I said I would post a picture of this finished painting of a blue crab when it had got to its new home. I tried to make it accurate but its quite hard to work out the fine details. I also brightened the blues and toned down the sandy background. I made the area behind the crab softer so that it goes backwards out of focus and added more detail to the foreground. It’s new owner is pleased with it I think.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was coast. I have done a few coast drawings recently and wanted to find a really picturesque view. I randomly chose a photo of the Australian coast to draw. When my felt pens run out I will have to try another technique!
I just listened to the Adagio from Spartacus. I know it as the theme music to a 1970’s TV series called the Onedin line. My mother used to collect LPs (long playing records) of classical music, and sometimes we would sit and listen to them. The adagio rises and falls, the music swells before it calms like a settling sea.
I haven’t heard it for forty years so I was surprised at how upset it made me. I cried so much. Memories can have that effect. These were good memories of a long time ago. If you want to hear it go to YouTube. It’s worth it.
You are strong and ethereal, the light glints on your skin, like a dolphin, sleek, slipping through the waters, twisting coral and seaweed in your hair.
Siren songs, calling out to passing boats and ships, but ignored as diesel engines drown your subtle music. You have lost your sisters to giant nets, trawled from their watery beds by fishermen that know no better.
Mystery surrounds you, mystic, mythological, mesmerising. No soft fairy story of prince’s and princesses. You are more powerful, a trident carrying warrior.
Imagined waves. I still haven’t been anywhere near the beach, but I’m imagining a sea whipped up by a storm. Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was waves. I’ve been to the seaside during storms, but not big ones. I think this could have done with more foam, but it’s hard to draw with a 6b pencil and black ink pen.
Just to be awkward.. an Orca I drew at the sketchfu website. Simple tools so its a bit blurry. I’m not sure, but I think Orcas (killer whales) may eat Dolphins?
I know they are very intelligent. Often swim in pods (groups) and use various techniques to catch fish. one of their skills is to collaborate in a group to blow thousands of bubbles, their actions create a “bubble net” that enclose a school of fish and then they grab the fish that have been surrounded.
I also know thwy are Mammals and evolved on land before returning to the water, hence they have blow holes to breathe through the tops of their heads. Their front fins are formed adapted like paddles, but the bone structure is similar to that of a hand. I think I remember that they even have vestigial leg bones attached to their pelvises?
Orcas, Dolphins, and other whales are all part of a family of mammals called Cetaceans. They are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet, and humans have almost driven some of them to extinction or actually hunted some of them to extinction. I still think Whaling should be banned.
Coton in the ElmsThe village that is further from the sea than any other human settlement in the UK is Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire. One kilometre south-east is Church Flatts Farm, which is 113km (70 miles) from the nearest point on the coast, or 72km (45 miles) from the nearest tidal water.
This came up in conversation so I googled it. I’m not sure if anyone’s interested but I thought I would share it.