#bandofsketchers prompt was bark. I’ve found my stylus so I’ve tried to draw the bark of a tree trunk. It means I have more control over the sketch and I can be more accurate with my drawing. Used sketchbook app.

New paintings and regular art updates.
#bandofsketchers prompt was bark. I’ve found my stylus so I’ve tried to draw the bark of a tree trunk. It means I have more control over the sketch and I can be more accurate with my drawing. Used sketchbook app.


Progression from original digital drawing to filtered /distorted images. Using Artrage and then photodirector and Instagram filters. I do love to experiment with digital art. I like pushing the envelope as they say…
I could have used more colour but I tried a black and white filter after I drew the original and used a filter on Instagram that allows you to tilt and twist images.

I do like a good tessellation, I’ve turned my two versions of sunflowers into tiles to see what it would look like in a tile pattern. I used incollage app to do this. I think it looks OK but I wouldn’t want a whole wall decorated with it, a bit too over the top! I might try this again but rotate the tiles so they fit in with each other.

Surrounded by wavy lines I drew a green pearly ball. Just experimenting with layers in Artrage and smoothed out with photodirector. Too hot to do much at the moment.

A bird in a tree…
I always find finger painting trees and details difficult in digital apps, I really need to find my digital stylus out, but I don’t know where its gone. This was drawn in the Sketchbook app.
Anyway this fits in with the poem I wrote this morning. The bird on the tree is probably a blackbird (it’s difficult to draw something that delicate accurately). I loved creating this because it’s different to my usual style. And I’m really pleased with the colour combination of yellow overlaying black and grey.

The sun rise is later every day
The birds still wake and sing
At the same time
Their day stretches
From wing tip to wing tip
Music soaring before the sun
Even when night is darkest
Before the dawn
They know to sing…
The liquid notes of the robin
Pierce the night.

The joy of creating a pattern. Layering with different Artrage tools. Playing with a roller, a spray paint tool, and other tools. Also the metallic and non metallic sliders. I tried to give the impression of spinning waves.

Digital drawing for #bandofsketchers prompt. I thought Mow Cop with it’s ‘nooks and crannies’ would do. Still working digitally because I don’t have a spare sketchbook and I still can’t get out the house. This is in Artrage and I did a digital finger painting. Swapping between the drawing and a Wikipedia photo so it’s not accurate. I liked the metallic effects.

Happy bottle oven day! 29.8.23. It’s celebrated every year. I think there are only 47 bottle ovens left from the thousands that used to be in Stoke on Trent. A lot of them are deteriorating but hopefully the heritage of them will be preserved. The potteries, with their bottle ovens were the creative heart of the city.

Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was flowers. I did a flower sketch using symmetry tools in the Sketchbook app, and I just used a couple of paintbrush tools (salty watercolour and an ink brush). I varied the number of petals on each flower and tried to create something impressionistic.