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Sunday 23 February 2020

Still Life


When I pruned a rose bush in the garden a few weeks ago I kept the chunky stems and used them for a still life sketch. I initially set myself the challenge of spending only an hour doing this. However, sketching using vector shapes only proved slightly more tricky and, after a bit of tweeking and adding texture, I think this took a couple of hours. Used Affinity Designer on the iPad.


Saturday 22 February 2020

Wrest Park

A dry and windy day found me walking near Wrest Park today. It was good to be out on a mild winter's day and I was more than happy to sit down and draw outside. The wind was strong with almost no chill factor. I love being out in the wind except when it is cold or I am on the bicycle. Today it was just welcomingly fresh and a joy to be outside. I walked through a patch of woodland and decided to draw a clump of wild arum leaves. It was a fairly quick sketch so a little rough round the edges. In the cafe I then drew a couple sitting at a table with their dog. As usually happens to me, they left when I was halfway through so I had to rely in my memory to finish it off.

Wild flowers seen today: crocus, daffodil, snowdrop, celandine, dandelion, white violet, primrose (not quite in flower), catkins, dog's mercury.

Surprisingly, on my way back to Luton mid afternoon, I saw barn owl on a fence beside the A6. I could hardly believe my eyes - hadn't seen one for many years in the wild, yet here was one in broad daylight beside a busy main road.




Thursday 20 February 2020

Seaside Art



I am beginning a series of seaside themed pictures to get printed and sell. This is a part of one picture. Will reveal all later in year.

Sunday 16 February 2020

Matthew's News


I know I have not posted here for a while, I have been thinking about changing things round a little as I do from time to time.

Instagram is a more relevant place on which to post my artwork (#matthewslaterart) and feel part of a wider creative community. There are also probably better ways for me to organise this blog to fit in with what I would like to do this year. It doesn't really serve a purpose for me so it may go. Or it may not.

I have decided to concentrate on creating a series of seaside and boat themed illustrations with the aim of selling some digital prints. What I am thinking of doing is creating some quality unframed 10x8” prints which can be sold on Etsy. These can easily be sent out in an A4 envelope and frames can be bought off the shelf very easily. I am not sure I would trust print on demand services to produce bigger work and send them out for me. I will see what reaction I get to the small prints first. I also need to keep the process simple as I can get tied up with my day job from time to time.

Each month I am aiming to enter the 'Writing Magazine' competitions as an exercise. I will probably publish all my entries at the end of the year somehow. Three have been sent off so far and I am now on my fourth. They are usually quite short, around 1500 words, and I am given the theme each month. They are fun to do and an exciting challenge.

My novel is progressing slowly and positively. I have now planned much of the structure out and filled in a couple of remaining gaps in the last day or so. Now, it is just a matter of writing.

I recently visited a hop farmer in Worcestershire who had pulled out of hops a couple of years or so ago and I was able to have a look round and photograph the old hop kilns before they might get converted into homes or pulled down. The information gathered may go into my novel.