#Caturday Silhouette 5

It’s amazing how quickly a week flies by, and here we are again, another #Caturday Saturday and another silhouette of our little elderly rescue cat, William ChatNoir, aka Bill.

As I’m clearing out my plans chests I’m finding lots of nice papers that I’ve coloured up for one reason or another, so I’m having a bit of #Caturday fun with them. This background is made up of lots of small random shapes I cut into acrylic blocks (a cheap alternative to lino) and I printed and overprinted them with translucent Cranfield Safewash relief inks in the 3 primary colours. I wasn’t too keen on the results back then but it’s always a good idea to keep hold of things because you never know when they might come in useful.

POSTPONED: Paint A Portrait Of Bonnie

Sorry, tomorrow’s free painting class at GS Artists has been postponed because of a combination of illness (me – gastroenteritis) and the weather (Storm Bert). We’ll do it soon when the nasty old bug and mean old storm have gone.

Keep a look out for more news on this…

Sketchbook Archives: 18

October 2012 was a month of heads! I couldn’t get enough of them! Some scribbles from my old sketchbooks.

Paint A Portrait Of Bonnie (Free Art Session)

Create an entry for this years 9 to 90 competition and exhibition at Swansea’s GS Artists. I’ll be there to guide participants step by step, with all materials provided, free drinks and snacks on Saturday 23rd November, 10.30 – 12.30. Please book here because places, although free, are limited.

“Bonnie Tyler is our own husky-voiced, council estate Diva of Rock. She’s fearless and can sing the socks off any male rock singer IMHO. With her striking good looks, her mane of golden hair and her glamorous rock-chick style, we’re going to have fun painting her portrait.”

Free Arty Open Days…

Saturday and Sunday 23rd and 24th November 10.30 – 16.00.

A rare chance to see inside Swansea’s Print Workshop and it’s fantastic printing presses dating from 1855 to the 21st century. There’s also a massive selection of original prints from talented local artists, and refreshments. AND some demonstrations of printmaking – I’ll be showing how to print from a lino block on Sunday afternoon. Come and have a look.

Sketchbook Archives: 17

Here’s a snapshot of my sketchbook in September 2012, I was getting out and about, two cafes and a blustery day on Swansea Beach. There’s also a strange sketch of three pigs heads in the old Swansea Magistrates Court, I was involved in a very surreal short film…. And top left a scribble of the old Palace Theatre as it was then, in a terrible state. For years we all thought it would fall down or be demolished but our local authority raised enough money to do it up and it re-opened recently with a cafe and modern workspaces. The interior has changed but the exterior is now preserved for another few generations.

#Caturday Silhouette 4

I’m clearing out my plans chests. I have two and I want to cut back to one. That’s a lot of sorting to do. As I’m going along I’m finding lots of nice papers that I’ve coloured up for one reason or another, so I’m having a bit of #Caturday fun with some cat silhouettes I cut out a while back, putting them onto different backgrounds. Art doesn’t have to be serious all the time. The silhouette shows our little elderly rescue cat, William ChatNoir, aka Bill. The background is some paper I experimented with, using textured gesso, acrylic paint washes and compressed charcoal.

Live At The Boxing Club: 6

The last of my scribbles from the Gwent Boxing Club in Townhill in Swansea. The lads are really, really fast so there was no time to do any detailed drawing, I could only do speed sketching. It was good practice to capture movement as quickly as I could. It was very intense, lots of concentration, but worth it because I started to capture the dynamic movements.

Live At The Boxing Club: 5

Speed sketching gives variable results, sometimes catching fleeting moments quite accurately, sometimes the scribbles look like…well…scribbles. Sketches from my recent visit to the boxing club, these guys are so fast.

Live At The Boxing Club: 4

Scribbling away at the boxing club the other week, I was sketching movements and positions I hadn’t seen before, but these guys are so fast, I struggled to get anything resembling a human down on the page. But it’s really good practice, each tiny figure adds to my knowledge of how humans move, how we’re made up.