instagram filters. You can make parts of the image recede or come forward. And if I’d wanted to I could have blurred the edges of the image. It also allows you to change the colours and contrast, shadows and brightness. Other apps allow you to do other things. The world is your oyster.

Working on a drawing

Portrait of a friends nephew. I’ve just started it using a dark grey pencil crayon. It needs some more work and I will try and include some of the background to make it more cohesive. I need to work on the shading. If I squint my eyes I can work out the tonal range. Clearly the forehead needs darkening on the left hand side. I’ve only got today and tomorrow to finish it!

Contours

Digital drawing

One of the patterns I created for my final major project. It was to introduce the idea of abstract art to children within a story book. Each page in black and white tells the story. The opposite page is based on patterns in the environment or the scale patterns of dragon scales. Colours in juxtaposition to strong black and white figurative drawings. If you follow my blog you will know about the book I’m thinking of publishing. I know I’m going on about it but I feel passionate about it.

More deaths and attacks

A news photo from a few weeks ago from Ukraine

More cruise missiles rained down on Kiev in Ukraine today. The representative from the UN had been visiting, but Russia doesn’t seem to care. President Putin seems obsessed by getting a ‘victory’ by 9th of May. His attacks on Ukraine are despicable. Thousands of people have been wounded and many killed, some are forcably taken to Russia. Beatings and shootings abound and Russian soldiers are digging up the dead to mutilate the bodies and burn them so they cannot be identified. War crimes are being committed. His cutting off gas supplies to Poland is threatening to expand the conflict. He might try and attack Transnistria next. He is being expansionist and is acting like a spoilt boy. Russians can’t get truth because opposition is being stifled with thousands of people being arrested and put in prison. So anyway, that was my rant for today. I pray for peace. I fear more death raining down.

Blue doodle

Or is it turquoise? Drawn in ArtRage oils. Finger painting on my phone. One of the challenges with drawing on a phone is if you don’t use a stylus (I can’t find mine) and the tools on this app means the colours smear together. I do have ArtRage on my tablet. That’s the pro version with many more tools but my phone is easier to use as it’s not as heavy on my arm.