Other than the dinner on Friday night, I haven’t really been out much. I have instead spent quite a bit of time at home working on my various art forms and projects.

I did actually go out yesterday afternoon as it was a lovely springlike day, with the intention of going somewhere to sketch. But it was one of those days when I couldn’t find anything I was in the mood to sketch. So what did I do? I went to one of my favourite outdoor cafes, ordered a glass of champagne, pulled out my mini sketchbook and began to doodle. This is what came out!

On Friday I did the next couple of stages in my fileteado project, and you can see them both in this photo.

I began, at the teacher’s instruction, by painting the outside scrolls. They will eventually be a nice warm yellow, as yellow on a dark red background is quite traditional. But the first coat is just flat ochre, which doesn’t look like much here.

Then I did the second stage of the lettering, which is what is called the body of the letter, done here in light blue. Next week I’ll get to the shading, which is what brings it alive.

All this took an hour-and-a-half — it’s certainly painstaking work. Stay tuned for next week’s effort.