Wind Down?

Seasonal Felicitations to you all.

Hi everyone. As I usually try and do first off, here's a very big welcome to my new blog followers at the time of typing - Rachael, Sheila, Roger and Angus. Thank you, I do appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy it.

It's Xmas Eve, and I'm hoping that you are just about ready for it all - basically just sat clock watching, waiting for the starting gun to fire. And then? Well especially if you have small children, all hell breaks loose! Why do they never get up that early when it's school? Even if you don't have children, it still seems the same somehow, maybe we are, and always will be, nothing but Big Kids. Hopefully, if you have been good - you may just get some of the art materials you have asked for!

Post title is "Wind Down", and I'm wondering if you actually do something like that if you are of an artistic or creative sort. Do you halt, draw a line under things just because it's the year end? Probably not - it's a lot of wasted effort if you are part way through any work, then you stop it just because the end is nigh! But everyone is different, and there are subtle changes that some people may make. Some actually love to get outside or work from cards or photo's of lovely winter scenes. I suffer from the SAD syndrome, so each thing I work on has to be of a "bright" matter. That means bold, bright colours, or warm subjects. So the one thing I do not do is snow covered olde worlde landscapes.

Me at this time? Well, I'm just copying out and reworking some pen and ink sketches I did a couple of years ago, now having a go at watercolouring them. They are old tools, primarily used for cutting local peat - though everyone makes the best use of what they have, and they were probably used for other things too. I love historical things, and often imagine what tales they could tell if able to. Luckily I was fortunate enough to hold these items, and to get a real idea of what they were all about. Fascinating!

What I am saying, is although I do not relish this time of year weather wise, I can use the time to think of, and work on more cheery subjects for me as an individual. Using this line of thought, I work on smaller things, and use them as practice subjects - getting used to the new papers, paints and brushes I have purchased over the last few months. Having simple items like a 2B pencil, putty rubber and good paper is all that is really needed.

Actually, I was talking to a good friend today who said one of her relatives was an artist, and she had wanted to have a go herself. So I told her to just get the above items and simply have a go - copy as neat or loose as you want, simply shading in the darker areas with varying degrees of pressure. One tip here - do not use a sharpened pencil - that's for writing! Cut back some of the wood and leave a longer end to the pencil - mines about 1/2 inch, then use the pencil on it's side. Sounds wierd at first, and can be awkward to get used to, but it works a lot better when you get the hang of it. If you want to get really technical - using your pencil this way, gets you to use your nails to rest on the paper with, thus avoiding getting any grease or dirt off your hands on to your paper. Finally - always draw very lightly on your paper with your initial efforts until you are happy with the result, then you can start to press on harder. By drawing lightly, it's so much easier to rub out if you have to, and doesn't leave a mess or "dirty" marks.

Right - that's enough for this blog, or I'll have nothing to tell you next time!

Please have a very Merry Xmas, and an even better New Year! Regards to you all.

Paul