Bristol Urban Sketchers

Just a quick update, at the weekend the Bristol Urban sketchers had another virtual meet up (they had a couple of physical max 6 per group, socially distanced ones too but I havent been able to attend yet).

The virtual ones over the past 13 months or so have been brilliant, we chat on video, sketch, chat more then show and tell.  It has meant we have been able to visit some amazing places from singapore to wales!  This week it was Amsterdam, I havent been there for a few years so it was lovely exploring it on street view and having a good nose around!

 The fact that every building had 3 sets of windows in EVERY building, I am not going to lie started to do my head in after an hour but I stuck with it.  I havent painted reflections before so that was a new thing and something I am going to practise and look up some hints and tips on.

The skillset of the Bristol group is amazing and I learn so much from them and they are always polite and encouraging, which is lovely, fingers crossed I can do an actual meet up soon.

kyla

Urban Sketchers Bristol

Hello peeps, I forgot to blog about our last Bristol Urban Sketchers meet up (we have the latest one this afternoo) .  Usually we meet in town and chat, sketch, regroup for some lunch and sometimes a cheeky pint too.  Well, under lockdown this of course has to change so we have gone virtual!

We sketched using google etc in Alhambra, Spain at the suggestion of one of our members.  Well, what a beautiful location, some amazing scenery, small backstreets and amazing buildings too.  It was also great being able to catch up with the others and sketch whilst chatting to others too.

Sadly my notebook is not great for watercolour as the paint sinks straight in so ideally I should just use pencil or pen and ink (as we know from an earlier post on here its not like I don't have a "few" blank notebooks in the stash!!) but I keep forgetting that I am sketching at home and don't have to use my travel kit and could actually pop upstairs and grab the pencils!!

I am looking forward to being able to sketch again outside and meeting up with the group, but in the mean time, this is a really good alternative and a great way to explore other places, albeit virtually

Happy sketching

kyla

Art Abandonment in Spain

 Sorry I have been absent for a while but it all got a bit too much so I had to cut a few things, but I am back!  During my time out hubby and I went to Sitges in Spain, only 40 mins by train from Barcelona.  

Barcelona is amazing, the architecture is fabulous and the street art is almost as good as Bristol!  We also did a street art tour and lucked out as it was only the two of us so we got a totally personal tour!  Fantastic.

Sitges is amazing, right on the coast with a long promenade and is seen as the gay capitol and is a beautiful town with amazing views and places to eat and drink.

Whilst we were away we did a few more Art Abandonment drops so I thought I would update the blog with a few of these.

This is a watercolour postcard I painted and it seem fitting to abandon it in Sitges

 These two tags are with coloured with posca pens and were created and abandoned in Barcelona in an area that is dedicated to public street art where people are legally allowed to paint!  

Then whilst we were on the beach at Sitges we decided to paint a few pebbles and leave them (hubby also took part)

 This is my lizard that I often paint

 Hubby drew a whale and a face using the jagged edge as a part of its head bit off!

 I drew a face using the natural hole as an eye!

It was a lovely holiday and great to be able to sit and paint too (I also did a couple of urban sketches and will blog these soon)

Happy crafting

kyla

Birthday cow card

I made this card recently for my mates birthday.

I love the saying "call when its time for cake"!

The background is once again my paint sprays this time with some watercolour splashed over the top.

I fussy cut the cow out and mat and layered the sentiment onto green foiled card and edged the card with the chisel tip end of a promarker, which if you draw it along at an angle is really easy to get a nice even line all around your card.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Urban Sketchers Bristol meet up

 Last Saturday was the Urban Sketchers Bristol chapter meet up.

We met in the Bristol Museum and I decided to sit in the cafe and sketch using my new travel watercolour kit 

I also decided to try and sketch people, my first person (chap with the top knot on the left) was my first and my favorite, I am not very pleased with the others but am seeing this as something I can learn to develop as I try new techniques etc.

