The rugby World Cup has been thrilling so far and after Saturday’s epic woodcut session at Swansea Print Workshop, a few of us decamped to local hostelry, The Brunswick, to watch the match between Wales and Australia. It was a tough game, we lost but we’re still going through to the next round. Exciting stuff. Here are some of the other rugby fans watching at the old pub, which is renowned for it’s excellent selection of real ales. I used a ballpoint pen into my new little ‘Cat’s Meow Journal’ by Peter Pauper Press, a lovely present last Xmas. It was nice to get back to a bit of spontaneous sketching, I hadn’t done any for ages.
Today was day 2 of a Masterclass with woodcut artist John Abell at Swansea Print Workshop and I carried on cutting the humongous piece of MDF I started yesterday. I used compressed charcoal to darken the surface while I cut with my Flexcut tools. Finally, I reached the point where I wanted to get an idea of what it would look like printed up – you can always cut more away but you can never replace it once it’s gone. So I printed a proof print. This is a first pull, to see what you’ve done and decide whether it’s just right or needs more work.
Ready for inking
Inking up
The first proof
What next?
I used a 50:50 mix of Daler Rowney Georgian Lamp Black oil paint with their Block Printing Medium, very soft, much softer than the relief printing ink I normally use. I rolled the ink over the wood, but it was very absorbent and used up far more than I am used to. I used Fabriano Accademica paper from a roll which was a bit awkward to handle at that size. I used a wooden spoon and a Japanese baren, rubbing hard over the back of the paper to take the print.
I have mixed feelings about it. I like the bits where I used a larger cutting tool in bold strokes, towards the top, but where I tried smaller tools to get a softer, more nuanced effect, it didn’t work at all and I need to get back into it, cutting much more boldly. I think I’ll also put in some lettering. But I’ll leave it a few days to dry out a bit so I’m not cutting through sticky goo.
I am doing a two-day masterclass with epic printmaker, John Abell, at Swansea Print Workshop. John specialises in humongously large woodcuts, click here to see some of his awesome work. I’ve done some small woodcuts before, on plywood, but didn’t really get on with the method. Today, I was presented with a table-sized lump of 6mm MDF to get stuck into. That was a bit of a shock. But I went for it, outlining some images in graphite block and then fleshing it out with charcoal. I used some of the imagery I developed recently on my wall drawing in The Bagpuss Window transient artspace. I knew it would come in handy.
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I started cutting and I suppose I’m about two thirds of the way through. I’ve been quite free, not sketching in too much detail and trying to be spontaneous with my cutting. My Flexcut tools cut through the MDF like a hot knife through butter – lovely. I’ll finish the cutting tomorrow morning and then we’ll be taking a print – by hand! Not with a printing press but with a wooden spoon, although I have a couple of barens as back-up.
Here’s a second head study I did at Swansea Print Workshop’s life drawing session this week. It was the last sketch of the evening and I did it in about 10 minutes. I think it’s my favourite from the night because it was so quick, more lively than the ones I concentrated on. I used my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with a free Markers app, putting in a dark ground to start with. I used my fingertips a lot instead of the stylus, it goes blobby and I like it.
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Oh and yesterday’s post was number 1,500! That’s in just over 4 years. I’m really pleased I’ve had the discipline to do it and thank you for reading them 😀 x
Just back from the weekly group at Swansea Print Workshop. Tired now. I did some portrait studies and a full length nude. I used my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with the free Markers app. I’m getting a bit fed up with it so I think I’ll prepare a load of paper and get back into some physical, instead of virtual, drawing next week.
Reflection, musing on masculinity. Having a large mirror in the life drawing room can add a lot to any drawings.
From a purely technical point of view it means you can draw a figure from the front and back at the same time without it looking like two separate drawings.
I also like to experiment with materials when I am drawing and this time the original study was drawn using Renaissance materials, inspired by artwork I did for a television series about da Vinci
Depending on the pose you can use a mirror to illustrate various emotional states. A man leaning against a mirror as if exhausted, naked, too close to see his own reflect with head bowed gives an impression of fatigue and introspection.
This image could be as simple or as complex as the viewer decides. The blacks are dark enough to be sombre whereas the line-work is deft enough to give the figure itself an air of lightness.
It is a photopolymer steel plate etching, etched and hand-printed using oil pigment onto BFK Rives cotton rag paper
If you want to find out more technical details about techniques I use please click here to go through to the technical section.
