Day 8: Fast Face

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Been busy all day having fun with 2 little nephews having a sleepover so just managed a very quick digital sketch of a face from my Renaissance Drawing book by Hugo Chapman. Did it in about 4 minutes on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet with a free Marker app. You have to lay down a background before doing the drawing otherwise it saves as a negative, which is a pain in the neck. Took me quite a while to work out what the problem was. Spent a big part of today cooking because it is SHOCKING how much two nine-year old boys can eat!

Foetal!

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Here’s another one from last night’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I love drawing models in a foetal position. There’s a terrific tension and movement in the pose as well as some great foreshortening. I precoloured a canvas sheet, size A3, with Rodamine Red oil pigment, squeegeed on with a cheap window-cleaning squeegee and left to dry. I did the initial drawing with a white conte crayon, drawn over with black conte and then rubbed some cerulean blue oilbar onto it. It’s a long way from finished but it was only a 30 minute pose and the basics are there for me to build upon.

Indulging Myself

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Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop. I really like this model because he’s as thin as Egon Schiele’s models and I came all over German Expressionist. We had one of the spotlights on so I was able to indulge myself with some chiaroscuro. I also love extreme foreshortening like this. Great evening 🙂

I drew onto an A3 size canvas sheet that I’d prepared with an acrylic yellow ochre wash. I’d used it previously for drawing but I didn’t like it so I drew this on top. I worked with black and white conte crayons, white oil pastel and a stick of carbon.

Day 5: I Don’t Care!

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So continuing with the 28 Drawings After challenge on Facebook and practicing drawing from established artists, I took up with Raphael again. Husb gave me a lovely book on Renaissance drawing from The British Museum that I’ve been meaning to draw from for ages. I’m using the Samsung Galaxy Tablet again with a free Magic marker app. It’s probably very old-fashioned, but I think it’s important for artists to study those who have gone before. I think that’s part of learning the craft in art, although that also seems to be an old-fashioned concept at the moment. Ah well, I don’t care 😀

Day 4: After Raphael

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It’s day 4 of the Facebook February drawing challenge and I haven’t been out at all today. The weather’s been awful and I’ve been doing loads of things on computers, so not much of a chance to draw. Husb bought me a lovely book about Raphael for Xmas and as I like to study other artists for practice, I chose this drawing to work from. I used my Samsung Galaxy Tablet with a free Magic Marker app. I like the idea of using 21st century technology to study 16th century Renaissance art. Took about 10 minutes. I think I’d rather work with a traditional dip pen and Indian ink though.

Drawn In The USA

This is my first video. I took some footage during my residency at Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho last year and edited it with stills of the artwork wthat was produced by the artists I was working with, both there and later in Swansea Print Workshop. It won’t win any Oscars but it’s nice to put up a record of all the hard work that was done and to acknowledge the wonderful artists I had the privilege of being with.

Käthe Kollwitz- The grieving parents

I’m reblogging this because it is a moving and beautifully written blog about Kathe Kollwitz’ sculpture, The Grieving Parents. It’s in a military cemetery in Flanders and I hope to visit it later this year.

Käthe Kollwitz- The grieving parents.

Day 3: A Face In The Dark

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I had insomnia again this morning and I’ve decided that instead of reading, I’ll grab my Tablet and have a scribble. This is what came out of my fevered imagination in the early hours. I’m posting a drawing a day into the Facebook February drawing challenge, ‘28 Drawings Later‘ so the sleepless scribbles will come in handy. I used a free app called Magic Marker for this.

Embrace The Blottage

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Here’s the last of the four drawings I did at last week’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I’d set myself the task of using different materials for each drawing. In this final one I used a recycled cyanotype that hadn’t quite worked out and a traditional dip pen with Indian ink. These pens tend to be scratchy and blot a lot. I like this effect, it reminds me of one of my favourite artists, Ralph Steadman.

Embrace The Blottage!

 

Day 2: Sleepless Scribbles

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Wide awake at 4 in the morning and I reached for my Samsung Galaxy Tablet for a scribble. I’ve had insomnia since my teens and have tried everything except sleeping pills, but it isn’t too bad these days and I can usually get back to sleep within the hour. Normally I draw from life, but lying in bed this morning I just scribbled randomly and this is what came out. I think it’s a fallen angel and souls in hell. Cheerful eh? 😀

I’m going to post it onto  28 Drawings Later, the February daily drawing challenge on Facebook.