Art for art's sake

Now if my good friend SiT was still gracing this forum, he would suggest me as a prime mover for your project.

For two reason ......  I have an art O level and I am a pxss artist.

I hope to speak with him this week and will ask for his blessing before I supply CV details.

Am I invited or will I be facing the moderators? 

Xxxxx

Sounds like a great idea. I’m no artist but do appreciate art.  Norberry perhaps you could share some of your o’level art course work

Black and white cows against green grass got me a C. How can I refer that nearly sixty years ago when I can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday!

It is a great idea, I didn't want to tarnish it with a crass joke but I am so missing the foolishness that used to be dotted around forum posts. 

So good to have a laugh sometimes 

I try and sketch sometimes but find it hard to get down to doing it.

some ides of what I can draw or paint would be useful x

Birds, faces, hands, buildings…. Anything that takes your fancy

Norberry. There’s a lot of sadness at the moment, a bit of light hearted banter is not making light of the difficulties some of our friends are enduring, it’s just a distraction, I might have a go at some random picture, for others photos can be art

Hi everyone and for those of you who are interested in giving this a go:

To get yourselves started you might like to start collecting together some stuff into a couple of boxes. Keep an eye out for interesting packaging - if somebody sends you flowers for example, florists packaging is really useful, especially the tissues. Some plastic containers have designs stamped into them that you can 'print' off of. You'll need some little pots and jars for mixing and washing out brushes. An old sponge is useful. Nick the one that hubby uses to wash the car and chop it up into small pieces. Brushes can be expensive but old, small household brushes can be pressed into service, as can makeup brushes. If they're too fluffy get out the scissors and cut them off to make them stumpier. Packaging paper is useful to use as you can make simple stencils from it.

You'll need surfaces to work on. If you feel like buying paper then go for a block of really thick cartridge paper. Thin stuff will cockle when wet and maybe fall apart completely, so best avoided unless all you're going to use are pencils. You can also use old hardboard offcuts, ditto mdf and other bits of board left over from DIY projects, though not plaster or fibreboard.  Carefully cut the sides from old cereal packets and the like or any other packaging thats stiff enough.

Look in your cupboards for old cans with leftovers of white or cream emulsion paint. You can use this, mixed with some PVA to cheaply prime surfaces: about 2/3rds of a big yoghourt pot of paint with 2 tablespoons of PVA should do it. You can also use PVA to glue fabrics over board, coat well, wrapping and glueing round the edges and a few inches on the back. Old shirts are great for this as well as worn out pillowcases, old duvets etc. Cotton or linen is best. You'll need to prime your surfaces with two coats thinly. If priming cardboard do the first side, dry and then coat the back. Repeat. Give yourselves square and rectangular surfaces so you have a selection to work from. If you can't be bothered with any of this, painting boards can be purchased. Jacksons are good value and are also on e-bay along with many other sellers.

Gather together what you've got in the way of other paints and useful things. Also mark-making tools other than brushes: sticks, feathers, an old fork, corks of different sizes, straws for blowing paint around on the surface etc. For your palettes, old plates and saucers are fine. I often use the plastic trays from the supermarket and chuck them away afterwards.

Use whatever media you want to start with. Felt-tip pens, wax crayons, inks, watercolours, acrylics. We'll stick with water-based paints for the moment and see what you'd like to do. Pencils are useful for plotting things out sometimes. Charcoal is better. A charcoal pencil or a graphite stick is very useful.

Lastly, equip yourself with an apron or an old shirt, newspapers or a big piece of plastic to cover up where you're working. Try to find a spot with decent daylight to work by, rather than electric light.

I've been thinking how best to do this. I know that many people respond to working from a loose theme and then their imagination takes over and off they go. They often just find it hard to get started. I propose putting together a set of 'suggestions' that we all, and I include myself in this, interpret in our own way using whatever materials we like. I will throw in a few parameters to help concentrate the mind., as well as some ideas and some links to other artists who use these techniques. You can pick up and put down whatever idea you fancy working on. I will be happy to offer advice on materials if needed, but in all honesty it's better to 'play' and find out how things behave yourself.

Does this sound like something you would fancy doing?

I'm getting ahead of myself here, but wouldn't it be great if we could get some of your work onto merchandise to raise money for Macmillan? Just a thought.....

Norberry, you're just the sort of artist we need!

I can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday either. And I cooked it!

My attempt