Dog And Cat

grayson perry 2

I did a bit of scribbling while I was watching Grayson’s (Perry) Art Club on Channel 4 earlier. I drew what was around me – mostly my Rocket Dog shoe and my cat. I used a ballpoint pen, it’s great for scribbling, into my A6 leatherbound sketchbook. Sparta Puss loves to stay by my side, I’ve never had such an affectionate cat. She’s only like that with me though, she hates every other living thing on the planet. Except for Husb. She just about tolerates him. My large exercise ball is just behind Sparta Puss and there’s a smear of blood above her head from my thumb, which I snagged on the cheese grater this evening.

 

 

Finished One, Started Another

Starry Night

I spent another couple of hours finishing my copy of van Gogh’s Starry Night today, that’s about 5 and a half hours in all. I don’t know how long it took Vincent. I learnt an awful lot from doing it, about handling paint and also about Vincent’s technique. The work is much richer and more multi-layered than I had thought. Looking at the comments posted on the Cheese and Wine Painting Club, which hosted the original session, a lot of the participants thought it was the hardest one yet. The composition is quite simple, but the application of the paint is very complex.

I’m inspired now to do a painting of my own. Not something I normally do but I’m really enjoying this lockdown detour. Here’s the beginning. Can you see what it is yet? 😀

Sparta Starter

The next family-friendly session of the Cheese and Wine Painting Club is Friday May 15th at midday and the painting will be Picasso’s Girl With Red Beret. It’s free for those who need it to be with donations from those who can afford to chip in a bit.

Starry Starry Cat

Starry 2

I carried on with the painting I started yesterday with the Facebook Cheese and Wine Painting Club. It’s van Gogh’s Starry Night and it’s far more complex than I’d realised. I did an hour and a half yesterday and two hours today and still a ways to go. Sparta Puss joined me for a while.

Starry 3

I’m using Liquitex acrylic heavy body paint onto a Winsor & Newton canvas. It’s weird painting, not something I normally do, but it’s so interesting to analyse a famous artwork and see what has gone into it. I uploaded a better image of Starry Night today and saw loads more detail in it.

Faking It

Starry 1

This is the second Friday that I’ve joined in with the midday paintalong hosted by the Cheese and Wine Painting Club on Facebook. It’s a one and  a half hour session painting a classic artwork. Last week was a Matisse and today, van Gogh’s Starry Night. I’ve a few more hours work on this, but it’s coming along. It makes me realise how complex it is.

 

 

Pandemic Portrait – Willow Charcoal

Bernard 3

 

So today I did a bit more work on the portrait I started yesterday, working from a photo. I developed the image with willow carcoal, putting in the shadows by squinting my eyes. I’m using willow charcoal at the moment because it’s easy to rub out mistakes. Once I’m happy that I’ve got the drawing the way I want it, I’ll fix it and then work over it in compressed charcoal. But that’s not for today…..

Pandemic Portrait – Making A Start

willow charcoal

I made a start on a portrait drawing today. I rarely work from photographs, I’d much rather draw from a live model, but we’re in pandemic lockdown so I’ll do this one from a photo. I’m using a lovely sheet of vintage British hand-made paper with a deckle edge made by W H Saunders mill, which no longer exists unfortunately. First of all I roughly sketched the head onto the paper with a 2B pencil, below, but it’s very faint so then I redrew it with willow charcoal (above).

pencil

I’m going to leave it til tomorrow so that I can come at it with fresh eyes and check the proportions, make sure everythngs in the right place.

Maggi Hambling Kicked My Backside

grayson perry

I watched Grayson Perry’s Art Club on Channel 4 (UK) last night. He’s one of my favourite artists and he’s doing this series to encourage people to get into making art during the Covid19 lockdown. The programme also features guest artists and last night it was Maggi Hambling, who is another one I really admire. She’s uncompromising and insisted that artists should draw every day. That was the kick up the backside I needed. I’ve been way too slack recently and haven’t been doing a daily drawing. So I did one on my lap as I watched the programme – there’s Grayson in the background on the TV.

sketchbook

I fnished a sketchbook a couple of days ago, a tiny Laura Ashley one, so I’m using this one now, very nice with a leather cover (I got it cheap). I have used it on and off for a while, when I wanted something larger than the tiny one, but there’s still over half the pages to go.

The Last Page

the final mask

I love finishing a sketchbook. It’s a slice of my life and there’s something so satisfying about drawing on the last page and closing it. It marks the passage of time. I’ll open it from time to time because these are working documents and I look through old sketchbooks to get ideas and inspiration but it’s purpose has changed now. This is someone who was walking along the street when I was queueing outside the local shop. He had a mask, but it was round his chin rather than on his face. Bit pointless really. He was moving pretty quickly so I had to do a fast continuous line drawing before he went past.

sketchbook

It’s a tiny sketchbook with a Laura Ashley cloth cover (I got it cheap), but it’s quite thick and crammed with drawings. It’s small enough to tuck away and carry round with me. I’ll work on a slightly larger one next.

Mask And Mosque

queue 1

Some more queue drawings. It’s getting to be a good place for sketching now. Faces with masks are new and something I haven’t had a chance to draw before. The queues I’ve been in have mostly moved reasonably quickly so I have to be really fast drawing people. I can be a bit more leisurely with buildings though; this is the old church opposite the supermarket that is now a mosque. They have planted a lovely garden in the grounds, but unfortunately we can’t use it because of lockdown. Something to look forward to when lockdown’s over.

 

The Matisse Cat finished

cat 7

I carried on with the acrylic painting I started yesterday in an online painting session on Facebook, hosted by the Cheese and Wine Painting Club. I did about 3 hours yesterday and another three today. The painting is a cat and goldfish by the Fauvist painter Henri Matisse, he painted cats and goldfish a lot. It’s been fun and it’s given me a real insight into how Matisse painted. When I’m working on my own art, it’s very intense and difficult, it takes so much concentrationa and my own work often deals with difficult subjects, so it was lovely to relax and do some art purely for the enjoyment. I’m surprised by how much I liked it, I don’t normally paint.

final

The original was on a different shaped canvas, mine is longer and thinner, so I had to adapt by losing the sides of the original and putting some decorative panels on the top and bottom.

The next paintalong is van Gogh’s Starry Night on May 8th at midday. It’s free or a donation if you can afford it. Would be nice to see you there 😀