Illustrations

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on watercolour paper, Acrylics, Art, Illustrations, Kidsgrove, Leek, StaffordshireLeave a comment

One thing I really enjoyed doing a while ago were illustrations for a leaflet for the canal and rivers Trust. I’ve probably already mentioned. My friend provided the images to work from and I painted with Acrylics on watercolour paper. I did that to get the depth of colours without having to paint thin layers and I could paint over any mistakes I made.

I was really pleased with the results. I only remembered them because they popped up on my Facebook memories. I wonder what else will appear there?

The top picture was an amalgamation of the two harecastle tunnels at Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, a work in progress. And the second was a mill at Leek in Staffordshire.

Work in progress… Painting Jupiter is hard!

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Juno probe, Jupiter, Jupiter pole, Painting, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, Work in progress2 Comments

I’ve been doing some more work on this painting. I want to get it finished this week. It’s a painting of one of the poles of Jupiter. In the photo it has a bluish tinge but I’m trying to make it bluer as the exhibition title is “an Exhibition of Blue” on in Spode exhibition space at Acava Studios, Spode Site, Eleanor Street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. From 2nd February 2019.

Eyes

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blue, Digital drawings, Eyes, Humour, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

Here’s looking at you kid,

The eyes seemed to say,

Like a surreal spider

With multiple eyes.

Don’t fear me

I seem to hear them

You will understand

one day.

I smell a surprise

Sniffed out I see

By my old eyes

And a new view.

Tiny paintings

Posted on January 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Bewildered, mini art, Tiny paintingsLeave a comment

I’m going to do some more tiny paintings soon, once I finally finish the painting of Jupiter that I’m doing for an Exhibition of Blue that is on at Spode artists studios exhibition space from 2nd February.

I like doing really small paintings, it’s a challenge to get enough details.

At the moment I’m having a few problems with WordPress. My fault. I tried to change something and I’ve ended up not being able to use the main pages but am trying to publish this locally…. I’ve even managed to add categories and tags…

We live and learn….

Bit of a makeover

Posted on January 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blog, Blogging, Change, Changes, Computer, Design, Facebook, Fun, Instagram, Learning, Life, Painting, Reflections, Social media, Twitter2 Comments

Things are changing on planet Mallaband-Brown so you might notice a few tweaks here and there thanks to my friend Mike from @staffsdesign.

I wanted to update my social media and make it easier for people to follow me. Being an artist has made me a lot happier and nows the time to try and make it work.

I didn’t realise amalgamating all my Web pages and sites would be so complicated and I’m so pleased to have had someone to sort everything out.

This is also a test to see whether it posts to my new Facebook page.

You should be able to follow me on the Internet at @mallabandbrown !

Wacom bamboo tablet

Posted on January 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Digital art, Digital drawing, Photoshop, Quantel paintbox, Wacom tabletLeave a comment

These are a set of drawings I found in my memories section on Facebook.

They were some of the first drawings I did on my Wacom Bamboo Tablet. I was drawing in photoshop.

I was trying different filters and tones (I only know because it was on captions underneath). This shows my enjoyment of morphing drawings. I like experimenting.

I was watching a programme about an Australian artist last night. (I can’t remember his name). He was recognised as one of their foremost abstract artists. At the end of his life he embraced digital art and there is a short section of film of him working with a technician who was using a quantel paintbox. This was the predecessor of photoshop. As I watched it I remembered using the same thing at a radiography conference. I was utterly amazed that it existed (this was in the early 1990’s.) I was enthralled by what you could draw. I guess that’s why I’m still drawing digitally now.

One line drawings.

Posted on January 20, 2019January 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Digital drawings, Duplication, Layout, One line drawings, PatternLeave a comment

When I used to draw at Youdraw.com I would do one line drawings. Basically you kept your cursor moving on the drawing area and didn’t lift it until you finished… Thats what I’ve done here … But then duplicated it and flood filled it. Sometimes it’s nice to lose black lines.

I’m having a makeover on social media. I’m now @mallabandbrown on twitter… I will be using it more to post about paintings and other exploratory art that I’m planning over the next few months .

Wedding painting

Posted on January 20, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Family, Life, Painting with acrylics, Portraits, WeddingLeave a comment

When we got married we stood on the steps of the local registry office and had a few group photos taken. I have the album somewhere (it was full of photos taken by friends as we didn’t have a photographer).

I decided to do a painting of the occasion. I used two photos, because faces and people were not posed I had to take figures off two photos to make a nice composition. (By the way my sister is that tall!)

I apologise for this photo, it’s not very good. I should really take better ones with lighting etc but I don’t have those resources.

I will say it was a good wedding. We only spent £300 and that was including our clothes, the food and our honeymoon!

How did we do it? Everyone bought food for a buffet at our house. We got a barrel of beer in. Friends made and iced the cake (shaped like a cat with a blue and pink cat on top). We held the reception at home. The honeymoon was two nights in a posh hotel, two in a bed and breakfast and the rest of the week in a caravan!

Big painting

Posted on January 20, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Art, Cats, Large paintings, Oil on canvas, Painting, Walsall5 Comments

I have done large paintings in the past. This was painted in oil on canvas. About 4ft by 5ft. Done in 1993. it was before we moved to our current house. I used the room to paint in, I love pattern and regularly wore leggings, the jumper on the figure is made up. It is meant to be me. The cat on the canvas was taken from a book. It amuses me as it looks like its swallowing my arm. The cat in the corner was Gemma, a very intelligent loving cat.

Would I paint something this big again? Yes, I’ve done far bigger when I have painted scenery and murals. It would be great to be commissioned to do something large. You know where I am, get in touch.

Tig remembered

Posted on January 19, 2019January 19, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Artist, Cat, Cat painting, Painter, Painting, Painting with acrylics, Paintings for sale4 Comments

Tig was a handsome cat and very friendly. We loved him very dearly. I did this painting of him in about 2011. It’s just come up on my Facebook timeline.

We had Tig for a couple of years. He came and stole the other cat’s food and gradually moved in with us. The only thing he was scared of was The window cleaner, as soon as he heard him, he was out through the cat flap and away.

He was young and healthy and did mad things. I don’t have the pictures but I drew a series of cartoons of him on a website called Youdraw.com and called them the adventures of Tig.

One Wednesday he ran off as usual when the window cleaner arrived. But he did not come back that afternoon or night. I called and called but there was no sign of him. In the morning my partner went out looking for him while I got ready for work. He found Tigs body in the alleyway. We think he had drunk something, perhaps antifreeze that had poisoned him. There were garages nearby.

I couldn’t go to work that day. My grief was too much. I’m glad I painted him.