I like to share my experiments in art with you, especially when they are quite different from one another. Here are two examples.

This is my latest Fileteado piece. It’s very traditional, with its curly lines, flowers and, of course, the flag. Not my favourite, but it was fun working on the 3D aspect. I’ve now started on the lion I was commissioned to do. It is very complex and will probably take me a few weeks — I’ll keep you posted.

This morning in the cafe over breakfast I was playing with optical illusion. It’s fun to do, as I get into a kind of zen state just drawing lines. I’ve done quite a few of these, but this is the first time I’ve added colour.

Now this is just weird! I’ve joined an online membership site called Urban Sketching. The leader is Ian Fennelly, my go-to guru for this type of art. Each month he will focus on one aspect and go very deep. The first lesson this week was about lines, and what Ian calls “taking a line for a walk”. The challenge exercise was to choose a scene (I picked the street view from a sidewalk cafe), select one pen, and in ten minutes draw the scene with one unbroken line, ie never taking the pen off the paper. It was a challenge indeed. Here’s the result.