Plotting an idea

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we have had to create our own lexicon of shapes to create an alphabet. But when we did it we didn’t know what letters we would be given for each challenge. in this case i just have 90 degree and obtuse angles, little squares and moon shapes. How do you fit them together to make a face? And as the subject was a self portrait I didn’t know whether to do something current or a piece based on previous work. In the end I based the final drawing in black and white ink pen, on my 1981 self portrait from when I was a fine art student. The resulting picture doesn’t really resemble the original (not publishing them here) but it was an interesting experiment.

One annoyance is that as I’m using sketchbooks the shadow where the paper does not make proper contact with the glass is really bugging me, I will have to either cut pages out or work out a way of supporting the sketchpad.

I am going to be busy in future so I may visit WordPress a bit less, but I like using this as a diary and sketchbook so I wont be far away.

Busy typing gibberish

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I’m trying to type up my weekly journal for a college course I’ve started. I need critical thinking, but I don’t think I have the gene for it! My head hurts and I can’t get my head round the concept of signs and signifiers? So many different ideas, thoughts and things to consider.

So I’m taking it slowly, trying to dip my toe in after thirty or forty years doing other things. So if I’m missing from here please understand its because I have my head stuck in the vice of education and I’m hoping to love it!

A-Z

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As part of my coursework I need to come up with a different mark for each letter of the alphabet. The first decision is to choose what tool to use to make these marks. I have used a 0.8 tip unipin ink pen. But I could have chosen charcoal, or a brush, or some other form of mark making. Then I could choose colours as well as shapes. I am not sure if I have chosen the right sort of format. The next step will be to draw something using shapes for a few letters only. Say five or six of them. Maybe my shapes are too small? It’s all like a big puzzle.

Usk challenge Thursday

Black and white and then coloured in sketch. View from my kitchen window out over the cherry tree in the garden. A few cherries are starting to ripen, but most are still green. The plants on the windowsill have grown up so they seem to merge into the garden. I’ve limited the palette of the pots and ornaments so that it is not overpowering the bottom of the drawing. My sanctuary away from the rain…

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Contours

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I enjoy drawing contours, daft I know. It was very time consuming doing this and eventually I decided to stop and leave some white paper showing.

The nuclei of the pattern were coloured dots created from ink coming through the back of the previous page. My hubby thinks they look like electron shells for benzene? I think I understand where he’s coming from. I’m starting a course on illustration on Monday. Trying to calm last minute nerves with a little drawing meditation. Doing this creates flow, and I forget the time, day, the stresses of the world around me.

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Artrage and photodirector

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Drawn in artrage oils and edited in photodirector changing the colours and style.

This is what I mean about playing with are, yes this is a scrappy sketch, but it’s my scrappy sketch, amended and changed how I want. I would love to illustrate a book using a style like this. I could imagine creating pictures about a crazy cat in a children’s book.

I was once offered the opportunity to illustrate a book but the publishers woukd only allow the author to use an in house illustrator. I was very disappointed as I think I could have created a different atmosphere by working with her. Oh well….

Usk challenge, day 31

The challenge today was ‘first thing in the morning’.

Difficult for me as I have been going to bed very late and getting up late. So at 2am this morning I decided to draw this. It’s a view of my TV. There is no channel 7 here, but I just wanted a generic image on the screen. I coloured it in this far and decided to go to bed. I was going to continue with it, but when I got up I decided I liked it as it is. Its nice I think. Anyway I’m having a cup of coffee and thinking what to draw next.

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Digital art

About seven years ago I was doing digital drawings regularly at a website called sketchfu which closed down. I had a notification on my Facebook page because my drawing of Amy Winehouse popped up on my memories. I thought I would put some of these on here.

These were drawn with simple tools, no layers or filters. Just five different sized pens, a colour picker, a pallette, an eraser and opacity and transparency options. I’m sad it closed because it was somewhere I could share my art and enjoy the community of fellow artists.

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Close-up

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I just thought I would show you a close-up of the apple I drew today, so you can see the effect of layering up pencil crayon and permanent marker, black ink pen, and charcoal pencil. I enjoyed using fine lines to define the shadows. I was going to leave a patch if white paper as a highlight on the apple, but when I looked at it, it was to white. So I used orange, red and pink permanent markers to try and make the apple stand out. Using different colours and textures is really exciting, it makes the image less flat. But I’m not trying to make it 3d either.