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.
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.
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.
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