Carrying on with the quick head sketches, I Googled another photo of an elderly woman and did a 10 minute timed sketch. I drew into my A4 hardbound sketchbook with a graphite stick and white conte crayon. I had prepared a lot of the sketchbook’s pages with brown wrapping paper stuck in with Pritt stick. As we age, the difference in looks between men and women becomes less obvious. I love to draw older people, their faces reflect the experience of a lifetime. I hate the way our culture is so obsessed with youth that many people have their faces stretched with cosmetic surgery, deleting the story of their life. Such a shame.
We have a terrific art gallery in Swansea, Galerie Simpson, which not only shows fabulous art exhibitions but also hosts excellent events. Husb and I went to one today, a talk and Q&A session by Welsh punk musician and author, Rhys Mwyn. Fascinating stuff. I had a quick scribble, as I always do. It’s hard to draw a moving person and Rhys was very animated. I find that I have to get the first few critical lines down as quickly as possible, the forehead and nose and then wait until the person moves back into that position and sketch in a bit more. And again. And again. Eventually I end up with an approximation of the person. It isn’t exact but I think it captures essence and movement in a way that a formal pose never would.
Sometimes it’s getting late and I haven’t done any drawing so I look around for something quick to do. I try to draw every day because that’s what underpins my practice as an artist, rather like a singer practicing their scales every day. If I’m stuck, I turn to the Internet and google images of people, choose one and time myself- a strict 6 minutes to scribble a reasonable drawing. I like to choose elders because their faces are so interesting, so expressive. They have history and stories flickering across their faces. I drew this with a graphite stick into my A5 black hardbound sketchbook.
We have one of our young nephews on a sleepover and I scribbled him as he watched a film. He’s at that in betweeny age, just leaving boyhood but not quite adolescent, so he has this little skinny, gangly, Bambi body with a large head wobbling on top. His face is starting to fill out too. Very hard to draw though, I’ve only just started to get used to little children’s alien faces and this is half way between a kid and an adult. Weird.
The tabletop pasta maker had it’s first trial as a mobile printing press today. RESULT!!!!! It worked beautifully. It’s taken ages to renovate because we had stored it in a really damp cupboard and it was badly rusted, but WD40, patience and elbow grease did the job.
Here’s how I recycled it…………….
Cutting paper drypoint plate to size
Drawing onto paper drypoint plate with drawing pen
Scratching the lines into the plate surface with a drypoint tool
Cutting Bockingford paper to size
Soaking the paper, about an hour will do
Wipe away the ink drawing, don’t use a wet cloth, just slightly damp!
Cutting press blankets from felted wool to just fir into the press
First, I cut a piece of Intaglio Printmaker’s paper drypoint etching plate and then I redrew a little drawing of a hare onto it, from one of my sketchbooks, using a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S. Thirdly, I scratched over the linework with my drypoint tool, just breaking the surface of the plastic coating. Then I cut and soaked some small pieces of Bockingford before removing the pen drawing with a very lightly dampened piece of cotton wool. Finally I cut some pieces of felted wool to be used as tiny blankets for the pasta press.
Inking up the drypoint plate ………..
Using special drypoint ink , an oil-based one from Intaglio Printmakers
Softening the ink on a recycled marble inking slab
Using a rubber squeegee to apply ink to plate
Using an old business card, or recylcle a credit card, to remove excess ink
Don’t remove too much ink, it’s easy to rub too hard
Clean the edges with a rag and check the back too
Drain the paper – I used ‘toaster’ tongs – repurposed what I had in the kitchen
Blotting with kitchen roll and a cheap roller (brayer)
I put a blob of Intaglio Printmaker’s Drypoint Mix oil–based etching ink onto my inking block (a recycled bit of marble from an old fireplace) and picked some up with a mini rubber squeegee. I squeegeed the ink across the little drypoint plate then removed the excess, firstly with the edge of an old business card and then with a piece of tissue paper, taking care not to take too much off. Finally I wiped the edges with a rag, cleaned my hands and blotted a piece of the soaked Bockingford paper.
Making a blanket sandwich …….
