New paintings and regular art updates.
Today is day 8 of the October 1″ drawing challenge. This is just a quick sketch of our hanging baskets outside the window. Because they are in the back yard they are a bit walmer than in the main garden so although it’s got chilly there has not been a frost to kill them off. If I remember I will take a few photos tomorrow. I also coloured the picture in with a sketching app.
The flowers are Begonias, Fushias, Lobelia and others I don’t remember.
A raging creature stalks the land, emerging from foggy woods and green ponds. Hidden hollows and frightful cliffs. The Murkman has stubby wings as well as sharp claws.
Stabbing and slashing, the Murkman hides while waiting for the unwary traveller or hiker.
Only seen just before it kills, it creeps up behind its victim and uses its wings to hover at neck height. Because this fearful creature is only 6 inches long. It can be disabled or even killed with mosquito spray….. Stay Safe…..
Quick sketch of people singing at a workshop today up at Penkhull village hall.
We sand lots of autumn songs, including old English songs and a poem set to music by the poet Lemn Sissay and musician Anni Tracey. We also sang a French song written in 1945 and translated into English called Autumn Leaves. It was by Joseph Kosma and Johnny Mercer with arrangement by Greg Stephens.
We got on really we and had a lovely time. The teachers Kate and Penny were very patient and helpful. I enjoyed it
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It’s day 5 of the one inch drawing challenge for October. I decided to draw what’s in front of me. A dining chair with a small box easle sitting on it a canvas with a half painted lion and my snowman mug (just big enough for a decent dollop of decaff coffee). Lots of old paint brushes in the tray of the easle. Books on the floor behind…. I don’t care where I draw as long as I can.
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What to draw? It was five past midnight and I decided to draw a coaster on the table which has a picture of a ship and a yatch on it. A coaster on a coaster! But now I’m not sure if I should not have done it. I could have done something later today…. Oh well, it won’t be the last drawing I do in this challenge.
1st drawing on 1st October 2019, the giant straw bee at Snugburys, Nantwich. The challenge is to fit the image into a one inch square. To be completed over the thirty one days of October.
I did it from a photo on my phone because it was ouring down with rain. If the weather is better I will try and draw en plein air.
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In October there are a few challenges to get you drawing. The first is Inktober. You can find various challenges based on this theme on the Internet. Each one is based on doing a drawing a day for the month of October. People use a hash tag, #Inktober2019 is this years I think. There are suggestion on what to draw, for instance halloween themes or autumn. These can also be found on line.
The second challenge is the one I may be doing. This is the one inch drawing challenge. You draw thirty one, one inch squares and do a tiny drawing a day. My only problem? I don’t know if I’ve got a ruler to draw the boxes!
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Someone was asking for ti’s on how to start drawing today so I gave this response.
Choose good quality things to draw with. If you use pencils try softer ‘b’ numbers not hard ‘h’ ones. It’s nice to see the marks you make. Also choosing a combination of thin and thick nibbed black pens means you can have different sizes of marks. Choose a sketchbook that has at least a hard back if you can. Not too big. That way it’s easier to hold and it doesn’t slump mid drawing. Finally you could practice making marks with them. I started drawing copies of things when I was a child. I chose something I liked. It helps your hand eye coordination. You don’t have to do that though. Everyone will do things differently.
I suppose I could have talked more about what to draw, but I think basic equipment is important. If you draw something but it looks weedy and thin it it can put you off. Like when you use cheap paints. You don’t get a good effect, you can’t really see the result and you might have to scrub at the paper to get the marks to show up.
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I almost missed this today. We were invited up to the bridal suite in the Potbank Hotel to draw the views from the top room. The windows look out over the Spode factory roofs and beyond….
By the time I got there I was very late. I only had 45 minutes to draw. So I drew the view with the iconic Spode chimney first, looking out over Stoke Minster and part of the town hall. Then in the last 15 minutes I drew the cupola? of a building, its prominent as you look over Stoke. Turns out its an old co-op building. I only found out because as I was leaving I bumped into another urban sketcher who had not been able to get there in time. She had done research into what it was.
I might not have done as much as I wanted but it was fun. I would like to go back and do more.
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Memories of Youdraw, a website I drew at years ago. Each block was tiny and you only had two black pens and two erasers. Together you could use them to draw black and white pictures. The intention was to collect 500,000 drawings. But they had to be acceptable. Sometimes there were rude pictures, scribbles and racist remarks. I was asked to volunteer as a moderator and used to spend hours deleting the bad stuff. It’s an interesting thought to remember all the work I put into it.
These pictures are some of my drawings that I copied from the site then coloured in photoshop. I have others and still own posters that I was sent by Youdraw.com with hundreds of images. They were going to publish a book but I haven’t heard if that will actually happen.
Good memories. X
Mallaband-Brown