Here’s the drawing I did at life drawing group last night using my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with the free Markers app. The pose was a bit difficult because the model’s hand was so far in front and there was some extreme foreshortening.
The Waiting Room
Went with a loved one to the local hospital for x-rays and took the opportunity to have a scribble while I waited. It’s very selfish but hospital waiting rooms are good places for sketching as people are often very preoccupied and don’t notice you.
This elderly man was dressed for the winter and kept his fabulous fake fur hat firmly on his head for the duration. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S and F into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook. We weren’t there long. The NHS at its best is fantastic.
The Onesie
So what is it about men and onesies? This is the second time I’ve seen a grown man wandering around in a man size Onesie. This chap in a Onesie, waistcoat, big boots and floppy hat was trying on jackets in the YMCA second hand shop in Swansea a few days ago. I didn’t like to stare and sketch so I’ve drawn him from memory using my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with the free Markers app. Quite an eccentric character.
Just Seconds
One of those days – loads of admin and computer and filing and then off to the opening of a friend’s exhibition so I only had SECONDS to do any drawing. But I set myself the task of drawing every day so draw I did. I was doing some voluntary work at Swansea Print Workshop today and managed to grab a few moments to sketch the top of the vintage Columbian printing press, the bald eagle, using graphite into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.
Husb and I were in Malta last month and visited the fantastic National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta which is hosting an exhibition of artefacts from 7000 years of Malta’s history, ” Malta – the Great Story of a Small Island-Nation through 100 Objects”. And there was this lovely Columbian press!
Made in London, it was imported after freedom of the Maltese press was won in 1839 and many newspapers were launched within just a few years. One of the main characteristics of the Columbian is that it was designed to allow a whole newspaper page to be pressed in one pull. And it’s considered important enough to be one of the 100 artefacts to be included in this historic exhibition. And we have one just like it in Swansea!
Blog A Sprog
I’ve been taking advantage of babysitting family sprogs to carry on practicing drawing heads of children. It was the two-year old’s turn today. I mesmerised him with a DVD of Tractor Tom and scribbled with graphite into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook. I had a couple of attempts first before it finally clicked and I’ve ended up with a reasonable likeness and a drawing that I like. I’m very pleased with the flexible and flowing line the graphite has given me.
I tend to fail at portraiture with children because I can’t accept the extreme proportions that are right in front of my eyes but this time I forced myself to pay close attention to what was actually there and forget the nagging voice in my head telling me that the proportions couldn’t possibly be like that. The face is very small and drops away at the bottom of the head, leaving a very large brow. The little ear, so round, is set very far back, the upper lip juts out further than the tip of the nose and the chin falls away completely. And there’s the MASSIVE cheeks (food storage pouches) and huge eyes to contend with. It shoudn’t work but it does. Yes, chuffed with that 😀
Seeing What’s There
Husb and I are babysitting three little relatives having a sleepover. Loads of pancakes made, corn popped and films on DVD stacked up ready. It’s a good opportunity to practice drawing young heads. I’ve long been of the opinion that children have alien heads; little tiny nose squished onto a little tiny face squashed onto an enormous head. With massive eyelashes.
I’ve been trying to draw my little niece for ages, but I still can’t get the proportions right. I’m getting there but still a way to go. I just can’t believe what I’m seeing, can’t accept the impossibly tiny chin and unfeasibly huge eyes. It just doesn’t compute. More practice needed. I drew this with a graphite pencil into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.
Art’s Birthday
January the 17th is Art’s Birthday according to Robert Filliou, a French Fluxus artist, who proposed “Art’s Birthday” in 1963. He suggested that a million years ago there was no art. But one day, on January 17 Art was born when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Now, lots of artists and arts organisations across the world celebrate Art’s birthday. Today Husb and I went to a symposium on Utopia in the Mission Gallery in Swansea called ‘Collective Misunderstandings’, by Copenhagen-based collective ATB. A challenging and interesting day. I did an extended scribble with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into my A6 Tate Gallery sketchbook.
The Orange Reflection
There was a strange reflection that caught my eye recently while Husb and I were walking on the beach. The full moon was bright silvery white but its reflection on the calm high tide was orange. I used my little Khadi sketchbook, handmade paper with a very rough texture. I had pre-coloured it with an Indian ink wash and I drew onto it with Daler Rowney artists’ soft pastels. The very rough texture of the paper gives a strong speckled effect.
Spots and Twists
I like working on direct line (trace) monotypes. It’s an immediate and spontaneous way to get an original print and the quality of the line is soft and smudgy. I also like to work with models in poses that are twisted or contrapposto, they have a dynamic interplay of forms and planes that I find more interesting that passive standing poses. I particularly enjoy setting the model against or within a pattered artefact like a rug or blanket. This model is a young soldier who often models for our life drawing group when he’s on leave.
The monotype is printed from a perspex (plexiglass, acrylic sheet) plate coated with black oil-based litho / relief ink thinned with a little extender. It’s important to roll the ink super thin otherwise you’ll get huge black smudges everywhere. Once there is a very thin layer of ink on the perspex, a sheet of fairly thin paper (a good cartridge paper around 150 gsm will be fine) is placed on top and a pencil drawing done on the top of the paper. The pencil needs to be kept sharp. When the paper is lifted off the perspex, the ink will have stuck to the places the pencil touched, creating an unique monotype. It’s a very good method for artists who love drawing.
On The Hoof
Did some speedy sketching out and about. I put some basic lines down very quickly in pale grey graphite then worked over it when I got home with dark graphite in my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook. It’s difficult to do much detail when you’re sketching on the hoof, so I find it useful to just block in the main shapes for development later, especially if there’s more than one figure.
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