I love this pen and ink drawing. It is great fun using that medium. Think about (what I found by accident) deliberately using a non-waterfast ink occasionally and get that washed out look on purpose. If you use a waterfast ink and a non fast one on the same drawing, you can have great fun! (I am a believer in it all being 'fun' and not too much 'work' although I am sure plenty would disagree with me!)

Pleased to hear you're enjoying the course. The tutor makes all the difference. He/She can instill or kill enthusiasm (and self belief). AC/DC in Perth - nice one. Getting tickets is always the problem. Why don't they plan more dates? My step-daughter actualy had tickets to see Michael Jacksons last tour. She was squealing with delight until the on-line banking thing refused to work! By the time it was sorted the tickets had all gone. Not a happy bunny! Didn't get in until 3.30 Sat morning after our pub crawl. Lost most of Saturday. Jimmy Carr was great haven't laughed so much in ages. No-one felt like drinking after though - understandable. I just had a few glasses of Port at home. The fishing was disappointing. It was too hot in the afternoon. Just saw them cruising on the surface. Not interested in food. Took two pictures up for submission this morning. Having a painting and drawing afternoon now. Finished a drawing, just about to start the painting. And that's my weekend gone. It's been good though.

Jools was great. On with Ruby Turner and Dave (I hear you knocking) Edmonds. Went to a pub afterwards but the town was dead - more bar staff than customers - had an early(ish) night. Meet the public at the gallery tonight - had the usual suspects. Local artists and the people who attend every gallery do. Warm chardonnay and nibbles (surprise, suprise). Good night though. Had some great compliments along the line of "I normally wouldn't have a nude but I would have one of yours" and one woman who is saving up to buy one of mine - what better compliment? Few drinkies tonight and Jimmy Carr tomorrow. Two gallery submissions, an afternoon fishing, chores and a day's painting to fit in this weekend. It never rains...

Jools Holland was the pianist with The Squeeze. Ring any bells? Sid Vicious was with The Sex Pistols. The Squeeze could play their instruments. Jools tours with a band and guest singers now, along with a weekly music programme. Never miss it. I've bought so many CDs on the strength of one appearance on Jools' prog..

hiya patsy............sorry been a while posting been a little busy in the garden............inbetween showers that is...............sounds like a good cource keep up the good work..........picture very good........i love pen and wash..............never mastered it myself.........but have been giving it a good go all the same........... look forward to seeing some more pictures............... take care ruthy

Just a few little topics... I'm going to stop googling salad gravy. I'll think of something else for the BBQ. I like the sound of roast beef rolls with gravy. On the sea front here you can get pork rolls with apple sauce, stuffing and crackling. Similar, but loaded with cholesterol. I mostly walk past feeling superior (but not always!). Wherever you go in this town you are followed by the smell of fish and chips cooked in beef lard. Not a place for vegetarians! Have brisk walk around the town centre and you put on 5lbs. When I'm rich and famous (and I will be) I'll deny ever knowing you. Plus I won't do interviews so you won't see me in a magazine. I'm going to be an old crabby eccentric. That's stage 4 in my master plan. Just need to get enough talent to get past stage 1.

Still waiting to see the next step...

Hi Patsy, Sorry for not replying sooner and not keeping up with my blog. We have been having a new kitchen installed and it's taken around a month from start to finish and I'm glad to say I will never have to do it again in my lifetime!! I've been reading your blogs and SNAP, I had the same 'top and tail' investigations!........ getting the dreadful stuff down was awful and then they said it hadn't cleared everything out..........don't know how that could be!!............Anyway I'm fine as I hope you are! I still have to have more blood tests but its my white cells that are down.....perhaps we could swap a few!! Nice to see a photo of you on your blog. Enough of the moaning from me now..............I like your latest piece. It's good to get back to some drawing. I don't do enough. I like to get straight in with the paint. I went with some Art Buddies to a monoprint workshop and really enjoyed it. We used a combination of wallpaper paste,PVA glue and acrylic paint mixed together. We got some really interesting results, using a sort of print method. You could move the paint around for as long as you wanted before it dried. I had about three that came out well and I hope to put them online soon. I also did a silk painting workshop at the Barnsley Art Society. It's the first time I have taken a class and I was nervous for the first 20 minutes , then enjoyed it but ran out of time at the end. Everyone seemed to enjoy it as it was something a bit different. The Society have been encouraging it's own artists to take workshops this year and we have had some really good efforts! I hope you keep well and keep in touch. You seem a very positive person and that's a big plus in life! Cheers Pat

