Robbie's Red Balloon, with a Nod to Seattle

Here it is December and I have all these loose ends, tattoos I photographed in the summer and, for some reason or other, never wrote about.

One such example belongs to Robbie, who is originally from Seattle. I stopped to talk to him at the corner of 34th Street and 7th Avenue, and he was kind enough to share this tattoo on his upper right arm:

Robbie explained that the red balloon is a family reminder about his grandmother, and that in addition to his own tattoo, his mother, brother, cousin and aunt all have tattoos that contain a red balloon, as a nod to the family matriarch.

The skyline depicted is punctuated by the Space Needle, Seattle's most recognizable landmark. Robbie is from Washington State, and the addition of this famous structure to a metropolitan cluster of buildings, which includes a scaled-down replica of the Empire State Building to its right, is a nod to his home town, while also recognizing New York City, his current home.


Robbie credited the tattoo to Liz at Addiction NYC, although he noted she tattoos somewhere out on Long Island now.

Thanks to Robbie for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

How do I sketch? Quick drawing of Buckingham Coach house.

A Sketch is one of the hardest types of drawing to master.
As an A level student, sketching was something that I did very little. I couldn’t see the point, or rather I couldn’t see the difference between sketching and drawing. So every time I set about “sketching” it would have to be done as a completed drawing. Looking back at these sketch books I see pages of skeleton drawings- abandoned before they were begun.
Sketching requires a degree of abandon which most people are reluctant to achieve ie they fear failure. I was such a person. When I decided to become an artist I knew it was something I needed to address. Having Read Doug Eyre’s book “Drawing Caricatures” I had started with his daily exercises, which were invaluable.
But, my lack of Art school training was felt acutely. Where and how could I find out about this elusive artist tool – the sketch? Books on art abound in copious quantities. Books on sketchbooks are virtual Hen’s teeth, or so I thought. I finally discovered what I needed on Amazon and then ordered it from the Book Depository (I’ve found they’re cheaper but use the reviews on Amazon to identify useful books).
 “An Illustrated life” by Danny Gregory is beautiful book crammed full of information. It looks at the sketch books of a variety of different artists and how each artist uses his/her sketchbook. Some are complete books in their own right and others show the workings of the creative mind at it’s most dynamic. He even has a superblog called Every Day Matters for those wishing to walk the walk!
I now Sketch daily. Not always well, but the habit is there. I’m less anxious about their imperfections, they are learning pieces. Because I’m learning I force myself to do the subject I detest! Buildings are my particular “bête noire” so they appear frequently. Sketching informs my artistic style and hones my drawing skill like a knife on stone. The only thing I regret, is that it took over 20 years to make this discovery.
This sketch was done earlier in the week, I see many flaws, but that’s OK, I’ve learnt so much!

So, how do you sketch? Do it often, do it quickly, do it habitually, do it happily and whatever your mood, just DO IT!

Warning - Artist networking at the British Library!

Today, I ventured out into the big wide world! Well, London at least. I’ve been living in the provinces so long it’s easy to forget how busy cities are. I joined “linked in” some time ago and joined the group women mean business and  networking meeting was arranged at the British Library. We met in the foyer of the British Library with the intention of going to the Cafe. An officious staff member informed us, rather rudely that we needed to have library cards to stay after 6.00pm. He chose the wrong group of women to mess with and the assertiveness skills came to the fore. We decided to relocate and ended up at St Pancras station instead. There were about 10 of us and we did the usual exchange of cards and introductions. Quite a mixed bag of skills and some interesting potential contacts. May well have been worth the effort.

Creative output today was acceptable. I have two paintings drying, just got to wait for the big reveal in the morning!

As for images…?

Yesterday I submitted my forms for the Stowe exhibition –the deadline was today. Only a little procrastination there then.Afterwards I went in search of my artistic muse. The river and snowdrops, my first subjects, proved something of a challenge. Snowdrops on a steep bank that led to the river. I negotiated that obstacle and produced some arty water shots with the snowdrops in the fore. All without getting my feet and, more importantly, the camera wet! I’m not posting those, however. On the road afterwards I was greeted by the sun on Buckingham Parish church, I had to stop the car and take this! This photograph is completely unedited!

Soooo tired!

Yesterday was a strange day. Spent the day in London as Siobhan plus approx 1700 other children from Buckinghamshire performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Time for a very proud Mum moment. In the big picture below, she's in purple on the right , very back row next to the gap. This was the balloon release at the end. The picture on the right was taken just as we arrived at 11.30am. often school performances can be dire but this was a really slick performance which was very entertaining. A very long day for all we left at 9.40am and returned at 00.40am the next day.
I went along for the chance for a completely child free day. Left them on arrival in London, saw them once or twice in Kensington gardens and joined up at the end of the performance.

I had a very busy day with lots of drawing done around the Albert memorial and Kensington Gardens. Also took lots of photos, some of which will get posted once I can figure out how to put watermarks on. Rather, when I find the time as I've a lot to do today and that painting won't finish itself! Here are some of my sketches. This first one was a five minute figure sketch, the plan is to include it in a painting.

The next is obvious, Albert hall from the Albert memorial -I spent longer on this one - about 45 minutes. I'm still fighting with my phobia of buildings. I get so daunted by the prospect and often feel overwhelmed by all the clean lines which have to be reproduced precisely if the image is to be effective. This one got a bit smudged in the drawing book.
This next one (right) is a detail from a marble statue. It looks a foreshortened, probably due to the angle it was taken but the sun was starting to get to me by this one so who knows. I know, there was sun!!!!!!!!
The last one is an ink sketch drawn from the cafe in the Albert Hall looking out the window. There is a fascinating, almost maze like garden, which caught my eye. I really think this one worked despite some - to my eye- major flaws - I won't draw your attention to them as you might not have noticed.
I've had a few onlookers, but not as many as I feared there might be, and all were very encouraging. With the photographs and sketches I've got plenty to keep me going for a while. I'm quite taken with the images I took of Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and I've some ideas for abstracts.