Week Word: Widdershins

Carmen at Tales of a Biomouse chose our word this week, the very fantastic 'widdershins'.

My immediate association with this word is Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, where widdershins is one of the four directions (along with turnwise, hubwards and rimwards).

In this world it generally means anti-clockwise, the opposite way to the sun, or just the other way to the usual one. I also found a few interesting warnings about what can happen if you do things widdershins... walking widdershins round a church is very unlucky and might whizz you off to goodness-knows-where, and dancing that way round a ring of toadstools could result in falling under the power of fairy people. 

Consider yourselves warned! And visit Carmen (although possibly not till Sunday) to see who else is playing this week.

EDM #2,3,4

My recent EDM Challenges:

EDM #2: Draw a desk lamp or other lamp.

EDM #3: Purses, wallets or bags

EDM #4: Draw your mug or cup

I'm really loving not having to think about what to draw, just how to best depict that day's challenge. 

Hobbit on a Bicycle

Here's the gist of a conversation we had recently.

Watching the cycling at Box Hill... one of the British cyclists is obviously a lovely be-sideburned chap called Bradley Wiggins... we are people who like spoonerisms... Widdly Baggins... laugh like drains... Baggins = hobbit... sideburns = hobbit... hobbit on a bicycle!

Sunday Sketchblog #26

It's hot as can be here at the moment, so this week's sketch of a sunflower seems fairly apt. 

I didn't manage to grow this one myself, he was part of the bunch Nick bought to cheer me up after the aforementioned bike incident.

Emma hasn't posted a sketch yet today - hopefully she's out enjoying the sunshine - but have a look in case she appears with a last minute Sunday contribution.

Week Word: Transition

John chose our word this week, so visit his blog to see his take on it and find out who else is participating.

Pondering this word, I was thinking about the difference between change and transition. I came up with the feeling that a transition is more of a process, something that has definite steps involved. A change can come out of the blue, but a transition is more gradual and, perhaps, cumulative.

I then tried to come up with transitions in my life, and realised that I'm probably living through one of the biggest ones at the moment. Being engaged is actually a transition, as you move from being single and responsible only for yourself to working out how to be part of a marriage.

It's certainly something I hadn't really thought about till I found myself in the middle of it... I think I felt that I'd just go from single to married in one easy step and have done with it! But, actually, it's a more gradual thing; working out who you are going to be together, deciding what things are important and which ones you'll compromise over, planning a future where you're responsible for someone else's needs and hopes as much as your own.

(My bike and I had a bit of an altercation with the road yesterday, resulting in a fun ambulance trip and some glue currently holding a little bit of my head together. I'm fine (and so is the bike!) but my picture uploading abilities are a little disrupted, so apologies for this rather wonky photo of my sketch. I'll replace it with a decent scan next week once everything is back to normal! (Now done!))

Everyday Matters - EDM #1

I think I mentioned a while ago that I've been reading some of Danny Gregory's books recently. Following on from one of them, Everyday Matters, the artist Karen Winters created a list of drawing challenges which I'm going to start trying to work my way through. Hopefully it will result in not having to resort to 'view out of my window' sketches for a while!

There's a facebook group where people who are participating can share their work - it's really interesting to see all the different interpretations of the same subjects.

Weekend in Pictures

What was I most excited about at the Olympic Park? The fact that they sold porridge!

Breakfast! I believe there was some sword fighting going
on in the background...

And that it was sunny and surprisingly (pleasingly...) bereft of hordes of people.

We also found time to follow the sporting example and took the bikes out for a ride. And a pub lunch.

So yes... sport... mostly just excuse to eat in different locations.