I’ve been scribbling away today into my rather funky leather bound Steampunk sketchbook, size A5. It isn’t brilliant paper but it looks so cool. I bought it a while back in London’s Camden Market but have hardly used it.
Carrying on with the ‘head’ practice, I set myself an upper time limit of 4 minutes a drawing and worked from photographs searched from Pinterest.
So here’s a quarter of an hour of sketches, using two Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S and F.
I will be carrying on with quick gesture drawings of heads for the next week. I need the practice as something special is coming up but I can’t say too much about it yet. It’s a secret 🙂
These two elderly men were drawn into my tiny A6 sketchbook with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S. I only allowed a maximum of 3 minutes each.
I did some gesture drawings of heads when I was out and about in Swansea earlier. Gesture drawings are ones that are done very quickly, capturing the essence of the subject, zooming in on the most important details.
The drawing on the left was done in a few seconds, way under a minute and the others took perhaps a couple of minutes each. No more. I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S into my little spotty sketchbook, size A6.
It’s been one of those days where time just speeds by. I spent this morning catching up with housework before I disappeared under a pile of mess. This afternoon I spent with my delightful extended family at a summer fête. I managed a few very quick scribbles of some of the face-painted little tykes before I was roped in to run the ‘Guess The Teddy’s Name’ stall.
Off to water the allotment this evening because the heatwave is still with us and then onto the beach to catch the high tide for a dip. Chilly!!!! Then back to do a couple of head studies from Burne Hogarth’s book on dynamic anatomy. And now blogging with a cup of hot blackcurrant cordial. I made it last weekend from our glut of blackcurrants on the allotment. We picked about 7 kilos and left about a kilo for the birds.
Carrying on with studying the head, I did a couple more drawings from the Burne Hogarth book, ‘Dynamic Anatomy’ then I pressganged Husb into posing again. I continued to work in greys and white over a black ground, using mostly a large soft brush in the Markers app on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8.
I managed to squeeze the drawings in this evening after loads of cooking: a dozen chocolate cupcakes, a Victoria Sandwich and a couple of jars of blackcurrant butter. Then a trip to the allotment and a dip in the sea and a workout on the free beach gym. Busy day 🙂
Had a long day starting with the fabulous Uplands Market this morning then an exciting trip to Llanelli to buy jam pot covers because there don’t seem to be any on sale in Swansea followed by a workout on the beach at the open air gym and then up to the opening of the new Galerie Stephanie. And I made 4 jars of summer fruits in brandy.
I finally got time to do a sketch and as I want to focus on drawing heads for a couple of weeks, Husb had to do modelling duty. I’m trying out a different technique with the Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8, using the free Markers app. I’m laying down a dark grey background with a large soft brush then working over with white, black and greys, again with the large soft brush, adding fine linework at the end in black and white.
I’m concentrating on drawing heads for the next couple of weeks. I need the practice so last night at the life drawing group, I focused on getting a likeness of the model. I drew with a Derwent sketching pencil size 4B into an A3 Daler Rowney sketchbook.
Our model has a very distinctive face and great hair and beard. I find facial hair a real challenge to draw because it’s hard to see the underlying structure.
Today, I spent some time doing technical studies of heads from Burne Hogarth’s book on dynamic anatomy and then went off to the beach. I squeezed into a tankini and went for a dip in Swansea Bay. It’s the first time I’ve taken the plunge in years. It was gorgeous. I don’t know why I don’t do it more often. Yes I do. It’s because the weather is usually awful. I covered myself with sunscreen so I wouldn’t turn puce like I did the other day.
It’s a heatwave. The temperature is in the upper 20s which means that British men flock to the beaches and strip off as much as they can get away with and still stay legal. I’m working in my Daler Rowney A sketchbook with a Derwent sketching pencil size 4B.
So much male flesh on show, some men obviously take pride in roasting their beer bellies and moobs in the midday sun. And unfortunately, Budgie Smugglers didn’t go out in the 1970s.
What is it about we pale skinned Brits that whenever the temperature rises to anything hotter than lukewarm, we strip off as many clothes as we can legally get away with and broil ourselves under the hot sun? I went for a stroll on Swansea Beach this afternoon and it was pretty full of people roasting themseles to various shades of pink – salmon, peach, puce, cerise, magenta, fuschia, candy, Barbi, strawberry, blush, lobster, livid red, third degree burns!
I stopped for a scribble in my little A6 spotty sketchbook with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S. I hadn’t been at it long when I noticed my legs hurting and looked down to see two puce appendages sticking out of the bottom of my cut-off leggings, clashing horribly with my purple pumps. Ychyfi! (That’s Welsh for Yuck). Maybe I’ll get myself a burkini.
It’s probably been the hottest day of the year so far, in the upper 20sC and the cat is sleeping on a fleecy blanket on top of the hot water boiler! And she wears a fur coat! I ended up in the kitchen for hours making jam. There’s been a glut of blackcurrants on the allotment so jamming is stage 1 in the preservation process. Some have been bagged and frozen and the rest will be converted to cordial tomorrow.
I did a quick digital scribble of Ming the Merciless as she slept on the boiler, using the free Markers app on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8.
Click on the image to see my series of silkscreen portraits celebrating great but often neglected women artists and to find out about their fascinating lives.
To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.
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