You don’t know what you will get when you play with photos. This was the result after playing with this photo. 
And also playing with the brightness and hues in it….
I like it.
Just a photo of a reflection in a window.
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Tag: Art
Winter Haiku
I wrote this for the 64 million artists January challenge on Facebook. (I think that’s what it’s called). Each day a different artistic challenge. I’ve only done a few of them, but it’s interesting to dip into.
” Just keeping warm now, It is hard to do for you……….. Little bird in snow.”
🐦
I’m not sure if I’ve got the syllabul count right. Is hard one or two syllabuls?
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Cat sketch
I do like sketching in biro, you can get a good strong line, but by varying the pressure on the pen its good for shading. I have also found that by spraying the biro with hairspray you can sometimes get the ink to blur and bleed. If you are using black or blue biro you get interesting colours flowing from the lines. I guess it depends on the chemicals in both the pen and the hairspray. It might not always work. I have also used hairspray as a fixative for astel and charcoal drawings.
Did you know you can use milk sprayed onto charcoal or pastel as a fixative too? I found an old perfume bottle with an atomiser and used that to spray drawings. They might end up smelling a bit cheesy but it works. You just have to remember to wash out the bottle and spray after use.
Art lunch
My friend runs something called art lunch, which is basically an excuse for artists and creative to get together and meet up over lunch or tea. She provides the venue and some of the food and drink, but we all bring a little contribution to the lunch. It’s a good place to network and catch up. You find out about things you may never have heard of without going to it. If She’s held them in various venues in Stoke-on-Trent and I’m thinking of offering our garden as a venue in the summer.
There were plenty of artists there and I think everyone had an enjoyable time.
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9 for 2019
9 of my favourite images from 2019.
From top left to bottom right…
Dramatic mirrored image of a North Wales beach.
Lion I painted for the local lions charity.
Mural in a downstairs cloakroom. I can still climb!
Easter Island clay head I made at Etruria Artists.
My art stall at a craft fair.
The stray cat that we are looking after who needs rehoming.
Falcon works, two images of the pottery I painted last autumn.
Holding my green man painting and with my vase painting during my exhibition at Spode.
Finally, painting of a window with peeling paint, taken from a photo I took at Spode.
Drawing with an ink roller.
I don’t know when or where I bought this little ink roller, but I think it was probably at a craft shop. The roller is in a little fluorescent green case and is round. It is supplied by black ink and is covered by letters which make an interesting textured pattern. I used it to create faces and a picture of a cat. It’s good to experiment with art.
Some favourites from 2018?
Well I think it was 2018. Time gets mixed up in my brain. I enjoyed going to a life drawing group for a while then other things got in the way, the drawing of a dancer and a guitarist are from there. I had a go at using gold leaf on pictures, which is the picture of the crow or rook. The teacup with a willow pattern was a hat for our local panto. The owls was one of my first tiny paintings. The tree is one I drew while we were up in Yorkshire on the Keithley and Worth Valley railway. The houses ainting is based on a picture I had done in 1980. The photo of me in the mirror is in my studio.
So that was the selection from 2018. I might do one for 2019.
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Table cloth
Saw this bright and breezy tablecloth in a cafe today. I don’t know who designed it so apologies for using it. I really like sign writing and shaded letters so this appealed to me. It’s neat and tidy and eye poppingly colourful, with primary yellows and orangey reds. The dark and light blues add contrast, and the whites tie it all together. Is this surface pattern or graphics, or a mixture of both.
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Mr X
The exposure is not good on this, but this is one of my paintings from when I was at college
Painted in oils on wood, this has a poster about his band stuck to it and overpainted. Painted in 1981.
I can’t remember much about it, but I saw it today, it’s 39 years old!
Sunset sketch
I wanted to do a colourful sketch of the sunset which was all oranges and purples. I can’t get it exactly right as it is drawn in ArtRage oils, basically it’s a finger painting. I got the idea from a photo by a friend on a Facebook page, but as it’s just an impression there is no point in sharing the photo as this is much more impressionistic than the original.
