New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m just catching up this week for #bandofsketchers so here’s my speckled drawing. Our outdoor cat. He’s actually black and white but I’ve drawn him in a pointellist way. I was interested in how the speckles changed direction as I drew…
Drawn at the old Sketchfu website, four digital drawings I did there nine years ago.
Sketchfu had four sizes of circular pens, a palette, an opacity and transparency tool and probably an eraser. No applets, no layers, you just built the drawing up. You could share your drawing and others could draw onto it, so we did some collaborations, but it would take ages for the pages to load if you had added to other pages. There were four or five of us sometimes building a picture up on a theme. It was fun!
I don’t know where the ideas come from, I just can’t help being creative.
#bandofsketchers prompt for Sunday was gate or stile.
I did a coloured drawing of this on the computer but when I tried to save it the computer crashed! Anyway this is a black and white drawing of a broken gate to a field. It was imagined because I couldn’t find a thing that was nice on the computer.
I wonder if the digital drawing I did is saved somewhere on my old PC. Anyway this is the best I can do.
I’m learning more about what I can do. I create using anything from post-it notes and collage to the simplest calligraphy pen and paper to the extreme using nail varnish! This is a quick drawing of the watercolours I use together with a mug of water and paint brushes.
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was ‘take a break’ so I chose to draw this image from the front of the 2021 National Trust Guidebook. It’d just drawn in coloured pencil, charcoal pencil and fine liner black ink pen.
I need a break! So I would take it at Bodnant garden near Llandudno in Wales. It’s a National Trust garden. A beautiful place which drops into a wooded valley and is surrounded by the Welsh hills and mountains. We are missing the laburnum walk that will be in flower now. I hope to go there soon.
Now we are learning narrative art at college. Learning how to lay out panels. I think you are meant to have an idea and base the shapes of the panels on what we are drawing, but as usual I did it back to front, drawing the panels first, adding the speech and thought bubbles, then adding the people. The ideas for the story came last! My mind is strange. Anyway it worked quite well. I would try and make it neater if I were to do it again and perhaps import it into photoshop to tidy it up? Overall it was relatively painless to do. Note to self, why has the mother’s dress changed?
Artrage oils and photodirector used to make these slightly worried faces in a crowd. Perhaps I should have given one of them a mask? They certainly feel crammed together. And what are they watching? Why are they there? Is it something pleasant or unpleasant? Who can say. From the depths of my mind to the page. I sometimes don’t know what’s coming!
Last night the cats stayed out till dawn. I called them every hour but they were not bothered. The two indoor cats are fine, they love being out now. They sit on garden walls and seem to stick together. They follow the outdoor cat around and the dynamic between them all has really settled down. They are being very loving when they are in. Lots of purring and cheek rubbing. They seem to be staying round the back of the house and garden, keeping away from the road.
If I can find them in all the foliage I will try and post some photos of them.
This was one of the portraits I did in a student led portrait group at college during the last few months.
The face was mostly drawn with one of those ink rollers you can use to blank out your address on letters so that you can throw them away without anyone seeing your details and stealing your data. Its quite hard to use because you have to sort of turn and twist your hand and press firmly to sketch curves. AfterId done that I added colour using pastels and the thick black lines were done with black calligraphy pen (most of these have run out so I need some more).
I quite like the strong feel to this. I am trying to find my illustrational voice. I have been told to look for illustrators that my work resembles, but I think mine is different? Is this a good or bad thing? I’m definitley developing my analogue skills. Digital work is more difficult for me.
Art can be anything
Anything if you experiment
Experiment and learn
Learn to try
Try to play.
Play with Art
Art….
Mallaband-Brown