Tag: Drawing

Portrait session

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We had a lovely sitter tonight called Debbie McAndrew. She is an author and play write and also sometimes acts. She wrote a brilliant play called “dirty laundry” that was on last year . It was set in the past and was about the history of the potteries.

We had an entertaining session drawing her and discussing all sorts of things, including how she got into the theatre and acting and how the group got into drawing and painting.

I really enjoyed the session and think that I got some relatively accurate portraits from it.

I used pencil, charcoal pencil and black ink to do the drawings.  The sketches are in a small sketch book with good thickness cartridge paper.

I like drawing in these books. There is enough room to fit the drawings in, and they are small enough to hold so that it is not a struggle to hold the book. Other people were using A1 or A2 sheets to draw or paint on but I prefer the smaller size. About A5.

Anyway I shall just leave you to decide if you like them…

Canal art

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The main art on canal boats or barges consists of old fashioned lettering, this then has shadows cast to make it appear 3 dimensional. See the photos above.

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I tried to draw this canal rose pot to keep me occupied while I was at the canal festival.

What you regularly see is this castle and roses pattern on barges and canal boats. It consists of a landscape painted  with a stylised castle, often next to a river, and  roses and leaves will appear either around the castle or on a different part of the bucket, jug, pot, table, stool or whatever peice of equipment carried on the barge. These historical paintings are also often painted on the inside of the doors so that when they are opened against the side of the hull they are on view.

I think this style of art is lovely. It may be old fashioned, but its interesting.

To paint the roses you start with a  filled in circle of paint, then the leaves are painted in, then the petals are added. These seem to be created using the brush shape and are simple but neatly done. Finally details like highlights and stamens are added.

When these barges were in use, the main part of them were used for hauling coal or pottery. Whole families might live in a space not much bigger than about 10 foot by 6 foot…., is it any wonder that the barges were decorated with these patterns to make them more like home?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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…..

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!

 

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.

Fork candles

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the confusion of words, such as The two Ronnies sketch: four candles or fork handles…..a poem.FB_IMG_1524173502338

Can you hear the difference?

Fork….or Four…Candles…or handles….

See the word, unheard, the difference.

Imagine a fork shaped candle?

Or four spade handles…

Words change, morph, but stay the same.

Homophones, it sounds like, confusion, illusion.

Playing games to gain our trust,  learn the difference, yes we must.

So four is not fork and candle is not handle but together they mangle talk (not tourque).

The Same, But Different

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Someone looked at the twisted tree photos and said they were lost in the intricate tangle of branches.

So I decided to use a sketch of a tree I did to show how each picture changes depending how it is twisted. …IMG_20180418_124018_988IMG_20180418_124209_725IMG_20180418_124355_473IMG_20180418_124517_484

Twisting each of the 4 images to end up with 4 separate designs…….

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So which would you prefer? A close curved centre, spread out branches, accidental perforation or parallel lines?

Each has its merit. Some of them remind me if my blood vessels at the back if my eye, visible when a strong light shines. Others with the indentations remind me if a postage stamp.

Add colour and we are in a whole new realm.

Art, design, abstraction…it makes your mind work and stretch…

So, now I can Tag….

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How do I find Tags on other people’s posts…?

You know it was inevitable, once you know how to do something you realise you need more information. So many questions.20180409_180812

You find out how to paint then you try new mediums….like jam or jelly…….

Or find something interesting and take a photo of it…IMG_20180401_115802

So ……I can go to my Tags, and see the piece I have published…but where are other Tags using that or those words? I don’t think I’m the only person who has used Art or Digital Art as Tags…

 

I have a very varied interest in Art and I want to find other like minded people , who flit like a butterfly from style or medium to different creations.

Is there a page …like the Reader page, where I can find similar posts through the bloggers tags.

So…If you know how … please help xx