Setting The Type.

I spent a happy couple of hours at Swansea Print Workshop this afternoon, experimenting with the vintage wooden typefaces to design my next little experiment in letterpress. I had more or less settled on this one but then I couldn’t find any quoins to hold it together, so I’ll have to go back to finishContinue reading “Setting The Type.”

Playing With New Toy.

My new toy came through the post today, a box of Caran d’Ache Neo-Pastel colours. For a long time now I’ve been following the blog of USA based artist Aletha Kuschan and I’ve been so impressed by her work, particularly her lovely vibrant pastel drawings. She kindly told me what she used for them. SoContinue reading “Playing With New Toy.”

#StandingStoneSunday: The Sketchbook Stones

When I was travelling around South Wales studying standing stones with pre-historian Dewi Bowen and filmmaker Melvyn Williams, I generally worked onto large sheets of prepared paper. But sometimes I travelled light with just a brown paper sketchbook and it gave me a different insight into what I was drawing, I focused more on theContinue reading “#StandingStoneSunday: The Sketchbook Stones”

#Caturday: The Golden One.

It’s #Caturday Saturday once again and I’ve been playing with a picture of Sparta Puss in Adobe Photoshop. I put the photo through a Coloured Pencil filter and then cranked up the Saturation to create this golden effect.

Teaching Watercolour Basics

I did some more adult teaching this week, I’m running a short course in watercolour basics, covering a range of simple and accessible techniques. The group started with stretching some watercolour paper with paper gumstrip (learnt last week), sectioning it up with masking tape and producing 4 samples of different techniques. This is the demonstrationContinue reading “Teaching Watercolour Basics”

Archive Life Drawing: 1

I’ve been browsing through some of my archives and seeing loads of work I’d forgotten about. This is from 10 years ago, working with an older male model, John. I went through a brief phase of drawing onto collaged paper and mixing up my drawing materials – charcoal, conte crayon and oil bars. I don’tContinue reading “Archive Life Drawing: 1”

Unplanned Scraping.

I carried on with the nocturne painting by scraping on some pinks with a palette knife. It wasn’t planned, I had some Titanium White, Medium Magenta and Dioxazine Violet left over from another painting and as always, “waste not, want not”. I’m not sure if the colour will make it though to the final pieceContinue reading “Unplanned Scraping.”

Slapping It On …..

I carried on with the still life painting I started a couple of weeks ago. I’m really enjoying this, I’m not being precious about it so I can just slap the paint on without stressing about it, impasto style. If I don’t like what I’ve done, I’ll just paint over it. It’s gradually building upContinue reading “Slapping It On …..”

#StandingStoneSunday.

It’s Standing Stone Sunday on social media again and I’ve chosen a strange little drawing I did of a relatively local monument, Maen Ceti (Arthur’s Stone) at Cefn Bryn on the Gower Peninsula. It’s a huge magnificent megalith in beautiful countryside and it’s easy to get distracted and concentrate on the surroundings when I’m drawingContinue reading “#StandingStoneSunday.”

Friday Night at the Patti.

Husb and I went to a gig last night, The Beat at the Patti Pavilion, a beautiful old venue on the seafront that had put on gigs all through the 1970s. Friday nights at the Patti are a fond memory of my youth and I saw some wonderful bands there. The gigs have been resumedContinue reading “Friday Night at the Patti.”