Here are some drawings from last week’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. This is a new model and I find it takes a while to get used to a new person to draw. I did four quick drawings to get used to the pose but it just didn’t click so I switched to drawing the head and tried freeing myself up with the markmaking, tried to get away from my usual rather conservative style.
I used willow charcoal and a white conte crayon into an A2 brown paper sketchbook.
I’ve come to the last of my Baby Boomer drawings for a little while as The SPace, where I have been doing these drawings since November, has now closed at the end of its temporary lease. I need to find a new place to continue the drawings over the next few months. This Baby Boomer has a face of immense character. One of the things I really appreciate about doing these drawings of my generation is seeing a lifetime reflected in these faces, so many stories, so much experience leaving their mark.
I have done 42 drawings so far into my sketchbooks and I have 58 to go to reach my target of 100. Several of my models have suggested that number 100 should be a self portrait, so I guess that’s a good idea. I hate drawing myself though because I frown so much when I’m concentrating, I look really cross.
Another Baby Boomer sketch and I’m coming to the end of this phase of drawings, with around 40 completed. I’ve been doing them at The SPace in Swansea’s High Street but it’s now closed as our temporary 12 week lease is up, so I’m going to have to find another venue to continue my sketches. I loved doing this drawing, my model has such a distinctive face.
Continuing with my series of 30 minute sketches of Baby Boomers, I am so enjoying making these drawings and having conversations that are informing the future development of my work. I’m using graphite sticks into an A4 spiral bound sketchbook. I recently switched from A5 and the drawings are not so tightly cropped. I’m getting plenty of practice drawing spectacles, they’re getting easier.
This is the first profile I’ve drawn in my series of 30 minute sketches of my generation. I generally start out sitting opposite the people who come and pose for me and let people decide for themselves how they’re comfortable and then draw them. This is the first man I’ve drawn with really long hair, which I find unusual considering how so many male Baby Boomers had long flowing locks back in the day. Of course, a lot of them have lost their hair completely. I drew this with a dark grey graphite stick into an A4 spiral bound sketchbook.
Another curly-headed Baby Boomer, part of my ongoing ambition to draw contemporaries within the next few months. I’ve been surprised at how many of my models have curls. I always wanted curly hair and spent a fortune on perms in the 1980s and early 90s. Perms don’t look natural though and I really envy those with beautiful natural curls, although many curlytops desperately want straight sleek hair. Drawn with mid-grey and black graphite stick into an A4 spiral bound sketchbook.
Continuing with my series of drawings of Baby Boomers, my latest model is at the top end of the demographic and is now aged 70. I have known her for over 40 years and she is still probably the most glamorous woman I know, always beautifully dressed and groomed, the sort of person who makes heads turn when she walks into a room, not because of outrageous clothes or acres of bare flesh but simply because she oozes sprezzatura, an effortless impression of elegance, confidence and charm. In Celtic mythology, the glamour was a magical ability to weave spells on humans.
I’ve been doing these recent portraits at The SPace on Swansea’s High Street. It’s been a short-term project in partnership between Swansea Print Workshop and Coastal Housing Group and it comes to an end on Saturday. It’s been a lovely venue for doing these portraits and I’m going to have to find somewhere else to draw them from now on, I still have to do about 60 of the 100 I plan to draw. I drew this with a mid-grey graphite stick into an A4 spiral bound sketchbook.
Here’s another of my baby Boomer drawings. This model had a very happy face, even when she was relaxing for a 30 minute drawing session. I’m up to around 40 sketches now and most people’s faces when they’re relaxed have neutral or even intense expressions, just a few have a smiley face. This is drawn into an A4 spiral bound sketchbook with a graphite stick.
Here’s another Baby Boomer who has kindly posed for my series of, eventually, 100 sketches of my generation. It’s interesting that the way people look when I’m drawing them is sometimes a bit different to how they normally look. Here is someone who is normally a very smiley person but you can’t keep a smile going for half an hour or so, it’s a strain. So people’s faces relax down and and show a different aspect; this portrait is quite pensive and thoughtful. I drew this in graphite in my new A4 spiral bound sketchbook. I was using an A5 sketchbook but I filled it and thought I’d go up a size.
Husb and I braved the atrocious weather yesterday and drove down to Narbeth, a delightful small town in Pembrokeshire where the excellent Oriel Q Gallery is hosting a new exhibition from Swansea artist Keith Bayliss, “Swsana And The Elders“. We attended an ‘in conversation’ between Keith and Sally Moss. Keith’s work is made up of drawings, paintings and sculptural pieces in a site-specific installation with a soundscape. It’s fantastic and runs until February the 27th. It’s worth taking the trip down, Narbeth is a lovely place to visit with several galleries and a great pottery.
I was so engrossed that I didn’t do any sketches but here’s a drawing I did from a piece in a previous exhibition by Keith in the Mission Gallery in Swansea.
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