Friday 18 February 2022

Mrs. B Challenge 40 - 1 - Take a life drawing lesson

Challenge number 13.

1 - Take a life drawing class

Aaaand another one ticked off!  I’ve been looking for a class for a while, and stumbled across lessons at the 
Ashcroft Art Centre In Fareham. They are stand alone sessions and only £16, which was a lot better than I’d imagined.  So I rounded up my partners in crime, who readily agreed to come along for the creativity and away we went.

The art tutor was lovely and so so welcoming. She gave us tools we may need, including paper and away we went! 

We completed a few warm up exercises, before the big draw at the end.  Our model was a lovely chap called Bryn and not all of it was naked!

The first exercise was to draw bold lines with a permanent marker.


To draw the model without looking at the paper.


To draw the model without taking your charcoal off the paper at all.


And then the final piece was to draw creatively, however you wanted!


These are all my pictures, and I’ve learnt I need more practise! Especially with proportions, the poor model hasn’t got these distorted or short shaped arms and legs and he definitely doesn’t look like Beavis and Butthead!  

All round it was a great evening, it is such fun completing these adventures/challenges, doing something different and my friend Kate said, I feel alive and like I’m truly living my best life. And I truly am.

I’m thankful to my partners in crime, who are with me every step of the way!!




Love you so much, girls! 

On to the next one, I’ll keep you posted.

TTFN, Sammy xx

  

Tuesday 15 February 2022

Mrs. B Challenge 40 - 26 - Climb the 02

Challenge number 12.

26. Climb the 02.

So this came about by me and my two best friends getting drunk last year! We were out for Kate’s birthday, a luscious bottomless brunch and we got to talking about our lists.  Yes they both have lists too now!  This was mentioned as a challenge, a few bottles of Prosecco down and we were signed up, booked and paid for…. Gulp…

I hate heights, I absolutely struggle with them the most, so the closer this loomed, the more on edge I got. I was also super worried the harness wouldn’t fit me! Having lost nearly 4 stone I was easily under the weight limit, but what if the harness wouldn’t go round me. I had nightmares for weeks!

Our 4th climber couldn’t make it, so Mr. B stepped into the space and brought up the rear!  We were so so lucky with the weather, but having parked and approaching the 02, it suddenly looked a lot steeper and a lot harder than I’d thought!


The walkway is suspended above the dome itself, so it felt even higher! Anyway off to get the harnesses on and sign our lives away 😅






It fitted, yay! Although that now meant no getting out of it now!








Professional pictures done, and time to climb! 
Now the steepness wasn’t too bad, but the walkway is like a rubber bouncy castle and wow it was hard. The people ahead of us made it wobble and the bounciness made it super scary! The walk way is made up of 3 parts, super steep to start with, moderately steep the second part and a gentle hill on the last part. Once getting past the first part, it did become easier, but it was the unnatural position it put your feet in! The climb itself only took around 30 minutes and we reached the top.
















The view from the top was fabulous and to be up there in this perfect weather was a total privilege. I’m so grateful I managed the challenge, with my husband, my best friends and I’m so so proud of myself.

Now of course, what goes up - must come down! I had already seen that the gradient was steeper on the way down and we were warned we might feel like we want to ‘bounce’ and to try not to. Again the walkway was in three parts, with the last of course being the steepest. We were given the option of going down backwards or forwards, but not sideways! And well, we kicked arse of course!


We made it to the bottom and our adventure was over! Almost…. We stopped off for a coffee and a sandwich in costa and went back to the car for champagne! Classy women drinking in a car park, but we blumming deserved it!






Now on to the next one…. I’ll keep you posted.

TTFN, Sammy x