Spring has sprung!

Here he is, the villain of the piece!   He's now stuffed with chicken,  and looking very content.   Today he was tucked away in the airing cupboard,  so missing out on all the sunshine.   He emerged late afternoon and then chose my bed as his next sleepy spot. 

Just watched The Big Painting challenge, and they were in Liverpool, nice to see my city portrayed in a positive light.   Not so sure about the skyline anymore,  it used to be beautiful,  now there are some horrible modern buildings plonked in any old place.  The artists did well, having to first 'capture' the city,  it was their view point, some worked, some didn't, the next was a quick sketch of the Liver birds, then a cityscape.  It is the final next week, have a feeling I know who'll win. 

My challenge was to choose from four photos,  so I went for this chap, he has two things I don't like drawing: a beard and teeth.   I really need to work on my portrait technique,  I think tomorrow I'll devote some time to it and see if I can improve.   I end up with something presentable, but the start is a mess, too much of a mess I think.  Maybe I'm trying too hard.  I'm up to the portrait section of my 'how to use coloured pencils' book,  so I'm in for a challenging week.  

Also want to move onto pictures,  watching tonight's BP show made me realise that I'm not composing any pictures.  Time to do something about that, I think I may just go to town and do some sketches, and take photos. 

This went wrong, I didn't build up the colour properly,  I got a little impatient.  But it was a useful lesson. The white bits are supposed to be water drops,  and they look nothing like them.  The green I used is too light,  needs to be much darker.  

The BP challenge has been fascinating,  all the artists have been very individual in their style.   The youngest has yet to find her style, but I don't think she is that far away.   One lady used very vivid colours,   her background would be something like cadium red,  which would have scared me to death, yet she made it work. Sadly she was let down by her drawing skills,  in fact that seemed to be the main criticism from the experts.  That is partly why I have been focusing on my drawing skills,  I feel they are essential.  Also none seem to understand perspective,  which I thought would have been a basic.  Aside from that they are all very good,  I don't like everyone's work, but I can admire it. 


Looking forward to having a shower tomorrow, and putting some dye on my hair.  My mum had beautiful white hair,   and my aunt's hair was that lovely silver, what do I get - neither one thing or the other!   The natural look isn't for me,  just makes me look washed out. 

Many thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave comments.  Have a good week.