A Lady In Black (Female Nude)

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Just got back from this evening’s life drawing session at Swansea Print Workshop. This model is great, full of character with a very complex face. I used a piece of discarded mountboard (matte) that I prepared with 2 coats of acrylic gesso. When it dried I sponged an ink wash randomly across the surface. This evening, I drew the figure directly with a traditional dip pen and Indian ink, then brushed on a mid-tone ink wash before picking out the highlights with a white oil pastel. Finally, I did a small amount of very fine pen linework with a Faber Castell Pitt pen, size S. It took one hour and it’s roughly size A4. Time for bed now……..

The Secret Power of The Senedd

What our First Minister gets up to underneath the Senedd! From Notsogreatdictator Smith, with tongue firmly in cheek.

The Secret Power of The Senedd.

Pressing The Piggah!

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I spent the afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop, inking and pressing a little lino block I’d cut earlier this week. The subject is Arthur, the Mangalitza boar from Pontyates. I forgot to take my digital camera so tried using the camera on my phone. It’s rubbish and really complicated to get the image onto my computer, involving something called Blueray, Husb’s smartphone and emails. I won’t bother again. Anyway, here’s a blurry picture of the magnificent Colombian Press, dating from 1855, with the inked block ready to go.

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I’m just in the proofing phase at the moment, tryng out different papers, inks and pressures on the Colombian. This one is printed using Intaglio Printmakers Velvet Black litho ink (oil-based) onto a very white, lightweight Japanese hand-made paper.

Bones And Brown Paper

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I like studying anatomy. I love the interface between art and science. Sometimes I get access to a skeleton and scribble happily for hours.

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These drawings are on very large sheets of brown wrapping paper, using black, white and sanguine conte crayons. Working on this scale gave me the chance to focus on mark-making rather than doing a scientific illustration.

Feathery Fidgety Fellows

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I’m part of an artist collective called Commensalis that aims to organise pop-up exhibitions in quirky places to get our work seen by a good cross-section of people, not only dedicated artanistas. We’ve found a geat mortuary chapel in Bath, UK and we’re busy raising some money through crowd-funding to cover the costs of putting on an artshow as we don’t get any public funding.

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It’s the first time we’ve tried this and it’s certainly a learning experience. It works by inviting people to become sponsors and in return they can choose a ‘reward’. We’re 3 weeks in and we’ve raised just over 40% of our target, which is really good, but it’s slowed down a bit over the past few days so we’re taking some of the rewards off the site and putting new ones up.

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These are some tiny drawings I did a while back just after Woolworth’s Stores closed. I used to sit in Waterstones cafe opposite our local Woollies and sketch pigeons that quickly colonised the lettering on the building’s facade. Once the store had closed permanently, the signage was no longer illuminated so it was cool enough for the pigeons to sit on. They fidget all the time so it wasn’t easy to draw them!

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They’re original drawings in pen onto Cotman watercolour paper, mounted onto Fabriano that I coloured randomly with a metallic acrylic medium. The overall size is approximately 15 cms square and they’re ready for framing. They’re available as rewards from our Commensalis crowdfunding site if you fancy giving one of the little fellows a home 🙂

Nude And Flower

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Here’s a life drawing of one of our older models; a retired teacher who is covered with tattoos. I drew her in Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens and black and white conte crayon, onto a piece of mountboard that I’d prepared with a couple of coats of acrylic gesso and then randomly sponged some Indian ink wash. After finishing the figure, I focussed in on one of her tattoos, a pitcher plant, and drew a more detailed study of it. Got a lurgi – so many going around throughout the long, hard winter, so cwtched up in a blanket with Sparta Puss snuggled next to me, sipping Beecham’s Powders. I’m sipping them. Not Sparta. She’s a cat. Must shift the lurgi before I go to the USA, which is only NEXT WEEK!!!!!

 

Cutting The Pig

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I haven’t been able to settle down to work on my large pieces of art because of this darn lurgi. So today I grabbed a little bit of lino, transferred a sketchbook drawing I made at the weekend of Arthur the Mangalitza boar and cut away. I’ll print the block in black next week.

Recycled Head

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At the print workshop we work with some beautiful papers and always use the best quality for the courses we run. It’s surprising how many people never collect their work afterwards. Even if they don’t like the image, there’s a lovely – and expensive – piece of paper that can be used again. I’m always trawling the paper recycling bin for anything that can be re-used. I found some pieces of Bockingford 250gsm that had been prepared for cyanotype but then thrown away without exposing an image onto them, leaving a gorgeous expanse of blue. I went to life drawing group this evening and after a dodgy start, settled into drawing a portrait of our model in black and white conte crayon, which worked very well with the heavy texture of Bockingford.

 

Fifth Rosetta Stone language is Welsh

More irreverent frivolity from this crazy Welshman

Fifth Rosetta Stone language is Welsh.

The Bedroom Tax

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People outside Britain might not have heard of this, but it’s a very unpopular and divisive new tax affecting the poorest people in society. If you are living in a public-sector home with more than one bedroom and receive welfare benefits you’ll lose at least 14% of your housing benefit. This is a significant amount of money for the people concerned. In Wales, 28,000 households will be affected. They will be expected to pay the extra tax or move to smaller properties. But there are only 400 one-bedroomed homes in the public sector. Now, I went to a State Primary school, where I learned arithmetic. I can work out that 28,000 into 400 won’t go. Unfortunately the people who govern us don’t seem able to do basic maths. Strange, when you think that most of them went to the poshest, most expensive schools in Britain. Obviously a waste of money.

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There have been loads of protests around the country. I went to a couple for a scribble. I’m not affected by this tax but I have friends who are and I’m going to these protests to support them and because I think this tax is cruel. My friends are decent, kind, law-abiding people who are living in absolute terror in case they can’t manage to pay this heinous charge out of their tiny benefits or low wages. If they cannot pay they may lose their homes. The government expects them to move to the private sector, which has much higher rents and poorer quality housing. Which will cost the state more in housing benefit and increased healthcare. But they can’t do maths, can they? Or else they want to see a return of vast slum estates managed by unscrupulous slum landlords. Either way, it is shameful.

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I drew these into my A5 pink silk recycled sari sketchbook, with a Pentel V5 pen, later augmented with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S, M and B. It was raining and the damp paper was difficult to draw on. It’s good practice to draw crowds; to get the measurements and proportions to look right. I might try redrawing from these to see if I can put a composite picture together.