I used photodirector to adjust the textures in the effects part of its editing tools. I like the rippled effect, it somehow reminds me of the patterns in the cloudscape on Jupiter taken by the Juno probe a few years ago. Because I didn’t shade all the way up to the outlines I like the dark edge that lies between them and the silver shading. I could imagine using this style to illustrate a book cover or within a magazine article. Perhaps one day I will get a commission to do something like this? I don’t know.
I spotted five metallic pens made by Bic in the shop today. So on a whim I bought them. I have to say I was impressed! They have large felt pen nibs and the ink flows well. The lines you can draw are a good weight and if you tip them on their side you get wider lines because they have a bevelled edge. The colours are strong and they seem to work well on my black cartridge paper sketch pad, they are nice and opaque. I will see how they work on white paper next.
When I got to forty I did a self portrait in acrylics on canvas, then a few years later I decided to learn some filters in Photoshop. One was to turn patches of the image you had created into tiles. This was one of my attempts at creating something a little more abstract, although the colours still represent the painting and there is still some definition which gives an idea of the original piece.
I’m not sure how copyright works on these? Presumably the images in the filters are non copyright. If they were not, I don’t know precisely how many photographers I would have to credit. This is where the strangeness of digital comes in. There is so much content out there that is free for use, but artists and photographers who want to keep control of theit art and designs can easily find their work being copied when they use digital platforms. You only have to go to an internet search, look up their name and choose ‘image’ and you will see a host of original work.
Nowadays ‘non fungible tokens’ (a strange word) have become popular. An artists digital work can be bought by a single individual or group. They hold the ownership of it, as if it were a single canvas. The artist as far as I understand still keeps the copyright, and can use the image over and over but the ‘owner’ owns it? It has been difficult to get my head round this concept. It might be something I could do in the future, but like with Crypto-currency, it sounds like there is a digital payment that the artist receives, perhaps the equivalent of being paid in coloured beads instead of real currency?
We live and learn. Sometimes confusion and obfuscation reigns.
Walking around the world museum in Liverpool three years ago, I was so impressed by the travelling exhibition of the Chinese terracotta warriors. Obviously only a few if them were represented in the gallery, but it gave a strong example of the creative and military civilization behind these figures.
There were crowds at the gallery, people shuffled round and many of the exhibits were partially hidden by bodies that strangely mimicked the warriors remaining in China as they stand within the archaeological dig there, rows and columns lined up. Humans used to congregate. They group, they press against each other, travel together . That feeling of community has been lost to some degree because of Covid. Will they ever do the same again? Will we go forward in time to a freedom we do not enjoy now? I don’t know.
I have only just done thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt to draw an item made of silk. My problem was I don’t own any, but I can imagine it.
This drawing was done on black paper using metallic ink pens, glitter glue, gelato drawing pigments, and some metallic paints you can pipe onto the paper surface. It’s meant to represent a square of silk, maybe a scarf?
Felt pens can make interesting patterns, and this was one I created which I called jazzy.
It’s hard to know where the triangles and lines should go and which colours fit together. Stripes and chevrons. Highlighted lines to try and add depth. Abstract art isn’t just splodges, I think it has to have some thought, at least that’s my opinion.
I should have been doing some art today, but I’m not well so I thought I would share this.
One of the problems with taking photos in artificial light with a smart phone is that you cannot always get a good exposure. My solution after trying to alter the contrast and exposures of these two photos was to use a black and white filter. Once I posted them on my Instagram account I used the filter on there which bought out more details in the photos.
Maybe I should have used a fill flash or changed the setting to manual but I don’t know if that would have helped.
Pattern making again. Using greens ink spray that has a sheen to it. Then I drew scale patterns over the top. Finally I wanted three simple elements to add to each scale or tile that would give it an art deco? feel. So I added a wave shape, a dark patch and some vertical lines. With these patterns I think the scales started to look a little like birds.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was autumn…. I imagined a wet autumn leaf because I didn’t feel like going out looking for one! Felt pens and silver ink.
I do like challenging my visual memory to draw things like this, thinking about how colours change on leaves. The texture of them, how the veins run in them. It might not be accurate but its fun.
A digital drawing, but done on an app I don’t use anymore. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was changed radically by the people that ran it and it became much less painterly and much more patterned filters. In the end I could not get on with it. I lost the enjoyment of it. When I manipulated images I could not create patterns like this anymore. Eventually I gave up and deleted the app about three or four years ago.
Mallaband-Brown 