One thing we did find out during the meet up was that the museum does NOT allow you to use anything other than pencil!  Several staff approached some of the group about their watercolours (even though we were all using sealed water pens, the ones that hold a small amount of water in the cartridge and doesn't even flick out of the fiber end) asking them to stop using them.  

Sadly we cannot find this anywhere on their webiste and none of their staff could even point out where this was stated!  I totally understand the issue, but these sealed pens carry no risk of spillage whilst children run around with bottles of juice and they even sell water pistols in the museum shop! 

 Now we know we can ensure that we only bring pencils if we sketch there again, but it is a shame that this was not communicated to the public and I suggest a tad outdated considering most use  water pens.  It would be interesting to know other museums take on this or whether other groups have had any issues?

If you have please let me know?

Kyla

De cluttering my sketching kit

 Now, I am sure I am not alone but I tend to carry round in my handbag more than I need!

During 2018 I have tried to pare down what I carry, especially as my RA develops and I find it more difficult to carry heavy bags.  So I thought it was time to try and do the same for my urban sketching kit.  Now, I often just carry a few pens and a few posca's BUT I do like to splash a bit of colour around and I often use my travel watercolour kit so I looked around the web to see if I could get some ideas and boy, there are some GREAT ideas out there.

I saw many people who put art kits in small tins so I thought I would try that.

In CASS Art they had a sale for members so I bought a new travel kit where the colour pans were easily removed (cheaper than buying 9 separately)

Then in poundland I spotted this tin filled with sugar free mints and worked out this was exactly the right size.

So I decided which colours I wanted to include (that research took longer than making it all!) and stuck them in with contact adhesive.

I decided to use 9 colours and in the small space I added a small piece of sponge and cut down a pencil.  The small paint brush that came with the kit fits perfectly in the lid.

So there you have it, a small painting kit that fits not just in my handbag but also in my pocket!!  I am hoping that this will encourage me to paint/sketch more, only time will tell.

Do you have any ideas for lightweight kit, feel free to share.

Kyla

Inktober 2018 part 2

 This is the next part of my Inktober 2018 update.  I am still trying to stick to my theme of nature and using the prompts from the Inktober website.

 I thought de-forestation would be appropriate for the prompt "cruel"

 Self explanatory!

 I have always thought of Owls as guardians of the countryside for some reason, maybe because of the wise old owl thought.

 Wasn't too impressed with my dandelion clock.  But I decided to not re-draw any as they are meant to be quick (only a few minutes a day) sketches and give me space to learn new techniques and skills.

 For weak I looked to my garden and the small weak seedlings that become strong with the right conditions-much like ourselves!

 Angular made me think of the monkey puzzle tree I used to walk past when I was about 5 years old in a neighbours garden-always amused me by its shape (and of course at that age the belief that monkeys really did live in there!)

and a puffer fish seemed like the obvious choice for this prompt!

I have made a few more since these but I need to upload the next lot of photos and I hope to blog them in the next week or so.

I love Inktober, it is such a great idea and takes me only 5-10 mins a day MAX and I end up learning so much more about my style and technical ability as well as what does and does NOT work for me!

Happy inking

Kyla

 

Inktober 2018 Part 1

 Just a quick update on my involvement with Inktober 2018

Artist Jake Parker created a challenge in 2009 to create 31 drawings in 31 days in order to improve his drawing skills - it took off and now there are over 408k followers on Instagram!!

For the past 3 years (which I have also taken part) they have also published prompts for each day, but you can use them or not, draw daily, weekly or even do them all in one go!  It's very laid back and a great way to experiment with ink.

Full details can be found here

The last couple of years I have completed mine on tags (small, cheap and take ink quite well).  So far I am using the prompts and whilst the other year my monthly inspiration was robots this year I thought I would choose Nature.

 The flowing of lava down the volcano

 

 An oyster

 Starfish!  Well, its a loose interpretation!

