Finished drawing?

I think this is done. I hope they like it. I’ve tried to get the tones right but it’s hard to get it right. I think I’ve got the features close to how they look on the photo.. I decided not to draw the whole figure as the little boys head would have to be a lot smaller and I’ve tried to simplify the background. Anyway it’s going to it’s new home soon. X

Paula Rego

I was watching a programme on Paula Rego on BBC four last night, tried drawing her, I think I got a likeness…

She is a Portugese artist who has such a varied style of art. Full of abstraction, passion, exuberance, but also figurative, sad, emotional, incredible. I wish I could explain her art. I urge you to find her work online.

Two sketches today

Two sketches in Etruria today. A corner house and the White bridge over the Trent and Mersey canal. Both were done in response to an online virtual sketch out with #uskstoke (Stoke Urban Sketchers). There was a zoom meeting, but I couldn’t join as I was out and about and had no Internet access. These are hopefully going to be included in an online ‘street’ of people’s images that represent the city. They were very quick sketches and I tried to draw the corner house a few times, it was difficult to get it to fit on a small sketchpad page…..

Don Letts portrait

I don’t watch Sky TV because I can’t afford it, but the Sky Arts channel has appeared on my Free view TV. So…..

The fifth episode of the seventh series has three people posing: Don Letts, Katie Piper and Rob Rinder. I thought I would watch, then decided to draw. I mooched about on the Web and found a photo of Don Letts to work from. I was struggling to watch the TV because I really got into doing the drawing so I missed most of the programme. If I had to say what’s the worst bit of the drawing? The forehead is too wide and high. I tried adding to the hat but that didn’t really work. Plus the hands are a bit clumpy…. I may watch and draw next week too….

USK S-O-T virtual sketch out

This was fun, I did a quick drawing over twenty minutes because I was late getting to the virtual meeting. The subject was Manchesters China Town. Basically its a rough sketch and I tried to add as much detail as I could in the limited time. I started on the pagoda side then worked over onto the left side, drawing in shapes and trying to get the tones right. I think it came out OK. I wad working off a photo that was only a couple of inches across so it was hard to get much detail.

Music prompt

My ‘music’ sketch. We have a stack of music playing equipment over in the corner, CD player, cassette player, speaker and loads of old videos etc. All a bit out of date now. Sadly we mainly listen to the radio so it’s all gathered dust recently.

For the #bandofsketchers series of sketches I’m doing to respond to prompts that are posted every other day. If you come to Facebook and look for band of sketchers you could join in.

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Today’s challenge ‘Soft’

The second challenge set by our new sketching group ‘band of sketchers’ was ‘Soft’, not easy, until I saw my cat sitting in front of a big soft bag. Plus a mat she was sitting on. Its a pencil sketch with some black ink fine line pen work. It’s hard drawing moving cats. They have a tenancy to shift position just when you want to draw their eyes, or the position of their paws. I could have taken a photo but I wanted to draw direct from life.

The new normal?

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Visiting my friend today who’s a fine art student. Because we were inside her house we both wore masks.  This is the final Stoke Urban Sketchers challenge for this run but I don’t think it will be the last. This was so good, to be able to visit someone. I feel like crying, I felt nervous, I felt touched that someone would let me in their house after all this time. I may dream about it! It was an honour to be allowed to draw her. I hope she does well in her fine art degree.

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