Chess

Posted on July 21, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Challenge, cheating, Chess, Christmas, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2004, Fun, Games, monopoly, scrabble, Time4 Comments

What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?

I don’t really have a favourite game, but chess has become a way of socialising with a friend.

We only just started playing this week, but I found I enjoyed the challenge, and after ten years of not playing it, it made my brain work overtime! My friend is quite good and I was surprised how evenly matched we are.

I’d like to get better at it, but I don’t have the ability to think several moves ahead, I’m more of an artist, looking for patterns in the next move or so. It also means I can make random moves that surprise ‘real’ players. Is that an advantage? Maybe.

I used to like Scrabble, but the one friend we played against used to make up rules. For instance he would add words to another word to make a sentence! He insisted this was OK and would argue and lose his temper when we disagreed. So those games stopped (he would also sneakily swap tiles if he didn’t have good letters).

The final game I used to play was Monopoly with my sisters, that was very competitive. We used to squabble a lot over who was winning. It got too argumentative at Christmas when we used to play, so I was glad when we stopped playing it. X

Idea for a semi abstract painting based on rain.

Posted on July 20, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Art, ArtRage app, Commission, Design, digital finger painting, Drawing, Fun, Sketching2 Comments

I have a small commission and I need to create something gentle based on the idea of rain. I’ve used the theme of raindrops and water running down glass as an idea. This was drawn in my Artrage app and it’s a digital finger painting. I will try and do the painting in metallic acrylic paint.

Security

Posted on July 15, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Adventure?, Bike, Cycling, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1998, Fun, Life, Memory, Safety, Security, tandem, Thought5 Comments

Are you seeking security or adventure?

At my age I prefer security. I used to like adventure, but I’ve grown out of it!

When I was young we used to cycle all over the country, riding a bike or a tandem for miles. We would go out and ride at weekends to different destinations. We would also catch the train and then cycle from there to campsites or a place to visit like a castle or a forest. One of my favourite places was Grizedale Sculpture park. On that occasion we had got a car and the bikes were tied to the top of it. We parked at the campsite and used that as a base to cycle all around the lake district.

One day I was cycling home from a friends houss and was hit by a car. I ended up with a fractured skull. From that day I became nervous of cycling. After a couple of more years of riding the bike suddenly collapsed underneath me. It had been damaged in the accident and the brazing had broken on the bike headset. It took months to get my bike repaired by which time I had started to drive more frequently. My health got worse and I was not able to ride my bike any distance.

I think it was about then that I became more risk averse. I still liked to go and do adventurous things but I was more careful. Nowadays I am even more concerned with safety. Covid and the pandemic has made me more aware of my situation and my security. I guess that I realise my life has changed, and I can not do things I would have happily done in the past.

Tortie cat

Posted on July 14, 2023 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Black and white drawing, Cat, Fun, Life, Poem, Poetry, Sketching, Tortoise shell2 Comments

Pattern makes me happy

Cats are fun to see

A patterned cat is better

Than a plain one to me!

Can’t you see

How funny it can be

To have a tortoise shell cat

That looks like knitted wool

She’s warm, cuddly and fat

And specially cool!

Patterns

Posted on July 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Collage, Colour, Design, Fun, Life, Pattern, Poem, Poetry, Shapes3 Comments

Love of pattern

Shape and colour

Make me happy

Gives me joy.

Intricate design

Swirls and grids

Makes me excited

Somehow lightened

And restored

Abstract butterfly

Posted on July 7, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Art, Butterfly, Collage, Crochet, Digital drawing, Fun, Sketching, symmetrical2 Comments

Digitally manipulated photo of vaccum packed crochet blanket, added symmetry with the incollage app and then drew over it with the Sketchbook app. I suppose butterflies are quite symmetrical. It’s an interesting effect I think. I’m not sure whether to do anything else to it. I’ll see later.

I don’t know!

Posted on July 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, authority, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1989, Drawing, expert, Fun, humourous, Painting, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

On what subject(s) are you an authority?

Jack of all trades,

Master of none.

Expert, I’m not

I learn for fun.

I can paint and draw

But I’m not an old master

I can do some stuff

I like to paint faster

Than most people

But an authority?

If put on the spot

I’d hesitate

To state

All the information

That gives my ego

The biggest inflation!

So I’ll dabble and draw

And keep myself modest

You decide if you saw

A glimpse of the oddest

Authority bore!

Forest

Posted on July 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Carving, Drawing, Fun, Life, macaque, mother and baby, Sketching, Tree trunk5 Comments

Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was forest. Catching up with Sundays prompt. We recently visited Trentham Monkey Forest and in the entrance compound there are some sculptures including a mother and baby macaque carved from a tree stump. I’ve done a sketch of it for the prompt.

Overlays

Posted on July 2, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Artist, Artrage, Digital drawing, Experiment, Face, Fun, Life, Photodirector, SketchingLeave a comment

I added different textures, scratches, and overlays to my dotty drawing from earlier oni don’t know why but I have to push the boundaries to my work until it feels finished. I guess that’s why I call myself an experimental fine artist. I like the way it’s digital but it could be painted and then weathered and flaking. I keep editing until I cannot get an improvement in the image.

Glass

Posted on July 2, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Fun, Fused glass, Glass, Necklaces, north east, Wire weaving, WorkshopLeave a comment

A few years ago I went to a fused glass workshop. I made glass cabochons that were then surrounded by wire woven to support them. The result were some amazing and bold necklaces.

The artist that ran the workshop was called Angela Ashton. And my friend Deborah Travis did the wire weaving so the results were really a good collaboration. I found this on Facebook memories and I really wish I could do it again, although Angela moved back up to the North East Coast I did find someone else who does workshops, the only problem now is the cost and I’m sure with the price of fuel these days the process won’t be cheap.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Fun