New paintings and regular art updates.
Three 1 inch sketches for the challenge for urban sketchers Stoke on Trent. One was in the cafe at a local supermarket and the other two were drawn tonight at the pub. The dog would not stay still so I only had a few seconds to look at it. The violinist was playing and again I had to do a very quick sketch.
I enjoy drawing and it’s good to challenge yourself with something new.
More to follow over the month.
You may or may not have heard of Inktober also known as #inktober or #inktober2018 its something that comes up at this time of year where artisrs are encouraged to draw something in ink for each day of the month. The drawings are shared on instagram under these two hashtags. Oh and I forgot each day has a theme I think. There was a list last year but I haven’t seen it yet.
At the same time the urban sketchers I am a member if have set a 1 inch drawing challenge for the month. Each of us is trying to do a drawing in a 1 inch square for the month of October, so I’m trying to amalgamate the two and kill two birds with one stone as the old saying goes.
Whether I will fulfill the challenge depends on how busy I get, whether I remember to draw and if I remember to post. I think I might report back here once a week. If course I could draw everything and just post one drawing a day, but I like the spontaneity of the idea , so I will try and draw in the moment.
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More sketches. These are of the restaurant by the river in Otley (finished), a pine tree outside the wizard tea room at Alderley Edge on the way home where we stopped for lunch. A woman and her dog sitting outside at a picnic table at the wizard tea room.
We travelled about 140 miles on that day so I was desperate fit a sit down and it was good to sketch while we were waiting for our food. A similar thing happened at the restaurant. We had a bit of a wait so I sketched the view but the food arrived before I could finish it so I added a few details when we were on the way home.
Encaustic is using a small hot iron to melt wax. You then used the iron to place it onto thick card and move it around until you have made a picture. I tend to draw patterns with it I like the arched shapes and feathered patterns you can make with the pointed end of an iron.
Other things you would need are newspaper to place the cards on while you are working with hot wax. Pointed heated styluses to draw into and with the wax, a fire blanket to place underneath everything. Cloth to clean the iron between different colour waxes and also soft cloth to burnish the final peice and bring out the shine of the wax.
Our set has about two dozen colours so there can be plenty of choices of wax to create different patterns.
I learnt to do this from one of the workshops our art group organises from time to time.
A while ago Penkhull residents association decided to have a competition to create a flag for the village. The pictures surrounding the final flag were the 10 designs that had the most overall influence over the final design. I was really pleased to find out that one of them was my design. (the middle top design).
It feels good to have a flag to describe the village. The oval and lines coming in symbolise the village green and the roads coming into and surrounding it. The cockrel is based on the weather vane on top of the church. The colours are vibrant and cheerful. Local people had a choice of 4 designs taken from dozens of entries. The central flag in the photo was the winning design.
We briefly visited Yorkshire sculpture park today. The sculptures usually seen there are by Henry Moore. However we didn’t have time as it was a flying visit so we looked at sculpture by Giuseppe Penone.
I’m always looking for things to draw so I drew a few of his works and a couple on the veranda where we had a quick sandwich….
The sculpture park is set in huge grounds with a lake and pieces of art dotted all around the site. There are also underground galleries which is where some of Penones art was situated.
Entrance to the park is free. You just pay for parking.
The sculpture park is near to junction 38 of the M1 motorway in Yorkshire a few miles south of Leeds.
Fluffy clouds, mares tails and con trails at Spode today. I loved the way the sky was crossed and patterned with clouds. The sun was quite low and now we have moved into autumn it took on that crisp shimmer when the heat of summer has all but been extinguished from the sky. The warmth seems to wash out of the blue and it becomes a deeper hue.
Round about the skeletal remains of parts of the spode site sit like dinosaur ribs, shed of flesh and skin, one gaunt necklike chimney sits upright looking out over the landscape of rust and broken bricks.
All this hides the beating pulse of creativity, artists, ceramacists and other makers populate the various untidy buildings. Glass and clay, paint and photography, laser cutting and architecture. All of them dwell under the fluffy white clouds, mares tails and con trails.
Next weekend we are having an OPEN studio. On the 6th and 7th of October.
Admission is free from 11am to 4pm. You are welcome to come into the studios which are open to the public. There will be much to see including a new exhibition of people’s work on the theme of transition. We are at the Spode site, Elanora Street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. The way in will be signposted.
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One of the advantages of having a studio at spode is the fact you meet so many creative people.
One of them is a lady called Angela who makes glass art and runs workshops.
We had a very pleasant few hours today making some new pieces of glass. We used new techniques to make larger bowls (they will be when they are fired) and handkerchief vases which will be placed over a glass shaped form which the glass slumps over.
I hope we can go back for more.
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Someone just asked me about urban sketching so I looked some information up from the urban sketchers page on Facebook. The following text is copied from their page so apologies to them in advance if this is not acceptable. Urban sketchers are a world wide group. This is what they say (edited) :
Dear fellow Urban Sketchers,
This post serves as a reminder that images you post to the Urban Sketchers Facebook group must follow the Urban Sketchers Manifesto.
Your post will be removed if we find your sketches & content not in line with the manifesto.
URBAN SKETCHERS MANIFESTO
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• We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
• Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
• Our drawings are a record of time and place.
• We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
• We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
• We support each other and draw together.
• We share our drawings online.
• We show the world, one drawing at a time.
GUIDELINES
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Before sharing your drawings in the group, make sure they meet these basic criteria and they are done in the spirit of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto.
• You did the drawing on location, not from photos, memory, or your imagination.
• You have written the location of the sketch (town and state/country) in the headline or caption.
• We encourage members to write descriptions and stories associated with each sketch.
• We post our OWN work, not that of someone else. Please don’t share other people’s work here.
• Your post must be public, not private. If you post a private picture it will be deleted because the group can’t see it – all we get is an “Attachment unavailable” notice.
• No sketches from figure drawing sessions or posed models.
As long as your art conforms to the above, the medium used is not an issue, be it anything from a pencil to an electronic tablet.
DRAWING PEOPLE
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Draw VERBS, not NOUNS (Thank you, Walt Stanchfield!)
That means draw people doing stuff in context and not just noses, faces, hands and feet. Please avoid people that are posed or without an urban context. Posed people includes self-portraits, too.
Giving an environmental cue to a portrait is very helpful. Drawing the ENTIRE person is even more helpful.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
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Anyone is welcome to join, but please DO NOT ADD SOMEONE ELSE! These requests will not be approved. This group is huge enough without adding people who don’t necessarily want to be here. It’s a public group so they don’t need to be members to see the art in it.
Below is a quote from it, and note that he includes rural:
“The way I see it and try to convey in The Art of Urban Sketching book, being an urban sketcher isn’t merely about drawing cities, big or small, urban or rural, with a pen or with your fingers on an digital tablet.
“It’s about drawing places that can be put on a map, and everything that happens in those places. It’s about showing the world with drawings, taking people to locations they may never go through artwork you can only create.
“You were there, you saw it, you sketched it, you told us what happened with your hand drawn art, sketched in the moment but perhaps touched up later because you ran out of time or can’t resist the urge to fix something up.”
Transitions…….
Once I get an idea….these are photos that I have manipulated in layout and instagram. The spectra were caused by a peice of crystal I have hanging in the window.
The transitions are colours, shapes and facial ones.
I took the images further in each one, so they transition from something normal to something more obscure and unusual.
Use of colour makes them more interesting I think. I’m not the kind of artist that likes to write a long description next to their work to explain it so I will leave it at that.
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