Just a pre lockdown photo.

Posted on July 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acting, Art, Blogging, Fun, Humour, Memories, Pantomime, Penkhull panto, Performance, Scenery, Scenery ainting, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent2 Comments

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In February I was painting scenery and props for our local pantomime, Aladdin.

We were acting in front of about 140 people for four performances. One on Thursday and Friday, and a double performance including a matinee on Saturday. To think just a couple of weeks later we were in lockdown. I saw hundreds of people over those few days, and then no one for three months except on the way to and back from the shops.

I wish I could go back in time? Go back to a time where there was laughter. Fun, silly jokes, time to be with friends. Life was much less worrying then, despite global warming and pollution! I wonder what will happen when things return to normal if they do?

What I see in maps (and other things)

Posted on July 11, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Cat, Drawing, Fun, Humour, Life, Map, Pattern, Seeing faces, Time2 Comments

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I took another look at this post about map reading and suddenly saw a cat. I’ve written about finding things in wallpaper, or ink blots or all sorts of different things including the front and back of cars. Grilles on cars can look like grinning mouths, headlights like eyes. I love seeing animals and faces and objects in clouds. Sometimes it drives me mad when I see something over and over again. Once seen, never forgotten. Life is strange, the mind is stranger.

Pattern play.

Posted on July 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Blogging, Colours, Design, Fun, Layout ap, Pattern, Sketcher free, Sketching, SpiralsLeave a comment

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I don’t know when I did this, probably three or four years ago. It’s a combination of three apps, ArtRage oils, sketcher free and layout. I drew the metallic looking pattern first, then added the spirals and finally divided and mirrored the images.

I probably used a photo editor too. I’m not sure.

The feeling I get from making these gives me great pleasure. I can’t explain, but it takes me out of myself.

Three years ago

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Commissions, Etruria flint mill, Jessie Shirley's bone and flint mill, Landscape, Paintings, Three years ago, TimeLeave a comment

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I was doing a couple of commissions of Etruria flint and bone mill. I had done one painting and a couple of people liked it and wanted copies. This is when I started using long thin canvases. It makes landscapes more interesting I think. Is it like letterbox TV? I don’t know. I’m hoping I can get back to doing things like this when we get back to something like normality.

Quick figures

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black ink pen, Blogging, Drawing, Fast, Figures, Fun, Quick sketches, SketchesLeave a comment

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Quick sketches of figures while I sat on a roundabout in the park yesterday. I added a little dog, sitting next to one of them. And an older female figure stooped over. Our project this week at college was to do various things, including drawing a person walking. I must do a better job, but these were a couple of minutes each, max.

They could be neat and tidy, but you can’t nail people down to make them still when you try and draw them.

Patterns

Posted on July 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colours, Design, Digital apps, Digital drawing, Drawing, Fun, Hue, Inspiration, Pattern4 Comments

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Patterned background, created digitally, with a figure of a seated woman added. I like playing with pattern, seeing what I can find hidden in the depths..

I added dark lines then shading and lightened areas to give the figure a bit of definition. I guess it’s a little more abstract than I normally draw. I changed the hue in it a couple of times to. Making it more green and then more red. I enjoy experimenting with art.

Triangle

Posted on July 9, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Design, Painting, Picture, Sketch, Sketchbook, Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchers, Triangle, Urban SketchersLeave a comment

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Not my favourite challenge, but I looked out of the window and saw various triangles. I rearranged the clothes on the airer so they made definite triangles, and the coats on the cupboard were hanging down in a triangle. I left the standard lamp out because it didn’t help the composition. The acrylic paint I used is quite opaque and as the group I’m in is called Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent I felt the sketchy feel was OK. If I had been doing a ‘proper’ painting I would have done a more realistic, painterly I ture. But I was concentrating on the triangles….

Finished Lobster painting.

Posted on July 9, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Animal, Art, Blogging, Completed, Finished, Life, Lobster, Marine, Ocean, Painting4 Comments

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On the easle, I used a bit of gold paint in the background to give it a bit of sparkle. I hope the recipient will be happy with it. It’s acrylic on canvas, about A4 size. I did the background with very thin paint to start with and lots of water so the paint spread out and looks blotchy. Like a rough stone surface with bits of weed floating with it. I also tried to get the shadow underneath it to make the body stand up away from the ocean bottom.

Doodles

Posted on July 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and red, Black Red and white, Blogging, Cartoons, Design, Drawings, Pen and ink, Sketches, Teapot, Website, WordPressLeave a comment

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I did these a few months ago. The designs had to include red and black. I was going to send them off to a website but I forgot, got to involved in other things and lost track of time, so by the time I did remember it was too late. Adding more white to both images helped I think because you can see the images more clearly. I’ve always thought two cats would make a good yin yang symbol, and the teapot? Because we live in the heart of the potteries.

Almost finished Lobster

Posted on July 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Commission, Lobster, Painting, Picture, Water, Work in progressLeave a comment

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Work in progress, about A4 size, acrylic on canvas. I’ve got to work on the background. It’s now a commission as someone saw the start of it and liked it. I’m not sharing this on my Facebook page because I want it to be a surprise. I don’t think I will do a lot more to it. I want to resolve the head though. The photo I’m working from has a lot of dark rock and patterns around its head and its hard to see what’s happening. That’s why a lot of the surface is on is light so the lobster stands out a bit more.

I’m trying to make it look like it’s almost floating. I might add some light and dark bands, like ripples of light and shade being reflected down from the surface.

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Tag: Art