Usually I work in pen and ink, markers and scratchboard with digital colour, but I want to learn to paint. Now that I have a house with room to move I am making myself pull out the paints and brushes, even though the “studio” is currently storage for extra chairs and the paints are old and it’s chance as to whether the tube I think I want will be dried up.

At the moment, I’m just trying to loosen up and to learn to think in terms of painting instead of drawing+colouring. Yesterday afternoon I painted this – acrylic paints on an offcut of matt board.

Learning process

I decided not to use a pencil first – I end up keeping too close to the lines. I’d gessoed the board a few years ago so I rubbed crimson over it and then did an underpainting in crimson+pthalo blue, and then painted over the top. I really like the colour of the crimson wash – it is the same colour geranium petals make when you scrub them on concrete (misspent youth).

Other projects continue. My sister is sending me pictures of wild dogs and I finally found the toy rhinoceros I misplaced (it was in the bag with the abacus beads), but I have not yet organised a knitting reference photoshoot.