A Year Gone Already?!

Guitarist with Sigiriya at Hangar 18.

Suddenly a year has gone by and the Swansea Fringe is upon us again! I’ve been sketching last night and this at some of the Rock venues. I’m tired now! All rocked out! More to come…

Remembering.

Yesterday I posted about some painting I did a few years back, experimenting with acrylic paint on heavy paper. Here’s another segment of the painting. I started with translucent washes of acrylic paint, then I drew onto that base, but I can’t remember what I used to do the drawing. I’ll have to dig it out and have a look.

Paint Overlays.

I was experimenting with acrylic paints onto stretched paper, laying down some base colours with brushes then, when they’re dry, overlaying a coat of white acrylic and working into it with a cotton bud (Q-Tip) while it’s still wet. It gives a really interesting 3D effect.

Sketchbook Archives 14: The Hospital Visits.

2012 was a year of hospital visits with several very poorly elderly relatives. It was a chance to sit quietly and sketch. I met some great people on the ward, their faces full of character and experience. The drawing at bottom left is my young great-niece who was fascinated by the murmuration of starlings that appeared outside the hospital windows during evening visiting, with Mumbles lighthouse in the background.

Sketchbook Archives 13: They Don’t Stay Little!

Out and about, people watching and scribbling them into my sketchbook, from August 2012, about a year after I started this blog. They’re all drawings of Husb and family, and all the children are grown up now. They don’t stay little for long.

Bob’s Your Uncle!

I had a bit of a play on Photoshop, using a crop from a photo I took a while back (see below). I put it through the Gradient Map and Bob’s Your Uncle! Pretty colours.

I took the original photo a few weeks ago. It’s a reflexion of my light fitting on top of a large drawing by David Tress. I cropped it down before it went into Photoshop.

#Caturday Saturday

It’s #Caturday Saturday once again, don’t the weeks rush by quickly? Here’s Sparta Puss all cwtched on a blankie on a giant cushion on the window seat, posing in front of some brilliant sunflowers.

Sketchbook Archives: 12

Buildings from the past, sketchbook drawings from July 2012, about a year after I started this blog. I used to do a lot more sketching en plein air, but that was before the Covid lockdowns. I’ve never really got back to that level since, I find I’m much less likely to go out and about since Covid.

A year ago, Husb and I took a short break in North Wales, near Eryri (Snowdon). It poured down! But I did some expressionistic drawings with soft pastels into my Daler Rowney black paper sketchbook, you can see one in the background (above). Click here to see a short film about it. I worked very roughly and very quickly with the pastels and now I want to try out a similar approach with paint onto black canvas. I’ve never applied paint with a sponge roller before, it’s taking some getting used to. I’m using Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paints, a grey made with Titanium White and Mars Black, onto a stretched canvas.

One Tarp, Two Leaves, Three Badges.

One tarpaulin.

I’ve been doing some adult education sessions on Swansea’s Kilvey Hill, part of a creative partnership between Coed Lleol and Swansea Print Workshop. This is where I was working this morning, it’s lovely, even though the rain threatened, we had a big tarpaulin stretched over the work station.

Two fern leaves.

I was teaching the participants how to make prints from leaves using Gelli Arts plates (above) and making an image by rubbing with a block of graphite.

Three botanical badges.

Then everyone chose sections of their prints and rubbings that they liked best and we made badges with them. Here are some I made earlier (above). I bought the badge machine during Covid Lockdown to entertain younger relatives, but it’s turned out to be one of the best pieces of kit I’ve ever had for community arts.