New paintings and regular art updates.
I struggled with this. I tried to draw a square for our Orme art group collaboration of part of a Pierre Bonnard painting. I thought it looked OK but when I see the pictures side by side? Hmm. I was drawing with marker pens and felt pens, some of which would smudge, others are permanent. Clearly I haven’t been able to blend things that well and also my drawing is not as delicate. But you can’t draw paint brush marks with a felt pen. They say a bad workman blames his tools.. I don’t know…
I’m still waiting, on the 3rd November, for my hanging baskets to get knocked off by the frost. October was the fifth wettest since the 19th century. And it was wet, and windy. A couple of ex hurricanes blew over us, the sky stayed battleship grey for a lot of the month. The wind makes our windows whistle and moan in the kitchen if its from the South West, and the noise moves to the front of the house if the wind shifts to the North East. That’s why the plants do well round the back, they are in a little sheltered micro climate. So I’m waiting to see what happens tomorrow… And not just in the garden!
Today’s sketch for #bandofsketchers, the theme is red. Not many trees in this country turn bright red in autumn. I think that’s because we don’t get cold enough weather to force the chlorophyll out of the leaves to turn them to brighter colours (is the red xanthophyll?) long time since I did O level biology!
Anyway these were on the road outside so I did a quick sketch and then filled it in. I’m afraid I cheated as it was so wet and windy so I did use a reference photo to try and get the right colours. Another sketch with permanent markers.
Blackberries, before they are ripe, before the sun ripened them. Turning them juicy and sweet. I thought this image that I’d duplicated and mirrored made them look almost like insect eyes.
There are patterns that seem to replicate each other in the world and the universe. By playing with images you can get some startling effects.
After the rain, the rainbow. The base of it was really bright. The rain came down so hard and fast, a river of water came down the hill. The forecast is for possible thunderstorms tomorrow following the arrival of ex hurricane Epsilon in the North Atlantic. There have already been strong winds and the leaves have been flying off the trees. Autumn has arrived with a bang!
This was a favourite drawing I did at Sketchfu, I can’t remember if it was a challenge drawing or just something I decided to copy because I liked it so much. I enkoyed trying to show the sunlight penetrating down through the water and catching the Orcas back. Its a bit sketchy but not too bad.
Water changes the colours you see, and the deeper you go, the more towards the blue end of the spectrum the colours become. Reds and yellows fade away as you go deeper, until the blackness in the depths of the water absorbs all light. It is at those depths that you start seeing the dim glows of Angler fish. I actually think it would be fascinating to go down in a submercible and to see some of the otherworldly wonders, but I dont think I ever will. But I can use my imagination…
You left me.
Fluttering to the ground
Piled up around me
Shrouding my roots
Free from my twigs
You colour the land
Leaves leave
Only a few left
To detach eventually
In winter storms.
I drew some curves and spirals then started adding doodles, including a couple of birds and a face. I started using a fine line black ink pen, but it was running out so I turned instead to a black calligraphy pen. When I’d finished I decided to add colour. That helped accentuate some of the shapes. I could do more but decided to leave it. I called it phoenix because a bird seemed to ge appearing from the background.
Doing my usual trick of multiplying photos makes these abstract patterns. I love the spectacular autumn colours. Ot as brash and gaudy as the trees over in the USA. I like the subtlety of our trees. Perhaps we don’t have the right climate conditions to bring out very bright colours except in Acers, or maybe we have different trees? Anyway I hope you enjoy these fun patterns.
I just drew this, it started to get dark but it’s our little acer tree under the Walnut tree, also willow branches, Holly and buddlea.. The view is out of our side window at the top of the stairs. The acer turns deep red and orange and the walnut is starting to go yellow. The Holly is deep green but by the time I got to it, it was going really dark so that part was drawn even more quickly than the rest. This was for our #bandofsketchers prompt today ‘autumn’ the buddlea was also quickly sketched.
Mallaband-Brown