A Quickie At The Pub Quiz.

A quick scribble at the pub quiz the other evening, with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen into my little leather-bound sketchbook.

A Rub-Down With Wire Wool.

I spent the afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop, practising with letterpress again. After last weeks big fail, I went back to an acronym. The type is old, wooden, vintage and some possibly antique and I’m not familiar enough with it yet to be able to tell what condition it’s in until I’ve printed it. This group of letters was a bit rough, to be honest, but I like the design they make.

I did a few proof prints using Cranfield Safe Wash Relief Ink, rainbow rolled and then had a good look at the flaws. Some are nicks and wear and tear but others were a build-up of ink over the years. I gave them a good clean with vegetable oil and then a rub-down with wire wool. I’ll try printing them again next session and see if it improves the print quality.

Epic Fail!

Sometimes things go wrong and I had an epic fail a few days ago when I was working on a new Letterpress piece at Swansea Print Workshop. I spent ages setting up the type, I really liked how it looked in its wooden state so I inked it up with a rainbow roll, using Cranfied Safe-Wash Relief ink in Process Yellow, Cyan and Magenta.

I printed it up on the magnificent old Columbian Press …. and hated it! The type doesn’t suit the subject, it’s too small and insignificant.

The type is vintage and has suffered a few knocks during the course of its life and although that can be good, in my opinion, these few letters had too much damage for my liking. So back to the drawing board, I’ll try again with a different type face.

A photograph of a black square canvas which has 9 black and white abstract badges lined up in a 3 by 3 square towards the top left hand side and a black and yellow abstract badge on it's own in the bottom right corner. The artwork is called Outsider and reflects the loneliness of the yellow badge which is different to all the others.
“Outsider”.

Yesterday I made a couple of sheets of little circular designs, 24 in all, trying out some ideas for some Adult Education sessions I’ll be running soon. Today I chose 10 of them to make up into badges and mount onto a small canvas that I painted black.

I’ve had the badge machine for a while, it was an impulse buy during the Covid19 lockdown, but I haven’t done much with it. I really like the work of contemporary printmaker and artist Ryan McGinnis and I remembered seeing some of his canvasses mounted with screenprinted badges at an exhibition way back, 2007 I think, and that’s inspired me.

I tried them out in different combinations. I like them all, the way they’re laid out onto the background gives a different meaning to each image. I think I like the one at the top the most, I’ve called it “Outsider”.

Playing Small

I’ve been playing with small designs today, random images onto 45mm circles using brush and ink, graphite sticks, Sharpie pens and coloured pencils. It’s for an adult education project I’m working on ….. there’s more to come.

More Porto Pavement People.

Some more of the very quick sketches I did last week on holiday. I like to stand on the pavement and speedily scribble people walking along, most people move quite fast. I prefer to follow someone from when they’re quite a way down the road.

I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S, into a tiny textured sketchbook.

Porto Pavement People.

Striding in the street.

I sometimes stand on the pavement and scribble people walking along. Most people move quite quickly so my sketches are speedy. I generally spot someone when they’re quite a way down the road and follow them as they get closer, focusing on the essence of the figure, not the details. I did a few of these when Husb and I were in Porto last week.

I used a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S, into a tiny textured sketchbook.

The Rediscovered Sketchbook.

From the Crystal Palace Garden, Porto.

Sometimes I put a sketchbook down and forget about it for months or even years. I don’t know why I do it, some of them just seem to fall out of favour or maybe a I fall in love with the novelty of a new one. This little leather-clad book is one of these. I found it at the back of one of my sketchbook shelves just before I went on holiday last week. Some of the sketches go back 9 years but there’s still plenty of paper in it. So I took it with me and did some quickie sketches with my Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens.

Old And New

At the Crystal Palace.

Here’s another sketch I did on holiday in Porto, Portugal last week. It was very hot (for me anyway) and Husb and I took refuge in the beautiful Crystal Palace garden near our little hotel. There was loads to sketch there but I settled on this view of an old statue, probably 19th century, in front of a very modern building across the road. I scribbled it with a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size S first, then added in some colour washes with Derwent Inktense blocks.

Strange Trees In The Dark.

A drawing of heavily pollarded trees in a park in Porto, Portugal. There are 7 trees, mostly dark against a mid-grey background.
Jardim da Cordoaria.

I was so taken with the odd pollards in the Porto park, Jardim da Cordoaria, that I went back the next evening with my landscape Khadi sketchbook and Derwent Inktense blocks and spent a while drawing the strange trees in a mix of natural night-time darkness and harsh orange/yellow street lighting.