Out Of Practice

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Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop and I’m a bit out of practice. We had a three week break over the holidays and it was good to get back into the discipline of anatomical study. This post is a bit difficult so I redrew it until I was reasonably happy with it. I like the pose a lot and I will probably develop it into a mixed media piece or a print.

I used a traditional dip pen and Indian ink onto an A4 piece of Bockingford that had been prepared with an acrylic ground in orange.

Husb and I are staying up late tonight because there has been a massive solar storm this week and the Aurora Borealis might reach this far South. So far it’s a very clear night so we might get lucky.

Cinema Scribbles

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Just back from the cinema, we went to see The Hobbit, The Desolation Of Smaug. It’s terrific. Did some quick scribbles of some of the audience. Male pattern baldness is very widespread.

A Consultation Too Far

Crazy spoof about superheroes existing in the REAL world of unending bureaucracy from the acerbic pen of Notsogreatdictator Smith.

A Consultation Too Far.

Snatching The Moment

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There’s a lot of admin to do at the moment and trying to get fit after the Xmas excesses and the usual chores so it isn’t easy to fit in drawing time. In between doing lots of stuff today, I popped into Husb’s office for a few minutes. His window is opposite a row of old Victorian rooftops. I only had a short time, but it was enough for a bit of scribbling. I don’t think it matters what an artist draws each day,as long as we draw. Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into my A5 clothbound sketchbook, which is now looking very tatty and well used.

Stormy Scribbling

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I went down to the seafront at high tide this morning. I only live a few minutes walk from Swansea Bay and the wind in the street was reasonable but by the time I reached the exposed coast, the gales were so ferocious that I had trouble standing up. The sea was fierce and I struggled to get a few photographs of the waves.

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I wanted to try some sketching but I had to pull way back and drew these few figures from a sheltered spot in the car park. It was difficult manouvering a sketchbook in that wind, so I did some quick scribbles and worked on them a bit more when I came home.

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I find it very difficult to draw the sea, especially in such severe conditions. I need to practice, research other artists who draw the sea and develop some visual shorthand for it. I drew these into my A5 clothbound sketchbook with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S, F, M and B.

 

Digital Finger

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Still got a rotten cold and it’s been pouring down today so drawing opportunities indoors were limited. Husb stepped up as usual. I tried something different with my Samsung Galaxy Tablet, doing a finger painting and then using the stylus to scribble over it, with the Magic Marker app. I’m enjoying experimenting with digital drawing; I need to concentrate on its differences rather than similarities to conventional drawing materials.

Floods, Flan And Folly

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Husb and I visited the quirky little town of Llandeilo earlier today. Founded in the 6th century, the town is a higgledy piggledy mix of buildings over the centuries clinging to the hill above the stone road bridge, where I stood facing West, with Paxton’s Folly on the horizon and did a drawing in oil pastels onto an A3 sheet of Bockingford that I’d pre-coloured with a dark blue acrylic paint. These materials and the subject matter are well out of my comfort zone and it wasn’t an enjoyable experience, especially with the cold, wind and occasional rain.

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Then I crossed the road and sketched in the other direction, using Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens into my A5 clothbound sketcbook. Back in my comfort zone. I remembered Van Gogh’s landsape drawings and instead of trying to make an accurate likeness, I concentrated on making marks across the flat surface of the paper. A much happier experience. The River Tywi was exceptionally high and much of the river plain was flooded because of the severe storms we’ve had the past few days, but it eventually brightened up and we warmed up in a little cafe with a coal fire, a pot of tea and home-made lemon meringue flan.

After The Storm

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Husb and I just wrapped up warm and jumped in the car and nipped down to the sea front at high tide to watch the spectacular storm that was crashing over the promenade. I’d been nursing a nasty throat infection all day but was going stir crazy by this evening and this is supposed to be the biggest storm and highest tide in years so I didn’t want to miss it. I probably didn’t do my lurgi any good but it was fun!

When we got back, hot drinks were the order of the day. Here’s Husb with his hot chocolate,scribbled with the Magic Marker app on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet.

Cupcakes

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Husb and I are off to a friend’s birthday do soon so I made some cupcakes. Then I scribbled them. The cakes are vanilla sponge with blackcurrant buttercream icing and the drawing is made on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet usin.g a free Magic Marker app.

Stitched Up

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First day of the new year and I’m laid up with a nasty cold and there’s torrential rain and gale force winds outside and there’s loads of houswork and DIY to be done. Feels like life has stitched me up. Anyway, no time for any new art today because after all the stuff I had to get on with, the choice was do a drawing or watch the new episode of Sherlock on BBC1. Sherlock won.

So I settled on this drawing that I did at the Green Man festival a couple of summers ago, remembering the sunshine. The original is in my sketchbook but this is a reworking on top of a solvent transfer print I did from a digital photograph that I have altered in Adobe Photoshop. This woman was on the main field, enjoying the music and knitting at the same time. Cool.

This piece is being exhibited at The Brunswick in Swansea until early March.