Quick Ones

dave 5 mins

 

We always start the life drawing sessions at Swansea Print Workshop with some short warm-up poses, because of the speed they’re very free and force you to get down what is essential in the figure rather than focusing on detail. It’s also  chance to play around with mark making – scribbly lines and very rough hatching. The two poses above are 5 minutes and here’s a 10 minute pose below.

 

dave 10 mins

 

 

 

 

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

 

Double Faking

cliffs still life combo

I spent some time faking today, doing more work on the fake Monet I started on Friday and the fake Cezanne from the previous Friday. I’m a bit behind, never mind. I’m following the Cheese and Wine painting Club on Facebook, painting a weekly fake as one of my lockdown challenges, to improve my painting skills. I’m learning loads, including patience! Most of the painters I’ve been studying build their painting up in layers, many layers, painstakingly. Even those that look dashed off are not. Maybe a couple more hours needed on these – I’ll work on them tomorrow. I’m using Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint onto prepared canvases from Wilkinsons.

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

 

Building The Drawing

fat dave A5

Here’s one of the 30 minute drawings I did the other evening at Swansea Print Workshop. I photographed it as I went along, showing how it developed. I used black, white and sanguine conté crayons onto black paper.

Here are some close ups of sections of the drawing. We have some brilliant models to work with, it’s not an easy job.

 

 

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

 

Faking Friday and Pizza Pie

Cliffs 6

The weeks fly by! It’s Faking Friday with the Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook again. This is my 19th fake, but the club has been running longer, started by the artist Ed Sumner to give people something to do during lockdown.  Ed asks for contributions from those that can afford to chip something in and so he can keep the sessions free for those who can’t, which is lovely.

Today we copied a Monet, “Cliffs At Etretat”. As usual, I learnt a lot and the way I handle paint is improving all the time. I need to spend another hour or two on this over the weekend, adding more layers of delicate colours in dots and dashes, like Monet would have.

 

 

 

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

 

Drawing All Evening, Time For Bed

fat dave detail a

Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop. I worked at an easel so I was on my feet for nearly 3 hours and I’m shattered, so I’m going off to bed. This is a detail of a 30 minute pose with one of our lovely models.

Let’s See Where It Takes Me …..

scrapbook

I’m a bit old school when it comes to sketchbooks, I take the term literally and I sketch in them. But one of my lockdown challenges is to try working differently, to get out of my comfort zone, so I’ve been rethinking how to use a sketchbook. I had a few A3 brown paper sketchbooks knocking around that I haven’t used because the paper is poor quality. And I am one of the decreasing numbers of people who still buys a newspaper (the ‘i’) so I thought I’d start cutting interesting images and pieces of text out of the papers and stick them into the sketchbook, as reference / source materials. I’m not sure where it’s going to lead, I haven’t done this before, but it’s already generating some ideas. Let’s see ……..

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

 

The Underlying Barbie-ness

cezanne still life 6

I started this fake Cézanne last Friday at the lunchtime Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. It’s my 17th fake – one of the lockdown challenges I set myself was to improve my painting skills and I love studying the work of other artists.

I began with a pink background, which was a bit of a shock at first but was soon muted by layers of colour which took on the intense warmth of the underlying Barbie-ness. Another couple of hours should see it finished. I’m using Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint onto a primed canvas from Wilkinsons. This particular canvas was recycled with a layer of gesso after I rejected the previous week’s fake 😀

Next up at the Cheese and Wine Painting Club is Monet’s “Cliffs At Etretat”. Come and join in, it’s fun and you get to learn a lot. Suitable for beginners and children.

 

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

A Bit Renaissance-y

tonya 60 mins b

Here’s the last of the life drawings I did at Swansea Print Workshop last week. It’s a 60 minute pose and I used black paper with conté crayons in black, white and sanguine. Our model wore a long scarf draped over her head and shoulders and combined with the materials, it’s all a bit Renaissance-y. Which I like.

tonya 60 mins aHere’s an earlier stage of the drawing.

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

In Praise Of Life Models

tonya 30 mins b

The life models who pose at Swansea Print Workshop are experienced, patient and also physically and mentally fit – you have to be in order to keep still for anything up to an hour. I’ve done it a few times myself and it’s really hard going. Our model this week held this pose on her knees for a full thirty minutes. She’s terrific. I used willow charcoal onto vintage paper – it’s not watermarked so I don’t know the maker. It’s very smooth and the charcoal smudged and skidded across the top of the paper rather than being held by a textured surface. It took a bit of getting used to but I worked with the smudginess in the end. I love the foreshortening on this pose, the large looming feet.

 

 

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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

Timed poses

Tonya 5 mins

At the life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop we start with a few short timed poses to warm up and get the measure of our model. Here are the two five minute poses we began with – our model is terrific, she’s been with us for years.

tonya 30 mins

Here’s one of the 30 minute poses done in willow charcoal onto vintage paper by WH Saunders.

 

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.

In this one, I combined snippets of a bird and discarded plastic with the image of a bug, part of the Museum’s fascinating vintage collection.

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