Time moves on…

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About six weeks ago the buds were just bursting in the garden. Now they have emerged and the garden is clothed in green. The Walnut tree looks like it’s gained another five or six foot. It towers over the garden. Water seeps out from underneath it. We have had it checked to see if its a split pipe but the workers who looked at it said no, it’s a spring. Whatever it is, we seem to be growing a pond or a lake now. We have put a bird bath in its way, a shallow bowl, so that the birds and animals that frequent the garden can get a drink in the warm weather. I’m now thinking of planting some hostas or iris or bog plants in that area. I would like to pipe it away into a drain if I can.

We have had a bit of heavy rain over the last few days. Dark clouds fly past overhead, dumping rain and hail over us. I’m waiting for the next downpour.

Alphabet?

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Part of my study is to come up with patterns or shapes to indicate individual letters. You are supposed to use shapes you sketch with or others that fit into a usable vocabulary of marks. I shade a lot but also use dots and dashes. I have added straight lines and spirals. Some squiggles. I wonder if I should have added curves or ellipses. It’s hard to decide what shapes to use. I wanted things to be quite organic, and I’ve used various pens to see how each would look.

I may have completely got the wrong end of the stick, but I’m hoping this is what they want. Perhaps I should have made it neater. Not sure.

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Tomorrow is another day

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I will wait for the sun to rise and try and think of tomorrow as a new day, a different day.

I’m thinking about what I need to do, trying not to prevaricate, not to stick my head in the sand. In this time of lockdown it’s almost too easy to turn and face the wall and not let the world invade. So I shall sleep and try not to wake too early.

I hope that everyone out there in the big world is OK. Safe, as happy as they can be. Look after yourselves.

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Snack sketch

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OK so today’s Urban sketchers challenge was to draw snacks. I chose pringles, my favourite apart from salt and vinegar crisps. Its not the most exciting drawing I’m afraid.

This challenge is every other day. Saturdays challenge was to draw red square in Moscow, but I’m afraid I didn’t get round to doing that. I have saved one of the photos so I might have a go later in the week.

Toothache is getting me down at the moment!

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Three counties open entry.

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I’ve entered this painting ‘self portrait as a green woman’ to try and get in the local three counties open art exhibition. The pictures will be chosen from submissions made before 27th June. I don’t know if I will get it in,but I am trying. The exhibition will be a virtual one as the pandemic makes it impossible to hold a physical one.

Acrylic on canvas. Wish me luck.

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Koi

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Since there wasn’t a sketching challenge today I thought I would draw a couple of koi carp and some water lilies.

I sprayed green ink onto the paper first, then outlined the lily pads, fish and flowers with black ink. I coloured in the fish and lilies, and added some blue curves to enhance the water. Then I added some sparkly purple with a brush pen. Finally I put some black contours around each of the elements.

I enjoy Koi!

I want to visit somewhere nice.

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A few months ago we were regularly going out for walks. Now I stay in as much as I can. My health problems mean that I have to be very careful.

As people have stopped visiting places there have been less disturbances for nature. Apparently there have been less casualties of baby birds like ducklings. Boats are not travelling up and down rivers and washing out birds nests. There may be more Grebes and Moorhens this year than for the recent past.

I don’t begrudge my walk if it means nature gets its turn!

Baby birds

The blue tit babies have fledged and were on the bird feeders today. My hubby saw eight of them in a row on the fence this morning. Unlike previous days it’s been quite cold, but at least there has been rainwater about for them to drink and we provide fat balls and seed and mealworms for all the birds in the garden. There are blackbirds and robins, green finches and house sparrows in the garden, plus wood pigeons as well as the blue tits and also coal tits. We also see wrens. In fact I think we have done really well for bird life this year. I just hope the cats keep away from the birds.

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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.