Category: Sketching

Lifedrawing

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Tonight’s life drawing model was called Richard.

When I’m feeling out if sorts I like to go to life drawing. I can sit and draw without worrying whether the picture is saleable. I suppose I could frame up some of these but I don’t really want to.

I find nowadays that my eyesight isn’t as good so I look through my glasses at the model,  then over the top of them to see my sketch, half the time my glasses are slipping down my nose, which probably looks comical.

I tend to use a small sketch pad but if I go for a4 or bigger I use the back of a chair to rest it on. I used to use a donkey at college…a long thin stool you sit astride with a rest that pulls up which you can lean your sketch pad or drawing board on. the advantage of these is you can be seated without having to mess about propping things on a second chair.  If you use a large easle its generally easier to stand up, as the legs of the easle can get in your way if you sit. Drawing on a flat peice of paper means that when you lift it to the vertical the image stretches and ends up elongated, this does not look good when you are doing figure studies.

Anyway, going back to the class, I did 7 drawings tonight…they call me prolific!

 

 

Weekend drawings

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Here are a few more of my drawings from the weekend, I didn’t take a camera but did take a sketchbook. I’m doing that more these days because I joined the local urban sketchers group a few months ago.

The drawings are from the Endon well dressing where their were lots of beautiful dogs entered for a dog obedience show. I drew a little scottie dog. There is also a drawing of a fellow exhibitor.

Then on Sunday we want back to Audlem where I had sung on Saturday and had a better look round the village. There was a Chalmers car there built in 1913. I drew it and gave the picture to the owner who kindly emailed me a photo of it. There is also a quick sketch of the Shropshire union canal looking down at barges tied up near the Shroppie Fly pub at the canal wharf.

The other sketches are of the Dorothy Clive garden which we also visited (busy weekend) the rhododendrons were fully in flower in the quarry garden and the view from the terrace outside the tea shop was wonderful (why did I leave my camera behind) anyway I did some drawings of the view and made notes of the colours of the rhododendrons to possibly do a watercolour later. The foliage is always a challenge to draw, but I did my best.

Note to self, maybe take a small box of watercolours with me in future , or pastels if there is no water…..

Horses

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Drawn on sketchfu

I have always drawn and painted animals. Horses are a particular favourite. So when I got onto the internet a few years ago I started drawing them on various sites.

Sketchfu was a website with simple drawing tools, but there was a great society there and you could get interesting results.

One thing I noticed when I look at these is that most of them face one way, head to the left , tail to the right. I seem to do the same if I draw a profile, they usually face left. I had a thought the its because I’m right handed? I wonder if left handed people draw right to left?

Horses are wonderful to draw and paint, sometimes they are so full of free spirit. I loved Shadowfax in thd Lord if the Rings. The thought of flying over the land on Pegasus would also be marvellous. Not forgetting unicorns which are a lovely mythical beast. I love the way they can have do many coat patterns. I think my favourites are grey.

So if you think you would like a horse painting get in touch. I might be able to help.

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Yesterday’s drawings

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It’s been too hectic to post much over the last couple of days, I was getting ready for out makers market at Spode. …I only sold a couple of things, ah well there is always next time.

But yesterday morning I went out with Stoke Urban sketchers to draw the old colliery buildings at Chatterly and Whitfield enterprise zone. A former colliery closed in the 1980’s, I remember visiting when there was a mining museum there. You could walk through some of the old mine workings and he a feeling of what it was like to work underground.

Sadly the museum closed down due to lack of visitors, but I have heard that volunteers are trying to bring something back to the site.

We were outside the perimeter fence, somewhere on the path in the nature reserve that now surrounds the site.

The buildings are very big, there are many stories to them, with arches and windows in the side of the buildings. Huge winding wheels look miniscule where they sit at the top of the building, and guard rails are placed on either side if them. The main building is starting to get covered in foliage, eventually it could end up looking like an ancient relic or monument.

Metal frames and wheels also dotted the horizon, I did a pen drawing, a couple of pencil sketches, and a pastel and ink picture.

Being surrounded by other skilled artists really encouraged me to try and capture the architecture of the landscape. Drawing in a group can help your confidence. Even my partner had a go!

 

Drawing with Stoke Urban Sketchers

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There are apparently lots of Urban sketchers groups around the world. I am a member of Stoke Urban Sketchers (USK). We meet every few weekends to draw interesting places in the Towns and Cities around us.

Today we had a stall at Burslem, and members sat and drew the view and also were scattered around the town trying to draw some of the old buildings and crowds. There was also a classic car rally so these became the subject of drawings too!

I made the mistake of just taking a sketchpad and a HB pencil and a broad black marker pen. I had to borrow some coloured pencil but I think my initial sketch was not that good.

I did get into trying to draw the crowds of people, including a man with a cup of tea or coffee who kindly stood still while I drew him. I finished by drawing the old roofs across the square. I could have done more..but I was too hot and bothered. I think it got to about 28 degrees Celsius. ..thats about 10 degrees hotter than normal. Phew!

 

Sketches at Dorothy Clive Garden

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I like taking a small sketchbook with me when I visit interesting places, its easy to snap a few photos on my phone, but much more challenging to sit for 20 to 30 minutes sketching the view.

Dorothy Clive Garden is beautiful. Even at this time of year when there are mainly spring flowers and the perrenials are not out yet you can see the towering trees, Bluebells, Magnolia’s and Rhododendrons.

