Keeping it normal.

Strange and worrying times we live in.  I find myself looking for normalcy, it's in short supply.  I suspect there are many who'd rather keep the covid situation off these pages, but writing something in the forum is one form of 'normal' for me, so please indulge me. A few days ago we were discussing with my son what would happen at Christmas.  We'd all gather at our house for the day.  That's about as normal as it gets.  My wife is unwell, so we can't go elsewhere.  We were all in Tier 2.  Then bang...both my sons are in Tier 4.  So all plans scrapped.  A situation repeated in households all over the country.  So...disappointing...not terrible...not bad...we're lucky, I guess...unlike those poor devils stuck in those lorries in Kent. At the start of all this, the situation threw me off kilter.  I didn't draw anything for a couple of weeks.  That's not normal.  We're old, my wife is unwell, we can't do too much anyway.  So I draw things.  That's what I do...that's normal. So I must keep drawing.  I tend to produce narrative stuff...it has to be 'about' something.  In fact, that doesn't matter too much, because all I end up with is a picture...usually a bit different to what I'd intended.  I suppose I could copy something, a lot of people enjoy that...but it's not something I want to do too much of. I've come up with the idea of producing a series of 'historical characters'.  I like drawing characters, some would be real people and others would be historical 'types'.  So I started.  Then what I now recognise as the 'covid malaise' sets in, I lose interest, it's not going well...all that faff.  But I finish one, I could have done it better.  (An oddity here...that's a fairly normal feeling...one most of us feel some of the time.  Probably.) Here it is... Now...it's not bad.  I could work on it some more, and do a better description. I won't be posting it, until I do some more.  Not much point in having a series of one.  Can't think of anything.  Or I think of one and then can't motivate myself to draw it.  I have to find one I REALLY want to draw.  Daft.  This is a lush source...there are loads of oddities I could draw. So I thought I'd just draw something without any plan as to what it's about. It will be a picture, rather than a sketch.  I'd just heard King Wenceslas so I drew a fuel gatherer.  I don't want it to be about King Wenceslas. This is a far as I've got... My plan for this picture without a plan, is to draw whatever comes into my mind.  It won't make any sense at all.  I suppose I could always call it a fantasy or surreal.  I'll let you know how I get on. So, we'll have a very nice enjoyable Christmas on our own, and hopefully eat and drink a little too much.  I wish all of that to you.  Oh... and over the Christmas period I'll be looking in at POL...because that's normal.

I see that Tessa and Dixie are like me in that they need to find ways to fuel their motivation, whereas Linda seems to be firing on all cylinders. Linda... I do have to fiddle with my pictures to get them square, and don't always achieve it.   If they are A4 size or less, I used my scanner, this produces correctly 'shaped' copies.  Anything larger I use my old camera.  On occasions the shape and size of a picture lets me get all four corners of the picture into the corners of my camera viewfinder.  When I can do that it's usually pretty square.  The 'gatherers sketch' is A3, so that won't happen.  I always get a slight 'fishbowl' effect due to the camera's zoom setting.  I've tried it on different settings...it doesn't have any effect.  So I make adjustments in Photoshop Elements.  I use the rotate, perspective and distort functions. I start by rotating the picture so that the bottom edge looks level.  Then I fiddle with the perspective and distort functions to get it all at right-angles.  It never works completely.  So I used the crop feature on the image, this gets everything at right-angles...I lose bits of my picture, but they are tiny slivers.  Then I use the contrast feature to make my image look as much like the picture as possible.  Since I love bright-colour, and like to outline most of my work with a pen, they usually look nice and bright. So no easy answer, others may have better ways.

Yes Denise, I've watched your progress.  Your enthusiasm is infectious (if I'm allowed to use that word in these times).  You're doing well, I think you're a natural. Events such as these must affect us in some way Gillian.  Drawing has always been a pleasure for me, so I want that to continue.   I don't want to become one of those old men who spends all day sat in an armchair watching daytime TV.  I guess I'm a 'leisure painter' in the purest sense...I have no interest in selling my work, I just like doing it.  Maybe those who do hope to sell have a more solid base to keep going.  I don't really know.  I guess writing this is all part of me giving myself a mental gee-up, as I know others feel the same. 

Well I've finished that picture, I had nothing else to do yesterday so I got on with it.  I thought I'd post it here to round things off.  I was attempting to get myself going again, after starting things and leaving them.  In this, I thought I'd do a picture about nothing at all, and nothing need relate to anything else.  So, in that regard, it's a success, because it makes no sense at all.  It was fun to do.  Bright, bright colour, and outlined in black...so everything really pops. I enjoyed it...I think I'll do another one.