Just to show you what I was trying to draw today. Dark and forbidding on the outside. Great place to hear classical music concerts on the inside. I think it was built in the 1950’s or 60’s. Part of the Keele University campus.
The actual Chapel
Tag: Life
Urban sketching
I’ve been out with Stoke urban Sketchers today. It was a breezy cold morning but I need to get back into urban sketching again, I haven’t been along for months. We were at Keele University in Staffordshire. I decided to draw the Chapel, large, brutal architecture, a bit like a castle without the castelations. If that’s what they are called. I tried drawing using a charcoal set I’d bought. It was a bit disappointing, less charcoal, more grey pencil? I used some conte crayon sticks and a few felt pens to add bits of colour. I finished off drawing tiny lines to indicate the walls were made of black bricks. Eventually I went and got a hot drink. Then I came out again and quickly drew one of the other Sketchers. Finally we had a throw down of everyone’s drawings, I might post a photo later.
Grey man
Grey man,
Carved stone
Oak leaves
And acorns
Sculpted from granite
A Robin
Might peck at you
Ivy entwine you
Algae wrap you in green
Lichen inhabit you
Stone you are
Soil you may become
With age and ice
Weather and water
Till ground into a powder
You are amalgamated
And your stone face
Is incorporated
Transformed and metamorphosised
Into a real tree.
Out on a limb
Growing out and up… A long limb of a tree scrambles to escape the shade of its companions. Thinks, I’m not going to be hidden by all your leaves. Give me light and I will grow into a tree in my own right. I don’t need holding up, I will sway in the wind with the best of them! What’s a bit of tension and torsion to a limb like me? I’m only slightly cracked, that split in my bark will soon heal over, I’m not weeping sap. Oi! Don’t you bring that chainsaw near me! I will survive!
Sky this afternoon
I sat and watched the sky, there was an interesting looking cloud, but it was too bright to see initially because if the low sun. Then after a few minutes the cloud gradually crept over the sun. We needed to rest as we were on our walk around our local hill. Sitting on the bench I could feel a cold breeze ruffling my hair and I pulled my coat a bit closer. Apparently a storm is due tomorrow so the gusts of wind might be the beginning of it.
Stepping up
Today’s walk was up and around my local hill. We walked up to the park along horizontal and then steep sections. We had a look round, sat on a bench for a while, then we carried on and walked further than we did before.
Clearly I’m not doing this because it’s part of my life. I don’t need to walk to collect water or food. But I’m doing it for my health, a first world problem.
Anyway it’s more than I’ve done for a year and it’s got to be good for my heart. I now need to build up my distances safely, because after suffering a pulled calf muscle I don’t want to do that again!
Vacant
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Vacant. I tried to draw an imagined pub, with half timbers, closed down and to let on a canal towpath. I would love to find somewhere like this. A quiet drink on a Sunday afternoon… Its a bit skewiff because I was holding the sketch pad at an angle. Felt pens.
Bird!
Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was bird. This is based on the mad drawings of birds I drew as a child. I later found out about the potters the Martin Brothers? Who did salt glazed ugly birds!
Twelve years ago
When I used to paint murals I did a series of cartoon characters for a friends son. This was Fun to do! This was done about twelve years ago. I enjoyed painting it. I remember using acrylic on the walls, with a matt varnish on top.
Grapes
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was grapes. Imagining a bunch of grapes and trying to draw them is hard! But I tried x it’s a pencil crayon drawing and so I added the pencil as part of the sketch.
Mallaband-Brown 