BEGINNING A NEW DOMESTIKA COURSE - INTRODUCTION TO ISLAMIC ART At the beginning of this month, I began a new Domestika course. This one (full title: "Introduction to Islamic Art - Creating Biomorphic Patterns") seemed a natural follow-on from the mandala drawing course. Lots of pattern, repeated elements and so on. I am…
ISLAMIC ART - FIRST ATTEMPT, AND A NEW COMPASS In advance of the new Domestika course on drawing Islamic art, I decided to have one or two "dry runs" to get my hand in. I have been fascinated by the complex geometric patterns in Islamic art for decades, and have several books on…
STUDIO TIDYING, 2025 - A NEW SHELF UNIT My studio has been driving me nuts for months. All through last year I was busy with the online art course and was able to do most of the work on my lap in the sitting room in comfort. When I am not using my…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - THE ART OF MANDALA DRAWING - MATERIALS AND SHADING EXERCISES At last we are starting to put pen to paper in this course! The first two units have been really interesting, though, with the introductions and learning about mandalas. I have really enjoyed the new experience of seeing them everywhere.…
2024 Review - Art As usual, here is my end-of-year review. As before, I've separated out the art from the rest, as there is so much, and even so, this post is going to be very long! Online art course The most important art activity this year has been my participation in the…
END OF YEAR REVIEW OF THE ONLINE ART COURSE I was very happy to complete the art course before the end of the year. I began it in November 2023 so it was just over a year in completion. Nice to start the New Year with a clean slate and try and catch…
ONLINE ART COURSE - THE FINAL PROJECT - CHERRIES... AND MORE! I'm feeling quite sad. This is the final directed challenge of the whole year-long course, and it's hard to believe that it's finished, apart from the self-directed challenge which will be anything you like - totally open ended! I think Phil, our…
A BEAUTIFUL NEW DRAWING TOOL My latest drawing tool - a real treasure Some time ago I bought a cheap proportional divider to help with my continual problem of getting size and proportion correct in my drawings. I am improving in this direction, but sometimes it is extremely helpful to use this tool,…
VINES AND TRELLISES IN UFO - A NEW ZENTANGLE I am currently working on some interactive elements - pop-ups and pop-outs, and decided to decorate one of them with Zentangle. Browsing around I came across a very attractive new (to me, at least) grid pattern called UFO by Ginny Lu, and thought I…
WATERCOLOUR PAINTING - MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT NEGATIVE STENCILLING While I have done negative stencilling on various mixed media projects, I have not attempted it with watercolour painting until now. I am working on a collection of negative watercolour paintings and thought that some negative stencilling would complement the theme. Eventually all these…
