paintings prints and stuff

Hedge silhoutted against the snow, late afternoon.  Charcoal and pastel This one started with a sketch in Derwent's tinted charcoal pencils (lovely subtle colours).  See the original sketch below. On the other side of the road was this wonderful early sunset that I'd done an iPastel sketch of on the iPad.  I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked with what was actuall a pale grey sky on the opposite side of the road, where the hedge was- so on the ipad I borrowed the sky from the ipad work and combined it with the sketch - this may well turn into a larger painting where I can play with those tangled twigs and branches :>) .  It was done in an A4 Stillman and Birn, hardback Beta book with lovely lovely heavy paper, that takes anything I throw at it.  I would love to get my hands on some A2/A1 sheets of this paper. The tinted charcoal pencils are gorgeous to use, with subtle natural colours and were perfect for the hedge and undergrowth....

Snowy early morning, slightly misty, ipad painting Another sketch done on the ipad of the morning filelds, a slight mist in the air and so quiet.  Again I played with the text tool as I felt it worked with this. Done with the Sketch Club app.

Painting from memory; a fabulous late afternoon with fresh snowfall, low sun throwing apricot through and bouncing off the dark clouds and the snow. I stopped on the way home to look at the gorgeous light on the landscape.  The furrows and tyre tracks in the ploughed field made a beautiful pattern on the hillside, with smooth snow n the adjacent field. The low sun threw apricot light on the snow and shone through the dark clouds. It didn't last long.   By the time I'd driven for maybe 5 minutes it was gone, the sky was all dark clouds or grey.  So this is from memories.  I did take some photos but didn't get them out when doing this and the previous one, I started it off in the Pen and Ink app The image was then imported into Sketch Club and I painted it on a layer below with some final touches on a layer above the 'pen' sketch. I like this ability to use layers - it replicated using a watercolour wash over a pen sketch and then using a little...

Travelling home in the late afternoon the light was beautiful. The pattern of ridges and tyre marks in a ploughed field made sweeping patterns, defining the form of the land. The low sun reflected apricot colours on clouds and snow. And then a flock of birds took off from the field, making a beautiful moment even more special. I have to do some paintings from this, but for now I've just had time to do some sketches on the iPad. This is a test post from the iPad so I'm hoping it works ok.

Using Diptic and Adobe Photoshop Express Apps Diptic and Adobe Photoshop Express Apps for the iPad review I've used these 2 apps with photos here, but of course they will work equally well with art work, digital or analogue :>) I like the above image - it's a montage of my youngest grandson at Christmas  :>) I put the pictures together in an app called Diptic  - which has a variety of grids you can choose from (and edit) to create montages.   You can move the images about and enlarge or reduce them within their grid.   These were all cut from larger photos. It's very very simple to use and well worth having if you want to create this sort of compilation. The images were dropped into the grid, the text added and the whole changed to black and white in Diptic, then in Adobe PE I gave it a grainy texture.    I think these grids work best in black and white or sepia - or in the Warhol like effects of the thermal camera or similar....

More playing with Sketch Club on the ipad.   A portrait of my grandson. I need a finer stylus for finer detail, like features.   There is a good comparison, i n 2 parts, on youtube .   I want that pen type with the circular clear disc.   The brush would be fun maybe, though not essential.  He also recommends the Bamboo stylus - but buyers on Amazon slated it for an ephemeral lifespan - has anyone any experience of this? This was sketched in a mix of the pen and brush tools in Sketch Club and then using the text tool just for fun. The drawing was done on one layer with the colour added on the layer beneath, varying the opacity and brush size so that colours were overlaid and blended. more to come ................

Cat in digital calligraphy, Sketch Pad app on ipad The ability to draw in text (see last post) in Sketch Pad is fun. These were done importing the previous digital sketches I'd done from life in another programme ( see earlier post s ) and working in a layer above them.   You can swith the layers on and off, exactly like photoshop, by clicking on the eye.   Once I'd got the basics down I deleted that layer and finished the image. details sketch from life using Pen and Ink app the digital calligraphy drawing is based on this onward ................

Tangled undergrowth, a sketch done with the Sketch Club app on an ipad This App was highly recommended to me and I'm so glad.  It has all sorts of features that I want - the ability to use layers, to import images done in other apps, layer options much like Photoshop, a good range of marks including some of Mr Doobs , (a free online app that you can use on a pc) and more.  It really is a very versatile one.  There are good options on resolution and file types.  It's extremely easy to use, very intuitive. The ability to work onto images done in other apps (or of course your photos) extends the creative possibilities enormously. Below is an experiment with drawing in lettering, not a great drawing but it demonstrates the fluidity with which the writing moves.  This has lots of potential in images and design.  I input the words happy birthday and then simply treated the text like line, to draw the flowers .  They repeat endlessly.  Cool?...

Quick sketch from life, the window sill and silhouetted resident tiger And yes the plant is tipped over thanks to madame there, my perspective wasn't out!   Done using the Pen and Ink app, then opening the image in the Spray Can app.   The trouble with this is that it sprays over your drawing, whereas using Photoshop on the computer allows you to work in a layer beneath.   I used a low opacity so that I could overlay colours - there is a very limited range. I haven't used the spray app much yet other than this. onwards ..................