My first attempt on Tuesday was a disaster, made the mistake of trying to draw the castle, now you think I'm barmy! I was trying to put in too much detail from the start, when what I needed to do was to block it in, do a rough sketch then take it from there. So I came back afresh yesterday and spent the afternoon drawing the picture, and colouring in the castle. I did a smidgen of work on the grass, not much, just the first layer of colour. Today I completed it, I was a bit scared of the water and the sky, so went for very light strokes, greys and blues, first I put down a layer of white, then built up the colour, and put in the reflections. The grass was a multitude of colour, greens, browns, yellows, and a lot of blending. Same with the sky, a layer of white, then some pale grey, which I slowly built up, some blue, light and dark, and a bit of yellow. For the castle I used three shades of grey, and used the side of the pencil to add some definition. It's important to keep the pencils sharp! Yep, pleased with this first effort. It has whetted my appetite to try more pictures from my watercolour books, but using the pencils, and I've got some watercolour pencils.
I went to The Walker Art Gallery yesterday. I'd been promising myself the trip for ages. I took advantage of the fact that had to be up early for my blood tests, the appointment was 8.30! I got annoyed, I arrived five minutes early, and went in at 8.43, the nurses had been chatting. I was unamused as I'd had nothing to eat. With that done I went home to have breakfast, unusual for me to have breakfast at a civilised hour, Harvey was confused! After a tidy up, I headed off to the gallery. There was a fantastic photographic exhibition with photos by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, it was fascinating. I really enjoyed it, less enjoyable was the ongoing John Moores winners, sorry but some are... rubbish, and insult to intelligence. I like abstract art, what I don't like is someone splodging paint on a canvas as if they've been cleaning their brush.
I need to go check out the museum as well, sadly my back wasn't up to it yesterday. The sciatica is getting worse, on Saturday my left foot was numb, then I got shooting pains up my leg. I got mad with a friend tonight, she's been moaning about her knees, and had insisted to her GP that she see a specialist, so she got her wish. I'm sure she was expecting to be operated on, instead she got told she has onset osteoarthritis, and told that she had to learn to manage it. She does need to lose weight, and has been told to, I offered some sympathy but lost my rag when she started moaning! She should try having my knees for a day.
Had to laugh at Harvey today, he was asleep near the TV, a cat on the TV started miaowing, Harvey woke up, he was looking around, confused, then he sloped out of the room to see if there was another cat in the flat! It was so funny. He's also fascinated by shadows, oh and did I mention how fussy he is over his food? I bought him some frozen fish, now what cat doesn't like fish? My old cat loved it, in fact we switched to buying her a bag of fish every week rather than cat food. But Harvey, oh no, he's enjoyed it, but not gone mad for the fish, he's the same with his food, he picks at it. I have a feeling he wasn't given a regular routine by his first owners. When I asked what food he liked I was told he would eat anything, well that isn't true, in fact he was quite skinny when I got him. He's put on a little weight, I don't want him to be fat, but he is still on the skinny side. Anyway I cooked him some nice fish and... he turned his nose up!
Anyone want a fussy cat? All for now, Harvey is howling to come in...
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