Feeling owlish

_20200123_120219After a bad night’s sleep I decided to go to Etruria Artists this morning. One of the group suggested drawing a wise animal. My hubby drew a fox, I decided to draw an owl. I wanted to do something colourful and more abstract than I would usually do. This is based on my handbag, though it’s not a copy, more inspired by my bag. I think he’s more cheeky than wise!

The North Wind shall blow…

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The North Wind doth blow

and we shall have snow,

and what shall poor Robin do then?

Poor thing.

He’ll sit in a barn,

and keep himself warm,

and hide his head under his wing,

poor thing….

Image from my post on the 64 million artists January challenge, I cut out a shape of clouds and  drew a face puffing out wind and used that to frame the view of our annamometer and weather station.

I’m enjoying doing the challenges, some require more ingenuity than others, but it’s making me think.

 

Lion sketch

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I went to Etruria Artists today and was asked to draw lions as we were having a little drawing challenge and the group has a lion as a mascot.

I could have looked at a photo but I wanted to see if I could draw a lion from memory. What I ended up with was a lion / bear hybrid I think! I called it bearly a lion.

Colours used were gellato crayons (I think they are called) with metallic shades. They are a bit like lipsticks and can be drawn with, smudged and have water added to them to make them flow. I used a black ink pen to draw the thin lines. It’s a curious big cat.

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Cat sketch

dsc_2407.jpgI do like sketching in biro, you can get a good strong line, but by varying the pressure on the pen its good for shading. I have also found that by spraying the biro with hairspray you can sometimes get the ink to blur and bleed. If you are using black or blue biro you get interesting colours flowing from the lines. I guess it depends on the chemicals in both the pen and the hairspray. It might not always work. I have also used hairspray as a fixative for astel and charcoal drawings.

Did you know you can use milk sprayed onto charcoal or pastel as a fixative too? I found an old perfume bottle with an atomiser and used that to spray drawings. They might end up smelling a bit cheesy but it works. You just have to remember to wash out the bottle and spray after use.

First drawing of 2020

_20200102_111654My first drawing of 2020 on 2.1.2020. It’s red because we were at Etruria Artists in the warehouse by the canal. It was so cold we had the electric heaters on in the roof that glow cherry red. For those who know the person, I’ve got his nose too long. This is because he was moving.

The Etruria Artists are now meeting on a Thursday morning from 10am to 12noon unless we change it. Hopefully this will encourage more people to come along.

Sunset sketch

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I wanted to do a colourful sketch of the sunset which was all oranges and purples. I can’t get it exactly right as it is drawn in ArtRage oils, basically it’s a finger painting. I got the idea from a photo by a friend on a Facebook page, but as it’s just an impression there is no point in sharing the photo as this is much more impressionistic than the original.

Our history

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Potbank, Stoke-on-Trent. I think I drew this at the Gladstone Pottery museum last year? This was part of a ‘throw down’ held by Stoke Urban Sketchers after an afternoon of drawing in rain and shine. We were in a covered area so we could put the drawings down on the ground.

Urban sketchers usually draw outside, so we need to wrap up warm when we go out in the winter, and shelter when it’s raining or windy.

Next year I want to go out with them more often. You get to see places you might not go to otherwise.

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