Drawing Notes

Today I went to a symposium about practice-centred research in the arts. I jotted down quite a lot of the presentations and noticed that most of the delegates made entirely written notes. I’ve always combined writing with drawing when I’m taking down information as I find it far easier to remember and it’s much nicer to look at a few drawings interspersed with a bit of text, rather than pages and pages of hand writing. I also like to use different typography to make things stand out. Does anyone else do this? I was surprised that so few were doing it today in a roomful of arts practitioners.

I also like to do some quick portraits of the speakers – they’re not very accurate but it’s enough to jog my memory and remember what they were talking about.

Am I A Voyeur?

Visiting the hospital so frequently gives me the opportunity to sketch new people. It’s a bit uncomfortable at times because I wonder if I’m being voyeuristic. I censor myself to a degree; I won’t draw anyone who is obviously in distress or is terminally ill, but also, I don’t let them know I’m drawing them either. Is this bad of me? If I let them know, they might be less ‘natural’ – and also they might have expectations of the finished sketch. And that’s the thing; these are only quick sketches, not painstaking formal portraits.  I think that many artists are voyeurs, but so are photographers and writers, even those doing sociological and anthropological research. Does that make it OK? Should we ask permission to record and interpret everything we see around us? That’s coming a bit too close to censorship for comfort. Maybe it’s in my nature to be a voyeur and I should stop worrying about it.

Here’s the man in the bed opposite my relative. He’s pretty robust and jolly and he’s having a snooze here in his armchair. I’ve drawn this with my Pilot V5 Hi-Techpoint pen into my A6 recycled ‘Artbox’ leather bound sketchbook – it’s nearly finished – just one page to go.

I’m Not Swag!

I’m not Swag. Nor is Husb. We’re too old to be Swag according to our thirteen year old great niece. There we are then.

After putting us firmly in our place, she made an apple pie to take to her Great Grandad who’s been in hospital for a month now. It was very good. Swag in fact. Here they are during visiting hour this evening. He loved the pie. She looked very sweet in her ribbon-bow headband, but I mustn’t say she’s sweet, because she’s Swag 😀

(Swag means cool. If you didn’t know that, then you’re not Swag.)

Fab And Groovy

Went to a house party last night for the first time in years. It was a Sixties themed party so there were some fab costumes and groovy music. I’d gone to the funeral of an old friend the day before; she had died very suddenly and it was sad to see so many people I used to party with coming together to say goodbye to one of us. So it was nice to get out and do something fun. There were some gyro-rings for people to play with. I’d never seen one before – Husb took on the challenge and spent ages trying to master one.

Eventually I reverted to type and sat in a corner having a scribble. This chap had the coolest psychedelic flares, I think they were a good match for the curtains.

Pathogen

I’ve been trying out some ideas for constructed three dimensional drawings. This is based on a children’s game I remember playing when I was in school. The subject is pathogen – some are quite pretty. The drawing is made using a dip pen and Indian ink and also graphite onto Fabriano Accademica 120gsm. My drawings are usually much more free and expressive but I sometimes enjoy doing a detailed, planned illustrative drawing.

On The Other Hand…….

Just a quickie tonight as I’ve only just come back from life drawing and it’s nearly my bedtime! Sometimes, bits of body look really weird and this is one of those. The angle of the wrist made the hand look a bit disembodied. But that’s the way it was 🙂

Drawn onto hand-made heavyweight paper stained with sepia ink with a dip pen and Indian ink and a grey wash.  Goodnight zzzzzzzzzzz

DIY HELL

He’s at it again. Husb is making a fitted cupboard in an alcove. I don’t know why he puts himself through it. He hates DIY. But it’s a very good opportunity for me to get in some speed sketching of someone in weird positions that you don’t normally see every day. I don’t mind if he suffers for my art. He reckons this cupboard is going to be ‘the dogs’. For non-British readers, that means rather pukka 🙂

I scribbled this in about 90 seconds. Good practice.

Draw, Print, Draw

Carrying on from yesterday’s bloggage about the Drawn To Print project, I’ve been immersed in drawing today too. The drawing on the left is one I did a couple of years ago, on BFK Rives 250 gsm paper coloured with metallic System 3 acrylic and drawn in Faber Castell Pitt pens. I then used it to develop into a block print, cutting the design into an offcut of signwriters foamboard and printed in black litho/relief oil-based ink onto Zercoll 145 gsm. Today, I used the print to develop another drawing, using a dip pen and Indian ink onto Fabriano Accademica 120 gsm. And next…..? Why, I fancy a screenprint. This could keep on going and going………

Drawn To Print

There’s an interesting programme running at Swansea Print Workshop [SPW] at the moment, involving three residencies from international printmakers who base their art practice on drawing. It’s called Drawn To Print. As well as a print studio set-up,  SPW also has a thriving life-drawing group and many artist/members who use their drawing skills extensively in the production of their original prints. As I do. I like to work directly from models in the life drawing sessions, usually directly into a sketchbook, then I rework the drawings, scaling them up to the size of my monotype plate (which is a posh name for my bit of perspex). Because I like to keep the drawings as original pieces in their own right, I usually do a very basic tracing of the form and use this beneath my perspex plate as the basis of my monotype.

The technique I use is here on my website. This is a young model who is also a soldier. He’s an excellent model and I’ve done a lot of work with him.

Excellent idea for school holiday rainy day game for harrassed parents……….

An Elephant's Child's avatarMy New Pointless Blog

 SCHOOL HOLIDAY BLUES?

 
It’s that last awkward week of the school holidays which really is a killer.
The kids are bored, you’re bored & you’ve both run out of things to do.
Everybody is getting on everybody else’s nerves.
It’s probably still raining too.
 
Well before you look into adoption, the white slave trade, or start Googling ‘cage prices’,try this:
 

The Stretchy Snake Game.

1)   Buy some gummy/jelly snakes.
 
2)   Download this chart.
 
3)   Print it.
[If you don’t have a printer, you could just bring the full picture up on the screen, but don’t blame me if you end up with a sticky monitor.]
 
4)   Stick the picture onto something solid like a piece of card.
It would probably be a good idea to laminate it, or cover it with some clear sticky back plastic. [I so could have been a Blue Peter…

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