Oh those many many photos! Part 1, the task

My (android) phone kept sending "space is low, some functions may be affected" messages. The easy thing would have been to use the "free up space" option, which deletes all the photos from the device. They are still backed up in The Cloud and are available via googlephotos on my computer.

That's the easy option, and didn't appeal to me ... because ... I want to have access to my recent photos - um, why?? - well, to put on Instagram, to show people, to look at the cute videos of The Darling Grandbaby ... maybe because I'm so used to clutter?? ... but mostly because I'm totally out of the habit of doing things the easy way (why???)!

Because of the "low space" thing, the useful "delete from device" option isn't working. This is a very useful thing to do, when it's working. You select the photos you don't "need" (see above) to have on the phone, tap on the three dots at top right, and tap on "delete from device". Bingo, some space is freed up. A quicker way, if you take lots of pix at once, is to tap on the date and delete a day at a time. You can unselect some of the pix if you use that method.

But ... I can't "delete from device" at the moment so I'm spending an hour a day at the computer "sorting". The time is written into the (online) calendar for the rest of the month of August. 8am every day is supposed to be the starting time and 9am the stopping time, the breakfast-making time. If I need to start later, I reschedule on the calendar, which is also on my phone, rather than just say "I'll do it later sometime". 

This works for me. Back when I was writing a dissertation I had the short sharp shock of realising that in order to get it done in the two weeks of holiday leave that remained before the due date, I had to focus, really focus. There were kids to take to school, and meals to make, but 9-3 was My Time. The first week, it was so hard to sit down and Get On With It, but by the second week I was "in the flow" and was often surprised when 3pm came and it was time to rush to the school. And, being young and energetic, I could do a few more hours in the evening. It got done, and I had a new skill, something that had been missing in my erratic university career - sitting down to work at the appointed hour.

Later I learned about the value of having a stopping time, and respecting it. 

Just one hour in the files, every day, for a week at a time, that's the plan.

I hope to wrest back enough space, in the final week of August, for the "delete from device" to work. And hope to have sorted all of 2020 so far - up to date on IG, just a few choice "important" pix for showing people, and all the pix and the selected videos of Darling Grandbaby in one album.

With her beloved Blanket, formerly known as Deng

I'm learning that all too often I don't know what I took for granted - for instance, does "delete from device" also remove the photo from an album? The Learn Google Photos blog is proving useful. Also the google photos help - why didn't I look at this years ago?

Drawing Tuesday - fountains / water

The morning looked promising for getting out and searching for a fountain or river or canal or puddle of some sort - or for staying at home to observe some home-made, indoor, fountains or waterfalls or streams. Playing with tapwater, or a bowlful, can be captured on camera - a closeup shot or zooming in to a watery image on screen can be surprising and amazing. I had no idea the colours were lurking - they appeared only when the image was blown up again and again - 

Sunlight on the sea

Another example, from a set taken near my home (https://www.instagram.com/p/B7-7_cJHsbf/ - click on the arrows within the picture to see them all) -  shows what a bit of wind can do with a waterfall -

And there are ripples and reflections. And distortion, and diffraction. 

Tania Kovats has a book called "Drawing Water: Drawing as a mechanism for exploration" which is more about drawing than about water itself. She's used water in her work in many ways - fascinating. A book that will have you looking closely at water in many contexts - puddles, ponds, rivers, ocean - and understanding how it's behaving is Tristan Gooley's How to Read Water.

Among many artists who have drawn the surface of the sea is Vija Celmins. More watery-painterly inspiration is gathered here. 

From Ann - a watercolour study of movement sea water ... a photo I took in March of a dolphin swimming alongside our boat in Costa Rica ...a drawing I did recently of Tempest by Scandinavian artist Peder Balke 1880s

From Judith - Difficult today!  A pile of quickly melting ice cubes and then after mopping up a splash from a photo and a quick glass of water.

From Hazel - An imagined stream viewed through tree branches. I used dripped, thinned acrylic paint then drew into it with a pipette and found stick.

From Richard - A rather rushed pastel from me. Mission creep has generated containers rather than water but that’s hard to avoid indoors!

From Sue S -  spotted interesting reflections in a flooded plant tray - pastels & neo-colour to the fore. Oval rather wonky, but had more fun being looser.

From Sue B - I have used two photos sent to me…one of Crail beach, Fife (which I adore!!) - omitting a seagull! - …and another of Camber Sands, Dorset. For the former I just used watercolour; for Camber Sands I experimented with oil crayons and watercolour.

From Najlaa - I like this photo from the internet of the Tigris river southern Iraq.

From Carol - Trying to be clever and include last week’s ellipses as well. This was done from a tutorial in a book, quite difficult but fun and I learnt a lot.

From Joyce - Barnes Wetlands from a sketch. Painted a couple of weeks ago, we had visitors today, social distancing in the garden so not much time!

From Mags - White gel pen following lines of the Thames on section of 1904 cycling map of London.

