It’s The Dogs…

28 the dogs

 

Here’s an English Bull Terrier I saw on the beach this morning. It was fabulous there; very sunny, the tide fully in and crowds of people enjoying the moment – all too rare in our climate. I don’t often get a chance to draw dogs and he was far more fidgety than my kittehs and more of a challenge. Still, speed drawing is good experience. I’ve used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size F onto one page of my clothbound Laura Ashley A5 sketchbook. No pose was more than a few seconds. The sunshine didn’t last long; true to form, it’s pouring now.

 

ps I’ve been blogging now for just over 2 years and I’ve published just over 700 posts – that’s a lot of scribbling 🙂

Two years and 700 Posts

It’s been two years since I started blogging and I’ve done 700 posts! That’s a lot of scribbling. I started blogging when I was sitting with my old cat, Bobbit as she was dying. Here is the very first blog I published two years and 700 posts ago. Thank you for sticking with me and reading my bloggage over the months 🙂

 

My Journey with Bobbit.

Theatrical Scribbles, today’s drawing bloggage. …

Continue reading “Theatrical Scribbles, today’s drawing bloggage. …”

Back To Basics: Drawing a Tortoise!

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Enough of all this digital nonsense!  Back to basics with my lovely Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and my cloth bound sketchbook.  Today I met a surprisingly fast moving tortoise called Jimmy in Cardiff.  Here he is,  indulging his cucumber habit.

Back To Basics

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Dolby And Proud

1374613631286Finally got to see the new Star Trek film this evening and it was brilliant. People like me are known as Dolbies, we stay to the bitter end, watching all the credits. I prefer the word Geeks  lol. I like to spot interesting sounding jobs and find out what they are. Today it was the Greens Supervisor, which is something to do with Green screen work.

I’m still playing with the new tablet. I don’t think it’ll replace ‘proper’ drawing for me, but I often have to do some design work to feed into my printmaking and that’s what I’ve been doing today, doing lots of sketches of hearts that will be used in a monotype I’ll be doing tomorrow.

The app is Magic Marker which is very basic and doesn’t seem to have a wide range of colours but it’s okay for drafting up some basic designs and it’s helping me to get used to using the tablet.

New Tool

Finally caught up with the 21st century and got a tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. Oooh get Me! So now I’m trying to find my way round the drawing apps. This is my first attempt at a digital scribble. Long-suffering Husb manned up as usual. I love playing with new tools.

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Norman & Celtic

21 dynefor

Husb and I spent a lovely afternoon in Llandeilo, meeting up with a friend and going for a walk through the woods to the old Dynefwr Castle which dates from the 12th century, Norman times. The heatwave was going full blast and it was really hot by the time we reached the castle so I found a shady spot to sit and scribble. Here’s a bit of it, drawn into my A5 clothbound sketchbook that I’d prepared with ripped parcel paper, drawn with Faber Castell Pitt pens, sizes S, F and B in sepia. I used a bit of Indian ink wash on the shadows and a touch of white conte crayon in the highlights.

21 dynefor 2

We passed though an old overgrown graveyard next to a small chapel and I took a snap of this amazing gravestone, completely carved with Celtic knotwork designs.

OUCH! And Icecream.

20 fortes

Went to Mumbles this morning with Husb and Maminlaw and I FELL OVER! In the street. Just like that with no warning. I don’t know how it happened, but I ended up on the pavement cut, bruised but otherwise no damage except to my pride. There was nothing for it but a medicinal icecream so Husb drove us around the coast to Forte’s icecream parlour in Limeslade where I managed a vanilla wafer. It picked me up a bit and I sketched this, with bruised and bleeding hands, mind! I suffer for my art.

There are still many Welsh / Italian cafes and icecream parlours in South Wales. Many Italians came here during the late 19th century, mostly from the Bardi region, escaping the poverty of farming to try and make a better life as miners. They established a network of cafes, icecream parlours and fish and chip shops. Forte’s is one and still make their own gorgeous icecream to an old family recipe.

Beauty In Death

19 dead crow

Husb and I went to the Mission Gallery’s new show opening tonight and nearly fell over with the heatwave after about 10 minutes so we left and strolled along the seafront on our way home and came across this dead bird. It’s some sort of crow and was fairly recently dead as only a couple of flies had found it. Such a beautiful creature, black and glossy and at repose. Then as we arrived home, some friends arrived and stayed for some ice cold home-made elderflower cordial. It’s so refreshing in this weather. Our friends asked if we’d taken a photo of the bird.

“Ew no!” I said, “that would be weird!”

“And standing around for 10 minutes in public drawing a little corpse isn’t?” they asked.

Hmm. Fair comment. Drawn into my A5 cloth-bound sketchbook, prepared with ripped brown wrapping paper, with Faber Castell Pitt pens, sizes S, F and B in sepia. I added a grey ink wash later.