We walked up to the tearoom and sat and drank coffee and ate icecream while the Sun (unusually for a Bank holiday weekend) shone down. It was so hot Richard bought me a wide brimmed hat from the gift shop.

I drew the view over the lawn to a low hedge where you can see evergreen trees and branches of deciduous trees just coming into leaf. In the distance was the misty blue grey hills of Shropshire. Over the ridge is a little village called Loggerheads.

Then we walked into the quarry garden. The blackbirds and robins were singing loudly. If you follow the sound of flowing water along the paths edged with Camellia, Rhododendron, Bluebells and other flowers which are just starting to open in the spring sunlight, you round a corner and see a tree that has been cut down to a stump that is still about 15 foot tall.

The stump has had the outline of a woodpecker carved into it, and apparently has had a greater spotted woodpecker (not sure if that’s the right name) living in a hole in it for the last two years.

Follow the sound further and you find the waterfall that runs from the back of the quarry down into its bowl. It is a man made feature but still lovely. I sat and sketched it, getting lost in how to represent the vegetation against the darkened rocks.

Finally we picked up some plants for the garden that we had bought earlier and walked down the slope to the pool at the bottom of the garden. This looks like it has recently been re-lined and the black liner is visible round the edges. Looking back up the hill various evergreen trees and bushes are visible, together with the new growth of Gunnera, which will grow massive over the summer. The pool is lacking its water lilies but they should be back soon. Halfway up the hill is a little wooden summer house or pavillion. The view is splendid from there.

3 drawings were enough. It was hot and I needed a drink. But I know I will go back again soon.

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Found…2011 sketchbook

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I’m having a clear out/spring clean, and I found this sketchbook underneath a foot stool that isn’t used very often.

I always have to look in to see what I was doing, this was an orange book with nice thick cartridge paper, spiral bound so you can flip the pages and not end up trying to draw into the crease between them.

So I saw pictures of landscapes and some portraits.

I had clearly dated them so I know they were done over a couple of weeks in June 2011. I dont remember my health then, but I must have taken the week off from work and gone up to Yorkshire and also North Wales….

While these are black and white pencil sketches, I think they give enough detail so that you can understand the views I saw. I dont think they are that accurate,  but I sometimes prefer drawing to photography. I have joined a group of urban sketchers, but I dont get out often enough these days.

The portraits are just about OK. I feel like they are all flawed in some way. Perhaps I had done them too rapidly ? I don’t think the fact that there is a drawing of a pint of beer in there is of too much importance. I must have been feeling in need of refreshment, the drawing by the river was at a pub in Saltaire and I think I drew the landscape while we stopped for lunch and a drink.

The sketch of the lighthouse is at Talacre beach in Wales. The figure at the top us actually a sculpture of a person. I dont think its safe to enter and in any case I think the door is locked.

I will keep this short. I dont want it to turn into one if those  “slides of landscapes I took on holiday” moments!

Pastel workshop

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I went to a pastel drawing workshop today. We were shown how to use various grades of “toothed” paper. It was like drawing on fine sandpaper .

The smoothest grade was used with soft pastels (not the oily sort but the dry powdery ones). You could use a silicone spreader, I think it was called, or your fingers and hands to blend the colours.

First you make broad sweeps of tones, all of similar colours, so a light blue, mid blue and dark blue or grey for instance. You smudge them on the paper, then you add layers, working into each layer and dragging the pastels about with the spreader/smudger. You can get interesting marks and edges using this tool.

Then you overlay other colours to contrast, say an orange or a pink, adding detail as you go. Finally adding the darkest and lightest colours, which seem to float on top of the others.

The second paper was rougher and you must not get it damp or the surface will come away. It was coloured a turquouse blue. This paper was so rough you were not supposed to smudge it as it would destroy the texture. You had to draw with thinner layers of pastel and in a much more impressionistic style.

The third paper was really rough like sandpaper. The tutor said sometimes people fetch the skin off their fingers blending it. Better to swiftly smudge it with the flat if your palm. This paper could be wetted with an alcohol based liquid which allowed the pastels to blend and run. As the liquid quickly dried you could draw over it and smudge it with the silicone spreader. or use a pastel pencil for more definition.

I gained a lot of information from the workshop and will be doing some more work in pastels.

G’night Cat

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G’night cat                                                                                               my coffee’s getting cold,

I’m ready for bed,

And I’m feeling rather old….

G’night cat                                                                                               I must do as I’m told

Get your beauty sleep,

Drift off upon a cloud……

G’night cat                                                                                               but your purrs are getting loud

Well 10 minutes more

Til my dreams of you unfold……

Mandelbrot

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If you look closely this is my drawing of the Mandlebrot set..not a photo.FB_IMG_1524272149873

I do love Chaos theory, when I first heard of it I bought a book called Chaos and read about Mandlebrot who came up with the theory.

That was around 30 years ago, so I don’t remember much about it. But I love the idea that coasts can be fractal, and so can clouds. When you zoom in on a real Mandlebrot pattern you always see this distinct pattern no matter how deep into it you go.

The colours change, curves and swirls and spirals appear, but that pattern keeps coming back.

My drawing is not perfect, but at least it gives an idea of the pattern….like a little Buddha on its side… sparking with electricity.

Other fractal patterns include squares within squares, and triangles within triangles.

Go and look at websites with them on….you will be fascinated hopefully.

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