Sometimes I get into a rut with my drawing and I’d been spending too much time doing the Renaissance thing on tiny scraps of paper, so this week at life drawing I used my dip pens and Indian ink, along with wash and brushes, into an A2 cartridge pad. It made my linework much freer. I sketched two poses to warm up then worked on the one-hour pose below.
I’m doing some subtractive drawings on card prepared with two coats of acrylic gesso and overlaid, when dry, with compressed charcoal. It means I have to be a bit inventive with drawing materials, which include aluminium oxide paper, wire wool, a craft knife and bits of rag. Great fun.
Here’s the small one, based on the sketch I made at a life drawing session. I hope to finish it tomorrow and start on the huge pieces I’ve stretched onto the wall next week.
Sometimes I get up to some weird things. Earlier this evening I went along to the old police station which has been redeveloped as housing, a cafe/bar and artist studios. There are some odd little spaces within the depths of the building, including a small first floor courtroom! An artist friend is making a film inspired by George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm, and invited some people to take part. We donned pig masks, had our mugshots taken and sat in the juror’s boxes, posing as a porcine jury while a ‘farmer’ recited poetry to us from the witness box. Opposite sat three pig’s heads in white collars, posing as judges. It was a bit gruesome, facing three dead pigs that were oozing rather unpleasant fluids, but that’s the reality of farming and butchery and it was a good opportunity to draw something I wouldn’t normally have access to. I held a human leg a couple of weeks ago, regularly use rabbit-skin glue in the studio and this evening scribbled some dead pigs. What a job.
All last week, the weather was gorgeous – a real Indian summer. Then Sunday arrived – and Husb had entered the Swansea 10k race, hoping to improve on last year’s time. The weather was ATROCIOUS! Pouring rain and ferocious winds didn’t put off thousands of runners, though. We went down early to see two of our great-nephews and a great niece run in the junior 1k races – bless them, they did really well and got soaked to the skin. Then Husb got stuck into the main race, while I waited around in the rain and gales, giving him moral support. I tried drawing but only managed one because my hands froze.
The race was won, as usual, by Kenyan runners. I wonder what they make of it, coming from a very hot country at high altitude to run in one of the wettest countries on the planet, just a few yards from the sea. Husb managed to shave 6 minutes off last year’s time, despite the awful weather. I scribbled the dog-walkers on the beach which runs alongside the race route. It gives some idea of the bleak, windswept conditions. Maybe next year I’ll manage the 5k? 😀
I’ve had five whole days away from the computer. The RSI problem came back with a vengeance and coupled with a nasty lurgi, I decided to take a bit of a break from t’Internet. I’ve still been busy in the studio though, developing some plans for a series of larger scale subtractive drawings. I stretched some sheets of Fabriano Accademica onto the studio wall and gave them two coats of acrylic gesso. I rubbed in compressed charcoal over the surface of two of the sheets and coated the third with graphite, smoothing it over with a rag dipped in turpentine. Then I transferred one of my life drawings to a smaller bit of charcoal-coated card to do a practice piece before committing myself to the larger paper. I like this technique very much; the resulting drawing is rather like a mezzotint.
This shows the stretched paper coated with compressed charcoal either side of the piece I covered with graphite, before it had been smoothed over with turpentine.
Husb and I were up and about early on Sunday, helping to hang my latest exhibition, Rinascere, at The Brunswick. It opens this evening, with lashings of cake, from 7.30 pm so if you’re passing, please call in. I’m exhibiting with two other artists, Patricia McParlin and Aled Rhys Hughes and the exhibition continues until November 30th.
After we’d hung the work, Husb and I felt the need for a Full Cooked Breakfast so off we went to the local greasy spoon caff and had their finest FCB, with extra black pudding on the side. nom nom nom. I had time for a quick scribble and spotted this chap in the corner, tucking into his FCB and sporting some splendid tattoos. Then my enormous breakfast arrived and I lost interest in him. I need to diet for a week to work it off though 🙂
Here’s one of my little solar plate etchings from the Rinascere exhibition…..
Dad-in-law almost got out of hospital today, but a last minute cough foiled his escape bid, so I get to keep on drawing patients and visitors for a little while yet. These two chatting away in the corner had quiffs and may have been Teddy Boys when they were younger – they’re about the right age. Drawn with a Pilot V5 pen [0.5mm] into my new-ish purple silk, embroidered and recycled sari A5 sketchbook with a tassle and a little tiny bell.
Did loads today – up early to lend a hand putting up my next exhibition at The Brunswick – opening party on Wednesday 19th from 7-ish if you fancy dropping by; then a long stint digging in horse manure on the allotment – ahh nothing like wet poo in the relentless drizzle! Then a quick soak in the bath followed by afternoon tea with my new neighbours – lashings of tea and Jammy Dodgers – my favourites. And finally, visiting at the hospital. And now I’m cream-crackered. Here I am yawning. I cheated. I did this some time ago. Good night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I went for a walk around the city centre yesterday to get some fresh air – my studio was full of turpentine fumes – so I had a scribbling session outdoors while it cleared. I saw these two ladies sitting on a bench, chatting with their fags in hand. My Nanna always used to refer to women who smoked as ‘Fag Ash Lil’, in a very good-natured way though. So here are two Fag Ash Lilies, scribbled into my new purple silk recycled sari, hand-made paper A5 sketchbook. In case any readers from outside Britain are wondering, a fag is a cigarette this side of the pond 🙂
I paid a visit to my chiropodist yesterday for my quarterly foot-hack. Anatomical study is important in both our professions and we have interesting chats about art and science. I frequently work from the resident skeleton at our art studios, Felicity. During our chat my chiropodist asked me if I wanted to hold his leg. Of course, I jumped at the chance. So he went to his cupboard, pulled out a long drawstring bag and took out the bottom of a human leg, below the knee. The skeleton I work from is a plastic cast, but this leg is real. It has a different weight and the bone feels more – organic I guess. He showed me how to arrange the bones as they should be, if the tendons and muscles and so on were there. When you hang a skeleton, the foot bones tend to splay out, but they should be arched and the tibia and fibula sit in a particular way on the top of the foot. Interesting stuff. Well, to me anyway.
Drawn in chalky pastels and compressed charcoal into a cream A2 sketchbook.
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