Odd story

I saw the twins again today, she said. They are getting older, but they still look the same. Craggy, serious, hard.

Yes, I know, he said, they were never cute, but they certainly have character.

I think I will ask them if I can draw their portraits she said. It would be interesting to chat with them and find out a bit about them.

So three weeks later she say down with a pen and paper and started to draw Kim and Jen. She started slowly, trying to find their differences and their similarities. Chatting with them she found they finished each others sentences. Kim was a Chemist, Jen was a Jeweler. Both had problems with their lives. The world couldn’t get its head around identical sisters. Well, not exactly that, she could see what they meant.

Wooden puppets! Who knew they could be alive and walking round the world. Pinnochio had a lot to answer for!

People

One thing that was missing from my drawings today were people. And the museum area and festival were crowded. I tried to rectify this by drawing a woman in front of the steam roller and a couple walking hand in hand away from me towards the forge that is on site. The blacksmith there, Charis Jones, runs a business called Sculpted Steel. I am sorry I didn’t get to see her but I spent most of my time drawing as you can see!

It was probably the biggest gathering of people I have seen for months. I wasn’t quite as nervous today, but my heart was still in my mouth!

Steam roller

I also had the opportunity to draw a steam roller that was parked up outside the museum. Felt pen drawing again. I found out they are not waterproof as a few spots of rain fell and left drip marks on the drawing! I actually saw this driving along the street on Thursday. I asked the owner and he said he had taken three hours to drive the twenty miles from Stafford. It’s certainly an impressive beast!

Urban sketching

Rooves, around the back of the Etruria Industrial Museum today. Drawn with felt pens. Took about an hour as I was trying to get the red and green moss that was growing on them. The corrugated iron or other metal was hard to capture. I tried hard to get the shading right in the bright sunshine. This was done with Stoke Urban Sketchers who met up for the day at the Industrial Museum site.

Bay/ Bridge

#bandofsketchers prompt again… Today’s was Bridge/Bay. I did the white bridge at Etruria a few weeks ago, and a bay in Devon as part of my college work so I decided to draw a Bay horse instead. And why not. Felt pens again, two separate sets. I’m using ones that don’t bleed through to the other side of the paper as I don’t want to ruin other drawings…

Two geese

Sketch of two Canada geese at Westport Lake today. I know their necks are too long. We went for a short walk but the wind was quite cold. So I decided to sit down and draw some of the birds and a view of the rippling water on the lake. While we were there a young man went up to one of the fishing platforms on the lake and started dipping his feet in. He was acting very strangely so we watched incase we needed to ring for an ambulance. But he came over to us and asked us if we wanted to buy a camera? Very strange. So I finished the sketch and we left. I hope he was OK but it was hard to know what to do.

Triangles

I can’t stop experimenting. This time I drew overlapping triangles. Am I boring you? I think this kind of drawing is a meditation. It’s a way of ignoring the the world. Taking the time to place each shape and space them evenly apart. Does anyone else doodle or draw? It helps my mental health. I’m very visual and I have to create. I can’t stop….