Haberdashery

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My little sewing kit. Today’s usk Stoke-on-Trent challenge was to draw something to do with haberdashery.

As I don’t make clothes, have any clothes patterns, or any fabric, I’m afraid this had to do. The material below the kit is a knitted cushion, a cat blanket, and a teatowel.

Without the kit I wouldn’t have had any subject matter to draw. I don’t know who will try and add to the challenge today. Now I’m off out in the sunshine to plant up some begonias.

Playing with photos

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Thanks to a friend I’ve just found another app to play with. It seems relatively easy to use. But as this is my first ever use of it I think I will try and get a bit more used to it before I review it or tell you what it’s called. I have a feeling I might seriously mess something up. Seems much more interactive than previous apps I have used, but that might not be a good thing.

Cutlery drawer

USK Stoke challenge today was to do a sketch of your cutlery drawer. The final sketch had black ink lining round the objects which I originally did with just 5b pencil, but it looked too indistinct.

Sketching is getting to be a habit now. I don’t think I can stop when it gets to the end of this particular challenge. To add to that I also like the fact that the ideas are from different people, so they are eclectic choices. It’s much more interesting drawing things like cutlery as well as the view out the window.

What will tomorrow bring?

Abstract doodling

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Fold some paper in half, splodge some purple ink on one side and press the two sides together. You get a pattern. I’m also using a spray of green ink on one of them. The results are above. I don’t know whether I like them, but it was fun doing them.

The first is called abstract catterfly and the second abstract splodge, (well it is!).

Used Nibb permanent markers, a spectrum noir ink brush, cosmic shimmer mist, mica shimmer and a cosmic shimmer glitter kiss sponge pad. Drawn on an A5, heavy weight, Windsor and Newton sketch pad.

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Gecko

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I drew this at sketchfu probably about ten years ago. I’d drawn the orange and green pattern first, and then added the gecko afterwards. I love the idea of camouflage. I can’t remember if I made the lizard up or if I used an image of one from somewhere. If I did I would have modified the colours.

One problem with sketchfu was the way the colour laid down on the screen. Different drawing apps work differently. With sketchfu what happened was that if you did not have the pens on full opacity you got a slightly fuzzy effect. Imagine if you had an old felt pen. The colour is fading and the nib is a bit frayed. That’s what the effect of the pens on the digital app was like.

I hope you like my dinky little gecko.

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Picsart review

Picsart was an app I really liked. I’d used it for a while and you could alter pictures and draw over the top of them if I remember . Now however there are more patterns that you can superimpose over your original art, but it doesn’t seem as interesting.

As you can see from these images I like to mess about with the effects available. On these I used effects to change the colour and hue, distortions, outlining edges and embossing.

This is the original that I drew at ArtRage.

I was trying to get a mosaic effect.

Anyway more later on. Its after 3am!

Colourful, today’s usk challenge.

Today’s challenge was to draw something colourful. My eyes fell on an owl sculpture by a blacksmith who works at a Forge at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent. She’s called Charis Jones and her company is called Sculpted Steel.

Behind the owl is a plate that my hubby painted at the Gladstone pottery museum in Longton.

I started by drawing the outlines in black ink. I then filled in the colours with permanent ink markers and a few coloured pencils.

The colours are not all accurate, but as the brief was colourful I added some to the books and cds in the background while trying not to overdo it.

I’ve included a reference photo to give you an idea of what I was working from.

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Ginger swirl

I did this drawing on the ArtRage app. I wanted to create something a bit different, fluid, expressive. Most of my pictures are of black and white cats, but this reminds me of a swirling ice-cream, perhaps ginger and vanilla, or caramel and white salt.

Signature.. sometimes I use my full name, but for years I’ve also called myself cmb, which I like because it also stands for cosmic microwave background..but that’s another story.

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Descending stats…

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Oh dear, I must be a bit more interesting, my monthly stats seem to be descending… But like everyone else I’m a bit limited in where I can go. And do you really want to read about face masks and social distancing.

So what can I talk about? My hair is growing, it seems to be evolving!

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It’s turned frizzy and white (not overnight, and not from fright). I did mess it up a bit on this photo!

So if you don’t mind me, I will keep posting bits and bobs here.

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