Testing, Testing 1,2,3…

I’m doing some teaching tomorrow, taking a group of people for a walk to an inner city nature park, a reclaimed quarry and we’re going to be doing cyanotypes (aka sunprints). I’ve always done these from scratch in the past, mixing the chemicals and coating paper or fabric myself, but this time I’ll be using commercial cyanotype paper. So I thought I’d better test it out first to make sure there are no glitches.

I roped in Husb to help, which was a good idea because we needed two pairs of hands to work with plants outside in the garden – I decided I didn’t want to encourage people to break bits off tomorrow, to leave the plants intact. I tried 3 different times – 1 minute, 2.5 minutes and 5 minutes (left to right above). I think the 2.5 minute exposure is the best, it was a very bright day today. The commercial paper is much thinner than I’m used to working with but as a cost effective kit for beginners, I think it’s pretty good.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

I Thought I’d Finished …. I Was Wrong

I decided to do some more work on the big Family Pandemic Zoom Quiz painting I (thought I’d) completed earlier in the year. The original had a plain black border, but in reality the laptop sits on my lap (the clue’s in the name) and I can see part of my living room over the top. There’s also a load of digital gubbins at the bottom of the screen and then there’s what’s on the top of the keyboard bit as well. So more complicated and more real is the way to go. I’ve just started sketching in the living room bit at the top of the painting at the moment – lots of work to do, might be almost as demanding as the set of portraits. Here’s the original below.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Drawing A Head

I thought I’d do a portrait at last week’s life drawing session. It’s good practice to try and get a likeness as well as a half decent drawing. Our model is a very striking looking person and is really interesting to draw, sculptural. I used sanguine and white conte crayons onto a slightly textured paper.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

A Bit Sculptural

After the two five minute poses at the start of every life drawing session, we move onto a 10 minute pose and then a 30 minute one. I was tired this week, end of a long day, and I found it hard to concentrate. The one on the left was 10 minutes and I think it’s scrappy, so I changed tack and started working with sanguine and white conte crayons as well as the black. I worked very slowly but I like the effect, it’s a bit sculptural.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Tired Legs and Skewiff Sketching

Here are the two quick 5 minute poses from last night’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I was really tired when I got there, just had time for a bit of tea after work, and I decided not to use an easel but to sit down and draw. Problem with that is the proportions go a bit skewiff, it always seems to happen when I’m not standing to draw. But my legs told me that I’m just going to have to live with that.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Choppy Texture

Here’s the latest fake I did with Ed Sumner’s Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. Ed started the weekly lunchtime sessions at the start of Covid19 lockdown in March last year and he’s done about 70 so far. This week it’s a copy of a painting by David Hockney. I think the original shows that Hockney may be very influenced by van Gogh. I used a recycled canvas that had been painted on before; this gave me a lot of choppy texture to start with which I think fitted in well with the layered, fractured style of the original.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Painting My Plums A Bit More

I started to paint a still life of plums from a food photo I took way back at the beginning of the Covid19 lockdown last Spring. I was cooking like a maniac and my creativity was channelled into photographing what I was doing. The photo is from a recipe called “Hot Buttered Plums” – here it is. It tastes lovely, even if I do say so myself.

I’ve built up layers of translucent glazes of Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint over the original layers of opaque colours. I’m trying to get the renaissance-y look of the original photo so there’s a long way to go yet.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Lush Colours

Here’s the life drawing from last week’s session – a one hour pose. It took me a while to get into it – it’s late and after a day’s work so I’m usually really tired by then. But sometimes the tiredness frees me up a bit. I love the lush colours of my Daler Rowney Artist’s soft pastels. I’m using them on a fairly smooth paper, breaking the rules, because I like they way they spread into a rich swathe of colour when I rub them with my fingers. They almost become paint.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Got A Bit Of Culture

Husb and I got a bit of culture today. We booked a slot at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery to see the new show, Terra Ferma by Carlos Bunga and to check in with the permanent collections, always something new to see there. I had a scribble through the door to the main gallery, with ballpoint pen into my A6 leather-bound sketchbook. It was lovely, slowly getting back to doing things in the real world.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

I Was Ruthless

This was a 25 minute pose at last week’s life drawing session, but the first one I tried (below) just wasn’t grabbing me, so I started again. Sometimes when something isn’t working out, I keep at it and try and work it through, but this time, it really wasn’t getting anywhere. So I was ruthless.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left and to see the complete image.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.