Giving An Impression

 

Here’s another quick scribble I did at a course I was at the other day. I went to learn the basics of social history recording and found a few minutes to have a scribble. while one of the teachers was explaining something. His hands were very animated and moved constantly, which makes it quite difficult to capture, so you just have to go with the flow and give an impression of them.

 

 

For a limited period I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument on my Artfinder gallery every day.  If you want to buy one, you can click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

 

 

 

 

Face And Foxgloves

Social training 1

I went on a training day in recording social history and of course, I found a few minutes for scribbling. Things like courses and lectures are great because people are so absorbed that they tend to keep fairly still, which is a boon when you’re having a scribble.

foxgloves

I also went for a walk to the beautiful Penllegare Woods and took this photo of foxgloves under the trees. Lovely.

Mean Foreshortening

June 5

Here’s the final drawing I did at the life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop this week. The pose had some mean foreshortening. I started by roughly blocking out the highlights in White, then worked into the drawing with Sanguine, and finally some little flashes of Black conté crayon into my A3 brown paper sketchbook. The sequence can be seen in the slide show below.

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Hands Off!

Hands Off Oriel Ceri Richards! The slogan behind the protest at Swansea University earlier today, against the imminent closure of this established and popular gallery on the campus.

Oriel Ceri Richards

I had to have a scribble of course. I love to draw en plein air and I used white, sanguine and black conté crayons into my A4 brown paper sketchbook.

The protesters had made fab placards, very arty ones. To find out more about the campaign to keep the gallery open, please click here.

Getting Absorbed

June 4

I was at life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop last night and focused on drawing a portrait. Our model is a strong and powerful woman and I got really absorbed in drawing her. A bit too absorbed as I realised that I had added about 20 years to her face! I was so into making the marks on the paper with my conté crayons that I got carried away with the fun of drawing and kept on adding bits. Still, I like the drawing even though it’s grossly insulting to our poor model.

 

A Place In Space

Place in Space

I’m just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop. I’ve been working with a middle-aged female model, I really enjoy drawing her. I started out with a quick sketch into my A3 brown paper spiral bound sketchbook from Seawhites of Brighton. I used a stub of white conté crayon, used on it’s side, the flat edge rather than the point. I wanted, in this sketch, to place the model in space, to get used to how she occupied the space around her before going on to a more detailed drawing. I really like the simplicity of this, it reminds me of Paleolithic female sculptures.

Daily Habit

Cafe 360

I’m falling back into good habits. For years I’ve been doing a drawing every day, even if it’s just a sketch that takes a minute or two. I think it’s like a singer running through her scales each day, good practice. But lately, I’ve fallen out of the habit and although I’ve been doing a lot of drawing, they’ve tended to be more complete drawings, often doing several at a time and I’ve neglected the quick little daily practice sketch. So a few days ago I dug out my tiny flowered sketchbook and I’ve been randomly sketching wherever I’ve been. These two women were scribbled at a party celebrating the wedding of two old friends, who were tying the knot after 25 years together. Marvellous. 😀

That’s sage and golden marjoram behind the sketchbook, I photographed it in my herb pot in the garden.

The Man In The Cafe

man in cafe

Husb and I often pop into the cafe upstairs in Waterstone’s bookshop, for a coffee and a chat in the comfy seats. I often have a quick scribble as people are generally absorbed in what they’re doing and I can sketch without them noticing. Here’s a recent one, in my tiny flowery sketchbook, it’s about a size A6, maybe a bit smaller. I photographed it in my herb pot in the back garden, on top of the sage and golden marjoram.

Squished

squished

Our very last visit on our recent trip to Berlin was to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church, which is in fact 2 churches. The newer church, built around the ruins of the older, has a spectacular – and huge – statue of Christ, designed by Karl Hemmeter, dominating the space. I had a quick scribble but underestimated how much space I needed for the spread of the arms, so I had to seriously squish them to fit into my A4 brown paper sketchbook. There was an organ recital going on when we wandered in so we, Husb, two great-nephews and myself, sat in the awe-inspiring space and enjoyed some classical organ music. Lovely.

 

Like Nana’s Range (might be distressing)

Crematoria

As Husb and I walked around the Saschenhausen Concentration Camp in Berlin last week (on a Sandemans Guided Tour) I sketched what I could on the move. It made it easier in some ways because I could detach myself slightly from my surroundings. A lot of the camp was destroyed by the Soviets after they took control of East Germany, but some parts remained, although badly damaged, like the crematoria that were used to destroy the bodies of the tens of thousands of people who were murdered here. Their bodies were originally shipped out in trucks to crematoria in the city, but one truck overturned and spilled bodies across a street so these crematoria were built so that the citizens of Berlin wouldn’t have to see such a distressful sight again.

All that’s left are a few small brick walls, the black metal ‘ovens’ and the metal girders that supported the brick structure. This was the point where I broke down. The ‘ovens’ look for all the world like the black iron range in my Nana’s kitchen when I was a child; happy memories of her kettle always bubbling away and goodies coming out of the little oven. Horror can look so ordinary and benign!

My parent’s generation lived through the war, many died on all sides. It is our duty to them to make sure it doesn’t happen again. These vile attitudes are on the rise once more in Europe. We have to stop them, we have to safeguard the future.