The monotype “The Gaze” is available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the link here to go directly to it or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.
This model gazes at the viewer, completely at ease and totally confident in her own skin.
Most life models are by nature, confident about their bodies and have no problem with being looked at. It is their job after all. Usually though, they tend to look away from the artists. On a purely practical level his is because there will be a number of artists in a life drawing setting and the model cannot look at all of them.
In this work I have chosen to capture the gaze of the model, which gives her more of a relationship with the viewer. She is looking out, as if to engage with anyone who looks back. Although she is naked, it is her eyes and face that draw you in.
I have rendered the rest of the figure in a minimalist fashion to emphasise where the important part of the image is. She is as curious about you as you are about her.
The technique, known as direct line monotype produces a unique artwork in the style of a line drawing. I used archival quality oil-based litho ink onto Zerkall paper.
If you want to find out more technical details about techniques I use please click here to go through to the technical section.
The monotype “The Gaze” is available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the link here to go directly to it or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.
I love this printmaking technique. It has all the flexibility of painting with a healthy dose of unpredictability thrown in.
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A full-colour monotype can be as simple or as complex as you like. This one started out as a very simple life drawing and just developed into something wild and wonderful. This is a reduction method, which means you are removing ink from a plate before pressing it onto paper.
The beauty is that you can use whatever you like to remove the ink. A simple cotton bud or a piece of tissue are some of the more common implements but you can use your fingers, a toothpick, a toothbrush; anything really. The possibilities and combinations are endless as are the variations in texture.
Here I have used oil-based litho/relief pigment onto BFK Rives cotton-rag paper, as well as many improvised tools. If you want to find out more technical details about techniques I use please click here to go through to the technical section.
The monotype “Nude Reflected” is available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the link here to go directly to it or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.
Back in April 2014 I travelled to Pakistan with another Swansea Printmaker to do a residency at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio near Rawalpindi. It was an amazing and exhausting experience – jet lag, culture shock, a visit to the ancient monuments at Taxila; working day and night in the studio with my fellow artists to make enough work for a show; the exhibition launch at the fabulous Satrang Gallery in Islamabad opened by the British Ambassador; the hectic weekend in Lahore for my birthday; a full schedule of meetings with artists and gallery owners when we came back from Crazy Lahore, home, reverse culture shock, jet lag!
Hannah Lawson, Zaira Zaka and me in Zaira’s fabulous print studio near Rawalpindi.
When I got home, I was pitched straight back into normal hectic life and it’s taken a while to get my thoughts in order, to get back to the experience, to draw inspiration and develop new work from it.
But something’s finally happening! My fellow printmaker, Hannah Lawson and I are bringing our experiences back home in a four-day pop-up studio at Swansea Print Workshop, from Friday October the 23rd to Monday October the 26th .
Hanna, Zaira and me at the Taxila Buddhist UNESCO ancient monument in north-west Punjab.
We’re kicking off with a family-friendly Welsh – Pakistani tea from 4.30 – 7pm on Friday the 23rd, with Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith, Pink Chai and Builder’s Brew, Pakoras and Samosas and home made chutneys and jams. So if you’re in the area, please pop in.
And the Dragon, the Star and the Crescent Moon? Those are our flags. Pretty cool flags, huh?
Welsh Dragon
Pakistani Star and Crescent Moon
I blogged more or less daily while I was in Pakistan and here’s one I did at the beginning of the journey.
The first time I blogged this image was a turning point for me, as can be seen here. This painting featured in the last ever exhibition I curated at The Brunswick in Swansea. It is based on a drawing of one of our more colour coordinated life models.
Oil on canvas: Purple Hair [detail]He had a habit of matching his contact lenses with his hair colour which made for a very striking look. He was also able to get into quite dramatic poses and hold them for as long as necessary.
In this painting I have echoed the brush work on the figure with that in the background. Almost the only thing separating the two is the thick, dark outline of the model and the shock of purple hair flowing behind him.
Sometimes it is good to just play with the surface of a work and push the paint around to create effects. Most of the piece was done using oilbars and rags wrapped round my fingers. It can be the subtlest of differences in the direction of the paint and colour that lift a subject and make it three dimensional.
The Painting “Spiky Purple Hair” is available for sale on Artfinder and if you’d like to find out more, please click on the link here to go directly to it or click on the top right of this page to see other works for sale.
![Oil on canvas: Purple Hair [detail]](https://scribblah.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/purple-hair-detail.jpg)
