Word

I have spent a lot of time over the last few years battling with word. I have come to love it’s quirks and misbehavior. I have also discovered a lot of functions along the way that don’t get a lot of use. I decided that whilst at work, in my lunch breaks, I would use these functions to make drawings. I have predominately been using the shape tools at the moment, but there are other areas of word that I look forward to playing around with. Here are a couple of print screens of sections I have done so far:

Screen print 1

Screen print 2

Screen print 3

 

My Mum’s 60th birthday

It was my wonderful Mum, Ali’s birthday last weekend and I decided instead of just making a card, that I would make an animation of the making of the card. It took a long time and my camera kept saying it was exhausted but it felt like such an achievement.

I would like to play around with this idea more and work with watercolours again.

Reading between the lines

Whilst watching A Touch of Frost I drew lines on paper, which was very therapeutic. It is one of my favourite crime dramas.

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I looked up whilst these scenes were on screen. I really like them as images.

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My walk home

I left work and just kept walking, with my bus fare tightly in my hand. The walk is pretty straight and loud and grey. The streetlights create a glow which reflects on the wet concrete. I used ArtRage to draw my impression of my walk home. My hair was massive when I got home from the wind!

My walk home

It’s an amazing programme where you get so much control on the different brushes/pens (even palette knife) that you can choose and all without getting messy (although sometimes you can’t beat real paint!)

Lettuce

Lettuce is a floppy, soppy, cat who lives life on her own terms. She loves chasing me in the mornings when I have black work trousers on to get as much fluff on me as possible. She often lies in a superman position on the floor, where pipes are warm. Sometimes she looks at you like there is no thoughts in her head.

Rosa

Tonight I have done a quick drawing of Rosa, one of my parents cat. She is a right fuss pot and follows my Mum around for attention. She has a devious and playful nature and loves cuddles.

Drawing cats

I find drawing relaxing and would like to do a lot more of it. I recently drew my favourite cat on my road, after he moved house. I was genuinely sad that he or she (I never did establish which) had left. I often would say hello in the morning and the cat would squint back at me or roll on the floor for attention. I’m going to practice, as I haven’t captured the personality as well as I’d like but I really enjoyed drawing again. The photo is bad quality too, so shall replace with a better one later.

Mr Toad

Last week I met the loveliest toad on my road. He was an elderly toad and walked at a leisurely pace. I helped him cross the road and thought ‘How lovely to have met such a toad.’ I am sorry to say four days after meeting Mr Toad, I found him lying peacefully on the side of the road. He looked like he was sleeping, but he wasn’t. I picked him up and took him to sit by our pond as I thought he might just be exhausted. He was still there in the morning so he is now buried by the pond. I have decided to draw Mr Toad and imagine his life before I met him. He looks sad because of his toad mouth but I think he was just a great thinker.

This was middle aged Mr Toad, thinking of retirement and of exotic ponds.