Window Dressing

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Finished the third day of drawing in public at the Creative Bubble shop. It was stimulating to have the space to work on a very large piece with other artists close by. I’m developing some large-scale drawings, overlaying different types of drawing media. This is brown wrapping paper underneath with tracing parchment on top. The bottom layer is drawn with compressed charcoal and chalk but I switched to oilbars and Indian ink, applied with a large reed pen, on the translucent tracing parchment. The building in the background is the old Palace Theatre in Swansea, currently the focus of a campaign to save it from falling to bits.

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We’ve finished the event now, although we’re hoping to do this monthly, but we’ve left the work on site, putting a pop-up exhibition in the shop windows for the rest of the weekend. I’d like to do this in all the empty shop windows in the city centre.

My Dogs Are Barking!

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I’m working with artgroup 15 Hundred Lives, at the Creative Bubble Shop in Swansea for 3 days. We’re doing our second ‘What Do Artists Do All Day‘ event. I’m doing another big drawing installation. The aim of these events is for the public to be able to see how artists work; how we create an artwork from the start. Most people only ever see a work of art in a gallery or hanging on someone’s wall, all completed and framed. Often they’ll have no idea how it’s made, so we’re working in the shop / gallery for three days so people can come in and see how it’s done.

At this stage I’m drawing onto brown wrapping paper; several sheets stuck together with paper gumstrip and stapled to the wall. I’m using compressed charcoal and chalk. The image is an interpretation of a local landmark, The Palace Theatre. It’s really tiring because I’m on my feet all day. My Nana used to say ‘Ooh! My dogs are barking!’ when her feet were tired and aching. I don’t know why. More to come tomorrow.

Keeping On.

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I’m keeping on practicing with the digital drawing and took the tablet to life drawing this evening. I’m not sure I like this drawing but doing it has given me a good idea of what the app is capable of. I like the scribbliness of it but the colour palette isn’t good enough. But I’ll persevere with this for the time being, mainly because I just can’t be bothered to start with a new app.
Drawn with the Magic Marker app on a Samsung Galaxy 8 tablet.

Tired Heads

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It’s been a long day, ending with a talk at Swansea Print Workshop this evening. I took my sketchbook to do some scribbles for my blog but I was really tired and my sketches are pretty scrappy. But there you go; sometimes it’s like that. You can’t always get what you want.

DBS Week Two (the committee stage)

The latest instalment of this spoof on Welsh public life 🙂

 

DBS Week Two (the committee stage).

Rock Face

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I did this sketch when Husb and I visited Stonehenge recently. It’s a large single stone some distance outside the main stone circle. It’s called the Heelstone and I was struck by it’s anthropomorphic features – it looked like a strange face from several angles. I wondered if it had been deliberate, whether the original stonemasons had carved these features, but then I found out that farmers in the not-so-distant past used to hire out hammers to tourists to chip off bits of the stones as souvenirs! So it’s probably due to vandalism.

In the background is the A 344, which is only a few yards from the stone and cuts across the ancient processional Avenue. The road’s being removed and the site restored after a government committment to UNESCO in 1986. About time too. Once it’s gone, people will be able to approach the monument as they would have when it was first built.

This is drawn into my A5 clothbound sketchbook, using Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and Winsor & Newton watercolours.

 

Digital Head

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I went on a train journey earlier today and had a bit of a scribble on my Galaxy Tablet. Trains are great for drawing because I can take sneaky looks at people. I was visiting the print collection at Pomegranate Fine Art in Cardiff, possibly the finest collection of contemporary original British prints in Wales.

I sketched with a Magic Marker app but I’m getting a bit bored with it as it’s very basic and not very subtle. I prefer my paper sketchbooks.

Attilla The Hunny

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Went to visit relatives today and did a scribble of the family dog, Attilla the Hunny. She’s very large and boisterous, which is where the Attilla bit comes from and Hunny because she’s a real sweetie. She did not like being drawn because I had to stare hard at her. My kitties LOVE posing while I draw them, the more I stare at them, the more they love being the centre of attention. But poor Hunny was very uncomfortable with it and kept fidgeting.

Drawn on a Samsung Note with a Magic Marker app.

I’m A What?

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Husb and I were in Dieppe last week with some friends. It’s a fabulous place to stroll around and we climbed up above the ancient castle to look over the town. I took the opportunity to sketch a bit and as I drew, a small French boy came up to me and asked, in French, if I was a painter. Now I’m all for trying to speak the local language when I travel. I think it shows respect and consideration, so I mustered up my best pidgin French and replied to the small boy’s question. To the delight of my friends, who speak the language, I confidently assured the little lad that I am indeed, a paintbrush.

 

Cwtch And Smurfs

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I went to a consultation event this evening about Swansea’s bid to be the UK City of Culture in 2017. There were some performances at the beginning and then we split up into groups to discuss various aspects of the bid. It’s very exciting and will be a huge deal if it comes here. I did a quick scribble of a singer who had an instrument I hadn’t seen before. I don’t know what it is. I found out that Swansea holds the world record for the most people dressed as Smurfs in one place. Now that’s culture for you.