Sometimes I just want to draw for the sheer joy of it. Some people love to sing, or to run as fast as they can. I love to draw. I was at the Riverside folk club the other evening and scribbled away in my sketch book. I often draw musicians and audiences at music events, the folk club crowd tend to be a bit more sedate than the headbangers, so I can spend more time on the drawings. I used a 2B Koh-i-Noor graphite block into a square Khadi handmade paper sketchbook.
Last week I did 3 versions of my drawing of Miner’s Wives confronting the police (1984/85) onto Mark Resist film (see below). Today I chose the fine line drawing on the right to develop with Indian Ink and brushes. There’s still a lot to do before I expose it onto a photo-sensitised screen but I feel like I’m on my way now. I’m thinking of adding another police officer on the left and a couple more shadowy ones in the bus window.
I really like the haphazard way the ink washes spread randomly on the film. I can also work back into the inked areas like hair with a cocktail stick, scraping detail into it.
I’ve started cutting into the lino block about the Miner’s Wives that I have been designing for what seems like ages! I really want to get this right, though. It contains a lot of text, which is really hard to cut, especially backwards. Here are the first cuts.
I’m doing a couple of prints inspired by the Welsh Miner’s Wives in the strikes of 1984-1985. I’ve finalised the content for the linocut and today transferred the drawing and text – backwards – onto a 30×30 cms block of soft grey hessian-backed lino. I sharpened my tools (Flexcut) on the leather slip strop and the little blades glided through the lino like a hot knife through butter, releasing that unmistakeable smell of linseed oil. That’s one of the things I really enjoy about making art, it’s so tactile, it arouses many senses.
Finally, the third version of a screen print transparency I’m making about the glorious South Wales Miner’s Wives from the 1984-1985 strike. It’s based on some pen and ink sketches from contemporary press photos and I’m trying out different materials to redraw the image onto Mark Resist film. This last version is drawn with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, which are lightfast, necessary for the photographic screen process. Here are the three versions below.
I need to crack on with this because of a tight deadline, so I’m going to try and combine the best of all three, maybe as a fourth version but more likely, I’ll choose one of these to work into, combining all three drawing materials into a final version ready for transfer to a photo-screen.
Here’s a second version of a screen print transparency I’m making about the glorious South Wales Miner’s Wives from the 1984-1985 strike. It’s based on some pen and ink sketches from contemporary press photos and I’m trying out different materials to redraw the image onto Mark Resist film. This is drawn with Lihtographic Tusche and an Isabey squirrel brush.
I like the tonal qualities of it but there’s nowhere near enough detail. I’ll need to work into it with some pens,
The rough hewn cut-marks gouged into the lino form cloisons that enclose shiny jewels of metallic watercolours. The block is printed in the deepest black oil-based ink onto a Japanese HoSho paper and when dry, watercolour paints are applied with the finest Isabey squirrel brushes.
I’ve been working on a collaborative project with the multi-disciplinary artist RUFUS MUFASA and nine other women artists in Wales – ANGELA KARADOG, HANNAH HITCHINS, RHIAN ANDERSON, FRANCESCA KAY, HELEN MALIA, KARLA BRADING, ELIN REES, VIVIAN RHULE, LYNNE BEBB and me, ROSIE SCRIBBLAH. Our work is exhibited in Swansea at GS Artists from the launch on Friday February 16th, 18.00 – 20.00 and continues until February 23rd.
I’ve been working on a collaborative project with the awesome Welsh rapper and multi-disciplinary artist RUFUS MUFASA and nine other women artists in Wales – ANGELA KARADOG, HANNAH HITCHINS, RHIAN ANDERSON, FRANCESCA KAY, HELEN MALIA, KARLA BRADING, ELIN REES, VIVIAN RHULE, LYNNE BEBB and me, ROSIE SCRIBBLAH. Our work is going to be exhibited in Swansea at GS Artists from this Friday (February 16th) 18.00 – 20.00 and continues until February 23rd.
The exhibition is a prelude to the launch of Rufus’ bilingual album ‘Tri(ger) Warning(s) and unveils the collective response of ten accomplished female artists from across Wales, interpreting key Welsh language words that steer her album. I have chosen to interpret the Welsh word “GRYM” which means power.
I spent a few hours down at Swansea Print Workshop this afternoon, trying out some more ideas for the print I intend to make about the glorious South Wales Miner’s Wives from the 1984-1985 strike. I have already made some pen and ink sketches from contemporary press photos and I’m trying out different materials to redraw this image onto Mark Resist film, a step in the photo-screenprint process. This first one is drawn with Indian ink and a script dip pen – it has a little blob on the point. I haven’t used one before and it’s fun. I tried some lettering too. I also used a little Soft-Ground Tusche (for lithography) applied with an Isabey squirrel-hair brush. It’s giving some interesting textures.
This is a start – it was very wet and needed a while on the drying rack so I got stuck into some more experiments. I’ll work into it with other wet and dry drawing media in the next few days.
A few weeks into the first Covid19 Lockdown in the Spring of 2020, the artist Ed Sumner started the “Cheese and Wine Painting Club” every Friday afternoon on Facebook Live. It was open to anyone, from anywhere, all ages, free for those who couldn’t afford to make a donation, and over the long months of Lockdown, a world-wide community built up. Each week we copied a painting by an historical artist. Now the world is back to “normal”, Ed has carried on teaching online through Zoom tutorials and I did one a few evenings ago, a portrait of a cat in a garden, inspired by Gustav Klimt. Here it is at the halfway stage, there’s a bit to do yet.
scribblah 