Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop. Nice to be back in the saddle. Great model, lovely to work with her again. I’m tired now, so more of this tomorrow. Nos da, good night 😀
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Fair Pay, Cake And Unicorn Sprinkles
8 Aug
Husb and I went to our local ‘Support the NHS’ demonstration earlier today, highlighting the unfairness of wages for those that only very recently were being clapped and praised by the government. It was well organised, with people being responsible, maintaining a distance, wearing masks, using sanitiser. Demos are always a good opportunity to sketch crowds, not something I find easy because there’s perspective, proportion and people moving around to deal with.
It isn’t fair that people working in health and social care can earn so little. We’d be screwed without them. Demonstrators brought flowers to lay at the foot of the flagpole outside the Guildhall to commemorate NHS workers who have died of Covid19 over the past few months.
On a happier note, our eldest great niece is 21 today so Husb and I made her a birthday cake – I did the cake, he did the icing. Four layers of rich chocolate almond cake sandwiched and decorated with chocolate buttercream icing, fresh fruit and unicorn sprinkles on the top. She’s got a thing about unicorns.
Family Visit 2020
12 Jul
Now that we’re having some easing of lockdown in Wales, it’s possible to visit family again, as long as we’re outdoors and wearing masks and so on…. Luckily we’re having a pretty good summer and there’s plenty of outdoor spaces. The 19th century terraced housing tends to have back gardens and in the 20th century, housing development in the area was influenced by the Garden City idea so there’s lots of green space for both public tenants and private owner occupiers. Husb and I visited our cousins and sat in their gorgeous garden, chatting with our masks on and moving further apart to drink our tea. It’s strange not being able to hug family, but these strange times will pass.
Having A Natter
7 Jul
I saw this little group when I was out walking with Husb yesterday, they’d taken their children to Cwmdonkin Parkand were having a natter. It’s nice to scribble little knots of people like this. It’s a good exercise because you have to get the proportions right while working quickly before they move away. I’ve been going to this park all my life and it’s the first time I’ve noticed how nice the benches are. I used a ballpoint pen into an A6 pocket sketchbook by Paperchase.
But what a change in 24 hours. Now it’s TORRENTIAL rain, gales – this is supposed to be the middle of SUMMER!!!!! No chance of taking their kids to the park today.
Happy Little Scribbles
14 May
Having a quick scribble this evening as Bob Ross was on TV, using a ballpoint pen into my A6 leatherbound sketchbook. I like scribbling these little moments of homelife during the lockdown and I’m enjoying the Bob Ross “Joy of Painting” series. His style isn’t my sort of thing, but I love his manner, so relaxing, almost meditative, and all the happy things he puts into his work, like happy little clouds and happy little trees lol 😀 Laid back and happy. Lovely.
Pandemic Portrait – Willow Charcoal
7 May
So today I did a bit more work on the portrait I started yesterday, working from a photo. I developed the image with willow carcoal, putting in the shadows by squinting my eyes. I’m using willow charcoal at the moment because it’s easy to rub out mistakes. Once I’m happy that I’ve got the drawing the way I want it, I’ll fix it and then work over it in compressed charcoal. But that’s not for today…..
Pandemic Portrait – Making A Start
6 May
I made a start on a portrait drawing today. I rarely work from photographs, I’d much rather draw from a live model, but we’re in pandemic lockdown so I’ll do this one from a photo. I’m using a lovely sheet of vintage British hand-made paper with a deckle edge made by W H Saunders mill, which no longer exists unfortunately. First of all I roughly sketched the head onto the paper with a 2B pencil, below, but it’s very faint so then I redrew it with willow charcoal (above).
I’m going to leave it til tomorrow so that I can come at it with fresh eyes and check the proportions, make sure everythngs in the right place.
The Last Page
4 May
I love finishing a sketchbook. It’s a slice of my life and there’s something so satisfying about drawing on the last page and closing it. It marks the passage of time. I’ll open it from time to time because these are working documents and I look through old sketchbooks to get ideas and inspiration but it’s purpose has changed now. This is someone who was walking along the street when I was queueing outside the local shop. He had a mask, but it was round his chin rather than on his face. Bit pointless really. He was moving pretty quickly so I had to do a fast continuous line drawing before he went past.
It’s a tiny sketchbook with a Laura Ashley cloth cover (I got it cheap), but it’s quite thick and crammed with drawings. It’s small enough to tuck away and carry round with me. I’ll work on a slightly larger one next.
Mask And Mosque
3 May
Some more queue drawings. It’s getting to be a good place for sketching now. Faces with masks are new and something I haven’t had a chance to draw before. The queues I’ve been in have mostly moved reasonably quickly so I have to be really fast drawing people. I can be a bit more leisurely with buildings though; this is the old church opposite the supermarket that is now a mosque. They have planted a lovely garden in the grounds, but unfortunately we can’t use it because of lockdown. Something to look forward to when lockdown’s over.
Queueing At The Chemist
20 Apr
Queueing today at the chemist (pharmacy). It took a while so had a quick scribble while I waited. It’s lucky that we’re having such good weather, queueing is pleasant enough, but it’s going to be horrible when the weather turns.
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To visit my online galleries, please click the image below.
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Inspired by drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artefacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.
20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.
Rosie Scribblah RSS
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