Second week of art class. (16/5/2024)

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Today was the second week of art class. Before I went out, when Mum had gone to the hairdressers, I phoned the taxi place to confirm my taxi. It took me 3 tries to get through! She confirmed for me the taxi to take me to art class, but then I said, and a taxi for 5:00pm to bring me back again? That should be booked too. But she hadn't got it down! That's why the taxi didn't come for me at 5:00pm last week! So I said, yeah, I booked a taxi for 5:00pm aswell to bring me home, so she's got that down now (hopefully!) right up to 25 July! The taxi man to take me came just before 1:20pm. I wasn't quite ready when I saw him. So when I got in the taxi I said, I wasn't quite ready because you were a bit early. And then I said, Well, it's better than being late, or not turning up at all! And he said, I don't do late and I don't do not turning up! He said it was a bit hard getting in and out of our drive because of the vans and things in the road. I said, Yeah, the house across the road had a fire before Christmas, so now they're doing it up. The taxi man was very pleasant and chatty. When I said I was going to an art class, he said, Oh, why don't you go to Mary down town? She's very popular and she's been doing it for years. I'd never heard of this "Mary down town." When I next go down town shopping (which I don't know when that will be because both tomorrow (technically today now) and next Friday are supposed to be raining according to my weather app) I might go into Tales Press and ask if they know anything about this "Mary" and if I don't get any joy there I might go into the Courtyard fine art gallery and ask in there if they know about her. When the taxi man got to the hall he went sailing passed it and thought it was up a side lane, I said, no, it was back there on the left. I said, It's OK, you can drop me off here, but he said, No, I'm going to take you to the proper place. So he turned round and went back and he turned into another lane next to the hall. He said, Is this it? I said, no, I said it was on the left, not the road on the left! He went, Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear! But eventually he got me to the right place! I When I got in I told Sue about phoning the taxi place and them not having my return journey down! But, I said, hopefully they've got it now! I got myself a cup of Matcha green tea using a T-bag that I took with me. I timed it for 3 minutes by my watch. Today's class was on Urban Sketching. To be true Urban Sketching it really should be done outside, "en plain air," but because of our typical English weather the tutor said it was perfectly acceptable to draw from a reference picture. You can see the results of what I did above. First we did a little thumbnail sketch in our sketchbooks with fine liner pen only. When it came to doing the larger sketch on A4 paper, the tutor, I keep forgetting her name, said we could sketch out the basic shapes with pencil first if we liked and then go back over it with the fine liner. But I decided to bite the bullet and go for it with the fine liner without doing a pencil sketch first! I did measure how high I should put the bottom of the roof, and I did measure where the centre of the dorma window would be, but the rest I drew from observation. I found it easier than I thought it was going to be! But I did go a bit wrong with some of the windows as you can probably tell! When my sketch was finished I took a photo of it on my tablet, and then it was time to go on in with the inks. Sue brought over a diluted red colour that went on pink for the walls, and a yellow and a blue. I did the lightest pink areas on the house first, then I did the yellow for the door and window frames. I did the blue on the dorma window next. Because the inks went on very strong it was advisable to blot them off on a piece of kitchen roll first. Then I went over the tops of the pink areas with a stronger pink to make a kind of shadowy area. I put yellow on the plants and creeping Ivy, and then went over them again with blue so that they turned a kind of green. Then I did the roof with a stronger red. I called it finished then, and I needed some time to let the ink dry. It was pretty fast drying anyway. We put our sketches on the floor for everyone to see and admire them. The tutor told us that next week we will be doing trees in charcoal! I said, I'm no good at trees! Trees are my worst nightmare! Then I took another photo of my sketch (the one you can see above) and we started putting everything away and getting ready to go home. I was just putting my things away when the taxi man came in and announced that he was here. It was a different fella again. This guy asked me where I wanted to sit! I sat on the back seat on the right. When I got home I showed my Mum what I'd been doing. I showed her the black and white "before" sketch on my tablet first, then I showed her the finished real thing in my display book. Then I got my dinner (prawn layered salad again!) and watched some telly. Later I did some more to my tulip and butterfly paintings, but they're still not completely finished. I also painted another canvas with some left over reds and pinks because I didn't want to waste them. I might paint a rose on that some day. What have you lot been getting up to today? I hope you are all well. Have a great night.