First layer, one of the felt blankets
Second layer, a clean piece of tissue
Third layer, the blotted Bockingford paper
Fourth layer, the inked plate, face down
Fifth layer, another piece of clean tissue
Sixth layer, the second felt blanket
On top of one of the first blanket I laid a clean piece of tissue paper, then the blotted Bockingford and then placed the drypoint plate, inky side down, then another layer of tissue and finally the second blanket.
Taking the print ……..
Grip the blanket sandwich firmly so none of the pieces move
Feed it into the machine and turn the handle
Carefully peel away the layers of the blanket sandwich and here’s your little drypoint print.
I picked up the blanket sandwich very carefully and firmly, making sure none of the layers slipped and rested the bottom edge onto the rollers in the pasta press. I turned the handle with one hand while keeping a tight grip on the blanket sandwich with the other. Once it was through, I peeled away the layers and voila! A teeny little etching.
These paper drypoint plates make an edition of 10 or so etchings before wearing out. I think I might try some hand colouring on these little hares, with my Winsor & Newton Artist’s Watercolours.
There’s a new exhibition coming up at The British Museum this Autumn – drawings in metalpoint. These are drawings made with silver or gold onto specially prepared paper, a technique used before the invention of graphite pencils. I did some work in Silverpoint a while back (above), drawing directly from a life model.
The tool is a smooth barrel of wood like an etching needle but the point is a piece of silver wire, 99% pure. It can be used flat or as a very sharp point, but you have to be accurate because it can’t be rubbed out. Renaissance artists didn’t use the technique for quick scribbling, it was for careful studies. The paper has to be coated with a special Silverpoint Medium; I don’t know what’s in the modern version, but back in the day it was made from finely ground bone mixed with animal glue. When it’s dry, you draw the fine silver point across the paper and the bone drags molecules of the metal off and in a few seconds it tarnishes. This means that you can’t see the line you’ve drawn until the tarnish appears.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Bust Of A Warrior in metalpoint
The British Museum is just up the road from my all time favourite artist suppliers, Cornelissen & Son, so I could combine a visit to the exhibition with a shopping trip to Cornelissen to buy silverpoint materials. Now that sounds like a plan 😀
Beautiful weather and a gorgeous evening so Husb and I strolled down to the beach for a paddle. The sea was warm and soupy, it was really nice to sink my feet into the gloopy sand and squish it between my toes. There were loads of people sunning themselves, lots of dogs and a couple of horses. I did some very quick outline sketches and worked into them a bit when I got home.
About to recycle my pasta maker into an etching press
I’m recycling my old, unloved tabletop pasta machine into a mini printing press – I hope. Husb spent ages cleaning the rust off and getting the rollers to work smoothly again without creaking loudly. I bought a piece of felted wool to cut down into little blankets and I’m going to try using the machine to print small lino blocks and tiny drypoint etching plates. Something to do next week 🙂
Today is Sunday and one of the problems with being self-employed is the temptation not to take any time off. Well, today I gave myself some down time and chilled out with family, went for a long walk on the beach, nattered with friends, watched Glastonbury on the telly (Lionel Richie was AWESOME)…… So I didn’t have anything to blog!!! I Googled some images of elderly ladies’ heads and did a strictly timed six minute sketch from one of the photos a few minutes ago. So I managed a daily piece of art and a blog. Result 😀
It’s drawn with a graphite stick into my A5 hardbacked sketchbook.
I carried on working on tiny recycled fragments of beautiful papers today, Somerset, Bockingford, BFK Rives, Hahnemulle, and found myself relaxing into it. Yesterday was frustrating and difficult, as it should be, I was trying something new and there’s no reason why it should be easy.
Today I was much less prissy and precious about what I was doing on the paper. At the end of the day it’s just a fragment of paper and if I don’t like what I have done, I can gesso over it. In fact I did that to a couple that I had worked on yesterday anyway.
All the pieces of paper are size A6 or smaller and I have been working on them with gesso, willow charcoal, carbon, graphite, Indian ink wash, home made walnut ink, conte crayon using brushes, fingers, wet wipes and cotton buds to blend and fade the marks.
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