That Friday Feeling: Fade To Payne's Grey...

So I should probably start this week by explaining about the video.

Probably: but won’t :)

Because the thing is that this week I’d written this quite long post for That Friday Feeling all about the cinemas I used to visit as a kid and what’s happened to them since, but I kinda changed my mind because after a week that started with me getting totally soaked on Sunday and has been unremmittingly dull and boring ever since I thought I needed to bring you something cheerful and optimistic today in the hope that it would rub off on me.

So last night I was on the bus for the fourth time this week – partially because my panniers still needed washing and partially because I had appointments each night (Tuesday to see a friend, Wednesday to see a film with Our Kid (slang for younger brother)) and for once the Loonie Driver Intent On Killing Me (Note to self: must come up with shorter name for him) must have swallowed “The Little Book Of Calm” or something, because he didn’t shout or swear at anyone.

So I arrived at my first 1-2-1 session with Mad Penguin Lady in a nicely relaxed mood. For those of you following my exploits you will already be familiar with MPL: I originally met her around 2004/5 when she was running a Life Drawing class on alternate Saturdays. I subsequently met her again last year when she started running some evening courses and, earlier this year, I asked her if she would be willing to do some 1-2-1 sessions in aspects of art.

So last night we just sat upstairs in her little studio area mixing watercolours and making different shades.

So please forgive me if this is stuff you learned in Kindergaten – but you have your basic primary colours Red, Blue and Yellow and from these you get your secondary colours: Orange, Purple, Green: but if you create a colour wheel with these secondary colours then you can tell from this which are complimentary colours by what is opposite to what – so dark blue and mustard, purple and yellow etc etc etc.


And when you want to mix a grey colour then you have to use the colours that make up the complimentary colours – so a grey to go with a blue would be made from the blue and the two colours that make up the mustard colour.

And I guess you might think that I would already knew this, and to an extent I did – but I didn’t KNOW it, if you know what I mean?

And I know that I walked out of that room two hours later feeling a little more confident with mixing colours to create contrast and shadow and I guess that’s what I want to take from this week: that sometimes small victories can be enough and that each step, no matter how small, is still a step along the way.