Had a very busy day, ending up at the weekly pub quiz at The Brunswick, an excellent hostelry. I did a couple of quick heads, just a few minutes each. We didn’t win 😦
Process Of A Head
Here’s another digital study of a head, working with a professional model and using my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with a free Markers app.
I started with a mid grey background and built up the drawing using greys, black and white with the airbrush and translucent brushes. I saved at stages during the process and converted the images into a slideshow gallery to show the development of the drawing.
Bigguns
I’ve spent the past two days at the Creative Bubble artspace in Swansea City Centre, with the 15 Hundred Lives art collective. We have the venue every month to give us the space to work together, try out new ideas and we open the doors to the public so that people can drop in and see how artists go about creating a piece of art. It doesn’t just appear fully formed on a gallery wall!
I worked on a massive drawing, the second in a series I am planning to do over the next year or so. The first, on the right in the pictures, was completed and displayed as part of my installation at Fringe Arts Bath back in June. They are inspired by a visit to Berlin a couple of winters ago, when there was thick snow on the ground. I saw the Holocaust Memorial just after a fresh snowfall. It was beautiful and haunting. I worked with carbon and graphite blocks onto Fabriano Accademico paper, approximately 150cms by 200 cms.
Another Day, Another Head
Here’s another digital sketch I did at life drawing this week at Swansea Print Workshop. I concentrated on drawing the head, measuring as best I could to get a reasonably accurate likeness.
I used my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with a free Markers app, working from a mid tone background with black and white. I saved the drawing regularly so I could present it as a slideshow, following the development of the drawing.
Head In Chiaroscuro
Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop and I continued practicing portraits using my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with the free Markers app.
I created a dark background and worked up the head in greys and white, emphasising the chiaroscuro effect from the ceiling spotlight.
I’m A Little Teapot….
….short and stout. ….and a bit wonky!
Today’s sketch is practice. People, animals and cityscapes are my comfort zone but practice should take me out of that so I am going to do some simple still life studies. I don’t like it. There’s not much wriggle room in drawing objects. Never mind. I drew this with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S,F and B into my tiny A6 spotty sketchbook.
7 Chickens And A Piglet
I had a lovely day out at Swansea’s Community Farm today. I managed to steal a couple of small relatives for a day or two and took them up to the farm’s summer playscheme. They got themselves immersed in mucky farmy things and I drew. Seven chickens and a piglet, just like it says on the tin. After the very tight and focussed portrait heads of last week, I used a much freer approach with the free Markers app on my Sansung Galaxy Note 8. It’s a much freer style, but it has to be because the birds move around so much. Proper fidgets. Not so the piglet who had a warm muddy puddle to loll it 🙂 Here’s a link to the farm’s Facebook page.
126 Portraits For The Telly
These are the 8 portrait drawings I did for an event in St. David’s a few days ago. BBC1’s ‘The One Show’ filmed over two days and will eventually edit all that footage into a couple of 4 minute items. I worked with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S, F, M and B into my A5 Steampunk sketchbook. I was based inside the Goat Street Gallery while other artists (11 of us in all) worked outside in the glorious garden below, with the backdrop of the cathedral.
Between us we managed to do a hundred and twenty six paintings and drawings of the people who queued around the block. It was a fascinating but intense experience. None of the people I drew had posed before and it’s difficult to get a decent drawing and credible likeness the first time you draw someone, well it is for me anyway. I found that I put a lot of pressure on myself to do a good quality sketch that the model would like, pressure that isn’t there when I work with professional models. And it was very public, with people milling around and looking over my shoulder as well as a film crew. But it was also excellent practice and really pushed me forward. I feel far more confident about tackling portraits now. I’ll make sure to get the word out when The One Show decides to broadcast the two short films.
Two Heads And A Big Challenge
Two more portrait drawings I did on Thursday during the filming by BBC1s ‘The One Show ‘ in St. David’s. The first day of filming started out following local artist, Grahame Hurd-Wood, who has set himself the challenge of painting the portraits of all 1800 residents of the tiny city. He has already done 112 and aims to complete one a day over the next 5 years or so. On day 2 of the filming, I joined 10 other Welsh figurative artists to draw or paint as many people as we could.
Locals and holidaymakers queued around the block as we artists worked inside the Goat Street Gallery and out into the garden which has a glorious view over the magnificent cathedral. I worked quite small, using Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens straight into an A5 sketchbook. I spent about half an hour on each of these very interesting people. One of the good things about the day was meeting new people and getting to talk to them. It was very intense but fun too.
Two Heads In Goat Street
Here are 2 more portrait drawings I did at the Goat Street Gallery in St Davids a couple of days ago. I was one of 11 artists gathered together by BBC1s ‘ The One Show ‘ to draw / paint as many portraits as possible in 5 hours. I was very nervous, people were queueing up the street, getting a likeness in a short time is something I find very difficult and this was all done in public, under the scrutiny of the public and a film crew.
I had been practicing for a couple of weeks, doing speed drawings from photographs on the Internet, setting myself an upper time limit of 4 minutes. But this was completely different, drawing people live is very intense. Each one took about half an hour. They were very patient, none of them had ever modelled before.
I drew with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S, F and B, into my leather bound Steampunk sketchbook.
scribblah 