The Birthday Girl

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This evening we celebrated the birthday of a young relative. It was lovely. She volunteered to pose for one of my ‘up-your-nose’ digital drawings. Times like this remind me that, once basic needs are covered, the most important things in life are family and friends. Not fancy schmancy houses or luxury cars, but the people you care for and who care for you. The other thing I realised this evening is how pink so many of my family are. All shades of pink. Like Barbie.

Husb made her a chocolate cake.

chelseas cake

 

 

 

To Stand And Stare…..

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I’m having fun doing digital drawings of people with their heads thrown back; today a sunny little one, another ginger, who was gazing at clouds. Ah, I remember doing that when I was little. It brings to mind the poem “Leisure” by Welsh poet W. H. Davies …..

 

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

 

 

Reality And Equality Jolt Priviledge @ Womad

An art blog about an important topic by Patricia McKenna Jones (with lovely sketches)

 

via Reality And Equality Jolt Priviledge @ Womad

Having Fun

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Only last week I was complaining about how I’d hit a creative block and how miserable I was with making art. Over the last few days I’ve been having loads of fun, doing digital drawings of people with their heads thrown back. It isn’t a flattering pose but it’s great practise drawing pretty extreme foreshortening and I’m enjoying it immensely. Here’s a spectacular ginger! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, eh? I’m using my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet with a free Markers app.

 

Sketching In The Dark

It’s late and Husb and I are just back from a comedy gig at Cinema&Co with the surreal comedian Noel James. I had a quick scribble in the dark, it wasn’t easy, but it’s good practice. And now I’m off to bed. Nos da. Good night.

In My Comfort Zone

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I’m hooked now on these foreshortened views of people with their heads thrown back Husb and I went to the new art shows throughout the city today and I asked people if they’d pose for a photo with their heads thrown back and I got seven victims – er I mean volunteers! It’s been fun drawing this beard, loads and loads of scribbles, totally in my comfort zone 😀

There’s so much arty stuff happening in Swansea this month, Joy Revision at Galerie Simpson, Meridian at Volcano, Everything Now at 211, High Street, The BEEP Painting Biennale at Dynefor, and loads more.

The vanitas paintings of Evert Collier

This is an interesting blog about the vanitas genre…. https://wp.me/p1bzJP-2KV

Another Nose Job!

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Yesterday, I did a bit of drawing practise of a head thrown back with some severe foreshortening. It was so much fun that I did another today. My poor long-suffering family are posing for me. I have a lot of family. There may be a lot of these nose jobs…..

 

Putting The Work In….

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Putting The Work In…. So the past few days I’ve been slapping an underpainting onto a canvas but now the serious stuff has to start, I need to get stuck into the details. I want to have the head thrown back from the torso so I took a few photos of long-suffering Husb (I guess he must be my Muse) and drew this one into my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet using a free Markers app. I blocked in the background in a beige-y colour and then worked up the drawing with white and a couple of brown shades, finishing with orange on the eyebrows. I used the stylus and my finger, the stylus gives a more defined line. Husb is very tall and I am short so I am used to seeing him from this angle. I love a nice bit of foreshortening.

Here’s how far I’ve gone with the underpainting ….

I’ll get the head painted on in more detail next ….

Anything Goes…

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I’m not a painter. I draw, I make original prints, I experiment with mixed media work. But I rarely paint. So as far as I’m concerned, anything goes. If something doesn’t work out, I can paint over it and start again. So I don’t know what the rules are (well, some of the basic ones, but that’s it) and I’m going to do whatever takes my fancy. When I do printmaking, I prefer to work with just the three primary colours, Process Cyan, Magenta / Red and Yellow and I’m trying to keep to this principle with this painting; I’ll see how it pans out. I’m also keen on trying to draw more than paint, using very thin washes of translucent colour that flow from the brush with the sort of lines and marks I use in drawings.

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