It’s A Privilege…

Working with professional models is a privilege. I draw other people too, successfully and less so. Apart from the ability of a professional to hold poses, they don’t have any expectations from the artist. When I’m drawing or painting non-professionals, some, by no means all, can find it difficult to see themselves as I see them. The likenesses are usually pretty accurate but sometimes I see things they might have never noticed, or have been ignoring. More on this in the next post.

I have a digital exhibition on the Swansea Print Workshop site. It’s a story in words and images of my journey to Pakistan back in 2007 and how it subsequently led me to work with a pre-historian and a filmmaker for three years travelling across the wild areas of South Wales.

Please click on the link below to see the exhibition, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks xxx

“From Pakistan To Pentre Ifan at Swansea Print Workshop”

#Caturday Archive: 44

It’s #Caturday Saturday again and here’s another cat sketch from my sketchbook archives, December 2015. It’s “Puss’n’Boot“, or Sparta Puss and my walking boot, with my foot in it. I was chilling with my feet up and Sparta Puss snuck in and made herself comfy so I scribbled her.

I have three linocut prints in the Miniprint Cymru Wales exhibition in Mostyn in Llandudno, North Wales, open until May 2nd. It includes one of my linocuts of our cat Bill, aka William Chatnoir.

A Statuesque Head

This is one of the professional models I have been working with at Swansea Print Workshop’s Life Drawing group. She has a wonderfully sculptural, statuesque head and body. I’m trying to reflect that in my drawing here, using a fairly academic style. It’s a 15 minute pose and I used graphite onto paper.

I have a digital exhibition on the Swansea Print Workshop site. It’s a story in words and images of my journey to Pakistan back in 2007 and how it subsequently led me to work with a pre-historian and a filmmaker for three years travelling across the wild areas of South Wales.

Please click on the link below to see the exhibition, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks xxx

“From Pakistan To Pentre Ifan at Swansea Print Workshop”

Drawing With Colour: 2

Following on from yesterday’s post, here’s another recent life drawing in colour, instead of my normal black and white. I’m going to try and do at least one colour drawing each session. I’m using Derwent Inktense blocks here onto a heavyweight white paper partly overlaid with a brown speckled Mulberry paper.

Drawing With Colour: 1

Mostly I draw in black on white, but now and again I mix it up a bit and get out some pastels or watercolour drawing blocks (like Derwent Inktense) and use a combination of fine line sketching (Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens) and watercolour drawn on and then wetted using a water reservoir brush.

Sketchbook Archives: 58

People, pigs and a chicken, some more from my sketchbook archives in April 2015.

Trying Out A Different Style

I was late getting to life drawing last week so I didn’t get to do the 3 quick poses that start each session. Here are two at 15 minutes and one at 20 minutes. This is a model I’ve worked with many times over the years and it’s easy to slip into a visual shorthand so I tried altering my usual style a bit for the first and third drawings.

#Caturday Archive: 43

It’s #Caturday Saturday once again. This is from my old sketchbooks, back in December 2015. Just a couple of very quick scribbles at feeding time.

A Full Figure

I’ve been concentrating on portraiture at life drawing sessions for the past few months, but I was really taken with this pose, especially the patterns on the throws and cushions that contrasted so much with the cool, pale skin of the model.

Foraging In The Sunshine

At last! Sunshine! Spring is here! Husb and I went foraging as it’s Ramsons (wild garlic) season. We know some old woodland where the Ramsons grows prolifically and we foraged responsibly. There were celandines and wood anemones peeping through the wild garlic leaves. We also saw lots of primroses and just the one bluebell – I reckon another 10 days or so and the woods will be strewn with bluebells. Going to visit again in a couple of weeks.

To find out more about responsible foraging in the UK, see here. And to check out what’s available to forage in March, see here.