Memory from 2013

Andalucian?

Drawing from 2013, popped up on my Facebook memories. I drew it at the now defunct website sketchfu. Sadly closed because the owners didn’t have the resources to keep it running and towards the end barely communicated with its users. It was a simple drawing site, a few pen sizes, colour picker and palette, and an opacity and eraser button. It was overwhelmed by users writing youth fiction (is that the term). I was a moderator after drawing a few thousand pictures. It’s hard to monitor places like that. So busy!

There are a lot of other drawing sites out there depending on your skill set. I liked Youdraw (basic black and white), 2draw (complex using applets), floating ginkgo (complex) wetcanvas (I forget). Have a look. I found them before I got an android phone and got directed to stuff via Google play which doesn’t seem to show you community drawing sites.

LOTR drawing

Frodo, drawn on a website called sketchfu a few years ago.

I liked it because it had simple tools to draw with, but you could get reasonable results. Unfortunately it was closed down a few years ago. I think the owners were overwhelmed by the amount of chat on it, the art started to become secondary to people writing fan fiction and stories, the site was getting full and they couldn’t afford to extend it. Then they started up a new site called Muzy and Sketchfu seemed to be forgotten. In the end I managed to save a lot of my drawings before the whole thing was closed down. It was very sad, a lot of people lost a lot of art that they had spent a lot of time over.

Talking about dolphins…

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.

Cherries

I fancy some cherries , it being completely the wrong time of year for them, this is a digital drawing done at sketchfu years ago. The site is closed now but it had simple tools you could use without adding layers (something I need to learn). This was a challenge to draw from a photo…

I keep finding old drawings and pictures so I just post the ones I like.

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9 years ago

We were visiting an agricultural show in Devon several years ago when I took the original photo. Then nine years ago I tried to copy it at the sketchfu website I used to draw at. The colours are a bit off because I took a photo of this from a screen and this is what I saved. The original drawing probably had more detail….

Blue rose

Another digital drawing done at sketchfu a few years ago (site now closed). This was a drawing challenge. Artists would post photos and then challenge others to draw the image just using the sites simple tools. I don’t know if the original picture was photographed with ultraviolet light or with blue dye injected into the flowers.

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Another Sketchfu drawing

This was a favourite drawing I did at Sketchfu, I can’t remember if it was a challenge drawing or just something I decided to copy because I liked it so much. I enkoyed trying to show the sunlight penetrating down through the water and catching the Orcas back. Its a bit sketchy but not too bad.

Water changes the colours you see, and the deeper you go, the more towards the blue end of the spectrum the colours become. Reds and yellows fade away as you go deeper, until the blackness in the depths of the water absorbs all light. It is at those depths that you start seeing the dim glows of Angler fish. I actually think it would be fascinating to go down in a submercible and to see some of the otherworldly wonders, but I dont think I ever will. But I can use my imagination…