Monthly Archives: May 2015

A Drawing a Day – Week 21

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Week 21 – it started with a bang and ended with a whimper, such is life and such has been my week.  Not much more to add except that drawing has been an escape from thinking, when I sit and concentrate getting something down on paper – then the whole world falls away and I am peaceful for the time that it takes and that has been a real blessing to me in the last few weeks and days. Even saying that, it has sometimes been a struggle to get pencil to paper, see if you can spot the day when I really, really didn’t feel motivated!

140 Quilt Wrestling Corner

140 Quilt Wrestling Corner

141 Shed and water butt

141 Shed and water butt

142 Hebe

142 Hebe

143 Grumpy Laser

143 Grumpy Laser

144 John resting

144 John resting

145 Rattan Chair

145 Rattan Chair

146 Chives

146 Chives

A Drawing A Day – Week 20

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I can’t remember what reminded me but I was inspired to dig out my copy of Betty Edwards’ book ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’.  I found that I had got about one third of the way through it before it was abandoned or forgotten.  Chapter 6 was where I got to and this is where I picked it up and tried the exercises for Pure Contour Drawing, which is where you look at the item you are drawing but you do NOT look at your drawing as you are doing it!  The idea is to do it slowly and let your eye really pay attention to the contours of the object as you draw.  The activity is fun and he results are sometimes surprising, I found my first effort was really really small so the next day I made a conscious effort to pay attention to the length of line and got a much better (life size) result.

133 Sitting Room

133 Sitting Room

134 Pure Conture Hand 1

134 Pure Conture Hand 1

135 Pure Conture Hands 2

135 Pure Conture Hands 2

136 Iris

136 Iris

137 Ickworth Rotunda

137 Ickworth Rotunda

138-1 Sitting

138-1 Sitting

138-2 Action

138-2 Action

139 Workshop

139 Workshop

A Drawing a Day – Week 19

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This week my week was frittered away with spring cleaning and gardening, it is amazing how the bright sunshine shows the grime and dust, so I have been shamed into putting my rubber gloves on and getting down and dirty!  We have had rain and warmth at last and the garden has responded by bursting into growth, at least the weeds have.  I spent an hour doubled over a flower bed and filled a wheelbarrow with weeds – how come they are so much quicker off the mark than the flowers I really want.  Mind you some of the weeds are beautiful, I just love Herb Robert and always leave a few plants to flower and seed around the place.  I just love self seeded plants, I try and be a low impact gardener, hence my garden is always a little shaggy around the edges.  I was due to go to London to see an exhibition of coloured pencil drawings but my train was cancelled due to a ‘fatality’ further down the line, some poor soul could not cope any more, it made me sad to think that this person had no other option and I felt for the poor train driver too – so sad.

126 Cerinthe

126 Cerinthe

127 Corner of Bedroom

127 Corner of Bedroom

128 View into bedroom and down the stairs

128 View into bedroom and down the stairs

129 Clematis

129 Clematis

130 Clematis leaf

130 Clematis leaf

131-2 Standing woman

131-2 Standing woman

131-3 Woman Seated

131-3 Woman Seated

131-1 Standing woman

131-1 Standing woman

132 Bit of Beam

132 Bit of Beam

 

A Drawing A Day – Week 18

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Well another week has passed, this one was uneventful and unremarkable so there is not much to say. We had a great day out this Monday (a holiday in the UK) and visited Anglesey Abbey outside Cambridge.  There are wonderful grounds and we walked around the perimeter, we went in the watermill and watched the wheat being ground into flour with the whole mill vibrating with the force of the water pushing round the mill-stones; very evocative of the ‘olden days’.  This week included the momentous day when I completed the first third of the project, something to celebrate I think.  This weeks offerings:

119 Green Iris

119 Green Iris

120 Rocket

120 Rocket

121 Rocket

121 Rocket

122 Hosta leaves

122 Hosta leaves

123 Hosta plant

123 Hosta plant

124 Watching Snooker

124 Watching Snooker

125 Spring Cleaning Friend

125 Spring Cleaning Friend