Here is another of the series of ink and watercolour nudes I did a while ago. This is an older male model I’ve worked with for years, he’s a stalwart of the life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop. I did the line drawing with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens. They’re my favourites and I’ve been using them for about a decade now. They’re waterproof, permanent and lightfast and they are very smooth to draw with. The watercolours are Winsor & Newton artist quality half pans and I have used a Cotman watercolour sketchbook, size A3.
It’s vital to use the best quality materials – acid free paper, permanent drawing pens and lightfast watercolours – otherwise the work will fade away to nothing over time. As a rule of thumb, materials marketed as ‘archival’ or ‘artist quality’ will not give you any problems but materials sold as ‘student quality’ or unmarked will not be good enough for a professional artist who intends to sell their work.
I ran a short course in using a pasta maker as a printing press at Swansea Print Workshop today. We used paper drypoint plates to make miniature prints. I very quickly re-sketched a drawing of a badger from my sketchbook and cut it into the plate with a drypoint tool. The nose is a bit too long, it’s almost an anteater – a badge-eater! 😀
Inking the drypoint plate
Printing through the press
A lovely image
The drypoint plate is easily cut and shaped
A beautiful crow
Here are some more photos, from inking the plate to the finished prints. Click here for a step-by-step record of the process and here to see it done on video.
Some of my blog readers have asked to see more of the series of line and watercolour drawings I did a while back. They were all drawn during life drawing sessions at Swansea Print Workshop into an A3 Cotman watercolour spiral-bound sketchbook. The linework was done with a F.aber Castell Pitt drawing pen and I used artist quality Winsor & Newton half pan watercolours for the colour washes. I used the watercolour quite thick, more like a gouache, in sharp choppy strokes with a stiff square brush.
Whew, what a day!!!! So busy, drove four hours up to Abergavenny and back and straight down to Swansea Print Workshop for the opening of the lovely Leftovers V international miniature print show. We went with a traditional Welsh tea opening with home-made bara brith, a classic Victoria Sandwich, scones with home-made loganberry jam (our own homegrown loganberries) and a first for me, a gluten-free vegan carrot cake. Lots of lovely people came to see the show, sip tea or juice and nibble cake. Leftovers V was initiated by Amy Nack at Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho, USA as a print exchange to use up all the gorgeous leftover bits of paper that we printmakers always seem to have knocking around. This is its fifth year and includes artists from most States in the USA, Britain / Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Germany and Canada.
Leftovers V exhibition dates
Baking for the opening of the show
Opening night visitors
The miniature pasta print training day
The exhibition runs at Swansea Print Workshop, 19a Clarence Street, Swansea for the week, 10.30 – 4.00 daily and on Wednesday the 5th August there is a training day about making miniature drypoint prints with a domestic pasta press. Pre-booking is essential on 01792 464418.
Vegan, gluten-free carrot cake
12 ounces of gluten-free self raising flour; one and a half teaspoons of Xanthan Gum; 4 ounces of dark brown sugar; 4 ounces of light brown sugar; a teaspoon of ground nutmeg; 8 ounces of vegan margarine; about 8 ounces of carrot pulp (left over from juicing); juice of half a lemon;a good handful of sultanas; some dairy free milk.
A 7 inch square baking tin, 3 inches deep; baking parchment for lining the tin; tin foil; a large mixing bowl.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3 and set a shelf towards the bottom. Line the bottom of the tin with baking parchment. In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, except the sultanas. Rub in the margarine until the mixture is like rough breadcrumbs. Mix in the carrot pulp and sultanas. Stir in the lemon juice and enough dairy-free milk (I used almond) to get a soft dropping consistency.
Turn it into the tin, smooth the top and bake for around one and a half hours until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Place a sheet of tin foil over the top of the cake after about 40 minutes to prevent burning. Run a knife around the sides of the cake and turn it onto a cake rack to cool.
Such a busy day. Putting up the new exhibition at Swansea Print Workshop this morning. It’s a gorgeous show of miniature prints from all over the world called Leftovers V. Then Husb and I went down for a much needed session on the allotment, loads of work to do but some harvesting too – potatoes, mint, chard, rhubarb, plums and cooking apples. Fresh food for some days to come. And on top of that, baking cakes for the exhibition tomorrow. We’re opening early evening with a traditional Welsh tea with bara brith, Victoria Sandwich, Welsh cakes and for the first time, I made a gluten-free vegan carrot cake. I’m caked out!
No time for sketching so I’m putting up one of the drawings I did at our life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop on Thursday. This older male model has a very distinctive face that lends itself to bold mark-making with black and white conte crayon onto a rough brown parcel paper.
Today I went on a short course to Swansea Hackspace to learn how to turn a drawing into a rubber stamp. It’s something I’ve been wanting to try out for ages. I learned loads and got the chance to use some very advanced technology (well it seemed so to me). We started by learning how to vectorise an image in a programme new to me, Inkscape, and then, when the image was ready, transferred it to a laptop connected to the Acme Laser Cutting Gizmo (probably not its real name). This cut the image into a shiny blue acrylic sheet to form a solid backing for the rubber; this way the image is also on the back. I used a photograph I had made of a silkscreen print I did recently of Frida Kahlo. The photo above shows Frida cut into the acrylic; it’s very reflective.
Then the acrylic was taken out and a special rubber sheet put in and the stamp was cut. It’s very exciting, with sparks. I like the continuity it gives to my work, from drawing to screenprint to stamp. I’ll be experimenting with it, using different types of paper and inks and there might even be some scope in taking a block print off the acrylic image. The machine can also cut wood, so woodblocks are a possibility in future.
I did a series of life drawings a while back, doing linework with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and using my box of Winsor & Newton half pan artist watercolours to overlay colour washes in a choppy style. I posted one a couple of blogs ago and some people asked to see more. So here you are. There are some large mirrors at Swansea Print Workshop which is great for doing quite extensive drawings with reflections.
Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop, working with one of our elder models who has a fantastic, expressive face, full of character and experience. I prepared my sketchbook with some ripped brown parcel paper, stuck in with a Pritt stick and drew firstly in a mid grey graphite stick to get the basic proportions right and then worked into it with white conté crayon and dark grey graphite stick. I was quite free and spontaneous with the mark making and I like the result, I think it’s sculptural. This drawing took about 25 minutes.
I don’t often work with paint but now and again I get out my rather lovely box of Winsor & Newton half pan artist watercolours and use them with my Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, to create colour washes with the line work. I don’t use the watercolours entirely in a ‘traditional’ way, but I tend to use them very choppily, maybe a bit more like gouache.
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