Three years ago

Three years ago I was going to life drawing classes every week. The place was a bit far out in the countryside down quite narrow winding roads but I enjoyed going. The worst night was when it snowed while we were in the class. It was a very slippery and skiddy drive home. I remember there were two ways of getting there, through the town roads and then country lanes, or along a very fast dual carriageway then along equally twisty lanes. I preferred the slower town route, I might have got there later but there were not insane idiots speeding in huge trucks driving to close to my rear bumper.

The class was fun, always an interesting challenge to draw. A variety of models and sometimes a clothed pose from various guest models, like Lux whe was modeling for us on this occasion. She played the guitar if I remember….. Probably a 6b pencil sketch, that’s my favourite pencil to draw with, allows you to get all sorts of shades and textures. I really miss going to the class.

Tee shirt idea

So when I was watching a lecture yesterday about copyright © I doodled this. Apparently I own the rights to anything I draw or paint and I don’t have to register it with anyone. So even this doodle, scruffy and just roughly drawn is my property. I guess I haven’t really thought much about it. I know my finished work is copyright but I hadn’t thought about little sketches. You have to be aware of other people’s designs, and plagerism, but I don’t think I have seen anything like this before. Anyway I think it would be fun to design tee shirts.

Tools

Yesterday’s #bandofsketchers sketch was tools, the hammers are a bit rusty. The mole grips are out of the ark. I put them an a cushion as an interesting background. It is only a very quick sketch but I enjoyed doing it. Theres another group I’m in #uskstoke, Stoke Urban Sketchers is starting doing virtual sketch outs because of lockdown. So might be posting some more pictures here from that.

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Blurry cat

Outdoor cat is in again. In fact he’s been in three times today. Mainly to avoid the noise of fireworks 🎇 going off.

He will sit on the settee for an hour then mooch back off to the backdoor, to be let out. He’s also eating in the kitchen now. In the past he was eating in the shed, then by the back door. Eventually he started eating inside the back door with the door open… Now, inside. Next thing I want to do is get him a strong flea collar. He’s worn collars in the past so it should be OK.

Tonight there is more progress, he actually played with a cat toy for a few minutes, then came over to be petted by both of us and purred loudly. I’m glad he’s ‘playing nicely’ he’s twice the size of my other cats. I want no squabbles. So I’ll stay up till he wants out again, just to ensure my other two are OK.

Llangollen

There are of course beautiful places in the UK. This was the view of the river at Llangollen last year. Sometimes you can see people canoeing down through the rocks. On a sunny day that must be wonderful.

Llangollen is also the place to ride on steam trains that run on the preserved railway from the town along the valley. One day we might get there early enough to take a ride on it. There is also the Llangollen canal where you can take horse drawn barge rides across the canal viaduct.

The Welsh hills and mountains may be smaller than Nepal, but they are still beautiful.

Zoom talk on Nepal

We just attended a Zoom talk on Nepal. Our friend went walking there in 2006 to raise funds for eye surgery for the residents of Nepal. The talk included beautiful photos of the mountains including the Anapurna range. They were close to the eighth highest mountain in the world. The scale of the mountains is incredible. The villages in the valleys are tiny in comparison.

Through wonderful photography of the landscape and the Nepalese people my friend gave us such an informative talk about the country. He also included the music of the people with sweet, calm songs. A very pleasant couple of hours with many friends attending.

so long ago

I drew this back in August, I can’t believe its so long ago! I was mooching through my pictures because what I have on my computer is not synced with my phone ( which has most of my images on it). Whatever happened to digital cameras? Ive still got one in a drawer somewhere, probably with leaking batteries in it, now I just use my phone. How much technology has been discarded because it no longer works?

For instance i have an idea to use little watches in an artefact for a college piece, what I want to find out is whether you can use reconditioned watches instead of buying in new and wasting resources.

So I come back to my little sketch, analogue, ink on paper. I dont know what I was channeling, but it makes sense, dont waste, use less…..

Blue rose

Another digital drawing done at sketchfu a few years ago (site now closed). This was a drawing challenge. Artists would post photos and then challenge others to draw the image just using the sites simple tools. I don’t know if the original picture was photographed with ultraviolet light or with blue dye injected into the flowers.

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