This was the neighbours leylandii trees a couple of years ago. I think I wrote a post about the shock of seeing them being chopped down. They were very big, taller than the neighbours house and right next to it, but I don’t think trees should go.
But then, my media files were over 98% full tonight. The tree photo and several more have had to go. And yet I’m preserving this here… But just to make the point. The blog post is still there. Its too much of a challenge to remove them.
So if you see posts without photos (almost all of them do have my own artwork), I apologise but I want to keep this going…
When you don’t sleep well it’s easy to be drawn into watching TV. The last few nights have been horrendous. I’ve not got to sleep until 5 or 6am. Then sometimes there is a programme I really want to watch. Tonight there are four hour long episodes of Monarch of the Glen. It was a series I watched twenty years ago and I haven’t seen repeats of it. The pleasure of watching it outweighs the sleep I am missing. But maybe one day I will get back to sleeping well.
The problem with drawing cats from life is that they move! They get into interesting positions and shapes then a second later a different leg is up in the air or they have turned round, head up, down, twisted. Eyes open, eyes closed. The trick is to outline the drawing first, filling in the black area afterwards. This was a five minute sketch. Late night, the cat is settling down for a sleep. I do try and draw from memory but it doesn’t always work, especially with cats!
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt is watching. I’ve been watching my hubby watching TV. The last few days have seen a lot of watched TV, we could have done some walking but we’ve mainly kept ourselves to ourselves, just a bit of contact with the outside world….. Black ink fine line pen and green metallic pen.
#bandofsketchers prompt today is box.. I drew a couple of boxes. The slatted one at the back is one I keep art equipment in, the other one with the Christmas decorations on top contained the Teddy bear and other presents from my sister. I didn’t realise it had this nice lid until I took the things out of the box. Metallic felt pens and black ink fine line pen.
I was keeping my hand in drawing even though it was Christmas day. Funny what you find to draw. I was doing the cooking so I could have drawn the food, but I was not doing the main meal till later on Christmas day night (If that makes sense).
It meant I could either draw or watch TV. But you can only watch so much TV. If it wasn’t so cold and wet and windy I might have been going out for a walk. But there’s always tomorrow. My hands are always restless and ready to draw, sometimes are better than others but you can’t beat drawing and sketching.
So what to draw? I was given this owl keyring as an extra Christmas present, I might just use it as a decoration though, its got coloured stones glued to a gold coloured body and I think they would soon detach if I carried it around. I have a mobile hanging in a window and I might try and attach it onto that? Next question is should I colour it in? I quite like the simplicity of black and white, so for now thats how its staying. I might work on it in photoshop. Not decided yet. anyway I’m posting this at 5.30am after yet another sleepless night. Aches and pains and whirling thoughts. I know I should not be looking at screens, but its either this or watching TV news…
One of my first digital drawings. I think I used a paintshop program. The angel was drawn in bright colours. With blue and purple wings. She places a star in the shape of a snowflake on top of a Christmas tree. I think when I created this I was just learning to draw with a mouse and gaining control of it. It was challenging but fun.
A Clarice Cliff pottery pattern that I painted as a mural in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke on Trent. The design is called umbrellas. It’s one I would love to own.
Nostalgia is that warm feeling you get when you see or remember old or ancient images or things. I haven’t looked up the actual definition. But things like this, or even old TV shows like The original series of Star Trek, give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I know somehow I’m safe, like I have gone back in time, as a memory or a thing I learned about in the past.
I get the same thing with the James Stewart film It’s a wonderful life. I think nostalgia and being nostalgic must be good and calming for the mind. The equivalent of a mental sigh.
