Drive into the countryside.

DSC_2718six weeks ago I ordered our hanging baskets from a little nursery in the countryside. It’s actually based at a small farm near Silverdale in Newcastle-under-Lyme. It’s set back off a country road and is basically a little parking area surrounded by greenhouses and shaded concrete platforms, each of which is covered in garden plants. Most of the normal plants seem to have been sold but we took some clematis, begonia, a rose and other plants as well as the hanging baskets. We have been going there for about six years, and each year we get what we need for the garden. Now it’s a case of rearranging plants and hanging the baskets up. You can see we’ve gone a bit mad. But as we haven’t been spending much lately it did mean we could afford it.

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There was too much to fit in the boot, so some of it had to go on the back seat. Be warned. With all hthe plants and soil in them they are not very easy to lift.

Will post photos when they are up.

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Dorothy Clive Garden.

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This was my drawing of the Dorothy Clive Garden on 6.5.18. It’s recently reopened but with a booking system so you have to book morning or afternoon slots to visit. There is a self service system at the cafe. I hope we can go one day next week if the weather improves, after a month or more of sunshine we have been having rain for the last few days. Good for all gardens including the Dorothy Clive.

It will be lovely to see different landscapes, beautiful flowers, and peaceful water features.

When you draw a place you are interpreting the world in a different way to simple photographs. That’s why I enjoy it. Trying to tame nature and describe it.

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LOTR drawings

About ten years ago I was doing a lot of drawings at sketchfu. I did a series of drawings there of the Lord of the Rings characters. These are three of them. I also drew one of Gandalf, but I can’t find it on my camera roll.

Digital portraits. I’m hoping when I get a new wacom tablet I will be able to do more art like this.

Still struggling with the online course I’m doing, I’ve had a few problems today. I had to download a fix for something and ended up in a mess. I sorted it out but it cost me time to download what I needed. If only computers were simple.

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We have a hedgehog

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My hubby has just been out in the garden and discovered a large hedgehog eating the mealworms we put out for the blackbirds and Robins.

His nightly parambulation also resulted in him seeing a frog by the pond.

This afternoon we saw a baby robin perched by the pond. I think we really do have a natural garden.

The drawing is an attempt to draw a hedgehog. Bit bald in parts!

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Got some new canvases.

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Excited to have got some new canvases. I hope to get out in the garden and paint from real life. The weather is not really good enough for it at the moment. We are having heavy showers so I would need cover to keep dry. If the weather improves I will try….

One day I might be able to exhibit my art again and I would like to have some new work ready for that.

I’d say ‘watch this space’ , but it might be better to say ‘don’t hold your breath!’

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Snack sketch

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OK so today’s Urban sketchers challenge was to draw snacks. I chose pringles, my favourite apart from salt and vinegar crisps. Its not the most exciting drawing I’m afraid.

This challenge is every other day. Saturdays challenge was to draw red square in Moscow, but I’m afraid I didn’t get round to doing that. I have saved one of the photos so I might have a go later in the week.

Toothache is getting me down at the moment!

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Changing pictures with filters

In this case I drew the image on the left in photoshop years ago it’s me in the style of an Escher drawing. Today it popped up in my memories in Facebook so I decided to see how it would look if I put it through the photodirector app. I used a tool called style. You have a choice of six options, and I think I used the second one for this.

I like the way it concentrates the lines in places and gives it a sharper look. But I do prefer the original… Substance over Style?

Koi

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Since there wasn’t a sketching challenge today I thought I would draw a couple of koi carp and some water lilies.

I sprayed green ink onto the paper first, then outlined the lily pads, fish and flowers with black ink. I coloured in the fish and lilies, and added some blue curves to enhance the water. Then I added some sparkly purple with a brush pen. Finally I put some black contours around each of the elements.

I enjoy Koi!