Colour me impressed

Lunch at a Bistro pub in Hebden Bridge – delicious food and a warm and cosy atmosphere.

I stumbled across the website Color Hunt the other day – https://colorhunt.co/

With thousands of free colour palettes, under a range of categories.

Each of the palettes has a range of 4 colours within the theme and there are a multitude of palettes for each theme.


Christingle

Nearly time to pick up another one of these babes.


Engine

We had a lovely meal out at Engine, in Sowerby Bridge – tapas with some twists. Generous portions and a fantastic atmosphere.


Ask

As a lover of pepperoni pizza, Ask is pretty much the only popular Italian restaurant, here in the UK, with a pepperoni pizza that gets me all hot – in both ways! I thought I’d try the gluten-free base for a change here.

And I loved the wine glasses – a high centre of gravity isn’t always something I look for in a wine glass, but this felt quite sturdy.


A Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea

Both Caroline and myself are sad that this little gem of a tearoom no longer exists. We had already had a regular afternoon tea there a few ago, when I was given vouchers for a second visit.

I chose to have the Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea, which comprised of pork pies and Yorkshire puddings in the savoury section, whilst Caroline had the usual selection of finger sandwiches (little sandwiches, not sandwiches containing fingers)


Another blast from the past

This gorgeous cafe – The Cafe Restaurant at the Plaza – is in Stockport in the refurbished Plaza cinema and theatre. It’s a fabulous 1920s building and when I say refurbished, I mean back to former glory days. The cafe was equally like stepping back in time, probably why I opted for a Waldorf Salad (Although I think that they’d run out of waldorfs, as I didn’t have any in mine!). My tea was one of the cafes own blends; a Raspberry and Lemongrass infusion – which I would have loved to have bought some to take away with me.


Orlando

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We’ve been to this crazy Italian Restaurant a couple of times, now. Fabulous food surrounded by crazy signs and notices and waiters who do table magic and jokes.


Digital Me

Well, I’ve taken a leap – and for me, a pretty huge one! After years of working purely in sketchbooks, I’ve started working digitally.

I’ve written before about finding it harder and harder to see my own drawing work close up, and I haven’t been posting, well, because my drawing work kind of dried up. I hadn’t considered moving to digital work because I’d always avoided working on my drawings to tidy them up or to tinker with them. But, given the choice between not drawing anymore and learning to work in a new medium, well, there wasn’t much of a choice.

PieThis Pork Pie, from my last post, was my first experiment; laying down colour first, with watercolour. Then Scanning and adding line work using Procreate on the iPad.

 

 

 

 

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This is where I’ve got to, now – using line work, from a sketchbook (As an Alpha level) and using the iPad to colour above and below.


Pork Pie with Stilton

Bought from my local, friendly farm shop.

Sometimes it’s nice to have the simple things in life; the simplicity of a pork pie, on it’s own. Delicious

 

Actually, sketching this out reminded me that I’ve got a pork pie tin somewhere in the kitchen – I went on a pork pie making course a couple of years ago (incredibly easy to do) but I’ve never delved into having a go at following the course at home. 


So … how’ve you been?

Okay, okay … I know it’s been a while. In fact, it’s been a long, long while.

But not without reason, unfortunately.

About mid-November, last year, I noticed that I was having to take off my glasses to read. I went for an eye test and the optician suggested that a new pair of glasses wasn’t really necessary and that taking off my glasses to read would suffice.

The trouble with this diagnosis was that I’d noticed I was finding it difficult to sketch in my sketchbook too.

So, I went back to the opticians in mid-December.

It’s taken until now to find something suitable that seems to fit the bill.

My problem, of course, has been one of finding it difficult to see close enough to sketch.

A Little Back Story: I’ve worn glasses since I was about 11. Needing them for both near and far.

But my eyesight has got to the point where seeing things near with the same pair of glasses is no longer an option.

It’s taken many, many, many visits to the opticians to figure out what I needed; especially after a lot of misunderstanding from them about what I wanted. Initially they were supplying me with glasses I could wear day-to-day (some variation-focal lenses) but these were impossible to sketch close-to with.

The glasses that I finally picked up yesterday have stronger, mid-range lenses (so, no good for seeing distance with) But fine for sketching with (at long last)

This has been a truly, truly upsetting journey at times – but I feel I’m finally getting somewhere.