Here’s a quick sketch I made in a gallery a few weeks ago, I really like drawing hands, even if I don’t get them right, they’re so interesting. And I’m starting to like drawing spectacles as well, used to hate them.
Hands And Specs.
Continuous Line In The Bookshop
The Covid Lockdown made me appreciate the important things in life – family, friends, home, community – and also the simple little things I took for granted. I used to pop into the café in Waterstones bookshop in Swansea for a coffee and a scribble in my sketchbook, perhaps every fortnight or so. Just sit and sketch quietly. I didn’t realise how much I appreciated it until it was taken away. Now it’s back and I really love going in there and scribbling. Here’s a continuous line drawing I did last week, it’s a good technique for getting things in the right place in relation to each other.
Rhys Four Ways.
I was teaching this afternoon, demonstrating different types of black drawing materials. I killed two birds with one stone as I also wanted to enter the Rhys Ifans Portrait exhibition coming up at GS Artists in Swansea. I did this fairly quick sketch, about 30 minutes, with four media – pencil (4B), willow charcoal (thin), graphite block (6B) and a conté crayon. Of course, I can see all the things that are wrong with it, but too late now.
GS Artists is having an open afternoon on December 17th, it’s free to come along and there will be art and cake.
The Strummer.
My family are used to me by now. When they visit they’re fair game. They get scribbled! Here’s my young nephew strumming his guitar. I want to get better at drawing musicians so I’m taking every opportunity to sketch them in action. I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen into my A5 leather-bound sketchbook.
That Time Of Year….
It’s that time of year again, the old year is fading out and in Wales the Mari Lwyd is starting to stir. For a few years now I’ve been making some New Year cards from linocuts I’ve done of the Mari Lwyd and here’s my new one, sketched onto lino and ready to cut. In the picture above you can see my roller (nitrile), a bamboo Japanese baren, my Flexcut tools and leather strop, a bench hook and a little block of grey lino.
#StandingStoneSunday 14
It’s #StandingStoneSunday again and here’s a drawing I made at Tair Carn Uchaf in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Carmarthenshire. Carns (or Cairns) are piles of stones and these three are exceptionally large. People still add to them and someone has built a small tower on top of this one.
I drew it on my adventures with pre-historian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams a few years back, in the days before the Covid lockdown. All the megaliths on our travels are connected to the tale, Y Twrch Trwyth (The Boar Hunt) in The Mabinogion, the Welsh book of myth and legend. Dewi is researching many Bronze Age stones across South Wales for his new book “Hunting The Wild Megalith”.
#Caturday Archives 13
Most of the images I post for #Caturday are drawings or prints of one of my cats, but this week here’s Sparta Puss “helping” me when I was painting a poster. She often tries to “help”.
Playing Around 1
I had a bit of a play today, with Derwent Inktense blocks onto Khadi handmade paper. Just playing around, not trying to do anything recognisable, seeing what the materials can do. I might try and do this every day ….
Rapping In Cardiff 7: Striding
This is the last of the rappers I saw in Cardiff a few weeks ago. He was striding around the floor a lot which meant that he had a bit more light on him than performers who stayed on the small stage, but he also moved quickly which made him harder to sketch. But it’s all good practice.
Rapping In Cardiff 6: The Darkness
I did quite a few sketches in my sketchbooks when I was at a rap gig in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago, but it was quite dark. The stage lighting was set up to light the DJ, not the rappers so I couldn’t see much of almost everyone I scribbled. This performer just had tiny fragments of her face in the light, but that was exciting to draw. It’s tempting to fill in what you know is there, but I stuck to what I could actually see and I think the drawing is the better for it.
scribblah 