Late Night Sketching

 Just dropping my first attempt to do an oil pastel of a natural subject.

I think you could just about tell what it is, even if I hadn't labelled this.

I make no claim on having any talent whatsoever.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.03.23

Just Some Quick Sketches

 I've been gifted some more art supplies, and bought some myself to add to my ever growing collection of random A6 sketchbooks. I have pencils, graphite sticks, oil pastels and also some very gothic black paper to use them on. 

But none of the fancy stuff today.

I've knocked up a couple of bird sketches, using one hardbound sketchbook and a rather limited pallete of felt tip pens I had to hand. 

I work quickly, and with all the skill and dexterity of a five year old. Nonetheless I rather enjoy doing them, thinking - stupidly - that they are like Bill Bailey's sketches in his excellent bird guide I got a couple of Christmases ago.

I present them to you now for your "enjoyment".

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.02.23

Robin Says "Seasons Greetings"

 Hello everyone, I'm back from my sister's place in Bristol - more of that in the next few days - and I'm re-adjusting to being on my own again after being with my family for a lovely spell. 

I'm starting to cycle locally again when weather allows, hunting snowdrops and aconite and relishing the outside world. At least when it isn't hammering down. Goosander aren't on the Blue Lake at the moment, which is surprising and indeed when I went today the usual geese weren't there either. 

I'm still enjoying doing my little sketches, so I thought I'd drop you off this seasonal little robin artwork for now, and I'll see you soon.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 29.12.22

Bee-ing an Artist

 I keep inheriting little notebooks and felt tip pens in various places, and so when I get the chance it is fun to do a little sketching here and there.

My latest ones were done with no visual reference, and golly gee it shows! I couldn't remember how the stripes on a red admiral went, what actual colour a tawny mining bee was, and didn't have a purple pen to "illustrate" a buddleia. 

Still, I kind of like the results, and feel like I've upgraded my work to about seven year old levels, which is nice. 

I also guess drawing them makes up for not actually seeing them, these dark cold months.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.12.22

Now, Trying with Coloured Pencils

 This weekend has been so utterly grey and wet, there's been barely anything of note to see.

That being the case, I bought some coloured pencils and decided to have another go at sketching. Using pencils is rather more time consuming than doing big toddlerish swipes of felt tip pen, and produces a rather more subtle result - hardly a surprise!

So, I present to you a honey bee, drawn from a photo in a blog post from a couple of weeks ago. 

Looks about the standard of a ten year old, I'd say.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.11.22

Nature Sketching

 I've some how ended up having a flu shot and a covid shot at the same time today when I wasn't expecting it, so I'm sat here with a rather sore arm sneezing and feeling a bit rough. 

I suspect tomorrow may be worse!

I was feeling bored, so decided to do something I've been procrastinating over for a while - trying my hand at doing colour sketches of some of my nature photos in my childlike style, using a packet of ten felt tip pens and a dinky sketchbook. 

So, here's what I spent 5 minutes doing earlier, a sketch of one of my ivy mining bee photos.

Don't be harsh on me.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 31.10.22

Sketching Industry

I found myself with five minutes spare before a two hour seminar today, and with nothing else to do to kill the time other than stare out of the window, I decided to stare out of  the window anyway, and draw what I saw.

I like sketching, despite being no bloody good at it. I find doing it very quickly, and just using very bare curves and basic shapes, gives the least terrible results.

So here, in all its glory, is the sugar factory vista.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 19.12.18

Realistic Illustration

I'm no artist at all, but my sister tells me my sketches and doodles have a certain character, presumably in the same way that Stalin had a certain character. I've not done any proper sketching over the winter, largely as t's been rather colder than the last couple and my hands go purple and agonising as soon as the temperature drops below zero.

So, for your pleasure I give you these entirely lifelike and realistic illustrations of the birds I see every day.

I can only hope you like them.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCRackeredNature 16.02.18

More Neon Funs

I have a had a long day at work and a late finish organising charitable things, so I don't really have anything much to offer you, other than some more experiments in tablet scrawling.

I think it's entirely appropriate that I should be using an app designed for children.

I've been doing a lot of work on an exercise bike to rest my tendonitis - now I have a sore knee instead. Seeing as my new phone helpfully tells me how many steps I'm doing, I've been researching into how many I ought to be doing. Normally on my three days off, I go well over 15,000 steps which apparently is around 12km and represents a good level of activity.

Sadly none of that is running at the moment. I really want to look after this leg of mine, but it is very frustrating. I just feel bloaty and awful. A lot of foods just don't agree with me at the moment, the latest being granola which I love, but my body doesn't.

Maybe I should become one of those gluten free fraudulent types and go on about coeliac disease to anyone that will listen.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.11.17

The Invented Bird

I've been messing about with a kiddy doodling app my sister showed me on her little Amazon Tablet, and now finally I've got it on mine.

While my sister is a very competent artist, I am not, but I still love doing the odd scrawl. The stylus I've borroed off my mum is like "My first infant school pencil" in being the width of tree trunk, so that makes things even trickier for captain clumsy here.

Still, it's fun to scrawl in bright colours without getting paint all over the place. I remember making a blue tit out of papier mache at school when I was about 6 and in Mrs Thompson's class. I rather overpainted it.

That's what I was thinking when I drew this bird. That and worrying about having eaten too much haggis tonight.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.11.17

Danger Kitties at Work

Lot of admin type stuff today, as yesterday, but it was all done. Was doing my other comms tasks, when a facilities manager appeared with a rather odd request.

"We've got some feral kittens on the campus. RSPCA won't help as they aren't injured. What can you do?"

Our team gets all the odd miscellaneous tasks.

