No, nothing special, an account of my day and how it links into being an artist. I set out to be a part time artist, I do not draw all day and especially now in lockdown I don’t even work the hours I do when sat in the shop drawing and waiting for visitors / customers.
So it’s Saturday February 13th. I have drawn Anne’s (Mrs AndyKnillArt) valentines card and put it downstairs on the mantelpiece for tomorrow. All of the valentines commissions that I got this year are drawn, with the clients and I have been paid for all of them (2 actually paid more after telling me that I was doing them too cheaply).
So, Anne has some things to do this morning and with the tide lower in the afternoon there will be beach available to walk on. The morning starts with the ubiquitous #goodmorning photographs of our view of Swanage Bay, a little obscure now as the outside of the windows are grubbier after the last week’s weather and the contributions of a number of gulls on panes we can not reach to clean.
I settle into my studio and go to work on the final section of my latest hand drawn hat commission for a couple who have become friends and like my art. This section is a map of Brownsea Island seen from above around the brim of the hat. I had drawn a paper based draft idea. Today with fineliner I found the map sources I wanted from Dorset Explorer on the iMac and placed them on screen in front of me. I then drew the outline of the island, the boundaries of the sand and mud banks. Once this was complete I used a combination of Winsor and Newton ProMarkers and Uni Posca paint markers to add colour a section at a time. Once they were dry I added labelling of some key features then added the land areas of woodland or open space. Some extra work on some finer details, the intended recipients name inside the hat and then my autograph.
Completed – I made contact and we arranged to do a click and collect from the shop at 2pm.
Lunchtime and a step back from the focus needed to do the above. After lunch we gathered our hats, gloves, coats etc and headed out and down to the shop. We met, I showed the hat and they paid. Then we headed off to the seafront and our walk – very cold, nowhere near as much sea foam / spume as yesterday. We walked out the end of the seawall and I took more photos to catalogue how the beach and cliffs are changing.
Home, fell asleep and then this evening tv catch-up recordings and music and now blogging.