Artrage oils sketch

Another art package I was using a lot last year is ArtRage oils, a free drawing app where the pens in it look like oil paint that can be adjusted to look more or less metallic. The difference with it is the ‘painterly’ effect is more pronounced and more difficult to control. There is not really the precision of other apps but it makes up for it with robust colours. There is a paid for version has more pens and tools, so gives you greater variations and the ability to go to town on interesting images.

Baubles

Last year’s tiny paintings that I did of Christmas baubles. I sold them at a Christmas craft fair. I added ribbons and painted the backs of them black so they could be hung off Christmas trees. People seemed to like them and I sold three of them. I wish I could be doing the same this year. It was pleasant meeting new people, chatting, enjoying the spirit of the season. Not this year though. So I shall try and remember the good times and hope they come again next year. X

Still growing

Fushia plant in a hanging basket, reaching up to the sky. My Fushias seem to last through the winter (you can buy standard Fushias that can be grown as hedging plants) I love the way the buds swell and their petal skirts swirl out, some are called ballerina among other varieties. I love the mixes of colour you get from pale pinks to dee magenta. The shapes from plain petals to billowing folds. You can get all sorts of flowers for summer but Fushias are at the top of my list.

Changing colours

Have you tried adjusting the colours in a photo in curves? I had taken a bland photo of a tree outside my window and I decided to see what I could do with it. I wanted to increase the contrast, change the colours, add brightness to bring out where the light was in the photo to differentiate between the tree leaves and the background.

Curves is like a graph, by changing the height and depth of the curves you can enhance brightness and colour by making the curve higher, or lower the curve and the image loses brightness and can lose contrast too….. The curved graph representing this was up and down then back up again. All I can say is have a go and see what happens. You don’t have to accept the result and you can go back to how it was originally.

Berries

Don’t know what these berries are on but they are beautiful, they were along a track downhill from the canal. There were also pieces of old wood that had bracket fungus growing on them. Autumn is a lovely time of year when strong colours can ping out. Looking at the tangle of branches on the left hand side I might play with it and duplicate the pattern.

Digital life drawing

I took my tablet to a life drawing class a couple of years ago. I wanted to see what a digital drawing would look like. I chose to use a program called sketcher free that gives you different texture tools, like fur long fur, ribbon, chrome, and other pens. You can chose the background colour. You can also use a colour slider and picker and a change in pen sizes. It’s a bit complicated to choose a pen shape that translates to the drawing well. There are other programs that are simpler to use but I liked (as usual) the patterned effect I created.

Cat plus cat

Look on any shelf in my house and you will find either a cat ornament or a cat picture or painting. Here is a little cat ring holder, sent from a friend in America, and a birthday card someone sent me. I liked it so much I framed it. Sorry I don’t know the artists name. The little toy car is a spectrum persuit vehicle? From the captain scarlet and the mysterons TV series of the 1960s. The background is my bookcase with a few novels. I liked the colour combinations. I enjoy taking photos of everyday objects…