I draw people and occasionally, at a push, animals but I don’t do nature. I’ve just finished Martin Gayford’s book about his conversationas with David Hockney and he discusses his new-ish paintings from the countryside surrounding his home in the north of England, so I thought I should break out of my comfort zone andContinue reading “I Don’t Do Nature”
Tag Archives: ink drawing
Head Hands and Feet
Went to my weekly life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop last night and had a really good session with three drawings that I think I might be able to work up eventually into large monotypes. Towards the end I sat back and just had a bit of a practice with the head, hands andContinue reading “Head Hands and Feet”
Spying Scribbling Cutting Printing
I often think of artists as voyeurs, spying on and recording what’s around us. We had a lovely sunny day in the middle of last week and I opened one of the big windows in my new studio and looked down at the pavement three floors below. Suddenly, someone walked past beneath me and IContinue reading “Spying Scribbling Cutting Printing”
Hiding Behind A Hand
Portraits are so often a way of the wealthy and powerful showing off their wealth and power and so they usually show the entire face of the person paying, hopefully, a great big wad of cash to the artist. Egon Schiele did a lot of drawings and paintings of hands covering faces and I likeContinue reading “Hiding Behind A Hand”
In the life drawing studio.
Sometimes during life drawing it’s nice to focus on what’s around the model and we have a terrific old bentwood chair that we use as a prop and it’s good to draw as well. The drawing studio has large mirrors on one wall and this gives a lot more depth and perspective. What IContinue reading “In the life drawing studio.”
Speed Scribbling!
There’s always a temptation when you’re working with a model to make the most of the time you have and launch straight in to a formal detailed drawing but sometimes it pays to try out some quick scribbles first, putting the models in a variety of poses and making some very small, scribbled sketches. AContinue reading “Speed Scribbling!”
The Pavement People
Working from photographs can be controversial for many artists and causes a lot of lively discussion in our local Life Drawing group. I take a pragmatic view – I do whatever needs to be done to get the image I want and that sometimes means using a photograph as my starting point. This inkContinue reading “The Pavement People”
The Man With Huge Hands and the Cholesterol Special
We put up the next exhibition in The Brunswick this morning – 8.30am start on a SUNDAY!!!!! It’s looking fantastic [here’s a link to it’s Facebook site if you want to see more – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130341270397734 ]. Anyway, we finished just before lunch and after heading home to dump the tools and have a cuppa withContinue reading “The Man With Huge Hands and the Cholesterol Special”
A Skeleton in my Studio
This is Felicity and she’s borrowed from another artist; she’s living in my studio at the moment and looks out into the street over the bus stop, scaring passengers who look up. Why do I draw from a skeleton? It’s partly technical, to understand the beautiful mechanics of the human body which helps meContinue reading “A Skeleton in my Studio”
The Balloon Flower at Ground Zero
I’ve never had much time for Jeff Koons’ work, I had thought it superficial and cynical until one of my visits to New York City when I finally made it down to the World Trade Centre. It was difficult to see the construction at Ground Zero because of all the fencing and the crowdsContinue reading “The Balloon Flower at Ground Zero”