Wednesday 23rd August - Super powers, slugs and snails, drawings

 I'm hoping that when I wake tomorrow morning I will have acquired a super power.... what will it be? I had an infusion of zolendronic acid, a sci-fi sounding treatment for osteoporosis, and with a name like that I would expect my hair to turn day-glo pink, to to get x-ray vision or something spectacular. But if it's anything like last time around I'll wake up feeling just the same as normal. 

We were out with the torch and slugging tongs last night; it's much easier as a joint hunting expedition. Himself peers in every nook and cranny, in, on and around the pots, swooping on the unsuspecting molluscs, snatching them up in the silicone ended tongs (non-slip grip!) and dropping them into the empty flowerpot I hold at the ready. We got at least a dozen, and nearly as many the night before. Not sure if we'll go out tonight - the spirit is willing but the flesh is sleepy.

I'm just about keeping up with the August pen and ink project. The current topic is using 'value'. I have done rows and rows of exercises practising increasing decreasing shade and shadow, finishing by copying pictures from the workbook.

 

 

I think my fascination with pen and ink drawings began with the illustrations in the Arthur Ransome books. My father had accumulated a number of books in the series when he was a child, and I loved reading them over and over again and looking at the pictures. Here are two of them;