New paintings and regular art updates.
When you don’t sleep well it’s easy to be drawn into watching TV. The last few nights have been horrendous. I’ve not got to sleep until 5 or 6am. Then sometimes there is a programme I really want to watch. Tonight there are four hour long episodes of Monarch of the Glen. It was a series I watched twenty years ago and I haven’t seen repeats of it. The pleasure of watching it outweighs the sleep I am missing. But maybe one day I will get back to sleeping well.
The problem with drawing cats from life is that they move! They get into interesting positions and shapes then a second later a different leg is up in the air or they have turned round, head up, down, twisted. Eyes open, eyes closed. The trick is to outline the drawing first, filling in the black area afterwards. This was a five minute sketch. Late night, the cat is settling down for a sleep. I do try and draw from memory but it doesn’t always work, especially with cats!
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt is watching. I’ve been watching my hubby watching TV. The last few days have seen a lot of watched TV, we could have done some walking but we’ve mainly kept ourselves to ourselves, just a bit of contact with the outside world….. Black ink fine line pen and green metallic pen.
I know that not everyone celebrates Christmas or even the new year at this time of year. Different religious traditions, different calendars and different beliefs or non beliefs mean that we all think and act differently.
But I hope that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t wish goodwill and peace to everyone. Life isn’t always easy, and I realise I have been lucky for most of my life. The luck of being born in a first world country, having a good education, being able and allowed to work, even freedom of speech. I wish we all had better times and lives. I profoundly hope that humans get their act together and work to save the planet and its animal, plant and human populations. Living through a pandemic sharpens your thoughts.
So I really do wish you as much joy and happiness as possible in your life.
Oh to be able to go out in warm sunshine. To be able to sit on the ground (I can’t get up if I try and get down). This is a sketch I must have done a few years ago. The picnic blanket colours are probably made up to show up against the grass? The hands are a bit odd, but it is quite a speedy coloured pencil sketch so I guess that’s the cause. I think I was drawing on oil paint paper? It’s got quite a strong texture. You can see how the pencil has got gaps in it where there are dimples in the surface.
Nice memory, can I go back in time please?
Today’s # bandofsketchers prompt was wrapped. My sister visited and dropped this off today. Its wrapped, but I can see what’s inside…. Looking forward to unwrapping it!
I tried adding texture with photodirector to this little drawing I did at Trentham Gardens in 2017. I like the way the rushes stand forward slightly more in the digitally adjusted one. I have a ‘go to’ style in Photodirector, I go to the effects option then generally choose option two or sometimes six. That seems to concentrate and texturise the drawing.
I finally got out and did an urban sketch! Hanley Park bandstand yesterday afternoon in the mist. I drew it from the cafe terrace. I coloured it in at home because I’d been out singing carols with the Mystery Singers choir and only took a sketchbook on the off-chance I might draw.
Looking at this and the photos I took I can see I’ve exaggerated the perspective on the bandstand, but I think that helps as I was looking down on it from the cafe terrace.
Sundays prompt is lipstick for #bandofsketchers.
Lipstick, I haven’t worn any for years! Still I can take a photo of my lips and draw them. I have dark salmon pink and gold felt pens and I do remember what a lipstick looks like… So this is my effort. And no I wouldn’t wear bright red x
I was trying to draw a face that had a child like quality as an example for the children’s book project I’m doing for college. I used black ink fine liner pen to draw and shade it and add some freckles. I was worriedcthe shading was a bit to strong so I decided to use a charcoal pencil to add a bit of softness. Then I coloured the eyes and the lips (I’m planning to use black and white drawings with small coloured highlights). Each drawing is different but it’s helping me decide what I’m doing.
Mallaband-Brown