Good luck with your course tomorrow (or is it today there now?). The cows were really boorish. They wouldn't know a Moogritte from a Moonet if their lives depended on it. What a client base!! They weren't impressed with the cheese on sticks either. Went on about cannabilism - ingrates! No point getting despondant about the exhibition. Right people, right produce, wrong place, wrong customers. I met a lovely little heavily pregnant lady. A ball on legs. I so wanted to draw her! What is salad gravy? Is that real or is it an Aussie joke? How do you keep the lettuce crisp with Bisto poured over it? The pub crawl is next weekend. That's how I got up at 5am this Saturday! And yes, I was surprised to find out that there are two 5 o'clocks every day! Thurs Jools Holland, Fri artist in attendance at the gallery and a pub crawl with the kids, Sat submission to one exhibition, Jimmy Carr in the evening and another pub crawl. Sun submission to another exhibition and chores, Monday is a bank holiday so, if I'm allowed, I'll set that aside for my Vivien Walters e-course (best laid plans and all that!). Have a good week.

Well done Patsy, it's lovely keep it up. Thanks for your little, 'keepings in touch', I am still extremely busy and the visits to my physiotherapist for treatment on my left hip have added to the heavy demands on my time. The Arts Group are working hard for me right now. I gave them a photograph to work from and they have to hand it in for critique next week. I asked for line & wash and most of them seem to be obliging but we'll see. The meeting hall was invaded by burglars last weekend and all cupboards were forced open but nothing was touched except some money left by the St. John Ambulance Brigade. I suppose they were looking for the cash to provide a fix or two. Good to get your little messages, please keep them coming and I'll reply when I can.

My pen and ink stuff went years ago along with everything else I ever did. It was my present wife (I call her that to keep her on her toes) who persuaded me to keep my new stuff. A lack of time - tell me! This weekend's out. One spare evening next week. Thurs its Jools Holland with Ruby Turner (and a couple of drinks), Friday I'm up the gallery meeting my adoring public (:p ) with three other artists on a relaunch and then going to a birthday pub crawl. Sat it's Alan Carr at our local Spa (and a pub crawl). Sun it's domestic chores and, if I'm lucky, I'll be starting a Vivien Walters E-course. Looking forward to that! Mixed media - acrylic and pastels. Think you might have to go walkabouts to get some 'you' time. Go bush Sheila! - or whatever they say. Plonk yourself in the local Mall. Talk to yourself and dribble a lot. They'll leave you alone to sketch. I'll post a blog over the weekend with an exhibition update, unless I am looking for a tax haven.

The drawing thing?...it is a line with white on either side of the nib...your arm is an extension of the brain...the wrist is locked you pull the pen round the shape you have in your soul...see the line ahead of the nib moving towards you & steer it round the shape that you have in your head...a trick from years of drawing with chalk on a big blackboard...4 foot concentric circles for the human eye was 'my signature'...none of that arty scratching with a line? in it somewhere...

Just found your blog by accident Patsy, not sure how it works yet as there doesn't seem to be a search facility. Love the photo and glad you are enjoying the course, wish I could find one but most good ones are in Dublin. I did a 2 day drawing workshop last weekend and found it great but I find it hard to get time as still in full time work - is it winter there yet ? May bush in bloom here but really cold still - why do we here on this side of the world allways talk about the weather.....

Glad you're enjoying the course. There is nothing more exciting than sitting in front of a fresh white sheet of good paper with a loaded nib in your hand! The possibilities are endless. It could turn into a masterpiece or a pile of poo (normally the latter). The more lines you put down the fewer your options are. Believe it or not I used to do pen and ink landscapes in one of my previous iterations. I found that if I contructed with a pencil and followed up with ink, it felt like colouring in and became wooden. I made more mistakes going straight in with a pen but the results were livelier. Like anything else it's just practice, practice, practice. It's a skill not a gift. On a different note...I think I'm all set for the exhibition on Saturday. I'm in the panicky 'have I forgotten anything' mode. 10 pictures all wrapped up. List of things to take. Ironing a frock to greet my adoring public. False nose and glasses in case they hate the pictures and know they're mine. I've got two exhibitions to submit to next weekend. I'm hoping that I'll have nothing left for them! Quite nervy really. I haven't been a real one before. I'll post my news over the weekend sometime. Keep me covered I'm going in...

Ah Perth, that's a long way away. I have a girlfriend who lives in Perth that I met whilst working in London 16 years ago. I have another who lives in Melbourne that I also worked with in London about 18 years ago. We all keep in touch but, as yet, I have not had the funds to get myself over there, especially now being single, house-owner, no job, recession etc! I look forward to seeing your other coursework in the future. Best wishes, Susie

Hi Patsy pleased to see a positive result and to read that you are positive about the course & the tutor...thank you for your support & friendship too...All you need is the inspirational lead...

You tried a differant course & it looks as though it has worked for you....a good teacher makes all the differance......and you were lucky in finding a teacher who is willing to give you encouragement.....rather than trying to change your paintings.......can't wait to see your finished painting.......left a comment on your gallery. Betty & Max