Something has happened to my word press. I want the old version back please?
Tag: Art
Paint texture
I was looking at my old summer dream painting and noticed how dusty it was. I realised that the surface od the paint is quite raised. This was when I was painting in oils in a more impasto way. I don’t do that in acrylics, I don’t know why, because it’s quite interesting to look at? Maybe it’s something I could try out. I have a large tube of white oil paint. Maybe I could add coloured chalk into it as an experiment. I can do anything I guess.
I do like how sassy I got this image. She’s got real character. A proper glint in her eye.
X
Drawing portraits
This is from a few years ago. I think it was just someone in a cafe or a pub. I don’t remember asking permission to draw him. But this is about twenty years old, so there is no reason why I would. What I like to do is draw carefully. I don’t pick my pencil up to measure, but I do look carefully. I try and get the proportions right. I look at the length of the nose, the width of the lips. The length of the hair and the shape of the person’s face. Portrait drawing and painting can be nerve wracking. But I enjoy doing it. I’m addicted to art.
X
Mark making
Take a pencil a pen or a paintbrush
Make a mark
See what happens
Feel joy and wonder
Learn your skills
Slowly, patiently,
Or fast
Reach for your imagination.
Be creative.
Create!
Illustration books
I ordered three books through a well known delivery system and they have all arrived safely. Now I have to read them. They are about designers, creatives and illustrators. There is a look into unpublished sketchbooks, an introduction to semiotics and another one about illustration. (OK so I forgot what the third one I ordered was and the text is to small to read off this photo). I shall be reading them tomorrow.
USK prompt, fabric
Today’s challenge was to draw some fabric. So I did our airer with my summer dress on it, together with the carpet and the sofa with coverings. It’s not very exciting but it is colourful. The greys were done with a permanent marker that has almost run out so I darkened it with some watered down black water colour paint. The yellow thing hanging on the corner is on of my fabric masks. I’m looking forward to seeing what the other urban sketchers have done today.
X
Cat in garden
This is the cat statue I showed on this page yesterday, in situ in the garden. I’m afraid the plants have dried out a bit and wilted in this heat. I might put some new pots in front of the cat.
I think the lilies are being munched by lily beetles. They are big and bright red. They don’t have spots like ladybirds. I’m hoping they don’t do to much damage. You are supposed to squash them but I can’t do that.
Anyway, thanks to my friend again for making Esher cat. He is a real friendly face in the garden.
International cat day
This is the cat sculpture my friend from Sculpted Steel made for me from a sketch I drew. It’s lovely and she just shared her photo for international cat day. It cost quite a bit but it was worth every penny. It now lives in my garden with plants growing through and round it. I am very grateful to my friend for creating it for me. She is a brilliant blacksmith.
X
Birds in the garden
We had a lovely chart in the ‘i’ paper with ots of bird a you can expect to see in your garden. Of the thirty or so species illustrated, I think we get about half visiting our garden. They are Blackbirds, Blue tits, Robins, Song Thrushes, Great tits, Coal tits, a Jay, House sparrows, Woodpigeon, Collared doves, Feral pigeons, Wrens and Magpies. We probably have other species but sometimes it’s hard to identify them. Hubby told me he saw a Nightjar a couple of weeks ago but there has been no sign of it since. The best thing is seeing chick’s being raised. Baby Wrens and Robins, we also have nesting Blue tits and Blackbirds. It means we don’t cut the hedge till late in the year. But I’d rather have a scruffy hedge and happy birds.
X
Memory
I just found this memory, I’d decorated this jug, I did it at a local pottery in 2017. Now if I could only find the other side with the cat looking outwards not with its back to us! I think I gave it as a Christmas present. That’s the trouble with random memories if they are not in context. I only know when this was because I painted 2017 on it. By the way it’s meant to be a tortoiseshell cat.
X
Mallaband-Brown 