Category Archives: Arty Stuff

A Lady In Black (Female Nude)

Just got back from this evening’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. This model is great, full of character with a very complex face. I used a piece of discarded mountboard (matte) that I prepared with 2 coats of acrylic gesso. When it dried I sponged an ink wash randomly across the surface. ThisContinue reading “A Lady In Black (Female Nude)”

Pressing The Piggah!

I spent the afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop, inking and pressing a little lino block I’d cut earlier this week. The subject is Arthur, the Mangalitza boar from Pontyates. I forgot to take my digital camera so tried using the camera on my phone. It’s rubbish and really complicated to get the image onto myContinue reading “Pressing The Piggah!”

Bones And Brown Paper

I like studying anatomy. I love the interface between art and science. Sometimes I get access to a skeleton and scribble happily for hours. These drawings are on very large sheets of brown wrapping paper, using black, white and sanguine conte crayons. Working on this scale gave me the chance to focus on mark-making ratherContinue reading “Bones And Brown Paper”

Feathery Fidgety Fellows

I’m part of an artist collective called Commensalis that aims to organise pop-up exhibitions in quirky places to get our work seen by a good cross-section of people, not only dedicated artanistas. We’ve found a geat mortuary chapel in Bath, UK and we’re busy raising some money through crowd-funding to cover the costs of puttingContinue reading “Feathery Fidgety Fellows”

Nude And Flower

Here’s a life drawing of one of our older models; a retired teacher who is covered with tattoos. I drew her in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and black and white conte crayon, onto a piece of mountboard that I’d prepared with a couple of coats of acrylic gesso and then randomly sponged some IndianContinue reading “Nude And Flower”

Recycled Head

At the print workshop we work with some beautiful papers and always use the best quality for the courses we run. It’s surprising how many people never collect their work afterwards. Even if they don’t like the image, there’s a lovely – and expensive – piece of paper that can be used again. I’m alwaysContinue reading “Recycled Head”

Back To Basics

I’ve been trying to push out of my comfort zone at Life Drawing group for a while now. Last night I pulled out a piece of very heavy and textured hand-made paper, a bit bigger than A4, that I’d prepared with acrylic gesso overlaid, when dry, with compressed charcoal and then sealed with spray fixative.Continue reading “Back To Basics”

Vivid Pink

I’ve been re-using some experimental work I’d been doing, that I wasn’t happy with. I’ve been taking the boards, prepared with rhodamine red and lemon yellow oil pigment, to different places. I took one to my weekly life-drawing session yesterday and drew this 30 minute pose in black and white conte crayon with a fewContinue reading “Vivid Pink”

Cake And Foreshortening

So this evening I took myself off to life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop, bearing an abundance of cakes for our tea break. How civilised is that? I did a couple of sketches in oil bars that I was quite pleased with, then we had this pose to finish up with after tea and cake.Continue reading “Cake And Foreshortening”