Mostly drawing

Wonky, skew-whiff, bockety, odd

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Ed Mostly

Last week I accidentally wandered into cubism through blind-drawn continuous-line selfies… I recommend having a go, they only take a minute and the results are so strange that you can’t make any ‘mistakes’. Hold a pencil ready to draw on a page, look into the mirror and draw your face in one continuous line without looking down at the paper. Let your eyes move around the contours and features of your face and trace the same movement with the pencil. It becomes a magical mystery tour as you attempt to keep track of where you are on the page and try not to fall off the edges. Then enjoy the reveal when you look down! Some of them look like reflections in moving water, some like I’ve been badly beaten, and some are just odd. As I look at them I can recognise some of the lines/shapes I habitually use when drawing selfies, but it’s as if they’ve been drawn by someone else; most peculiar!

Collage created using TurboCollage software from www.TurboCollage.com

Posted in blind drawing, daily drawing, faces, line drawing, pencil, self-portrait | Tagged blind drawing, blind drawn selfies, continuous line drawings, continuous line selfies, The Contours

Blue and gold

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Ed Mostly

Five more sketches on pre-coloured paper, with blue and golden yellow backgrounds this time, the idea being to approximate skies and Bath stone, ish. I used the same process of drawing with the juicy fude pen, and then adding the greys and whites to build tone and contrast (as with the other ones I’ve posted recently). I’ve also used a bit of blue/golden yellow watercolour to extend the colour field out, or to add sky/buildings/lights into the sketches (and hot pink for the sitar case!). The overall effect can be a bit extreme but is fun to explore…

All the locations are in Bath; from the top there’s Walcot House cafe, then Kingsmead Square, a sitar busker by the Abbey, a general view of ‘Abbey Churchyard’, and finally looking down Stall Street. arnos vale (84) arnos vale_0006 (12) arnos vale_0001 (49) arnos vale_0005 (13) arnos vale_0002 (27)

Posted in Bath, buskers, cafe, coloured paper, Duke Confucius, fude pen, monochrome, sketchbooks, urban, urban sketching | Tagged monochrome sketches, sitar busker, sketch in cafe, sketch of busker, sketching in Bath, the stranglers, urban sketching | Leave a comment

Remembrance Sunday

Posted on November 10, 2019 by Ed Mostly

Remembrance Sunday in beautiful autumn light at Bath Cenotaph this morning. The band playing, a vicar leading the service, wreaths being presented and the salute being taken; a distant dog barking and a toddler laughing during the two minutes silence. “Stay and remember those who died…” I managed to get a great spot to view the scene, with a policeman just below on the right.

Some previous Remembrance Sundays…

Posted in Bath, coloured paper, Duke Confucius, fude pen, urban, urban sketching | Tagged Remembrance Sunday, sketching in Bath, urban sketching | 6 Comments

Monochrome set

Posted on November 1, 2019 by Ed Mostly

Four more experiments sketching on pre-stained paper, this time using a homemade sepia ink for the stain, leaving a white border. From the top there’s a quiet moment in The Waterstones cafe, two busy scenes near Kingsmead Square, and finally the Roman Baths steaming on a cold autumn afternoon, all drawn with the fabulously juicy and variable Confucius Fude pen. It’s fun using various ‘whiteners’ to adjust the tone, alongside the usual dilute grey ink brush. Each whitener has its own qualities:

White gouache/titanium white watercolour is good for large areas and subtle changes, but always dries darker than it looks when painted (and looks a bit odd for skin-tones, see the zombies sat in the cafe in the second sketch).
A white pencil adds a textured effect, but once it’s on the paper it can’t be shifted or painted/inked on… I used it for the fur collar in the middle sketch, highlights on the right side in the third sketch, and for the flames and mist in the last one. This is the best one I’ve found, the Staedtler Lumocolor Glascrom, rich in pigment.
And for maximum opacity a correction pen is super-bright. I’ve used it to bring the white border of the paper into the pre-stained areas and for ultra-highlights, but it can unbalance the overall tonal balance as it’s so light. The best I’ve found is this one, the Uniball CLP-305, as it has a roller ball so is much smoother to use, but it’s harder to find (I’ve stopped using the popular white Gelly Rolls as they’re just not opaque enough).

Posted in Bath, brush pen, cafe, coloured paper, monochrome, street scene, urban, urban sketching, white pen | Tagged cafe sketches, monochrome sketches, sketching in Bath, The Kinks, urban sketching, white pens for sketching | 13 Comments

Pencil selfies

Posted on October 27, 2019 by Ed Mostly

The latest batch of quick late evening mirror selfies from my daily drawing habit. All done using the blackest and least smudgy pencil that I’ve found, the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black. It’s high carbon and low (no?) graphite so the drawings don’t have a grey graphite sheen to them, but you can smudge the lines when you want some tone. Much more of this type of thing in this friendly Facebook group.

There are 200 more of my analogue selfies in this post…

Posted in daily drawing, pencil, self-portrait | Tagged daily drawing, Mars Lumograph Black, pencil selfies, Self Portrait Sundays, sketching self from life, Visage | 2 Comments

All aboard…

Posted on October 20, 2019 by Ed Mostly

Waiting at Bath Spa station (you can just see the ghost of a train I tried to draw that left too soon, its windows running across the centre of the sketch)… arnos vale (80)

..and en route to Shropshire. This fellow passenger was simultaneously (not) watching the rugby on his phone, reading a magazine and listening to music (helped by having two right hands) as the misty Welsh hills scrolled past outside. arnos vale (79)