Author: hareinthemoon

I love drawing things. These days I am rarely found without a pen, pencil or stylus in my hands. In my working life I spend a lot of time in meetings and classrooms, reading papers and strategies, so my home life provides a creative antidote to all that! I also have chronic pain, lots of it. I have scoliosis, fibromyalgia and CRPS, so my life is a balancing act, trying to balance work, which make me feel part of the real world, with pain, which is ever present, and art, which soothes my pain.

A Seagull: Life goes on

Today’s portrait is a seagull drawn from a Sktchy photo uploaded by Kris. I live in Brighton on the south coat of England, a city with its fair share of seagulls. Some consider them a plague, personally I love them.

Every year two seagulls nest in our chimney pots and around this time of year their eggs hatch and for a couple of months I watch my chimney pots as the chicks grow into fledglings. I love the expectation, waiting to see how many chicks there are, trying to count them as they start to move around between the chimney pots, never entirely sure until they are big enough to fight for space in their cramped quarters.

This year the gulls are back again and I’ve been watched them build their nest and guard it for some time. I’m pretty sure the chicks have now hatched because one of the gulls is permanently stationed on the chimney and they appear to be feeding chicks, but they’re not moving around yet. It feels more important to me than ever before that they are there this year, because they are a daily reminder to me that the world is still turning, that nature is still doing what it does, it’s patterns are unchanged, if anything they are reinforced by the slowdown in economic growth. Watching the seagulls carry on with their lives just as they do every year is the most reassuring thing I have seen this spring. It brings me peace in a way that nothing else has done. I’m hoping there are at least 2, perhaps even 3, chicks this year. I’ll let you know.

I drew the full on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.

Sassa

Sassa

Drawn in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers.

Artur

Artur

This is Artur. Nothing deep and meaningful about today’s choice of Sktchy face to draw. I just liked that intense and more than a little grumpy expression and it was definitely fun to draw. I got lost in the pink and blue tones for a while.

I drew this on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app and Lisa Bardot’s fabulous pencil box brushes.

Drawing Caroline’s feet and raising some CRPS awareness

Caroline’s feet

These are the very lovely feet and hands of Sktchy muse Caroline. My feet used to look like this. I was once happy to have what I thought were “pretty” feet. And then in 2016 I had a neurectomy to remove a small tumour from a nerve in my right foot and developed CRPS (which stands for Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome), a rare disease, as a consequence of the surgery.

CRPS can be cured if it’s rapidly but if it isn’t treated successfully in the first 6 months the prognosis is poor. NHS waiting lists in pain services meant that I didn’t get seen for 6 months, by which time it was too late. My CRPS had spread from my foot up my leg.

It’s a neurological condition which affects the way nervous system responds to stimuli – basically it over responds to any and all stimuli. So a light touch or slight breeze can feel excruciatingly painful. As you’ve probably guessed it also causes change in the appearance of affected limbs. My foot is misshapen now and changes colour when I’m having a freezing or burning pain flare. The freezing pain flare isn’t so obvious, but when I have a burning flare my entire foot can turn red, then purple and even black. It’s not a pretty sight.

CRPS can also mirror in the opposite limb and I have some mirroring in my left foot too now, though thankfully not in the whole foot. But part of that will also burn and change colour to match my right foot – I call it “coming out in sympathy” for my other foot. So I never, ever draw my feet any more. I used to when they were pretty, but no these days. But I hope I’ve raised a little bit of CRPS awareness by talking about it here – probably worth saying you can also get it in your hands.

I painted this in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi watercolours.

Mr Bandit: Life through a Zoom screen

Mr Bandit

This is a portrait of one of my Sktchy artist heroes Mr Bandit. It captures my life so perfectly right now, since I mostly live it through a Zoom screen. I spend several hours each day remote working, having virtual coffees (with colleagues, family and/or friends) and participating in online classes. And then I spend an hour or two drawing and playing Animal Crossing on my Switch (yes, another screen) to keep me off Twitter.

I drew Mr Bandit in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Quaranzine!

Our zine is finally ready for you to download! Thank you to everyone who submitted their work. Quaranzine grew out the idea that lots of us have …

Quaranzine!

Here’s Mad Covid’s amazing Quaranzine, which is free to download, I feel very privileged to have a page in the Zine.

Quaranzine Resources

This is a list of all the resources mentioned in our zine, Quaranzine. We also have a Mad Covid Support page with other resources which you may find …

Quaranzine Resources

Mad Covid have published a fabulous Quaranzine which I contributed to – here’s a list of free online art resources available during the lockdown.

Na’channa

Na’channa

I chose to paint Sktchy muse Na’channa today because I’m feeling a bit vulnerable. Painting her helped to exorcise a few demons 🙂

I painted this in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi watercolours.

May the fourth be with you: Happy Star Wars Day

Today is one of my favourite days of the year – even lockdown isn’t going to burst my Star Wars bubble and stop me drawing my annual May the Fourth Star Wars portrait. This awesome Yoda cosplay portrait is inspired by a photo posted by Beth on Sktchy.

I drew this in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers.

Abi

Abi

I think this portrait of Abi sums up perfectly how the first six weeks of lockdown have been for me.

I drew it with Bic ballpoint pens in a Moleskine sketchbook.