 Forgot to take any tags with me on day 7 which I was in Malta at Notte Bianca a fabulous free festival where I went to watch the band The Selecter play (seen them a few times but never overseas).  This sloth for "exhausted" (which I was) was sketched at 01:30 in the morning in a bar!

 The wolf is drooling (I got some odd looks sketching this sat on a bench in a park!)

 I love mushrooms and foraging so for the Chicken prompt I thought 'Chicken of the Woods' fungi would be a perfect interpretation!

 Spelling Bee!  Play on words but there are no rules and this is the first bee I have tried to draw, I was quite pleased with this one.

 Chestnuts roasting on a fire!

 I find woodlands tranquil (hence I try to do a daily walk and belong to the Woodland Trust)

and the first one-the death cap!

So that is them so far (I have done a few more, if you follow me on Instagram you have probably seen the last few days newer ones, I will blog these soon as it takes a while to upload and blog).

Are you doing Inktober?  I would love to know if you are.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Art Abandonment at Upfest

 The other weekend we went to Upfest in Bristol.

It is Europe's largest Street Art Festival and this year was the 10th Anniversary.

I will do a proper update of the art work once I have downloaded all the photo's but I thought I would post the art abandonment's and Free Art Friday drops I made during the festival.

This was a small stencil of a spray can on a brusho background

This was one of my hand carved stamps of a fire demon on a inked background

 and other one of my fire demon's but this time on a tag

my final piece was left at the suffragettes yarn bomb!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Malta sketching

Another update on some of the crafting I did in Malta.

In Valletta there are some gardens called Upper Barrakka Gardens with a lift that takes you down to the harbour/waterfront.  The gardens are lovely, trees, flowers and a fountain.  Even better is a fantastic cafe, which is licensed so you can have a beer if you want (and cake!)

Whilst I was sat there I decided to do a small watercolour.

Only a really quick sketch and colour whilst I was sat having a coffee with my friend, Jon, who lives in Malta but a great way to help capture some memories.

Happy crafting

Kyla

May 365 Journal

A few days off work (and lighter evenings) means that I got a bit of extra time to craft this week (hurrah) and I managed to finish my 365 Journal I started a couple of weeks ago.  

I added some gold mica sprayed and flicked across the page but it doesn't show up 

in the photo.  

I coloured the page with dylusion sprays and added stamped flowers which I coloured with watercolours.  I then added the details with posca pens (I love these as they are SO versatile as they can be used on paper, wood, glass, fabric etc).

All ready to start filling in.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Spray can stencils

So, new stash from the states means I need time to play!  

With this in mind I have been playing with my new stencils.

I thought I would try them on carboard and also watercolour paper.  

Both quite thick substrates so can take a lot of paint and water before  they buckle or start to dissolve.  I added some roughly applied gesso to the cardboard to help the colour 'take' and also flicked watered down gesso across the finished pieces and some water so they have a nice mottled finish.

As is often the way these pieces will probably be abandoned somewhere over the next couple of weeks for some unsuspecting passer by to chance upon.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Chris Ofili Tapestry

I was lucky enough to have a few days off work and head down to London for a few days of immersing ourselves in art of various types.  

This post is about the Chris Ofili exhibition at the National Gallery.

From his watercolours he stepped out of his comfort zone and designed a tapestry triptych called "The Caged Birds Song" which echos the writer and black activist Maya Angelou's powerful autobiographical work, "I know why the caged bird sings".

 His watercolours and sketchbooks were on display

and whilst the final watercolour is impressive

It really does not prepare you for the final room where the entire walls are decorated in his paintings and in front of you the HUGE tapestry.

The weavers of Dovecot Tapestry Studio in Scotland took over 2.5 years to hand weave the three pieces.

Their rendition of the watercolours and the way the pigment moves is magically brought to life in wool.  They get the flow of colour by blending wools to create the colours.

 

 

The scale and trying to get my head round that this is wool and NOT paint was mind blowing

 

It was a fantastic exhibition, free and not like anything I have seen before, if you get the opportunity to see it I recommend it.

Kyla