Opera workshop

Posted on July 18, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Breathing, illnesses, Life, Mental health, Operatic voice, Parkinsons, physical health, Project, Singing1 Comment

Yesterday I went to an opera workshop as part of the project I’m in. My breathing can be bad because of my illnesses so I take any opportunity I can to keep my throat and lungs clear.

I’ve known for years that I’ve got an operatic voice somewhere inside me. Yesterday it escaped! We sang part of Nessun Dormo, which is actually about a man trying to get married to a Princess but she keeps killing off her suitors. She has to guess his name but he’s not sharing. I think she is called “Turendot”.

I managed to get a really high vibrato. I surprised myself because I got there late and hadn’t warmed my voice up. I’m amazed and going to do another workshop on a one to one basis but I’m not well, My Parkinsons keeps flaring up, I have various other illnesses. But I’m pushing myself, probably too much. I don’t want to just sit in front of the TV. I want to live as well as I can for as long as I can.

Odd duck

Posted on May 29, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Allotment, Art, Blue, Canal, Duck, Floating, Fun, Life, Orange, plastic cups, plastic tubs, Project, YellowLeave a comment

Seen today in Stoke on an allotment. I’m not sure if this was someone’s art project. I could imagine it in a parade or floating along on the canal! It appears to be made of plastic cups and trays, one way of recycling them x.

Random

Posted on May 17, 2024 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, acrylic on cardboard, B'arts, Fire, hearth, Kettle?, molly leigh, Project, RandomLeave a comment

Random bit of set painting I did for the Molly Leigh project at BArts at the weekend, a type of sketch? I put it in for the #bandofsketchers prompt as it’s very random…. Acrylic on cardboard

Finished?

Posted on May 9, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, B'arts, Fine Art, Finished, Painting, Project, who is Molly Leigh2 Comments

I might do some more to this tomorrow but a full day on it has knackered me. The sky is a bit wrong and I could darken some of it to add shadows. I think the roof is too light too so I might add blues and browns.

It’s for a project about Molly Leigh but I might also try and enter it for an exhibition. I want to make it the best possible representation.

Fighting with Jpegs!

Posted on April 16, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Computer, Drawing, Frustrated, Fun, Illustration, jpeg, Layout, ma, Project, tif, Working2 Comments

I’ve been working on my MA project Al day and it’s driving me mad. I have one image that will save as a .Tif file but not as a .Jpeg, no matter what I do I get a notification that the file is not supported or something. All the rest are fine. I have both sorts of files so I can put them into a website that will print a one off book for you! Argh!

Linocut dragon

Posted on April 14, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black ink, College, Dragon, Ink, linocut, novice, Paper, Printing, Project, Sketching2 Comments

I could not sleep last night. Various things kept me awake so I decided to experiment with linocutting and printing till dawn. I tried different paper, adding felt pen under the ink and even printing onto a layer of post-it notes. Not too bad for a novice, I even managed curves and didn’t cut my hand!

One thing I forgot, the print reverses the image, hence my initials are backwards! Duh!

How to do dragon scales

Posted on November 14, 2021November 14, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Balloon, College, Design, Dragon, Dragon scales, Plastic discs, Project, shimmering, Sketching2 Comments

This is a collage. I drew a black outline of discs in a fish scale pattern. Then I added one line of round plastic discs (I’d got from inside a balloon), then left a gap for the drawn line of circles, another line of discs and then the drawn ones, over and over till the page was full. Once I’d glued the discs in place I thought about how to fill the gaps. I decided to spray green ink over the page, which I dabbed off the plastic metallic coloured discs to leave clean and dry. I added black around the discs for shading, but it was a bit wishy washy. What next? I used silver felt pen on the green areas but it was boring so I got out all my old nail varnishes and dabbed them on the paper areas too. I used sparkly glitter nail varnish to finish it off. This is one of several experiments. I’m quite pleased with it. It certainly shimmers.

up late/early?

Posted on October 18, 2021October 18, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged childrens book, College, Digital sketch, Dragon, Drawing, Fun, Illustration, Luck, Meeting, Project, WritingLeave a comment

I’m up messing about on my computer, I want to work out characters for a childrens story I hope to write and illustrate for my college project. I am not sharing what it will be called or the scenario. And given my bad grammar here I dont even know if I will be able to do it. But the saying goes that we all have at least one book in us. Mine might be a bit musty and old fashioned! I think I need dragging into the 21st century. I also want to find some watercolour sketches I painted years ago to illustrate this (its a very old project) wish me luck.

Dragon digitally

Posted on October 12, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, College, Design, Digital art, Dragon, Fun, Illustration, Life, Project, Work in progress2 Comments

I’m working on a series of images of dragons for a college project. Working towards a final depiction of a dragon for my proposed children’s book.

Thus started out as a bit of glittery painting I’d called dragon skin. Then I mirrored it so it was symmetrical. Finally I drew features on it symmetrically using a digital sketching app. I like the idea of amalgamating digital and analogue art.

Dragon sculptures

Posted on October 10, 2021October 10, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Dragon, dragon sculptures, Fun, Garden sculpture, Gardening, Project, Thinking7 Comments

I’m doing a project about dragons for college and suddenly I keep seeing them. Today there were two dragon sculptures in our local garden centre. It’s like if you own a certain type of car you will see that type everywhere. Own a mini? No doubt you will see them. Just mentioning a type of car and I think it prompts your brain to notice them.

Anyway I think dragons I will be spotting all over the place for the next few days.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Project