New paintings and regular art updates.
I played with this photo as the Huchera leaves look like copper sheets. The little sprigs of green in the centre look like tiny green people. I would really like a macro lens so I could take some very close shots of animals including insects, and also plants, together with things like lichen. Whatever I do, I find I want to do more. I deliberately take off centre pictures to make interesting compositions. I like trying to make patterns out of trees and clouds too…..
and why not…? If you’ve got a dragon, why not go all unicorn… I tend to draw dragon heads a bit like horses heads. Unlike the dragon in ‘how to train your dragon’ where toothless the dragon reminds me of a black cat.. I digress. The app I used to create this is called something like free sketch? The trouble is I use so many of them that I don’t always remember which one I’ve used!
On this sketch I tried using a fountain pen, but for some reason it won’t make marks? This is why I say experimenting is so important. Learning how to use a tool in an app so that you can understand what it does.
I’m just getting the hang of it…
Bone China tea set my friend is getting rid of. I’m going to try and find someone who wants it. I think another friend will have it.
Bone China was manufactured by potters who wanted to find a substitute for porcelain that came from China. It took several years to find a formula that produced thin, strong, translucent pots. It contained clay from the China clay quarries in Cornwall, calcined bone and flint (heated and ground to break them down into a fine powder). The bone gives off phosphorus which adds to the strength of the bone china. You end up with a material half way between pottery and glass. This fine white china was then beautifully decorated with hand painted flowers, fruit and landscapes.
I’m sure there is far more to say on this subject. But that’s enough for now.
Fish drawing in permanent inks. Patterns in the water, scale patterns on the fish. I left the edges blank but I think it might look better if I add more or crop the image closer in. I do know I have a style of drawing. When you move your hands it follows a certain pattern, I sometimes try and fight the way I do things, but if I imagine something it usually comes out similar each time. Faces generally look left, three quarter faces look towards the right. Horses heads look left. I think it’s because I’m right handed? Maybe it is because I draw left to right, the same as writing?
Acrylic on canvas
I keep finding old photos of paintings that I have done over the years. This was called tree spirits and went to a lovely couple who had fallen in love with it. Those that follow my blog know I love pattern and shapes. My favourite shape is the spiral. I don’t know why… But curving round and twisting, leaves shading the faces. I want to do more like this.
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This the mural I painted at the Leopard of Clarice Cliffs Umbrella design. It is one of several murals I did. They were painted directly onto the walls, but as the original room had several large squares and oblong of flock wallpaper surrounded by wooden framing, the owners stripped the flock paper and covered the patches with lining paper. I then painted on that. For some reason people think the pictures are painted on canvas. They will get a shock if they try and take them down. They would have to remove a layer of plaster probably too…!
I was rummaging around the front bedroom where I’m doing my college work and found a sketchbook that I did when was on my foundation art course.
These are etchings, created on metal plates by painting areas with a varnish and then putting the plates in an acid bath to etch away the surface. Then to get more detail you can cover more of the plate with varnish or a wax resist. Acid bath again, rinsing it off before adding more wax or varnish. You can also use something called aquatint which gives you an interesting background. I’m remembering this from over 40 years ago. So I might not have it right. Eventually you ink up the plates and place them onto paper which you then put in a press and squash them together. These are the result.
This is from a few years ago. I think it was just someone in a cafe or a pub. I don’t remember asking permission to draw him. But this is about twenty years old, so there is no reason why I would. What I like to do is draw carefully. I don’t pick my pencil up to measure, but I do look carefully. I try and get the proportions right. I look at the length of the nose, the width of the lips. The length of the hair and the shape of the person’s face. Portrait drawing and painting can be nerve wracking. But I enjoy doing it. I’m addicted to art.
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Take a pencil a pen or a paintbrush
Make a mark
See what happens
Feel joy and wonder
Learn your skills
Slowly, patiently,
Or fast
Reach for your imagination.
Be creative.
Create!
I ordered three books through a well known delivery system and they have all arrived safely. Now I have to read them. They are about designers, creatives and illustrators. There is a look into unpublished sketchbooks, an introduction to semiotics and another one about illustration. (OK so I forgot what the third one I ordered was and the text is to small to read off this photo). I shall be reading them tomorrow.
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