Today’s challenge was clothes

Posted on May 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black, Clothes, Day 16 challenge, Grey, Owls, Red, Selfie, Sketching, Staffordshire, Usk challenge, Usk Stoke-on-Trent2 Comments

_20200504_162354

Day 16, USK S-O-T sketching challenge is a self portrait of me wearing my favourite top, covered in red and black owls. It’s funny and quirky.

A few people are still keeping to the challenge, and some say they will catch up later. Some of the subjects are a bit odd, but it’s fun.

I was watching the artist Maggie Hambling on a programme called ‘Grayson Perry’s art club’. It’s a weekly programme on channel four encouraging people to do art while we are in lockdown. Maggie Hambling said draw something every day, and Grayson Perry reiterated that. I think they are right. The drawings I’m doing are my diary of my life at the moment.

Other celebrities were either drawing or making sculpture. Grayson and his wife created ceramic images based on their cat Kevin. Both created wonderful, abstract, exciting sculptures.

After seeing it I decided I shall continue….

Picsart review

Posted on May 4, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Apps, art rage, changing images, Design, Digital drawing, digital sketching, Drawing, Fun, Imagination, Learning, Mosaic, pics art, Sketching6 Comments

Picsart was an app I really liked. I’d used it for a while and you could alter pictures and draw over the top of them if I remember . Now however there are more patterns that you can superimpose over your original art, but it doesn’t seem as interesting.

As you can see from these images I like to mess about with the effects available. On these I used effects to change the colour and hue, distortions, outlining edges and embossing.

This is the original that I drew at ArtRage.

I was trying to get a mosaic effect.

Anyway more later on. Its after 3am!

Pen tops..

Posted on May 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colours, Design, Hues, Learning, Negative, Phone apps, Photo editing, PhotosLeave a comment

15885486871493128774679988527597

Here are the permanent pens I’m using for my sketches.

I just thought I’d post a picture because I liked the bright colours. I’ve actually got another challenge I’ve been given to post black and white photos for seven days, so I could alter this…

_20200504_004256

Of course you can use your photo editor to change the hue… _20200504_004437

Or create a negative image…. _20200504_004321

So what am I saying? If you have a smart phone, it’s fun to play with your phones photo software. You might be surprised what you can create.

Colourful, today’s usk challenge.

Posted on May 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Colours, Drawing, Fun, Photo, Picture, Staffordshire, Urban sketch day 15, Usk challenge, Usk Stoke-on-TrentLeave a comment

Today’s challenge was to draw something colourful. My eyes fell on an owl sculpture by a blacksmith who works at a Forge at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent. She’s called Charis Jones and her company is called Sculpted Steel.

Behind the owl is a plate that my hubby painted at the Gladstone pottery museum in Longton.

I started by drawing the outlines in black ink. I then filled in the colours with permanent ink markers and a few coloured pencils.

The colours are not all accurate, but as the brief was colourful I added some to the books and cds in the background while trying not to overdo it.

I’ve included a reference photo to give you an idea of what I was working from.

Primates

Posted on May 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Animals, Apes, Art, Black and white, Drawing, Fun, Monkeys, Primates, SketchingLeave a comment

_20200503_203730

I’m watching a programme called Primates on BBC TV. Its about all the different primates in the world. I couldn’t draw them because they move so fast.

Anyway this is the best I could do, just the enjoyment of drawing something so interesting and I amazing.

Hello duck!

Posted on May 3, 2020May 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cost kick a boe, Duck, England, Learning, Midlands dialects, Potteries dialect, Pronunciation, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, UK, Words3 Comments

_20200503_203830

This was a sign in a local museum that someone shared on Facebook.

It was strange coming to live here. In my home town people would say hello chick, or love. But Stoke people say ‘duck’. I had no idea of the origins, and the first few times I heard it I literally did duck! I thought someone was warning me! Eventually, though, I got used to the greeting. Together with the phrase ‘cost kick a bow agin a woe an it it wi yer hed til ya bost it?’ I may have misspelt this but it means ‘Can you kick a ball against a wall and hit it with your head until you burst it?’

As you can see, the old dialect and pronunciation is interesting. But as someone with a west Midlands accent. Oim not reealy botheered abowt iyt.

What?

Posted on May 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ear, Listening, News, Poem, Poetry, Relax, Rest, Rhyme, ThinkingLeave a comment

What did I hear?

What did you say?

So many rumours fly this way..

What someone thought

What myth revealed?

What does this days news report ?

Breaking stories,

The fakes are out

Telling us all in loud shout.

The world is ending

Or soon will fall,

Is there nothing

To do at all?

Step back,

Breathe deeply

Take a break,

Switch off your phone,

Some news IS fake.

Instead you should

Go rest and sleep.

Maybe tomorrow

Sense will seep

Into your mind

Into your dreams

“Hope springs eternal”

It now seems.

Ginger swirl

Posted on May 2, 2020 Posted in Cat, SketchingTagged Art, ArtRage app, Cat, Design, Drawing, Fun, ginger cat, Sketch, Sketching6 Comments

I did this drawing on the ArtRage app. I wanted to create something a bit different, fluid, expressive. Most of my pictures are of black and white cats, but this reminds me of a swirling ice-cream, perhaps ginger and vanilla, or caramel and white salt.

Signature.. sometimes I use my full name, but for years I’ve also called myself cmb, which I like because it also stands for cosmic microwave background..but that’s another story.

Edinburgh Castle by zoom.

Posted on May 2, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Edinburgh Castle, Quick sketch, Sketching, Staffordshire, Urban Sketchers, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent, Virtual visitLeave a comment

_20200502_225758

Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent are holding weekly virtual visits to places we cannot go to at the moment. This week it was Edinburgh Castle.

About fifteen of us joined a zoom meeting to draw scenes from the castle and its grounds. We use Google to find the images to draw.

In my case I was late joining, and there was only a short time for me to draw before our throw down, that’s where we all get together to show our art, and to take pictures for a joint photograph of the results.

I’m not sure where we are going next week. But I’m enjoying these virtual visits.

Drawing flowers for a border.

Posted on May 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Border, Drawing, Flower border, Flowers, Learning, Plant, Poem, Poetry, Sketch, TextLeave a comment

sketch-1588435527385 I just drew these flowers, then tried to position them as borders for the edge of a page. The thing wasn’t working so I added blank pages to make it more of a border. I’d taken a photo of the drawing so there was shadow on the paper. I made a bit of a mess trying to use an airbrush tool on it, so there are some areas which are a bit to shady round the flowers. Then I decided to see how I could use it for a poem, so I wrote it line by line. Positioning each line in turn.

It’s not brilliant, but it’s not something I’ve done before.