Time moves on…

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About six weeks ago the buds were just bursting in the garden. Now they have emerged and the garden is clothed in green. The Walnut tree looks like it’s gained another five or six foot. It towers over the garden. Water seeps out from underneath it. We have had it checked to see if its a split pipe but the workers who looked at it said no, it’s a spring. Whatever it is, we seem to be growing a pond or a lake now. We have put a bird bath in its way, a shallow bowl, so that the birds and animals that frequent the garden can get a drink in the warm weather. I’m now thinking of planting some hostas or iris or bog plants in that area. I would like to pipe it away into a drain if I can.

We have had a bit of heavy rain over the last few days. Dark clouds fly past overhead, dumping rain and hail over us. I’m waiting for the next downpour.

Alphabet?

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Part of my study is to come up with patterns or shapes to indicate individual letters. You are supposed to use shapes you sketch with or others that fit into a usable vocabulary of marks. I shade a lot but also use dots and dashes. I have added straight lines and spirals. Some squiggles. I wonder if I should have added curves or ellipses. It’s hard to decide what shapes to use. I wanted things to be quite organic, and I’ve used various pens to see how each would look.

I may have completely got the wrong end of the stick, but I’m hoping this is what they want. Perhaps I should have made it neater. Not sure.

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Snack sketch

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OK so today’s Urban sketchers challenge was to draw snacks. I chose pringles, my favourite apart from salt and vinegar crisps. Its not the most exciting drawing I’m afraid.

This challenge is every other day. Saturdays challenge was to draw red square in Moscow, but I’m afraid I didn’t get round to doing that. I have saved one of the photos so I might have a go later in the week.

Toothache is getting me down at the moment!

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Three counties open entry.

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I’ve entered this painting ‘self portrait as a green woman’ to try and get in the local three counties open art exhibition. The pictures will be chosen from submissions made before 27th June. I don’t know if I will get it in,but I am trying. The exhibition will be a virtual one as the pandemic makes it impossible to hold a physical one.

Acrylic on canvas. Wish me luck.

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Changing pictures with filters

In this case I drew the image on the left in photoshop years ago it’s me in the style of an Escher drawing. Today it popped up in my memories in Facebook so I decided to see how it would look if I put it through the photodirector app. I used a tool called style. You have a choice of six options, and I think I used the second one for this.

I like the way it concentrates the lines in places and gives it a sharper look. But I do prefer the original… Substance over Style?

Koi

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Since there wasn’t a sketching challenge today I thought I would draw a couple of koi carp and some water lilies.

I sprayed green ink onto the paper first, then outlined the lily pads, fish and flowers with black ink. I coloured in the fish and lilies, and added some blue curves to enhance the water. Then I added some sparkly purple with a brush pen. Finally I put some black contours around each of the elements.

I enjoy Koi!

A-Z

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As part of my coursework I need to come up with a different mark for each letter of the alphabet. The first decision is to choose what tool to use to make these marks. I have used a 0.8 tip unipin ink pen. But I could have chosen charcoal, or a brush, or some other form of mark making. Then I could choose colours as well as shapes. I am not sure if I have chosen the right sort of format. The next step will be to draw something using shapes for a few letters only. Say five or six of them. Maybe my shapes are too small? It’s all like a big puzzle.

Usk challenge Thursday

Black and white and then coloured in sketch. View from my kitchen window out over the cherry tree in the garden. A few cherries are starting to ripen, but most are still green. The plants on the windowsill have grown up so they seem to merge into the garden. I’ve limited the palette of the pots and ornaments so that it is not overpowering the bottom of the drawing. My sanctuary away from the rain…

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Old film stars

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Tyrone Power, a portrait I did of him at an old website called sketchfu about ten years ago. He played Zorro in a fantastic film from the 1940’s? I’m not sure when it was made. I remember watching old westerns when I was a child. They would be on a Saturday matinee on TV. I think that was when there was only one TV channel. Wow, a long time ago. As you can tell, I’m feeling old today. Big birthday coming up!

Stressed. Two hours to upload a photo!

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This isn’t a good photo of the picture I was uploading but it shows you what I wanted to add. I am starting a college course and the first task was to upload an image and analyse it. I chose this picture of my gran as I feel a bit overwhelmed. I described myself as an old lady, feeling a bit defeated by technology. I know I will be OK with practice. Practice after all does make perfect. Its a learning process. Once you know how to do a thing (like driving), it clicks. The skill goes from one part if your brain to another, and you get to know what buttons to press. It’s just a struggle sometimes to pick up. And I’ve come to the conclusion, I don’t like Windows 10.

Wish me luck, I’ll need it. X