An Oldie

Feeling bleeuurrgghhh. Got a bit of a lurgi. I did a long teaching stint down at Print Workshop today then went to work at my studio, then grabbed some chips with Husb before going to an event at the Print Workshop then walked home feeling dog rough. So I’ve been wrapped in a blankie in front of the telly for the past couple of hours and that’s where I’m staying. And I didn’t do any scribbling today so here’s an oldie from one of my old sketchbooks. I went through a phase of drawing in pen into an A3 sketchpad, taking in the surroundings as well as the model in life drawing group.

Hats And Fire

 

Guy Fawkes Night!!!!! A great British tradition. Some say that Guy Fawkes is the only person ever to have entered the Houses of Parliament with honest intentions. Tonight we took a young relative to the municipal fireworks display just across the road from the sea. It was terrific, some of the best fireworks I’ve seen. It was a good chance to sketch in  crowd too and there were loads of hats. Then afterwards, we strolled along the beach for a while. Over the last decade or so, crowds of mostly younger people flock onto the beach on Guy Fawkes night, setting off their own foreworks, lighting bonfires and partying. You hardly ever see people using the beach in the summer, but here we are on a very cold wintry night and there are thousands.

Sprog Sitting

 

Did some sprog sitting over the weekend with a gaggle of small nieces and nephews, so I grabbed the chance to do some more scribbles of children’s heads. Weird little alien bonces are very hard to draw. The proportions are so difficult – they have impossibly huge eyes. I’ll get there …. one day ….. if I can stop them fidgeting so much. I suppose tying them to the chair isn’t allowed any more …… 😉

Another Man. Another Day.

 

I’ve been working on some very large manier noir drawings, based on life drawings from my sketchbooks, The drawings are on paper about 120cms high, Fabriano Accademica, coated with acrylic gesso and rubbed all  over with compressed charcoal. I thought I’d do a series of male nudes – there are loads in my sketchbooks so might as well use them. Here he is sketched out with a bit of white chalk and I’ve started to develop the tones by rubbing the charcoal away with wire wool and sandpaper. Another day or so should do it.

Aaarrgghhh! Hands!

 

Life drawing tonight – really lovely pose except for the hands! I tried to draw them twice and they ended up looking like one good hand with a couple of sausages attached. Floppy sausages. With nails. aaaaarrrggghhhh! So frustrating. The other pose was nice too – some severe foreshortening – love it.

I used a dip pen with Indian ink and an ink wash with sable brush into an A3 cartridge sketchbook.

Faces At The Window

 

There’s a brothel at the end of our street and sometimes the ladies sit in the window, looking out. Sometimes I surreptitiously sketch them. If they see me, they draw back and close the blinds. Locally, the policy seems to be to let them be, although technically it’s illegal. The brothels masquerade as ‘gentlemen’s health spas’ and other euphemisms. I would like to see them completely legalised, but as that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, I think it’s a good idea to live and let live. It gives public health officials a chance to offer healthcare to the ladies, many of whom are drug addicts and as they’re visible, it’s easier to make sure that they’re not being kept prisoner. Also, it’s safer for the women to be together in a building, rather than on the street and better for other women who don’t have to put up with kerb crawlers. I was kerb crawled a couple of times and it was horrible…..and frightening.

 

Eventually, these drawings will feed into a bigger, more structured piece in a body of work I’ve been planning for a long time, but I’m a long way from getting to grips with it. I’ve drawn them into my A5 recycled sari sketchbook with my Pilot v5 hitechpoint drawing pen.

 

Grass Mud Horse Style

Marvellous spoof on the Gangnam Style by dissident artist Ai Wei Wei – all power to his elbow!

I Want A Steamroller!

 

Tonight I went to Swansea Print Workshop for an artist talk by the new printmaker-in-residence, Fiona Kelly from Cork in the Republic of Ireland. She works mostly in block (relief) printmaking technique, basing her practice on drawing. Fantastic stuff. But best of all for me was a collaboration she showed us with some other Irish artists who hired a steamroller to print enormous woodblocks! Here they are. That’s it now – I want a steamroller to print my blocks too!

Had a chance to scribble a few faces while I was at it 🙂

Get Out!

 

Get out and scribble! Come on. Let’s take over the streets with artists and sketchbooks. I did it this evening, leaving the studio about 10 minutes early and walking down to the city centre to have a scribble. There were loads of people around so it was easy to do some speed sketching. Some people stared. Some even hovered. But I didn’t care ‘cos that’s just how I roll 😉

Tecchie stuff- each scribble took a few seconds – people move fast when they’re cold. Drawn with a Pilot V5 into an A5 recycled sari sketchbook. The small child on the far right did indeed have an enormous hat.

Scribbling Kittehs

 

Constant practice is the only way to improve skills; that’s why I draw every day (nearly). It can get a bit boring though, especially on soggy wet Sundays like today when there’s not much incentive to get out and find something to sketch. That’s where the cats come in handy. I find them difficult to draw because they have such flexible skeletons and are so very different from humans, so it’s good practice for me to get stuck in and scribble them. Sparta has been lying along my legs as I’ve been catching up with some TV so she’s been scribbled (above) and I also did a couple of pages, mostly of little Ming, in the kitchen earlier.