I spent the early part of the week cutting blocks and today I started to take proof prints. The proof is a trial print to see that the block [or plate or screen] is the way you want it to be and it gives you a chance to make alterations, like a bit of recutting. This is Voyeur #4 and I don’t think I’ll do any more work on it. The picture shows the block inked up, before I took the print.
I’ve been working on a set of nine block prints for some time now, picking them up and down when I’ve got time. I’ve proof printed the first three of the series, that I’ve called Voyeur and I spent this week cutting the remaining 6 blocks. Here they are, with my ‘swag’ Convers. I’ll proof print them tomorrow to see if I need to do any more cutting. I love block printing. Cutting the blocks is like drawing with knives – I think of it as a form of drawing. I’ve cut the images into 18cm square pieces of signwriter’s foamboard. I think it’s a PVC and it’s known commercially in Britain as Foamex. It’s easy to incise but quite hard to cut, so I design with this in mind, using fairly small areas of white, as these have to be cut out and I have to keep sharpening my tools every two or three cuts. Can’t wait to proof them – I’ll be covered in printer’s ink tomorrow 🙂
Another hospital visit last evening with the teenage great-niece in tow who spent a while looking out of the window at the huge flock of starlings weaving across the sky as dusk fell. The hospital is in a lovely location giving patients a fabulous view over Swansea Bay and Mumbles Head; better than most of the hotels around here. Her shoes had bright pink butterflies embedded into the soles and she made butterfly cakes to take to her great-grandfather which cheered him up. Here they are. They were lovely, really light and scented with vanilla.
Scribbled into an A5 spiral bound Crimson & Blake watercolour pad with a Pilot V5 pen, size 0.5
I’ve reached the end of my sketchbook; my little leather covered, recycled Artbox A6 one that I have loved so much. I’m always a bit sad when I come to the end of a sketchbook (what a wuss, eh?) but also excited about starting a new one, because it will be different and my scribbling will be different in it. So here’s the last sketch I did, on Swansea beach at dusk. Throughout the summer there have been groups of artists working with children and adults to do sculptures out of stuff found on the beach and I came across this large charred log that had been hoisted up. From a certain angle it looks like a headless man. A sort of poor person’s version of ‘Another Place’, Anthony Gormley’s metal figures on the beach at Crosby. It was a challenge to scribble this in a couple of minutes as I also had the sand, sea and sky to get in and they were all in the semi-dark. When I looked closely, they didn’t look like sand, sea and sky at all – I perceived them that way because I knew what they were, but in the lowlight they actually looked like something else. I keep reminding people when I’m teaching drawing – draw what you see, not what you think you see.
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.
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. 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.)
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.
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.
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
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