Just time for a quick blog tonight. Husb and I went to an outdoor screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ on the street beach this evening and just got back so I did a speedy scribble of an old lady’s head, took me 4 minutes. And now to bed. Exciting day tomorrow. It’s what I’ve been practicing for.
I’ve spent a long day hunched over a computer, from 9 am to 7.30 this evening, doing business stuff. I was hoping to have a workout on the gym on the beach but the heavens opened this evening and I wimped out. I did a bit of yoga in the living room and watched telly instead. Husb cooked tea, he made brilliant felafels from a tin of butter beans and some spices and fresh coriander.
I am carrying on with 3 minute head studies from photos, practicing for something on Thursday. I drew these with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size F into my leather Steampunk sketchbook, size A5.
I didn’t draw or blog yesterday! I am a bad person! Sometimes life gets in the way. Husb and I ended up shovelling lots of farmyard manure, transporting it to the allotment and piling it on some of our raised beds. Several hours of muck spreading in the heat and flies. Then we went foraging and collected plums and blackberries.
So here’s today’s sketch, a digital one, again of a head. I’m practicing for something that’s happening on Thursday. I’ll tell you about it later in the week.
Husb posed, with the light from his laptop creating strange shadows up his face, making him look weird. I used my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8 with the free Markers app, laying down a dark background and working over it with lighter tones.
Went to our local curry house this evening, the incomparable Vojon. I’ve been practicing gesture drawings of heads this week, keeping to a 3 minute time limit, but working from photos. This evening, I did some sketching at the curry house. It isn’t as easy or as quick to work from real life as people fidget and you can get close up to photos.
The first chap was covered in tribal tattoos. The couple were totally focused on eating their curry. I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S into my little spotty A6 sketchbook.
Had a bit of a lurgi this week so I hadn’t been down to the Trim Trail for a few days. It’s a free outdoor gym on the promenade of Swansea Bay, about 15 minutes walk away. I try to get a half hour workout 3 or 4 times a week. Stupidly, I didn’t pace myself and jumped straight into it despite still having quite a heavy cold. That was a mistake. Feeling rotten again now. I managed a couple of 3 minute head sketches, practicing for my secret assignation next week 😉
I’ve been scribbling away today into my rather funky leather bound Steampunk sketchbook, size A5. It isn’t brilliant paper but it looks so cool. I bought it a while back in London’s Camden Market but have hardly used it.
Carrying on with the ‘head’ practice, I set myself an upper time limit of 4 minutes a drawing and worked from photographs searched from Pinterest.
So here’s a quarter of an hour of sketches, using two Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S and F.
I will be carrying on with quick gesture drawings of heads for the next week. I need the practice as something special is coming up but I can’t say too much about it yet. It’s a secret 🙂
These two elderly men were drawn into my tiny A6 sketchbook with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S. I only allowed a maximum of 3 minutes each.
I did some gesture drawings of heads when I was out and about in Swansea earlier. Gesture drawings are ones that are done very quickly, capturing the essence of the subject, zooming in on the most important details.
The drawing on the left was done in a few seconds, way under a minute and the others took perhaps a couple of minutes each. No more. I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S into my little spotty sketchbook, size A6.
It’s been one of those days where time just speeds by. I spent this morning catching up with housework before I disappeared under a pile of mess. This afternoon I spent with my delightful extended family at a summer fête. I managed a few very quick scribbles of some of the face-painted little tykes before I was roped in to run the ‘Guess The Teddy’s Name’ stall.
Off to water the allotment this evening because the heatwave is still with us and then onto the beach to catch the high tide for a dip. Chilly!!!! Then back to do a couple of head studies from Burne Hogarth’s book on dynamic anatomy. And now blogging with a cup of hot blackcurrant cordial. I made it last weekend from our glut of blackcurrants on the allotment. We picked about 7 kilos and left about a kilo for the birds.
Carrying on with studying the head, I did a couple more drawings from the Burne Hogarth book, ‘Dynamic Anatomy’ then I pressganged Husb into posing again. I continued to work in greys and white over a black ground, using mostly a large soft brush in the Markers app on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8.
I managed to squeeze the drawings in this evening after loads of cooking: a dozen chocolate cupcakes, a Victoria Sandwich and a couple of jars of blackcurrant butter. Then a trip to the allotment and a dip in the sea and a workout on the free beach gym. Busy day 🙂
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