A Face In Steps [4]

dec-4

Digital cameras are great! I can photograph different stages of a drawing to see how it comes together. It’s nice to look at how a drawing develops in the cold light of day, I’m too absorbed when I’m drawing to analyse what I’ve done. I did this life drawing last week at Swansea Print Workshop’s life drawing group, using black, white and sanguine conté crayon. At this point, I’m still working on some very detailed black line.

 

I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument one up every day.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

A Face In Steps [3]

dec-3

Here’s the third stage of the life drawing I did last week at Swansea Print Workshop, introducing some defined black line over the vague white and sanguine marks, all conté crayon. I’m working onto ordinary brown wrapping paper.

 

I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument one up every day.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

A Face In Steps [2]

dec-2

The second step drawing the life model at Swansea Print Workshop last week, adding some conté crayon in sanguine, drawn onto brown wrapping paper. It’s about A2 size to fit my travel drawing board.

 

 

I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument one up every day.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

A Face In Steps [1]

dec-1

I worked on a portrait head at the life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop last week and took a digital photo at each stage. Here are the first few marks, in white conté crayon onto brown wrapping paper.

 

I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument one up every day.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

Luscious Leftovers!

six-invite-b

In its sixth year, this touring international exhibition of miniature original prints is coming to Swansea tomorrow, opening with a Welsh tea from 5-7pm and then daily (except Mondays) until mid-January – but check the website for opening hours over the holiday season.

six-invite-a

Click on the link here to see the write up of the exhibition in our local paper.

I am putting a new drawing of an ancient monument one up every day.  If you want to buy one, you can see them by clicking on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.

St Elvis

Poorly

Had a virus a couple of weeks ago and have been poorly ever since, something like post-viral fatigue which has really wiped me out so I haven’t done much artwork. Here’s one of the redrawings I have been doing, based on the drawings I did en plein air throughout South Wales earlier in the year, working into a brown paper sketchbook with white, sanguine and black conté crayons. These redrawings are allowing me to move towards greater abstraction and this one almost looks like a mask.

mask-stone

The Undiscovered

I’m in the process of redrawing the series of major drawings of ancient standing stones I did earlier this year. This is the Cockett Valley stone, undiscovered for thousands of years until woodland clearance in the 1970s took place to extend the school playing fields. It’s now out in the open, overlooking the small river snaking along Cockett Valley. I’m redrawing into an A4 brown paper sketchbook with a limited pallette of black, white and sanguine conté crayons, with a view to developing a suite of lino or wood cut prints next year.

Golden Light

I saw a brief interview on the television this evening with the actor Timothy Spall talking about his role in Mike Leigh’s film, Mr. Turner. He did a lot of art training for it and said that one of the things that has lasted is that he now looks hard at everything around him, noticing far more than he did before. And I think that’s something that artists do, we look more than most people and the more you look, the more you see. I took these photos this evening as I was walking home from the print workshop. The light from the low winter sun was gorgeous, golden and sparkling and illuminating the dingy urban alleyways.

 

I have some work in both the exhibitions below, if you’re passing through The Rhondda Valley or Cardiff, please pop in…..

Stone In Steps

Step 1
Step 2
Step 3

 

I’m using my sketchbook to redraw from my recent series of drawings en plein air of Neolithic standing stones. I’m trying to simplify them and get down to their essence, using conté crayons in black, sanguine and white. The sketchbook is an A4 size brown paper spiral bound from Seawhites of Brighton. My phone takes good photos. It’s brilliant. I like photographing my work in stages to remind myself how it develops.

Redraw, Reinterpret

 

ty-n-selar

I’m redrawing into my sketchbook from the series of drawings I did of Neolithic monuments across South Wales earlier this year. It gives me a chance to reinterpret the original work and see what comes out of it. I’m thinking maybe lino cuts?