Thirty Minutes

Evans

Here’s another of the 30-minute portrait sketches I did yesterday during my drawing day at Swansea Museum. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into an A5 hardbacked spiral bound sketchbook. I would normally do a number of quick preliminary sketches so it’s quite a challenge to do a decent drawing that is also a reasonable likeness in such a short time. I have another drawing day booked at the museum early in May and I hope to eventually build up a hundred or so of these small portraits over the next few months.

All Drawn Out

Meredith

I spent most of today at Swansea Museum drawing people. I did 7 portrait drawings in 5 hours in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into an A5 hard backed spiral bound sketchbook. Here’s the first – of a large series I hope. And now I’m off to bed, shattered. Goodnight 🙂

Poo To Pool

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Husb and I spent a fair chunk of the day shovelling farmyard manure, transporting it from the farm to the allotment. Then a quick bath, change of clothes and off to a pool party celebrating the birthdays of 3 little relatives.

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Of course, I had to have a scribble or two. They’re very speedy sketches, kids are fast moving targets. They have such impossibly skinny legs, like bambis, you wonder how they can walk. I used graphite into my A5 hardback sketchbook.

Ready For The First Cut

ready cuts

I’ve been preparing a stack of vinyl blocks ready for cutting. I’ve drawn on them, firstly in graphite then in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens. Each block will be printed in 4 stages; the first stage is to start cutting away the areas that will be white on the final print. Then I’ll cut the areas that will be a light grey, then the areas to be dark grey and the final cut will leave the areas to be printed in black. This is called the ‘suicide’ or reduction method as it progressively cuts away at the block until there is very little of it left. There’s no margin for error. It’ll be a lot of work to print an edition from all 12 blocks. It’s going to take a while.

Printmakers = geeks. It’s true 😀

Practice Makes Perfect (male nude)

april 09

Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop and it was a tough one this evening. The pose is deceptively difficult, with foreshortening of the hands and legs and the model leaning back made the head a bit odd too. I struggled, using several grades of graphite stick onto a vintage Saunders paper. I used a very scribbly line (to cover up mistakes lol) and measured carefully as I was drawing, but still not quite right. Still, practice makes perfect as my Nana used to say.

Is It A Hen?

hen 1

 

Husb and I visited a friend at her farm today and cut some bamboo canes for our allotment. It was gorgeous, sunny and warm; thirsty work. I grabbed the chance to get some sneaky digital shots of the fidgety chickens and had a bit of a scribble into my A5 hardbacked sketchbook with a grey graphite stick. I’ve had a bit of practice recently with our parrot visitor, Richard the Bird, so I was more familiar with the chicken – the round eye set in a faintly dinosaur-like head. I think it’s a hen but I’m not really sure how to tell.

Standing In The Sun

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The sun is out, people are flocking to the beach and there are plenty of subjects to draw. This chap was standing on the sand absorbing the heat. I drew him with a graphite stick into my A5 hardback sketchbook.

Beach Life

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The sun was out today and, typically British, crowds flocked to the beach, sunbathing in vests and shorts, even bikinis and a brave few took a dunk in the oh-so-cold sea. Not me! I stayed well covered, but that’s because I burn in the sun. It probably wasn’t more than 20 degrees Celsius, maybe not even that, but that’s good enough for us hardy Brits. And it’s great for scribbling too. I did these very quick sketches into my A5 hardback sketchbook with a graphite stick.

A Milestone Reached

favourite man

 

Had another busy day with the opening of PROCESS, the new exhibition from 15 Hundred Lives, the art collective I’m a member of, at Swansea Museum. Afterwards, Husb and I went to our favourite Chinese restaurant, called Favourite funnily enough, and tucked into a gorgeous authentic meal.They make these lovely tofu balls, crispy on the outside and doughy in the middle. We tried a new dessert, Tang Yuan, little sweet steamed buns that exploded with a gooey sesame sauce in your mouth.

I sketched this chap surreptitiously. I rarely get the chance to draw someone of this size and it was difficult to get the proportions right. I should have made the head deeper and put the ear much further back on the head. Never mind, it’s all about practice and learning. I used a soft grey graphite stick into my A5 hardbacked sketchbook.

Oh and by the way, I posted blog number 1300 yesterday. That’s one heck of a lot of drawings done and published. I’m chuffed 😀

Some Days You Can’t

brunswick heads

I try to blog every day but now and again, not often, I’m just too shattered to do a drawing and write up a blog. Yesterday was one of those days. I’m a bit gutted because I haven’t had a day off blogging since the middle of December, but last night I just couldn’t get it together at all. I had a couple of spare drawings as well, but I just had to crawl off to bed, too tired to think. Maybe it’s the clocks going forward!

Never mind, back on form today. Husb and I went to see a new show of painting at The Artswing at Swansea’s Grand Theatre and then nipped to our excellent local pub, The Brunswick, for a swift apple juice and a scribble. Pubs and cafes are great places for sketching faces, these three are very distinctive. I used a dark grey graphite stick into my A5 hardbacked sketchbook.