Doodled face

We have come to the end of the semester at college but have been asked to create a new way of illustration over the holidays. So what do I do? I’m thinking of boiling some spaghetti and trying to colour it then manipulate it? Or getting some play sand and drawing with that. It’s not something an illustration would normally be made of, but why not?

Playing

The ooutdoor cat is mostly in now. He’s Bern in for about four hours tonight.

He is getting happier. He plays like a kitten! It’s like he’s gone back to being a young cat, not a slightly scruffy middle aged cat. His coat is shiny, and the scratches he had on his nose have almost healed up.

By the way if you want to read a bit more about him, there is a short piece I wrote about him at the Katzenworld blog here at WordPress. He was featured today on their web page.

Artrage oils sketch

Another art package I was using a lot last year is ArtRage oils, a free drawing app where the pens in it look like oil paint that can be adjusted to look more or less metallic. The difference with it is the ‘painterly’ effect is more pronounced and more difficult to control. There is not really the precision of other apps but it makes up for it with robust colours. There is a paid for version has more pens and tools, so gives you greater variations and the ability to go to town on interesting images.

Duplicating pattern

My photo of cut paper duplicated to make an interesting pattern (I think these photos are from a couple of years ago). The fact that the paper was folded makes for a more interesting image, increasing the texture.

When I cut the paper I tried to keep the cuts to a similar size. I might use this as the background of another image. I will have a play with it in another drawing app.

Meeting

Playing with images to protect the identity of a meeting I was in. Why pixilated when you can play with textures instead. Various things used but mainly textural effects in photodirector. Basically I ran the image through the same filter about six times to up the level of texture… Like hotocopying a photocopy over and over again… In the end its altered much more than it would normally be.

Cat toys

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was games or toys. I have a scrabble game somewhere but haven’t seen it for years. I don’t have any toys, but the cats have plenty….

A lot of them are filled with catnip which drives the cats mad with pleasure. It tends to fade over time, hence the number of toys! Drawn in spectrum noir metallic pencil colours in a little sketch book with a bit of black felt pen to define the edges.

Duplications

If you start with a photo of an object and multiply it you can get some interesting effects and patterns. I started with a photo of our halogen heater, changed it to black and white in a filter and then duplicated it over and over again with my photo booth layout app. I have put them next to each other so you can see the original black and white photo and the duplicated ones. I think the second photo reminds me of a wool blanket I had on my bed as a child.