The Castle Cat

09 castle cat

There’s a lovely cat down by our allotment site, beneath Oystermouth Castle. He’s big and fluffy, white and ginger, cuddly and chatty and we’ve often seen him wandering around the Castle but this evening for the first time he came up for a cuddle as we left the allotment. He and Husb sat on the steps and shared a moment. Husb’s wearing his allotment hat, it was still sunny at 8.30 pm and the gnats were vicious.

Sometimes you only have seconds to do a drawing, especially with animals, who don’t appreciate how important it is to hold a pose. I tried a few sketches of him before he settled down for a bit of a cwtch, but even then I only had about a minute before he wandered off. Drawn into my pink recycled sari silk sketchbook, size A5, with faber Castell Pitt drawing pen size S in sepia.

How Can I Work…

….under these conditions!!!!!!!???

07 ming

My studio has been invaded by two small furry feline felons! The little criminals have been sunbathing all over my canvas!

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Inky Lady

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Just got back from this evening’s weekly life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. I made a simple Victoria Sandwich to take along for tea break. This is one of our longest-serving models; she’s terrific and can hold a pose perfectly for ages. This is a one-hour pose drawn onto some handmade paper I bought at the Tate Gallery that I prepared with a dark grey ink wash. I used Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, size M and B for the linework and a brush with Indian ink, white ink and an ink wash for the tones. Size more than A4, not quite A3.

The Stinky Rat

05 sparta

Greetings hairless apes. Sparta Puss here. It’s been a while; I’ve been busy sleeping, eating, hunting, sleeping….. The trained primates disappeared for a couple of days last week and left Ming and myself alone in the house overnight with an automatic food dispenser. Result!

Soon got bored with over-eating so I caught a rat and brought it back and chewed it a bit and let it go in the kitchen and it ran into a cupboard where I couldn’t get to it and it died. Then the monkeys came home. I didn’t let on. Just waited a few days until the vile stench started. Well, the apes went crazy trying to find out what the smell was and where it was coming from. Soooooo funny. It’s quite hot at the moment and the smell’s been getting stronger, really ripe.

Finally, this evening, the he-monkey searched all the cupboards and found the stinky rat. The she-ape screamed the place down. Soooooooo funny. They should make a bit more effort to keep the place clean, in my opinion.

The she-ape lit smelly candles all over the house and then banned me from playing with the pretty fire bit! Here are some scratchy lines the she-monkey did earlier. She says it’s me. She’s an idiot.

Havin’ A Fag

04 full moon

Today I did these scribbles opposite the infamous ‘Full Moon’ pub in High Street, Swansea, just around the corner from where I lived until I was 6. Then all the houses were knocked down as part of a massive slum clearance programme and we went to live in a council house. But they left the pub and a few shops. It was about 11.30 and the pub was pretty full with a steady stream of punters coming out to have a fag. I did 3 hasty sketches then went for a delightful lunch in the Continental Caff in Castle Street.

Readers from outside Britain please note that havin’ a fag means to smoke a cigarette 🙂

Summer In The Square

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It’s SUMMER!!!! It’s about 19C and the sun is out and there’s no rain and that’s good enough to qualify as Summer in Britain. Met up with teenage niece after school this afternoon and sat awhile on the steps in Castle Square, supping milkshakes and sketching the other people sharing the sunshine. No-one’s ready to take coats and hats off yet though.

Metal Man

02 Toms man

I spent a couple of days invigilating the Twelve:34 exhibition at Fringe Arts Bath and I set up a small easel and used the time constructively to do some drawing. I rarely draw buildings so it was good discipline for me, although pretty tough, to spend several hours drawing an interior. It’s hard for me to inject some emotion and atmosphere into it and it’s all too easy to end up with a technical drawing.

I spent some time choosing what to draw and decided ot put Tom Warren’s extraordinary lifesize metal sculpture in the foreground. I used a traditional dip pen, Indian ink, ink wash, white ink onto a recycled piece of Somerset Velvet, approximately A3 that I’d prepared with a teabag stain. Although the room is compltely white, I played with markmaking and ink overlays to create some atmosphere.

Eff Ay Bee

01 bath window

I was invigilalting a group show that my work is in at Fringe Arts Bath, a FAB group of exhibitions scattered across 6 venues in the city. It’s the biggest event my work has been in – so far. But babysitting a show can get pretty boring, especially on a quiet day, so I turned to my trusty sketchbook. I was on the ground floor at FAB3 looking out through large Victorian windows across the small street at the back of the Roman baths and I used the windows to frame sketches of passers-by. I only had a very few seconds to get some lines on the paper and then I had to use my memory for the rest. Very demanding but good practice. I feel strongly that we artists should practice our craft, like singers practice their scales every day.

FAB is on for another week, until June the 9th and the show my work is in, with the Twelve:34 group from Swansea, is on the top floor of FAB3 at 3 York Street, immediately behind the Roman baths. If you’re passing, please pop in 🙂

Wriggly Little Sprog

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Had a lovely couple of days visiting friends in Bath and had the opportunity to draw one of their gorgeous children. It’s good practice to draw kids, they look weird, funny big heads and chubby cheeks. This little one was squirming about on some cushions watching lid’s cartoons so I had to do speed drawing. He’s made of rubber and kept twisting himself into implausible shapes. Fun 🙂

It’s FAB

wordpress 30 may

I’m in Bath, invigilating an exhibition that I have some work in. It’s the 12:34 group show at FAB 3 in York Street, part of Fringe Arts Bath. I took a small easel and drawing materials to draw to pass the time. I don’t like drawing buildings, inside or out, but there wasn’t much else to do. I’ve been looking out of the window onto the Georgian rooftops of the baths, amazing architecture.It’s a good exercise in drawing what you actually see, rather than what you think you see. Common sense suggests that the white gallery walls are lighter than the view outside the window, but squinting my eyes showed that the opposite is true. I used black and white conte crayons, a traditional dip pen with Indian ink and some Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens onto a piece of recycled Bockingford paper, about size A3.

That’s one of my maniere noire drawings on the wall and I’ve included it in the drawing.