Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was costume. Here’s Jacob’s coat of many colours sketch using the Artrage app, I just used the oil paint tool. Then I edited it in sketchbook and added the toggles and background etc…
Costume
Tag: Art
The Art and Craft
What do you love about where you live?
Stoke-on-Trent is a city built on Art and crafts. From Wedgwood and Brindley and the industrial revolution.
Ceramics were the main manufactured goods in the city. So much so that it became known as ‘the Potteries’. Different pottery owners experimenting with different materials, trying to make pots that could stand up to the quality of Chinese wares.
Manufacturers had water, clay and coal from the local area. Pots were transported out of the city on the newly built canals that linked it to the rest of England and then on to the world.
Designs were transfer printed onto plates and cups, opening up cheaper wares to the general public. But other work was hand painted and lined with gold and other precious metals.
What was needed to make all the pottery? Workers, making, turning, transfer printing, painting. Numerous jobs including the famous Saggar Makers bottom knocker. (You can Google this). The work couldn’t be completed without skilled labour that could translate designs into reality. Some female paintresses were allowed to sign their names to their work. Like Susie Cooper and Clarice Cliffe.
So much skill in one city. Burslem school of art taught many of the artists that were to work in the ceramic trades. One famous artist, Arthur Berry, became a fine artist and writer and play writer. He was one of my tutors at college. That’s why I love this place.
Shore
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was shore. Finger painting digitally using a brush in the Sketchbook app called ‘salty watercolour’. The colours seem to splodge in quite a realistic way. Imagining a view of a Welsh or Devon Coast….
Cornucopia
Another #bandofsketchers prompt was plenty. Cornucopia or horn of plenty was a display of fruit and beautiful food presented in a large shell or spiralling horn if I remember correctly. I did a digital sketch and tried to create an abstract image of it.
Comparison
I play with these drawings to create a double image of two faces. One side has more texture than the other using different apps.
One side is sharper than the other, the left hand side has been processed through photodirector to add texture.
Does it matter what I did or why? Isn’t it more important to create something? I explain what I’ve done, but is there any significance? I see work in exhibitions wherr the piece of art will have a longwinded explanation of what the Art is about. I like to play and explore, I might not have a specific intention, but I hope what I do has some integrity….
Woman doodle
Artrage doodle, it started as a background and was possibly going to be a river with fish in it, but when it came to the final image, this strange face snuck in. I am struggling with energy, trying to stay awake because sleeping on an old armchair will do that to you. I’ve made lots of mistakes in the writing on here, I keep on doing it because I’m falling asleep as I draw and write. So it’s a very random drawing. X
Slime
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was slime. A drawing using a photo of my hubby, I’d already drawn over it. I tried to add a layer of slimey gloop as if it was a sculpted bust covered in ectoplasm from a ghost in Ghost busters. You hopefully get the idea?!
Art of course
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
If I could I would open an art shop. But I don’t have the skills. I’d need to be trained in accounting, in design to get things looking peofessional, and more knowledge of pricing. Also I’d need sufficient funds to rent or let a property.
At the moment I’m lucky to have some of my work on sale or display, but the business side of it doesn’t enthrall me. I’d never be an entrepreneur.
I did try when I finished work, I set up a studio and worked at producing new art. But the building us rarely open to the public, and my studio is off down a narrow corridor so I don’t have much contact with people when I’m there. Covid and lock downs stopped me from getting stalls on local craft fairs.. A cheaper way of selling than having a permanent ‘public facing’ shop.
I’ve heard of business plans but never had one perhaps that’s my biggest failing, I just keep getting on with getting on….
It depends
What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?
Yet again I have to be equivocal about this question. I mean I’m not deliberately being ambiguous, but there could be many answers depending on the person, their age, sex, health and the place they are at.
1. Fresh water /food
If you are alone and outside away from people, for instance on a walk it’s a good idea to take supplies. I imagine I won’t be far from transport, but what happens if you get lost?
2. Spare clothes/groundsheet
If you are out and about and lost you might not be able to find shelter if the weather deteriorates or it gets dark. You might have to stay put, so having extra clothes and something to make into a shelter could save you from exposure. We went camping one Easter and I had to wear two pairs of trousers and three jumpers because of the cold!
3. A map
Learn to read maps, if your phone goes flat and you can’t charge it how do you find your location?
4. Medication?
Even if you don’t expect to be out all day and night it’s better to be prepared. The older you are the more likely you are to need medicine. Don’t ignore it, and if necessary take out travel insurance.
5. Car keys?
Yes if I take the car with me, and house keys.
6. Medical alert.
If you take some medications then you need to take warning notifications with you. Similarly if you are allergic to food colourings, bee and wasp stings, or antibiotics it’s worth letting people know!
7. A sketchpad and something to draw with.
I’m an artist, what did you expect me to say?
Him
He is old
He is tired
His hair is wild.
A green man in the making?
Change hair for leaves
Or roots?
Wisdom spread outwards
Like fungi twisting
Tangling
Nature
Myth
Mallaband-Brown 