scribblah

The End Of A Sketchbook

I came to the end of my lovely cloth-bound sketchbook last night, at a gig in Elysium by Matthew Frederick. He had an interesting technique for playing his guitar across his lap, I haven’t seen that before. I really enjoyed the gig, not my usual thing, a very lovely singer songwriter, not heavy metal! I scribbled him in ballpoint pen and HB pencil.

The sketchbook is A5 size and I started it 2 years ago. It has a “Pigeon Talk” logo in gold on the black cloth cover and also printed on the inside. I’m excited to start a new one now!

Tea And Cake, Of Course!

It was good to be back working with a model I’m used to, as I already knew the “shorthand” of her face, even though it’s been maybe a couple of years since I was last at life drawing. These are the “middle” poses in the session, two x 15 minutes and then a 30 minute pose before tea break. Of course there’s tea break, and often cake and biscuits too. This is Britain after all 😀

Portrait Drawing: Week 4

I’m settling back into life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop after a long, long gap (see here) and I’m practicing portrait drawing. I’ve set myself some goals and I’ll be doing this every Thursday evening for the next year. Here are my sketches from week 4, of a model I worked with a lot in the past. Her familiarity helped, I remembered some of the “shorthand” from before.

Sketchbook Archives: 51

Looking through my sketchbook archives for November and December 2014, there are a few animals that are not domestic cats. There’s a lion and some lionesses drawn at Folly Farm, a friend’s dog, and some cyanotypes of pigeons that I had sketched years before.

#Caturday: Two Cats And A Horse

There’s an Open Weekend at Swansea Print Workshop coming up (see below) and I’m sorting out some of my work to put on sale. I’ve been doing some little linocut prints onto postcards so I’ll pop these into small frames and sell them at relatively low prices. They are all embellished with chine collé, using lovely foils from sweets (candies) to add some colour and texture. The cats are based on our little rescue cat Bill (aka William ChatNoir) and the horse is the Mari Lwyd, from Welsh mythology.

Marvel! Exclaim! Enjoy!

It’s Swansea Print Workshop’s annual open weekend next week, Saturday and Sunday 29th and 30th November, from 10.00 – 4.00. Come and marvel at our antique printing presses, exclaim at the Tardis-like ambience of the unusual Victorian building, and enjoy the fabulous array of original prints on exhibition and for sale from our studio artists (Christmas is coming!).

It’s a fascinating place to visit and there will be refreshments as well. You’ll be very welcome and you won’t have a chance to just drop by for another year. Hope to see you there xxx

Practice Makes Perfect (But It Takes A While)

Reaching the end of last Thursday’s life drawing sesh at Swansea Print Workshop and I’m only just starting to get to grips with the new model. I keep drawing his eyes too close together, but the likeness improve with each sketch, as it should.

The Quick Poses…

The first 2 or 3 poses in a life drawing session are typically short, in our group we have 2 x 5 minutes and 1 x 10 minutes. When I was in Art College, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we started with 30 -second poses and worked up to 2 minutes! That was serious discipline. These short poses give you a chance to isolate the important features in the subject, without getting distracted by details. I hadn’t worked with this model before and it was difficult getting his proportions right.

Portrait Drawing Week 3: No Bags And Wrinkles.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I’m back at life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop after a long, long gap (see here) and I’m using these sessions to practice portrait drawing. I’ve set myself some goals and I’ll probably be doing this every Thursday evening for the next year or so. These are my sketches from week 3. This model is new to me and it takes me a while, and a fair few sketches, to get used to a face. He’s very young and I find youthful faces harder to draw, bags and wrinkles make things easier 😀