Oh, to be in Italy

I've been working on stuff for my class in Italy in May. This cold weather makes you long for a bit of sun and we didn't get our few days in Morocco that we had planned. It all seemed to mean booking with British Airways who were on the point of striking. I have a couple of places left on the Puglia course if anyone else fancies a creative blast of warmth. The lovely thing is that we have transport and can go out and about taking photos and making sketchbooks with my Pogo camera printers. The one below is based on a fresco of the Three Graces.





Here's a detail of that page.





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A little work plus a laminated background and here's the story so far. I have to do some stitching on the background but I am having a great time with it. The course will concentrate on translating our photos using mixed media and things like oiled, painted papers - my current fave.

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If you can join me in May find all the details on http://www.masseriadellazingara.com/
Be quick though - it's very nearly full.

If you have an iphone or ipod touch, there are some great apps out there. Jane Wild introduced me to one called Type Drawing - you type in a phrase or odd words and then draw on the screen with your finger. Here it is on a black background. I have printed strings of words out and used them in the sketchbook above.
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This is a combination of the Type app with another app called Juxtaposer - which looks boring at first glance - just shows how to put a dog's head on your friend! But it works on layers - rubbing out the top to see what's under. Then it has other tricks up its sleeve. Both apps are very inexpensive and I've had a lot of fun with these two. The one below shows my Buddha drawing with some type on top.
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Then a bit of manipulation gives this.

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Finally, I was much amused by Jude's hinged door idea. I am quite sure that Smudge will soon be too fat to get through our catflap.
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Smudge prefers indoor pastimes as it is so cold. The whole family enjoys a bit of nature filming - especially David Cattenborough.