Husb and I went to a gig at Swansea Arena a few weeks ago to see the band Squeeze and the awesome Doctor John Cooper Clarke, the original poet of punk. I’ve seen JCC perform a few times over the decades and I’m always up for one more evening of scurrilous hard-hitting poetic hilarity. I only managed a very quick scribble – it was dark; we were miles away from the stage (and let’s face it, he’s a tiny figure anyway); and I wanted to concentrate on his performance, not mine!
I did quite a few sketches at the rap gig in Cardiff I went to a few weeks ago. It’s challenging working in the dark, I managed to catch a few people in the occasional pool of semi-light. I sketched this dancer with the extraordinary red hair in ballpoint pen and washes of Inktense colour blocks. Drawing in the dark means I take more risks with my work than I would if I was looking at pristine white paper in bright light.
Another quick sketch from my recent visit to The ‘Diff to a gig organised by fellow artist Unity, who is also a rapper. People who have known me a long time are a bit puzzled because I’ve always been a metalhead, but to be fair, I do like other types of music, just that metal and rock are my favourites.
Back in the early 1980s I started to listen to punk poets, John Cooper Clarke (now Doctor) and The Mad Kiwi Ranter (David Eggleton). I loved their aggressive, energetic performances – I feel that Rap is in that same edgy and angry tradition. I was drawing in the dark and the performers were also in darkness, but it made for good practice.
I saw this member of the audience when I went to see some Welsh rappers in Cardiff recently, and I really liked the clothes, the hat and the way they stood. So I had to have a quick scribble.
The gig was organised by my fellow artist Unity, who is not only a graffiti artist but also a rapper herself.
Husb and I went up to The ‘Diff a couple of weeks ago to see some Welsh Rappers in The Rockin’ Chair Jamaican Bar in Riverside. It was fab. Here’s a sketch at the beginning of the evening, when the DJ was spinning.
I’ve got lots of photos of the sketches I do at gigs and out and about, but none of me actually drawing. So I asked Husb to take some. Here I am during the Swansea Fringe a few weeks ago, tucked away in corners. I really get in the zone.
It’s #StandingStoneSunday again on social media and here’s one in a field near Pontyberem in Carmarthenshire. Click here to read more about this magnificent monuent.
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.
It’s Saturday / Caturday again and here’s another from my cat drawing archives, our youngest, Sparta Puss, aka Sparty Pants, Spartsy and Tyrant. She’s drawn with conte crayons in black, white and sanguine into a brown paper sketchbook.
I did a group session at Swansea Print Workshop a few weeks ago, with other printmakers. We worked in two techniques, linocut and collagraph, and made tiny blocks and plates using a collection of local fungi as our inspiration. I drew mine in pencil and Inktense blocks.
Then we printed them up into a limited edition onto one large piece of paper – 25 blocks in all. We did enough for each participating artist to have one, and a couple left over for the Print Workshop collection.
The session was led by two wonderful printmakers, Sarah Hopkins and Sameera Khan. We did it all in a day, from scratch, thanks to their expertise.
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