I thought I loved the bittern when I first saw it – and I did – but then I started drawing a snipe and that was it, bye-bye bittern. I’m so fickle. This gorgeous bird is one of Swansea Museum’s taxidermy collection. I did this drawing with a reed pen and my home-made walnut ink. Reed pens are amongst the oldest drawing tools and work really well with the ink. It’s not possible to get a fine controlled line with them, but I like the blobbiness and I think it suits the snipe.
I did some blind contour drawings of the crazy stuffed bittern I was drawing recently at Swansea Museum. It was one of the taxidermy specimens from the museum stores and we were lucky to have been able to get to draw them. It’s good to go back to some basic drawing exercises now and again, good practice.
Here’s a little greenfinch I drew recently, a stuffed one, very old and fragile. I took photos of the different stages of development using conté crayons into my A4 spiral bound brown paper sketchbook. I used the white first, then sanguine and finally black.
I spent a day drawing with a group of artists at Swansea Museum, organised by Swansea Print Workshop and the Edinburgh-based artist Kelly Stewart.
I’m reblogging this from Lois Elsdon’s blog because it’s about Welsh cakes – and who doesn’t want to know about Welsh cakes?
I was lucky enough recently to go away with a group of friends to a lovely place where we just wrote, and talked, and thought and imagined, and write, and wandered, and mulled and wrote, and drifted, and bought books, and wrote…
We stayed in a beautiful very old farm which was inspiring in itself, it exuded peace and calm which left minds open and receptive to ideas and with no distractions, apart from glorious views, which were a focus for pondering and thinking before settling back to what we were writing.
There were fresh flowers on the windowsills, some wild and freshly gathered from the sunny banks outside, and a plate of freshly made bakestones, otherwise known as Welsh cakes . They were so delicious they disappeared very rapidly… if I’d thought about it properly, I should have bought some flour and currants when we dropped down to the…
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I think I’m falling for those crazy bitterns. I couldn’t take my eyes of them at a recent drawing day at Swansea Museum, they’re awesome…..
I used my Issabey brushes and my home-made walnut ink into a Khadi sketchbook, using the double spread. I focussed on the shape of the group, doing a sort of negative silhouette and using those thick stripes to enhance the composition.
I’d never seen a bittern before and didn’t even know they existed until I came across this crazy-looking one the other day. He’s stuffed, unfortunately, which may be why he looks a bit mad.
I spent a day drawing with a group of artists at Swansea Museum, organised by Swansea Print Workshop and the Edinburgh-based artist Kelly Stewart.
Here’s an earlier stage of the drawing.
I spent a great day at Swansea Museum with a group of fellow artists and Edinburgh-based printmaker Kelly Stewart. We drew stuffed birds – lots of them – all very old and fragile. They had been in the museum stores and this was the first time some of them had seen light of day for years. Here are 4 studies of a skylark using a reed pen and my homemade walnut ink into a Khadi handmade sketchbook.
I’m really looking forward to Swansea Print Workshop’s one-day course with Edinburgh-based artist Kelly Stewart at Swansea Museum tomorrow. Kelly’s expertise is helping artists to develop our drawings for screenprint , how to take original material into print using layers of colour, which can also be applied to a whole range of print processes.
Swansea Museum Stores has kindly allowed access to items from their collection that are not usually available to the public and Kelly has chosen a selection of small birds from the taxidermy collection. I can’t wait, I won’t sleep!!!!
Another shameless plug for the Printopia exhibition of work by members of Swansea Print Workshop at The Seaside Gallery, Volcano, High Street, Swansea. It opens on Thursday 4th July, with cake and nibbles and a pay bar, and continues until 26th July.
And my great big woodcut, “Here Be Dragons” has finally been framed and is lording it over the little prints nearby. It’s a Big ‘Un alright!
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