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.
I often do my daily drawing at the end of a busy day, when I’m crashed on my chair in front of the TV. That’s why there are a lot of drawings in previous posts of my cat or my feet. Tonight I have a drawing of my cat AND my feet. Bargain. I had my feet up on a stool and she lay along my legs, taking advantage of my body heat. I scribbled her into my Tate Gallery A5 sketchbook, across two pages, with two tones of graphite. This is Sparta Puss. Ming the Merciless is ignoring us.
Here’s another direct line(or trace) monotype, based on an original drawing I did in a life drawing session. I like twisted and contrapposto poses; I like the challenge of drawing them. This sort of monotype technique gives a gentle line and soft, smudgy textures. I used Intaglio Printmakers black litho/relief ink and a fairly thin paper, just a good quality cartridge paper for this.
Husb and I went to see the new film based on Vera Brittain’s book, ‘Testament of Youth’ this morning. Deeply moving, I cried buckets but don’t let that put you off. It’s a beautiful film and well worth seeing. Just be sure to take hankies. We sat between 2 couples, one in their 20s and the other were seniors. I drew these, just a quick scribble. It was good to see the wide range of ages in the audience. I remember seeing the TV series at the end of the seventies which was very good but this was more intense.
Husb and I have a small visitor having a sleepover. He’s 10 and his face is starting to elongate but still has childlike chubbiness. Very young faces are so hard to draw, no wrinkles, no saggy bits, very few visual cues to go on. I used graphite into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.
Why do children have such impossibly huge eyelashes?
There are different ways of doing monotype prints. This technique is called a direct line monotype. You ink up a plate, usually perspex or glass, with a very thin layer of litho / relief printing ink. Then you gently lay a piece of good quality paper, not too thick, onto it and carefully draw onto the paper with a sharp pencil. Peel the paper off the plate and there’s a monotype. Artist Tracey Emin does this a lot. I like to do it when I’m doing life drawings. A sharp pencil will give a good line and you can use your thumb or finger to press on a bit of tone and texture. There is a characteristic smudginess and softness with this technique.
A tribute
A touching tribute
In honour of Stéphane Charbonnier, his colleagues, and the police, who lost their lives in the senseless violence that took place in Paris on the 7th of January 2015. It’s difficult to come to terms with the events of that day, perhaps we never will—how can we?
The end of a long, cold, rainy day, busy with loads of admin. I’m sitting half watching a documentary about World War 2 on the telly with Sparta Puss on the stool in front of me. Time for a scribble. I used graphite into my A5 Tate Gallery sketchbook.
scribblah 