Playing With Drawings #4

Thinking Triffids!

I’m playing with Adobe Photoshop (Gradient Map) and some of the charcoal drawings I did during the first lockdown 2 years ago. The originals are in black and white using charcoal into a Khadi sketchbook. They were done one by one on the daily walk that Husb and I took through city parks when we were allowed out for our regulation hour of exercise.

It’s expanding my imagination to change them into colour and try out some different effects. I think there’s a touch of the Triffids about these, they’re in Clyne Gardens.

The original drawing.

From My Imagination…

A few more layers to go, I think ….

I’ve been messing around with some acrylic paint on a small canvas board, trying to make an abstract landscape from my imagination. I always work from life, I’m way out of my comfort zone doing this, but I’m persevering because I feel I need to loosen up and just try things out without being precious. I’ve been following the development of the work of artists Aletha Kuschan and Fran Williams and they inspired me to improvise.

I started by just laying a few lines across the board in charcoal, not being too fussy what I was doing, then I coloured in the shapes, like I did as a kid. Then I layered on textures, a bit like van Gogh. I used a dry brush and a rag to rub white paint over areas of it, to knock the colour back. And finally, I rubbed in some metallic paints with a rag, to give some of the sections a lift (top image).

Chilling With A Scribble.

A continuous line drawing.

Husb and I went for a stroll, it was a nice day, and we stopped for a coffee in Coast Cafe on the mouth of the river. I scribbled the guy silhouetted against the window and used the continuous line method to get the proportions right. Just a little bit of practice.

#StandingStoneSunday 6

The Tafarn y Garreg stone.

It’s #Standingstonesunday again and I’ve been looking through the painting / drawings I did of some of the ancient stone monuments of South Wales a while back.  This one is a few miles up the valley from Tafarn Y Garreg, where I scrambled across a stream strewn with slippery, slime-covered rocks and up a steep slope to Maen Fawr (Big Stone), around 2 metres high.

Close up of the drawing.

I was travelling around South Wales hunting the megaliths with filmmaker Melvyn Williams and pre-historian Dewi Bowen who was researching for his new book, while Melvyn filmed him. Dewi’s book will be published soon! Watch this space …..

On Top of the World!

As a boy, archaeologist Dewi Bowen used to scramble on top of Maen Fawr and now, almost 55 years later, my young nephew has done the same.

Almost Half A Century!

Well, I went to the opening of the new exhibition at GS Artists and came face to face with myself from almost 50 years ago!!!! The show is called Art Society: A Swansea School of Art Archive showcasing artists who have attended it over the many years of its existence. It’s a fascinating exhibition and also an historical record of the students and lecturers of the school since the 1950s. Alumni from across the decades were there this evening, from the 1960s to current students. I was there in the crazy 1970s and the photo shows me as a bright eyed 18 year old on the Foundation course. Happy days.

Cool students from the 60s, including my lovely friends Gill and Alan Figg.

Gallery Director Jane Simpson and her team have done a wonderful job of bringing this to life. Check it out, it’s free and it’s on Wednesdays to Saturdays, 11.00 – 17.00, until November 5th.

Like Chalk And Cheese.

Two giggers.

Here are the last couple of sketches from the gig Husb and I were at last weekend, in Hippos. People have different ways of listening to music, these two were like chalk and cheese. The gigger on the left was very focused and concentrated on the music, the gigger on the right was going a bit bonkers while Omnichron was playing.

Proper Bonkers!

A Head Again and Again.

I drew this page of heads at the Omnichron gig at Hippos the other night. The bass player kept moving so I quickly scribbled him from different angles, without getting enough time to do a detailed drawing.

Grooving…

Lively dancer and lively scribbles.

Another of my gig scribbles from Hippos last weekend, of a lively young dancer grooving to my favourite psychedelic rock band, Omnichron.

I took a slice of skirt and put it into Gradient Map on Adobe Photoshop.

Two Heads At The Gig.

People in profile.

I did lots of scribbling at the gig in Hippos on Saturday night, people in audiences are usually absorbed in the performer – unless they’re dancing – and it makes drawing them easier. Here are two very interesting heads grooving to my old mate Peter Crow.

Digital Scribbling.

I cropped a section of the drawing in Adobe Photoshop and put it through a Gradient Map. It takes on a life of its own; apart from the colour changes, it also has a 3D quality from the lighter scribbles.

Listening To Crow …

Listening Intently.

Husb and I went to a great gig at Hippos the other evening, some fantastic musicians and a quirky, fun venue. Gigs are always good for a scribble, people often listen very intently so they’re nice and still. This one was completely focused on my old mate Peter Crow who delivered a storming set.

The Sketch Cropped and Coloured

I cropped a bit of the sketch and put it through a Gradient Map in Adobe Photoshop for my blog’s featured image.