Neddy

Posted on July 25, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Fine liner pen, Grass, Horse, Life, Mane, Misty landscape, Permanent markers, Picture, Pony, Sketch, Watercolour background, Watercolours2 Comments

‘Neddy’ named by my hubby. Used the watercolour background I’d created and found an image of a horse or pony with a long mane.

I used fine black nib marker pens to draw him, then permanent markers to add some colour to him and to the tall grass around him (fading the colours as it went higher to give a feeling of depth). I then used a 6B graphite pencil to soften the strength of the marker pens. I drew this because I liked the overgrown mane. If the pony ran it would flow out backwards like a billowing curtain or long ribbons.

I did this today because I didn’t have a prompt from stoke urban sketchers so I thought I would still draw something to keep going.

He’s looking at me

Posted on July 24, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Cat, Claws, Fridge, Fun, Humour, Life, Owned, Paws, PhotoLeave a comment

Warning, discussing carnivore thoughts.

You know you are truly owned by a car when it sits on the fridge and stares at you. Where is my cat milk? It seems to say. Is it properly chilled? Not too cold, but just enough to cool the cat on a warm afternoon.

Is there roast chicken in the fridge for him. Delicately flavoured with just the right amount of jelly juices.

You know you are owned when the cat looks down at you, then puts his paw out and catches the shoulder of your tee shirt, claw holding firm and stopping you in your tracks.

If cats could speak what would they say? Probably feed me. Hold me, look after me. Sort out my litter tray, human.

What do we get for this care? Kneeding paws that turn to claws, licked boyyoms then they lick your hand, ew! But you can’t fight those eyes. Those staring eyes.

The new normal?

Posted on July 23, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white sketch, Black ink fine line pen, Drawing, Fine Art, Friend, Life, Lockdown, Sketching, Usk challenge, Usk Stoke-on-Trent, Visit8 Comments

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Visiting my friend today who’s a fine art student. Because we were inside her house we both wore masks. This is the final Stoke Urban Sketchers challenge for this run but I don’t think it will be the last. This was so good, to be able to visit someone. I feel like crying, I felt nervous, I felt touched that someone would let me in their house after all this time. I may dream about it! It was an honour to be allowed to draw her. I hope she does well in her fine art degree.

After Hokusai

Posted on July 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, After Hokusai, Art, Copy?, Japanese artist, Life, Painting, Picture, Woodblock print2 Comments

wave hokusai after

I painted this small painting a few weeks ago. I was seeing if I could even get close to the great artist Hokusai’s work. If I’d painted on to paper I might have added the fishing boats that are being dragged into the great wave while the fishermen in them try and row away from it. It was so hard to get the fingerlike protrusions that show the wave breaking. The colours are not too far off. I think the sky is greyer? When you try and analyse a picture its hard not to miss the the mistakes you have made. Being self critical is important because you try and improve each time.

Stop talking!

Posted on July 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Annoying, Discussion, Frustrating, Habits, Irritating, Life, Poem, Poetry, Thinking2 Comments

He never stops

Talking..

TV film?

Talking

Interesting news?

Talking

Mystery programme?

Talking…

So what?

I never hear that important news

I never find out if the butler did it?

I never listen to the last notes of the symphony.

Why?

Because he’s talking.

Important stuff?

What car is in the TV programme.

Whether that’s a Highland cow.

Something in the paper I’d already seen on the news.

What he was doing in 1974!

Is this hell or just purgatory?!

Comet Neowise

Posted on July 22, 2020July 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Astronomy, Comet, Comet Neowise, Dust tail, Ion tail, Life, Meteor shower, Out gassing, Persid meteor shower, Random, Spaceweather.com, SunLeave a comment

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I have not seen it. It keeps being to cloudy. But I just read this at Spaceweather.com so I tried to draw it.

COMET NEOWISE APPROACHES EARTH: Tomorrow night might be your best chance to see Comet NEOWISE for the next 6,800 years. On July 23rd, the comet makes its closest approach to Earth. The fading comet is still visible to the naked eye from dark-sky sites and an easy target for photographers everywhere. Get the full story at Spaceweather.com .

There is then the Persid meteor shower in August. Around the 15th? That might be a good show. Meteor showers are caused by the dust thrown off from comets as they get close to the sun. It’s called out gassing when cometary ice is heated by sunshine and boils off into space taking dust with it. A comets tail is made up of two different parts, the dust tail and an ion tail which is made up of ionised gas. The comets tail always points away from the sun because it is blown by the solar wind.

Pears

Posted on July 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Food, Fruit, Garden, Gardening, Life, Nature, Pears, Photo, Ripe, TreeLeave a comment

This year we have a good crop of pears on the tree again, the tree almost fell over last year because of the weight of the crop. It now has a post unfer the trunk to support it. The pear cro is already ripening with the skin turning slightly yellow.

Our pears are usually quite big, we collect them in September generally, but they might be ready earlier than that.

With pears they are generally unripe, unripe, unripe, unripe, ripe, mushy. They go from being hard to soft virtually overnight. I’m thinking of poaching some of them. Should be nice.

It’s a tight fit!

Posted on July 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Back yard, Blogging, Colour, Flowers, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Life, Overgrown, Plants, pots, Random, Sunshine, TreesLeave a comment

The yard is now so full of flowers you have to walk sideways down it to see all the plants and water them. There is a great variation in leaf size. I noticed my hubby has snuck in a couple of oOak trees and an Ash tree. I keep telling him we don’t need anymore. I have a friend with a large field. She has offered to take our walnut saplings and I think she will take these as well.

As the season continues more mad things appear! Hubby has put irises in hanging baskets and sunflowers to bring more colour into the yard. Morning glory seedlings will go out this week if the weather picks up a bit. Some of them have started to throw out tendrils that are clinging to the ferns in the bathroom.

Second idea

Posted on July 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Bright, College, Drawing, Experiment, Fireworks, Fun, Illustration, Life, Picture, VariationsLeave a comment

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Fireworks. That’s what this is called. This is my second variation using four initial A6 images on an A3 page. I played with the background I did yesterday, with more black ink, more shading, but I added iridescent white to brighten plus thin strips of paper to try and make little explosions to brighten it.

Next step may be to swap a couple of images. I might cut into one or two of them. We will see….

Masks

Posted on July 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Covid 19, Illness, Life, Random, Relatives, Take care, Thinking, Vaccine, Virus, Wash hands, Wear a mask2 Comments

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From Monday people will have to wear masks in shops here in England. That doesn’t bother me, me and my hubby have both been wearing face coverings of one thing or another since lockdown began.

What does bother me is the outcry against them. A Tory MP tore up his membership card because of it.

Now our Prime Minister is saying it could all be OK by Christmas!

This is after over 45000 deaths that have been attributed to Covid 19 since it arrived here.

I’ve had a couple of family members that have had it. One is still affected a couple of months later. They told me it’s nothing like a touch of flu. That it’s really bad, and they didn’t get it badly.

Now I’ve got one friend telling me it’s all fake, not real, all a conspiracy! Another said she wouldn’t have a vaccination or allow her daughter to have it. Why? Why would you put your granny, or uncle, or child at risk because you don’t believe in a virus? Why would you not wear a mask to protect others?

And why would you not take a vaccine if it was safe? When Edward Jenner came up with a vaccine for Smallpox maybe the people in his day were against it. But why now? How many people are alive today because they were vaccinated. In this age of Fake news we need to use our brains. Not believe the first thing that someone says on the Internet. We need to fact check maybe.

But most of all we need to be safe and wear a mask and wash our hands.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life