New paintings and regular art updates.
One and eight are my hubbies pieces, the rest are mine. Out of the kiln at Art Glass Lounge. I did them at a workshop. Some are being turned into necklaces, some brooches and a couple will be attached to rings. I’m collecting them tomorrow. I’ve really enjoyed learning such a simple technique of layering glass to get a sparkling result. Can’t wait to collect the finished pieces. I will take a photo of them when I get them.
I’m learning more about what I can do. I create using anything from post-it notes and collage to the simplest calligraphy pen and paper to the extreme using nail varnish! This is a quick drawing of the watercolours I use together with a mug of water and paint brushes.
Three walks around and about today totalling 11.97km (almost 7.5 miles)
Two were around the university then a late walk once things had cooled down this evening. I walked up our steep hill and saw the sunset, I didn’t get a good photo of it, then on and around the top of our hill before descending again. I know I’ve gone far enough because my feet and ankles are aching.
I came home to an errant bumble bee. We tried to put it outside but it must have flown back through an open window because I caught one of my cats looking like it was about to pounce on it. In the end I used the mug and envelope technique and it was transported safely out of the back door and flew off onto the night.
This years fine art degree shows at Staffordshire University are on this week. Thirty nine years after I got my degree. I’ve visited almost every year except 2020. This year it’s on but you have to book a time slot and have a lateral flow test before you can go…. So I had to frantically find somewhere to have one done with enough time to spare to get to the shows afterwards. Anyway I’m looking forward to it. Great to be able to go and see real art in a real gallery space.
X
It’s been a long day. I went out this morning and I’ve just sat down at 11.30pm. In that time I’ve been out and then later went and collected some flag irises that someone was giving away. They are now in our pond. We got stuck in traffic on the way to the place, so six miles took about forty minutes to drive there. Then later after doing work around the house I went to a yoga class, came home, went on a zoom meeting about college, then a choir practice. We went out for a walk, then I went shopping and finally cooked our evening meal. So that’s why I haven’t been online much today. The odd thing is my step counter doesn’t seem to have included the walk this evening. I know I’ve walked further than it is showing? Perhaps it’s a glitch. I must get a rest. Sorry for the boring post!
Now we are learning narrative art at college. Learning how to lay out panels. I think you are meant to have an idea and base the shapes of the panels on what we are drawing, but as usual I did it back to front, drawing the panels first, adding the speech and thought bubbles, then adding the people. The ideas for the story came last! My mind is strange. Anyway it worked quite well. I would try and make it neater if I were to do it again and perhaps import it into photoshop to tidy it up? Overall it was relatively painless to do. Note to self, why has the mother’s dress changed?
Playing with my old photoshop app. It’s a few years old but I can’t afford a new version. The first corner was the drawing, then I used different filters and rotated the images to make this pattern. It could be a vine or a thorny rose. This was for the #bandofsketchers prompt ‘twisted’ for Sunday.
When we were out yesterday we saw this lovely horse in a field. There wasn’t much grass so we pulled some up from our side of the fence and the horse came over and tugged it out of my hand… It soon wandered off in search of some more. I think the colour was Bay, its coat was very shiny and well groomed. It was good to see a different living creature. We usually only see cats, dogs and people.
If we go back we might take an apple, although I’m not sure if you can get in trouble for feeding it?
This was one of the portraits I did in a student led portrait group at college during the last few months.
The face was mostly drawn with one of those ink rollers you can use to blank out your address on letters so that you can throw them away without anyone seeing your details and stealing your data. Its quite hard to use because you have to sort of turn and twist your hand and press firmly to sketch curves. AfterId done that I added colour using pastels and the thick black lines were done with black calligraphy pen (most of these have run out so I need some more).
I quite like the strong feel to this. I am trying to find my illustrational voice. I have been told to look for illustrators that my work resembles, but I think mine is different? Is this a good or bad thing? I’m definitley developing my analogue skills. Digital work is more difficult for me.
This trees flowers make Chesnuts when they are fertilised and mature.
Chestnuts are big brown nuts or seeds. They have hard shells and children gather them up in the autumn to play the game Conkers.
The local children throw sticks up into the tree to knock the chestnuts down. Then they make holes through them and thread them onto string tying a knot at the bottom so the Chestnut (or Conker) doesn’t fall off.
They take turns to swing one conker against the other until one of them cracks and breaks up. There are various tricks to try and make the chestnuts harder, like for instance soaking them in vinegar.
The more conkers a child hits and breaks, the more important the child’s conker is. If it’s only broken one it’s a ‘oner’ a six would be a ‘sixer’ the winner is the person whose conker does not disintegrate and beats all the other ones.
Probably not a game played much these days. But I remember playing it until my friend conker accidentally hit the knuckles of my hand. Ow!
Mallaband-Brown