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Art Therapy

I've been drawing again.  I haven't been very well and I needed to do something quiet but something that would occupy me - so to speak - and its been a long time since I got the sketch book out and then only odd moments when we have been on holiday but I want to document our up and coming trip with a journal and some drawings and paintings so I feel a bit of practice wouldn't go amiss - I treated myself to some inktense watercolour pans - a wee travel set and the colours - which are ink based rather than pigment based and are indeed lovely and rich and will add a vibrancy to my paintings which sometimes I feel is lacking with ordinary watercolours. It's quite hard to et back into the swing again and it reminds me of how important it is to keep practising even with doodles...


I started with a sketch of the mess on my desk - a mixture of old watercolours and the new inktense ones.. worked in with fine liner pen- I'm not a patient person and all my drawings are usually quite quick and rough round the edges - I like an unfinished look - its more or less me 😂😂

I played around with some doodles to warm up - I like the idea of just dropping on some paint and then letting the fine liner take it wherever it needs to go - these pieces are very therapeutic and require little or no thought or skill but can look very effective


Allegedly 'warmed up' I wanted to continue playing with the new inktense pans, exploring the colours and how they mixed and went onto the paper so I did a 20 minute sketch of a corner of the living room


Then I thought I would try to be a little bit more disciplined and do a fine liner study of our lovely - if slightly over the top  - fire place and stove.  I'm drawing what I see and perspective is not my strong point but the idea is conveyed quite well.


Slowly I'm getting my hand back in - and to be honest its not about the finished object - although its nice if it works - its more about playing and creating and joining lines and adding colour - its a calming enjoyable process which I would recommend to anyone to pass some quiet downtime. (I am fully (ish) recovered now)

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