From Gill - Tried to recreate bubbles in the sink. On the left a little ink study and a pencil study. On the right an experiment with water and washing up liquid.

From Jackie - torn water colour strips with recently discarded torn sea scape photos  and an attempt to merge both with black wavy lines… 

and  a ceramic collage (a work I did earlier…) of a sunset over the sea referencing a trip long ago to NZ

From Margaret - I started by reading a bit and collecting words describing water

but that went nowhere (I've returned to it since, there's a germ of an idea, sprouting).

Watercolour seemed to be an appropriate medium, and I had a lovely memory of a canoe trip in Canada, with waving and glimmering reflections in shallow water, but couldn't find my photos (2007 - on an old computer...). There's a blog post of the time, with pictures of "spooky forest" and a forest pool -

which I tackled with watercolour, and doesn't the transparency make it look different! -

The exercise left me very despondent about my painting skills, or rather, lack of understanding of how to tackle a subject like that.

Back to the "sunlit ripples" - there are many pix online, of course -  this comes close to my memory (and the Reading Water book explains why it looks like that, all to do with the water acting as a "flexible lens") -

So I dabbed about a bit and learned a little and got this

and went to have a good look at how David Hockney does it...

But the sunlit ripples set something else scratching in the back of my brain - aha, those pale, intersecting lines in some of Ian McKeever's paintings -

Drawing Tuesday ... crockery/cutlery

As preparation for "those pesky ellipses" which appear whenever a circle is seen at an angle, I sought help on YouTube.

This short video explains "the perspective centre" of a circle/ellipse and shows how to geometrically construct realistic ellipses. Worth doing once or twice, just for the experience!

This one,"drawing freehand ellipses", starts with training your arm to draw "one clean ellipse", goes on to the "anatomy" of ellipses at the 4-minute mark.

Thanks to getting diverted by other videos (see end of post), I didn't have a "proper drawing" to show at the end of the session, but I had lots of practice ellipses, among them a little sketch of a cup and jug,

and an area, reworked, that could become a woodblock print.

Earlier this year, "the beaky jugs" involved ellipse-like shapes, and groping towards a perspectival view had given me no end of trouble -

Beaky jugs as woodblock

Going back to basics had helped me develop discernment about what looks like a "good" ellipse, some muscle memory, awareness of whether I was holding the pencil appropriately and of the amount of pressure on the page (ie, was the line confident and solid).

From Joyce - These are my two favourite mugs, one from the Isle of Skye and one from Swanage depicting Old Harry Rocks. Watercolour and I resisted the temptation to rescue it with pen and ink! 

From Janet B - I had fun with white, black and grey procolour pencils in a brand new black sketchbook, a novel technique for me.  It’s strange how knowing you can’t rub out is actually rather relaxing. If it’s wrong it doesn’t really matter that much. 

From Jackie - Peaceful time at the garden table with watercolour and pen. 

Tip of the pointed vegetable knife has a reflection from the red paint on exterior of house… (despite looking a little like the result of Lady Macbeth’s foul deed… honest…)

From Mags - From last years daily drawing A6 sketchbooks : everyday use Habitat 'Scraffito' plates ( sadly not made anymore) and quirky china at 'The Yard', Faversham. Recording less 'food porn' with working to daily prompts.... (but we now have regular deliveries of 'Wild Bread ' Cinnamon and Pecan swirls ) 

From Richard - a for very literal exercise in pencil. Nonetheless, it’s always good to be made to look that much harder.

From Sue S -  a view into a cupboard shelf, which l think l’ve fallen off?!

An area rammed with mixers, squishers & jugs. A tough one to settle into & got quite cramped after 2hrs sitting on the floor!

From Sue B - The sweltering heat and humidity meant that I moved from the front room to the hall, moving the crockery, where at least there was a breeze…and I used a chair rather than a window seat!

From Ann - As our anniversary and out and about..this is a drawing from a week or so ago! 

From Judith - Cooking utensils great shapes and it reminded me of the more successful Procreate sketch I did last year of a corner of my kitchen.

From Gill - A set of six coffee coffee cups. They were pretty but some idiot put them in the dishwasher when I had one, so some of the marbling pattern washed away and they became chipped. Used gold pen, felt tips crayon and pencil.

From  Hazel - a charity shop find from a few years ago. I have been intending to draw it for ages so this was my opportunity.  I drew the cup upside down so that you could see more of the embossed design. Perfectly matched to the sunflowers in my garden. Pencil, watercolour and biro.

From Najlaa -

From Jo - collage and watersoluble pencil

Videos about "the basics"

This video is about "getting control of the pencil"  - the secret is drawing from the shoulder, and choosing whether to use overhand grip (for large flowing lines) or tripod grip (for small intricate lines).

If you want to sharpen a pencil properly ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9x49vG9Rk - "you want to expose about one inch of lead"

If you can't find your putty rubber, here's how to replace its "lifting" qualities by reworking an eraser you have on hand - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWJe-bL7G94

Some good art advice from Struthless - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6NsEDwHHiE - check out his other videos too.