Mostly I draw in black on white, but now and again I mix it up a bit and get out some pastels or watercolour drawing blocks (like Derwent Inktense) and use a combination of fine line sketching (Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens) and watercolour drawn on and then wetted using a water reservoir brush.
People, pigs and a chicken, some more from my sketchbook archives in April 2015.
I was late getting to life drawing last week so I didn’t get to do the 3 quick poses that start each session. Here are two at 15 minutes and one at 20 minutes. This is a model I’ve worked with many times over the years and it’s easy to slip into a visual shorthand so I tried altering my usual style a bit for the first and third drawings.
It’s #Caturday Saturday once again. This is from my old sketchbooks, back in December 2015. Just a couple of very quick scribbles at feeding time.
I’ve been concentrating on portraiture at life drawing sessions for the past few months, but I was really taken with this pose, especially the patterns on the throws and cushions that contrasted so much with the cool, pale skin of the model.
At last! Sunshine! Spring is here! Husb and I went foraging as it’s Ramsons (wild garlic) season. We know some old woodland where the Ramsons grows prolifically and we foraged responsibly. There were celandines and wood anemones peeping through the wild garlic leaves. We also saw lots of primroses and just the one bluebell – I reckon another 10 days or so and the woods will be strewn with bluebells. Going to visit again in a couple of weeks.
To find out more about responsible foraging in the UK, see here. And to check out what’s available to forage in March, see here.
I recently posted about the Miniprint Cymru exhibition in Mostyn (gallery) in Llandudno, North Wales (see here) and here are the three linocuts I have on show there. They’re each 10 x 10 cm (about 4 x 4 inches). The top one, “Should Bill Get Some Bacon” is printed using the chine collé technique to get that golden colour in the background. The two “Heavy Metal Legs” linocuts are printed with black ink onto white paper. Each one has been produced in a small edition of 10, all handprinted by me. No AI, no mechanisation, just me, my hands and a few traditional tools.
I have three linocut prints in the Miniprint Cymru Wales exhibition which has now travelled to Mostyn in Llandudno, North Wales. It opened yesterday (14th March) and continues until May 2nd. There are 270 original prints of all kinds – silkscreen, etching, drypoint, collagraph, linocut, woodblock, monotype, letterpress and cyanotype – the whole range of printmaking techniques by artists across Wales. The artworks have been produced in small limited editions and are available to buy framed or unframed. There I am looking at one of my little linocuts, called “Should Bill Get Some Bacon?”.
It’s #Caturday Saturday once again. Looking through my old sketchbooks, I did quite a few scribbles of Sparta Puss back in November 2015. I used to have a very comfy IKEA Poang chair, but it was Sparta’s favourite chair as well. Here she is, keeping me off it!
Here are some old sketchbook scribbles, from April 2015. It must have been good weather because I’m out and about a lot.
scribblah 