Yay!!! It's finished.....

It's taken a bit of time to finish this one, although probably not as long as it seems due to the fact that I've only had the odd evening to work on it. But I'm very pleased with the final product and have learnt a lot along the way. I think I'd like to sketch Tony now and hang the two pics together.

I'm attaching a few different views of this sketch and am still deciding how I'd like it framed. But most definitely a simple black mat and frame will be the go.

Still going...

I'm still working on this self portrait and have got a little further with it. I think it's coming along ok and I'm learning a lot just having a go.

Self portrait - work in progress

Being as I'm so slow to post finished work here, I thought it would be an idea to post my work as I go along so that you can see how I get to the finished item. Here are the first two photos of a self portrait that I'm working on at the moment. Christmas and New Year have been so busy with the family and house maintenance projects that I've spent very little time on this work. But I'm happy with how it's going. What do you think?

Riley

Yay! This time a coloured pencil sketch took my fancy. I had a bit of spare time lately so filled it by working on this portrait of my other lovely little grandson. Haven't done much work with colour and I'm not entirely happy with this one as I think I started off with the wrong base colour for his hair. But considering it's the first coloured pencil sketch I've ever done, I'm pretty happy with it. This one took me a month so I'm cutting my turnover time for my work by quite a lot! I think the next one I try will be just graphite and I'll concentrate more on getting the BEST reproduction of features I possibly can. Watch this space! :o)

For Rhys on his birthday

Well it's only taken me one whole year to get this piece finished, and just in time for Rhys' 7th birthday. Lucky for me he's still into Scooby Doo and was delighted with it. Pointilism is so time consuming. Tony has framed it using a dark charcoal mat board and simple satin black frame. It looks awesome [thanks Tony!] and I know Rhys will treasure it.

Now the next question is....what to work on next?

Illustration Friday - Theatre

In loving memory of Leroy the cat!

From the age of 11, I was brought up in a single parent family with two sisters, a brother and a young male cousin. My mother frowned on television and couldn’t afford to buy one anyway, so us kids mostly created our own entertainment. One of our favourite games was playing ‘Theatre’. We’d dress up in old clothes, rig up some curtains (usually a blanket
stretched across a doorway) and we’d play act for hours, making it up as we went along. One day we realised we had a ready made stage if we used the wide windowsill in the bedroom with its heavy drapes. I remember that day like it was yesterday. My young brother, playing the spurned boyfriend, announced to the world (well the four of us really), that he was ‘leaving this place forever’ and with a dramatic flourish of his right arm, accidentally opened the out swinging, casement window with his other hand and promptly disappeared backwards through the opening. He fell four feet but lucky for him his fall was into a freshly dug flower bed. The rest of us, not realising how serious the situation could have been, were left rolling around in fits of laughter, which only increased when Gerry reappeared through the doorway covered in mud and bits of vegetation and a very cranky look on his face. Magic!

It wasn’t until I was in my mid 30’s that I had my first experience of viewing live theatre and I LOVED it. I knew I would!

Illustration Friday "Impossibility"

Some people think that giving up smoking is an 'impossibility'. I've never tried it myself, but through my life, I've watched many people I love struggling with the habit. My father was a heavy smoker, perhaps that's why I never tried it – the smell of stale tobacco on his clothing, the yellow teeth, and his stained fingers was enough to keep me from trying it. He was in the Royal Marines during World War II and was stationed for a time in Palestine. Most of the soldiers there were smokers, my dad amongst them. Standing guard duty at night time then had its own special perils if you were a smoker. Enemy snipers used to target the glowing red end of a cigarette as the smoker dragged on it. The guards quickly learned how to avoid making themselves a target by turning their cigarettes back to front so the glowing end remained hidden in the cupped palm of their hand. The one enduring memory I have of my dad is seeing him squatting on his haunches at the side of a newly dug veggie patch, puffing on his back to front cigarette, staring off into space. Maybe he was remembering all those nights he spent on guard duty in Palestine…