Scribbling the Scribblers.

  Sometimes at life drawing group I get a bit bored drawing the model and I take a look at the rest of the room and draw the drawers. They’re usually as still as the model, deep in concentration which maked them relatively easy to draw. This is done in Faber Castell Pitt ink pensContinue reading “Scribbling the Scribblers.”

Nice nibbles and a nice cat in NYC.

  I was at a benefit auction of prints for Manhattan Graphics Studio in Bloomsbury’s auction house, NYC. It was good fun and I was bidding for a lovely piece by Carol Wax. It was at the end of a very long and hard day at the International Print Fair and I was shattered andContinue reading “Nice nibbles and a nice cat in NYC.”

Pooped at the Printfair!

  A drawing in my Tate Postcard sketchbook from my trip to NYC to see the International Print Fair a couple of years ago. We had been walking around Manhatten for days, going to exhibitions, talks and demonstrations of printmaking and we were pooped! We holed up in this very modernist cafe near the BloomsburyContinue reading “Pooped at the Printfair!”

I’m A Sucker For A Flying Buttress!

I was stuck in Bristol for a couple of hours a few months back, waiting for a train from Temple Meads station, so I went for a wander over to the magnificent Saint Mary Redcliffe church, a beautiful Gothic building started in the twelfth century and finished a couple of hundred years later. It hasContinue reading “I’m A Sucker For A Flying Buttress!”

Japanese Barens [artgeeky stuff]

When I visited the International Print Fair in New York City a couple of years ago, I went to a demonstration of Japanese woodblock printing by the artist Takiyi Hamanake [I hope I spelled that right]. It’s a different way of printing; instead of rollering oil-based ink onto the cut block, you brush glue ontoContinue reading “Japanese Barens [artgeeky stuff]”

An Elder On The New York Subway

I went to the New York International Print Fair a couple of years ago and spent the best part of a week travelling around the city to loads of print exhibitions and events. A lot of the time I was on the subway and as I always carry a sketchbook with me it gave meContinue reading “An Elder On The New York Subway”

High Speed Life Drawings

Drawing at high speed can give us really vibrant and exciting images which are even better if they’re overlaid on the same paper. For this exercise I used A1 sugar paper and a handful of coloured chalky pastels. The model went into a sequence of 2-minute poses, five in all and I used a differentContinue reading “High Speed Life Drawings”

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!”

A Monumental Man

Life drawing was a regular item on the curriculum when I was at Art College and I’ve kept practicing, going to local groups and classes for many years now. It’s good to work with different models and to be inspired by the techniques of artists in the group and I link the life drawing toContinue reading “A Monumental Man”

Trains, Planes and People Watching on the NJT

Trains are great places for drawing because you can settle down in relative comfort and people are generally static for a reasonable time often dozing or absorbed in books or conversation. These are two drawings I did on one of my USA visits, travelling regularly between New York City and Princeton on the New JerseyContinue reading “Trains, Planes and People Watching on the NJT”