Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was Voyage. I loved drawing galleons when I was a child… I was all at sea with this challenge till I thought of that! Felt pens again…. A galleon ship sailing off along the sunset…
Voyage
Tag: Life
Similar
Great minds think alike?
I drew this this morning but hadn’t published it. I was just going through the reader section of WordPress and found someone else had done a very similar image. I did this digitally, playing with a drawing that I had been altering over the last couple of days. The other person’s art is four different female faces, using a totally different technique. It’s so interesting that artists come up with similar ideas from different beginnings. I like her style and work, good to see the creativity here!
Singing time
Tonight’s rehearsal was fun. We discussed our performance on Sunday at Middlewich and agreed we had done well to cope with the Loud music from across the road at a local restaurant. Our choir leader was pleased with us and told us people had come up and shook her hand!
It was also good to perform alongside her and her friend Esther from the Boat Band. When you normally sing a capella and without microphones it’s difficult to tell how things are sounding, but we didn’t cause any whistles or squeaks or feedback….
So tonight we were planning which songs to sing in a mediaeval event in July, we started singing a French song and a few other old favourites. It’s surprising how things come back to you even if you haven’t sung them for years…. We were sounding quite good by the end of the practice session.
Upside down again
Oh dear, I’m in a whirl again, lack of sleep isn’t helping. Someone was chatting with me today and yet again I found myself crying. When will I ever feel happy again?
It was raining this morning when I went out, so I decided not to wear a coat. Cool, damp, with a breeze, it was good to feel a little more comfortable. When I got home the fan went on, and that’s stirring the air up nicely. I’m going back out later, but for now I just had a nap (I must be getting old). The cat came and poddled away kneading my knees and then fell asleep too.
Shall I dream of life and loss again tonight? I don’t know. Its hard to control things when you sleep, then wake up in a tizz.
By the way the drawing on the right was based on the drawing on the left, just by sketching over it. I decided to turn it upside down to match my confused mood.
Profile with orange
Another quick fingerpainting this time just in sketchbook app. You can vary the pens and brushes, there’s a large selection, but they are almost too numerous to work with. It’s hard sometimes to decide which to use. Thank heavens for the back button so I can delete what I don’t like. This started out as a quick sketch that I was drawing to show a friend how the app worked, but then I decided to finish it tonight.
Soon
How do you want to retire?
The UK government changed the retirement age a few years ago. They bought in a sliding scale so that women cannot retire until they are 65 or above (it was 60), and men’s retirement age had gone up from 65 to I think 67?
What that does effects millions of women and men. I would have retired by now, I could have still worked, but it means I cannot get my state pension yet, even though I have been paying into all my working life. The result is that a lot of people will get less of an overall pension for what is left of their lives, and are more likely to die before they get it. That also means the government will get to keep more of it.
So? People were living longer until recently, but the age you die has actually reduced, especially with the drop in wages, and increases in poverty. Older people tend to struggle to pay bills or afford to heat their homes, and as they are more likely to have health issues their lives may be shortened.
One possibility though is that the governments decision might be overturned. The WASPI women (women born in the 1950’s who say they were not warned the retirement age was due to be raised), had a judicial review pending at the start of June. I haven’t heard the outcome, but maybe I can retire…. SOON.
Are you the same person?
Is it a scientific fact? Do all the atoms and molecules in your body get replaced every seven years? Not all at once of course, but over an average lifetime the atoms will be swapped out over about seven years. They must come from somewhere, food, drink, respiration, as we grow up and gain mass, then people tend to shrink a bit as they get older. So obviously people lose atoms and molecules via bodily waste, then blood transports food and oxygen around the body and helps to convey away waste from cells (this is where the lymphatic system is working too). The blood brain barrier prevents blood getting into the nervous system, but there must be a mechanism to get oxygen and other nutrients and waste in and out.
When I first heard the statement I wondered if it could be true? But I’ve heard it again and again. I could fact check it, but I’ll take it as truth. So if molecules can change can we really say we remain the same? Does that not mean that a Leopard CAN change its spots? We can change our minds, change our behaviour. You don’t have to be limited to one train of thought because you literally HAVE changed!
Floating
Floating was today’s #bandofsketchers prompt. I have taken this idea of Canada geese floating on the canal from an abstract painting I did in 2020. I moved the geese around in this and left out the greenery from the original. I used felt pens and a silver pen to give a liquid glint.
Angel sketch
Figures are hard to finger paint, the details are difficult to draw clearly. In this Artrage oils drawing I threw pretty much all the pen tools at it, including watercolour, spray paint, and an eraser pen. I’m not quite certain why it turned into an angel, I think I was just trying to fully fill the page. Again this experiment seems to say freedom is a good thing to try and work to…
Holiday
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was holiday. Holiday? What’s that. We usually stay around Stoke because we don’t have many people to cat sit and holidays are too expensive. We do have days out. I tried to draw Jodrell Bank from memory, gave up and drew over it with a silver pen. Vaguely got the detail!
Mallaband-Brown 