I’ve Got Wood…

…..and I know how to use it :). I’ve got a stack of plywood offcuts hanging around the studio so I thought I’d do some woodcuts from my sketches. I’ve decided to work on male nudes for the foreseeable future and I’ve just completed a series of three very large manier noir drawings, including oneContinue reading “I’ve Got Wood…”

Hats And Fire

  Guy Fawkes Night!!!!! A great British tradition. Some say that Guy Fawkes is the only person ever to have entered the Houses of Parliament with honest intentions. Tonight we took a young relative to the municipal fireworks display just across the road from the sea. It was terrific, some of the best fireworks I’veContinue reading “Hats And Fire”

Sprog Sitting

  Did some sprog sitting over the weekend with a gaggle of small nieces and nephews, so I grabbed the chance to do some more scribbles of children’s heads. Weird little alien bonces are very hard to draw. The proportions are so difficult – they have impossibly huge eyes. I’ll get there …. one dayContinue reading “Sprog Sitting”

Another Man. Another Day.

  I’ve been working on some very large manier noir drawings, based on life drawings from my sketchbooks, The drawings are on paper about 120cms high, Fabriano Accademica, coated with acrylic gesso and rubbed all  over with compressed charcoal. I thought I’d do a series of male nudes – there are loads in my sketchbooksContinue reading “Another Man. Another Day.”

Aaarrgghhh! Hands!

  Life drawing tonight – really lovely pose except for the hands! I tried to draw them twice and they ended up looking like one good hand with a couple of sausages attached. Floppy sausages. With nails. aaaaarrrggghhhh! So frustrating. The other pose was nice too – some severe foreshortening – love it. I usedContinue reading “Aaarrgghhh! Hands!”

Faces At The Window

  There’s a brothel at the end of our street and sometimes the ladies sit in the window, looking out. Sometimes I surreptitiously sketch them. If they see me, they draw back and close the blinds. Locally, the policy seems to be to let them be, although technically it’s illegal. The brothels masquerade as ‘gentlemen’sContinue reading “Faces At The Window”

I Want A Steamroller!

  Tonight I went to Swansea Print Workshop for an artist talk by the new printmaker-in-residence, Fiona Kelly from Cork in the Republic of Ireland. She works mostly in block (relief) printmaking technique, basing her practice on drawing. Fantastic stuff. But best of all for me was a collaboration she showed us with some otherContinue reading “I Want A Steamroller!”