Drawing, squaring up

When you are learning to draw you can use a grid to help. If you are trying to copy an image you can draw a grid over the original, then draw the same sized squares on the paper you are drawing on. Finally copy the original onto the drawing by filling in each square. The grid helps you place lines more accurately. If you do the drawing in pen instead you can rub out the pencil lines. It’s really only a device to help learning to draw, or if you want to draw out the basis for a painting when you are using opaque paints like gouache, acrylics or oils. You can also use this for scaling up or down. If the squares are half size on the original the drawing will be twice the size (or vice versa), hope this makes sense.

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Ideas for paintings

Sketching designs for winter paintings that can still be good to have on the walls all year round. I’ve seen a painting with a pottery in the snow, so I’m going to do something similar with Holly and Ivy. The second idea is a cat on a windowledge with a blue and white vase next to it.

Will try and get them painted this week.

Badly drawn violinist

I did these sketches tonight because I’m part of urban sketchers. These were drawn at the Mystery play barn dance up at Penkhull village hall. The band laying were called the Shropshire Hero’s and the barn dance caller was Baz Parkes.

It was excellent fun although I was helping behind the bar for part of it. Just watching people dance was great. Some do well, others make mistakes. The worst thing that happened was someone accidentally stood on my foot. But that was because I was drawing, and I think I was a bit in the way, so I wasn’t looking and got stood on. I was more worried because the dancer almost fell over me!

The other problem with drawing dancers? You guessed it.. They don’t stand still!

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Waiting for Spring.

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It’s Autumn and I’m already waiting for Spring! I need to work on the garden, cut shrubs back, plant tulip bulbs, plant snowdrops, then… Wait, wait, wait… Through the cold and rain, through the shirt dates and long nights.

I want to see the baby birds, the squirrel and its kits, the tadpoles in the pond (if we have frogs we must have tadpoles). I look forward to warmer, not too hot, days. Life returns.

In the winter here it usually does not get too cold. But it can be grey, wet and windy.

The clocks go back at the end of October, then the sun will go down an hour earlier, I hate sitting in the dark in the winter, trying to keep warm. Looking forward to the winter solstice when the sun starts coming back a little more every day.