Today’s sketch, transport…

Todays ssketch for our band of sketchers prompt was transport…

My old viking queen bike. Bought when I was twenty… I was still cycling a few years ago. Now I’m too nervous so it sits in the living room and gathers dust….Still a great bike, only a small bike frame, but it was chosen because it was just the right size for me. I wish there was somewhere flat I could practice round here…

Sun and moon

I’ve copied a photo of a sun and moon painting, then duplicated them and because they were a bit fuzzy I added a stylized filter to them. I can imagine these as tiles in a courtyard or something like that. As usual I was playing with pattern. These were painted in 2014 and I gave these as gifts to my friends daughter when she went away to college. I’m thinking of doing a whole series of astrological style images to see what I come up with for fun. X

Winter man painting

2014 acrylic on canvas. I’d painted tree spirits previously and was trying to create something with the branches. My friend, who is a sculptor bought it off me because she said she might use the design to create something in three dimensions. I might do some more paintings like this to go with my Green man pictures. Plus I want to include autumn colours. X

Jupiter reflection

A painting of Jupiter I did about seven years ago. My friend had a craft centre and this was for sale at her shop. It went to a good home. I always thought the pattern I painted looked a bit like knitting!

His came up on my Facebook memories. I have done so many paintings that I often forget what I have done! This was a large acrylic on canvas. I like the way it appears to be floating in the window. X

Basis for a drawing

This was the view I was looking at when I did my Sketch earlier on. As you can see things were a lot darker in reality. I looked more at the shapes, concentrating on drawing them in first, then adding trees and branches afterwards. The silver grey seems to sit back in the background, the tones do not match this photo but does that matter? I keep drawing and hope I’m progressing. X

Band of sketchers prompt. Industrial

View out of my front door of Portmeirion pottery. Tried to emphasise the trees. Actually sat in the car as I was letting all the warm air out of the house. I used a gold and a silver pen and a slightly metallic blue and green to make it more interesting. If you’ve got to live opposite a factory I prefer something like this with some trees rather than completely blank walls and nasty smells!

What apps to do digital art?

A friend has asked me what simple apps can be used to do digital drawing? I said there are various apps you can add to your phone, there’s sketch, sketcher free, artrage oils which are ones I use. Most have simple tools and you have to play to learn how to use them. I’m on Google so I use Google play to search for them. Other platforms have different apps as they don’t all work on the different platforms….

I know you can also download various corel programmes, plus ones that work on ipads. Choose ones you don’t have to pay for or have to subscribe to. If you are new to digital art you could pay a lot for a package you might not be able to use. You can also download free trials that you don’t have to use and can uninstall.

Hope this makes sense?

Back yard today

It’s still looking good despite the heavy rain we have been having. At least its meant that the hanging baskets have been getting watered. I think we have a bit of a microclimate so the area doesn’t get as cold as in the main garden, but it does get the sun when it shines in the afternoon. Hopefully everything will keep going for a while longer. The begonias have bee spectacular this year!

Black and white art…

I’ve duplicated the Picasso copies I did and put them through a black and white filter.

That way you can concentrate on the mark making I’ve made. I think there are some aspects of the marks I could have looked at better, but I also think I’ve got a bit of my own style in these. Plus you know me and pattern making. I can’t seem to stop embellishing things, so Picasso ‘speaks’ to me….

Is tthere any artist you would like to reproduce yourself….? It’s an interesting challenge to copy other people’s art, especially something you would never usually do. It helps you look and learn.