BLACK AND WHITE FOR T.A.W., AND SO ARTFUL

One design to fit two challenges today:

Shapes in Black and White - Jez

The challenge from So Artful for June is 'Black and White', and this celebrates the time Dev and I went to see Stevie Wonder in the Birmingham NEC Arena - I think it was in 1984.  I have been reminiscing lately on great musical memories, and one of the highlights for us was seeing and hearing Stevie sing for a whole evening.

For Take a Word the theme is 'Shapes', and there are plenty of different shapes in this piece.

I have not been able to visit and comment as I normally love to 

because I am out of action and asleep much of the time.  

I do apologise, and will get back to see you and comment as soon as I can. 

Linking to Take a Word  and  So Artful Challenges

KEEP THEIR SUNNYSIDE UP

It's springtime, and the challenge at Opus Gluei is EGGS, so it seems the right topic for a vintage song, with a few changes from the original lyrics:

KEEP THEIR SUNNYSIDE UP

Keep your sunnyside up, up,

Let your laughter come through, do.

If you think it's raining for you

Just remember others are blue

Keep your sunnyside up, up

Turn that frown to a smile.

Stand up on your legs,

Go and fry some eggs,

And keep THEIR sunnyside up.

Linking to Order of the Opus Gluei,

MIXING IT UP A BIT

Doodle-Town Map - Jez

'Welcome to Doodle-Town' is my entry for the Mix it Monthly challenge to create a map and use pinks and browns.  Wherever you go in Doodle-Town there is a great deal of variety - in fact it can get a bit too much variety if you are driving around looking for a particular address because there are no signposts.  The best thing about Doodle-Town is that all roads lead out of town and away to something more like civilisation.

And now three digital paintings, which I created for the 'Away from Home' theme at Paper, Paint, Pencils & Pens .  I wanted to illustrate some of the holidays I would love to have taken but never got around to, and here are my imaginary holiday destinations.  All three were painted with the 'Brushes' App on my I-Pad.

Painted on I-Pad with 'Brushes' app - Jez

I love Japanese Gardens, and this little corner of the large garden of the old house we'd spend a month or so in would be where I would come to sit and enjoy the silence and serene atmosphere.

Painted on I-Pad with 'Brushes' app - Jez

Then there was the holiday we fancied in a lighthouse on a cliff, but that was in the days when we would have enjoyed climbing half a dozen or more flights of steps to see the view.  Good job it's got a television aerial and broadband.

Painted on I-Pad with 'Brushes' app - Jez

And a real castle on its own little island, with a gentle slope on the other side behind the castle with a helicopter pad and beautiful gardens leading down to the beach.  At the moment we are out for a ride in the power-boat that is included in the deal.

If you want to come and spend a little time with us in one of those lovely imaginary places, I'm sure we'd find room for you.

Linking with Mix It Monthly,

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

Here is my card to wish all wonderful blogging friends the best of years in 2014, with a good share of joy, love, happiness, success, friendship …….. and perhaps even a little bit of World Peace thrown in.

In what has been a difficult year for us right through, as it has for many others, you have all brought me Joy and Pleasure, and I hope that 2014 will be a little easier for us all.

Digital image by Jez - click to enlarge

The snowflakes were created on a little app called 'Silk', which I enjoy playing with.  Everything else was done on Photoshop.

Apart from 'Happy New Year', the words are by Henry W Longfellow, though I'm sure he must have said Happy New Year a good few times in his life.

And this is my 6" x 4" New Year's wish postcard to everyone at Sunday Postcard Art:

I'm linking this to Moo Mania 'Snowflakes',  Take a Word 'A New Year', Inspiration Avenue 'Joy to the World', Paint Party Friday and Sunday Postcard Art 'Anything Goes'.

GO DOODLING FOR APR

Jenn over at Artist's Play Room knows how much we all love doodling and this week she has told us to 'Go Doodle'.  Both my doodles were drawn a few weeks ago, but they seemed right for the challenge.

I always keep at least one sketchbook by me when I sit to have my coffee breaks, and my doodles most often take the form of a face or cartoony figure, who always come ready with their own name.

Here's Cecil - when I put my pencil on the page he just appeared.  He's trying to put over a good impression, but it's certainly not working on me.  I think he's got shifty eyes and a very false smile.

CECIL

CECIL

   

Cecil, Cecil, you do look quaint,

Your looks would make a Cherubim faint,

You pose as an angelic saint,

You're no angel, and a saint you ain't.

I don't very often doodle patterns and shapes, but occasionally something like this will emerge from the tip of my pen without any conscious thought, and if there's a pen handy I'll add a little colour.  I quite like this, I think it has a lot of movement.

For Sunday Postcard Art the theme is Summer Solstice, and it took me a while to think of something appropriate.

The postcard I made for SPA was inspired by this photograph of a young girl.  Last Thursday we had parked overlooking the sea at Southport - those of you in the UK may know that 'overlooking the sea' is rather a euphemism.  The land around here is so flat that most of the time the sea is just a shining line of water on the distant horizon beyond the sands.

A young girl with a circlet of flowers in her hair walked right up to our car and stood by the car door while her friend took a photograph.  I called through the window to ask if I could take a photograph, and had just a moment or two to snap her - no chance to frame the best shot.

She seemed just right for celebrating the summer solstice.  I isolated her from the background and digitally superimposed her over two pictures of Stonehenge from a vintage book I have called 'British Social History, Vol 1'.  The text and frame were added in Photoshop.