So, I went with him to visit a large bush at the edge of a lorry park, where he said the mother and 7 kittens were living. All these bushes are being chopped back for security reasons, and also the fact that, yes, it's a lorry park, means it is going to be unsafe for a family of cats.

I watched for a good twenty minutes, and saw nothing. But there was a bit of a whiff of cat urine in the air. Lovely.

What now? People have suddenly been talking about these cats all day all of a sudden, and several people have contacts with various shelters - the kittens could possibly be rehomed, the adults relocated to a farm perhaps - but none of them have the means to catch them.

Well, I can only see this leading to Keystone Cops type scenes, along with a lot of stress for the kitties and a lot of scratches for us. So I called up Lincoln Cat Care, who do have traps.

They are visiting on Monday hopefully.

I've been sketching cats drawing, smoking dope and being feral kittens.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.06.17

Back on the Cricket Field!

So today was my first match of the 2017 season, an intra club practice match which despite the designation of our team as "The Warriors" as if we were a bunch of IPL guys being paid 100 grand a match - IF ONLY - was actually taken very seriously with everyone endeavouring to play their best.

I ended up opening the bowling for these "Warriors" as we fielded first, and despite having bowled really well in recent nets, struggled initially. The first ball of every over was down the leg side, and slow wicket or not, I was really down on pace and not finishing my action properly. So it felt anyway.

Still, I was mainly accurate and I never got hit for 4 once, which is a miracle as far as I'm concerned.

But hey, you are nature lovers, you are more interested in what there was to see around the ground. Well, we had various buzzards flying over, lots of orange tips flitting about, as well as a few small or green veined whites. When we came in from our 40 overs in the field, I headed out for a walk round the ground, seeing what I could find, among the beds of flowering nettle, red dead nettle and ground ivy.

There was plenty, only none of it wanted to be photographed. There were tree bumblebees, various hoverflies and other small buzzing insects, and a few small tortoiseshells that would only be seen by me when they rose up from the patches of dark earth where they were trying to absorb a little heat on a chill day.

I even had time to do some sketching while waiting to bat, this is an ambition of mine this year, to sketch every ground I play on. Which will probably baffle a fair few cricketers, but I try to be a renaissance man ha ha.

So, finished my sketch, and just had to time to get my pads on to go out and score 17 not out, nerves jangling as they always do when I bat!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.04.17

Still Life Sketching over a Pint

Not exactly Doctor Sketchy stuff, but I like doing it.

For some daft reason drawing, as opposed to photgraphy or writing, makes me feel a more cultured person. Pure snobbery on my part. Why does the ability to wield a pencil make you better?

Familial envy is another issue - everyone in my my family has a higher art qualification apart from me, be it graphic or fine.

Heaven knows what my talentless genes are a throwback to!

Si

The Asperger Child

I was trying yet again to get rid of a load of horrific clutter in my horrifically cluttered flat, when I found various notebooks that I have kept haphazardly at various times in various places.

Most of them are comparitively recent and full of various scrawls; the book of holidays, which is red, and the book of moon-a-mucks, which is brown, and horror and prose and thankfully no bad poetry whatsoever.

What I also came across was a very 80s design A4 notebook, which I was using in about 1987.

This was the book of planetary geology and economics, of flying saucer sightings, interstellar space craft design and a navy belonging to a nation and history that never existed.

These are all my designs. My stories, the external expression of what went on in my head and what still does, endless design of aircraft and navies and cricket teams and all sorts.

I had no idea back then, but thanks to reading Oliver Sacks I have since discovered that this is very much a trait of Asperger Syndrome, as is the obsessive bowling of tennis balls against trees while commentating on it in Richie Benaud voices. Which I've greatly enjoyed doing since 1980 and never will stop doing.

Tourettes and Aspergers do often run together, their spectrums ribbon around each other like friendly snakes, and both share OCD and ADHD co-morbids. What I am, and which bit of all this does what, is very unclear to me and doesn't matter anyway.

So here it all is, the created universe of Si!

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.11.16

A Cold Day of Sketching

Well, today has been a funny sort of day, bright, cold, windy and sad.

A friend of mine decided to take their own life in the very hours of Friday morning, to the complete shock of all in the town.

So it was good to take some pleasure in the day, and get out for some time around the lakes looking for winter ducks to photograph. Of course, the shovellers had gone, and no pochard or goosander had arrived on the two lakes.

So instead, I took up position and began to sketch quickly in my odd, and out of proportion style. I really wanted to get a better sense of water than I did on my first sketch.

I hope I did.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.11.16

A Little More Sketching

A horrendously dull drizzly day, on which not a lot of was done other than a trip to the Sconce to do some sketching.

As you can see, I got the proportions of the fortification rather wrong, but nothing will help other than lots of practice!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.10.16

The Woodcuts on the Walls

These live at the folks' house, sitting on the wall like a sort of baroque version of Hilda Ogden's flying ducks. They've been around for a very long time, so long I can't remember if it was me that bought them or not.

I rather like them.

On the wall they hang, along with such other artefacts as the Charles Rennie McIntosh wallhanging which is so impregnated with soot it now looks like The Turin Shroud; the Donald Rudd painting; the Hornel prints dating back to the beginning of the 20th century featuring my Auntie Bella as a subject for the price of a bunch of bananas; the hideous Mariushka doll "thing" sketch bought off a Spanish artist slash teacher.

Some of it is glorious. Some of it is pure tat.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.08.16

Badgers-a-Go-Go!!!

My sister has been indulging in a spot of conceptual design that basically requires her to sketch a large number of badgers. Debonair badgers. Tipsy badgers. Hipster badgers.

As you can see my sister is a far better illustrator than I could ever be. She ought to get into a spot of natural history! But she is busy with this, and perhaps soon, collaborating with myself.

Si

Images copyright Rebecca Bex 18.03.16