Still got a rotten cold and it’s been pouring down today so drawing opportunities indoors were limited. Husb stepped up as usual. I tried something different with my Samsung Galaxy Tablet, doing a finger painting and then using the stylus to scribble over it, with the Magic Marker app. I’m enjoying experimenting with digital drawing; I need to concentrate on its differences rather than similarities to conventional drawing materials.
Husb and I visited the quirky little town of Llandeilo earlier today. Founded in the 6th century, the town is a higgledy piggledy mix of buildings over the centuries clinging to the hill above the stone road bridge, where I stood facing West, with Paxton’s Folly on the horizon and did a drawing in oil pastels onto an A3 sheet of Bockingford that I’d pre-coloured with a dark blue acrylic paint. These materials and the subject matter are well out of my comfort zone and it wasn’t an enjoyable experience, especially with the cold, wind and occasional rain.
Then I crossed the road and sketched in the other direction, using Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into my A5 clothbound sketcbook. Back in my comfort zone. I remembered Van Gogh’s landsape drawings and instead of trying to make an accurate likeness, I concentrated on making marks across the flat surface of the paper. A much happier experience. The River Tywi was exceptionally high and much of the river plain was flooded because of the severe storms we’ve had the past few days, but it eventually brightened up and we warmed up in a little cafe with a coal fire, a pot of tea and home-made lemon meringue flan.
Husb and I just wrapped up warm and jumped in the car and nipped down to the sea front at high tide to watch the spectacular storm that was crashing over the promenade. I’d been nursing a nasty throat infection all day but was going stir crazy by this evening and this is supposed to be the biggest storm and highest tide in years so I didn’t want to miss it. I probably didn’t do my lurgi any good but it was fun!
When we got back, hot drinks were the order of the day. Here’s Husb with his hot chocolate,scribbled with the Magic Marker app on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet.
Husb and I are off to a friend’s birthday do soon so I made some cupcakes. Then I scribbled them. The cakes are vanilla sponge with blackcurrant buttercream icing and the drawing is made on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet usin.g a free Magic Marker app.
First day of the new year and I’m laid up with a nasty cold and there’s torrential rain and gale force winds outside and there’s loads of houswork and DIY to be done. Feels like life has stitched me up. Anyway, no time for any new art today because after all the stuff I had to get on with, the choice was do a drawing or watch the new episode of Sherlock on BBC1. Sherlock won.
So I settled on this drawing that I did at the Green Man festival a couple of summers ago, remembering the sunshine. The original is in my sketchbook but this is a reworking on top of a solvent transfer print I did from a digital photograph that I have altered in Adobe Photoshop. This woman was on the main field, enjoying the music and knitting at the same time. Cool.
This piece is being exhibited at The Brunswick in Swansea until early March.
Just over a year ago, Husb and I were striding across glaciers in Iceland. Husb had forgotten to take a winter hat with him and he bought a locally made, hand knitted traditional hat. He dug it out this week because the weather has been so bad, so I nabbed him for a scribble on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet using the Magic Marker app.
It’s been a strange year, coming to terms with the loss of a much loved family member and sometimes it’s been quite a struggle,but drawing and blogging every day has been a good focus for me. I hope that everyone has a happy and fulfilling year ahead.
Here’s another digital drawing I did yesterday when I was visiting friends in Pembrokeshire. It was blowing a gale and I only had time for very speedy scribbles using the Magic Marker app on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet. I did more work on it today. It became much more abstract; I was not interested in making something representational, but in exploring the lines. It was like those drawings you do as a child, where you scribble over a piece of paper and then fill in the spaces between the lines to see what you get.
Carrying on with the Xmas socialising today, Husb and I visited some friends who live way out in the countryside in the wilds of the Preseli Mountains. We went for a walk and because it was so blustery, I used my Samsung Galaxy Tablet for sketching,rather than my sketchbook which would have been unmanageable in the high winds.
Scribbling on the hoof means that I have to be quicker than usual, so I did some very speedy sketches and carried on working into them when I got back inside. Here’s the first of them. I just added some scribbly colours and gave a bit more emphasis to the tree and the fencing in the foreground. I used a free Magic Marker app.
Lazing in bed this morning, before going out into the annual sales to buy next year’s birthday and Xmas presents (as I do because I’m an obsessive nutcase) I grabbed the Tablet and had a lazy scribble as Sparta Puss cwtched on the end of the bed. I don’t like it as much as conventional drawing materials but it’s certainly convenient. I used the free Magic Marker app on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet.
I’m sitting in bed, it’s quite early. The storm is still raging outside and Little Ming is cwtched up next to me, so I grabbed my Tablet and tried out a few scribbles using the Magic Marker app. It’s convenient for practicing something like fur because I don’t have to faff around with different coloured media. And I don’t have to get out of bed and go get them. Result 🙂
And if I got out of bed, I’d disturb Little Ming and then my life would be Hell.
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