A quick post after many months of absence, apologies. The sketching has carried on in the meantime (I passed my ten year anniversary of daily drawing in March!), but the website had gone into hibernation. Here are some recent Bath sketches to get the ball rolling again; the local bandstand back in action after many many months silence, a cafe view in Kingsmead Square, and people relaxing in Queen Square.
(Apologies for the recent lack of posts. Lockdown etc has broken/changed/started many habits, including a drastic reduction in my use of social media, which is probably a Good Thing. The daily drawing from life continues in spite of it all)
Here’s a set of sketches of Denis, our lovely 91 year-old neighbour. Since the start of the first lockdown I’ve popped round most days to see him for a chat, distanced for safety. Sometimes I draw him while we’re talking, and he’s usually amused by the results… “I look like an ancient elf!”
Most of the sketches are tiny (10cm x 10cm ish), and either in pencil/stump like these ones…
…or in the usual mix of pencil, fude-ink-pen, watercolour.
(I don’t think I’ve done a ‘sketching kit’ post for a while. They’re usually popular so here goes…) To keep up the daily ‘drawing from life’ habit (nearly ten years now) I make sure I’ve always got sketching materials on me. In the past I’ve just used any paper/pen in my pocket, but having more time on my hands recently (…) led to me making a tiny sketch kit. It weighs 37 grammes, less than any pocket notebook I’ve got, and gives me top quality paper/line/tone wherever/whenever. (It’s also forced me not to rely on the Duke Confucius pen for all my sketching)
The paper’s the great stuff I always use (Saunders and Waterford High-White Hot-Press 90lbs), ripped down to A6 size, and clipped (using a small length of poster hanger) onto a piece of 3mm plywood. Then I use a wonderfully dark 8B Mars Lumograph Black pencil (with a cap to protect tip and pockets) for line and a thin tortillon/stump/blender for tone. The pencil and stump are attached by a tube of elastic fabric, so you can quickly swap between them when drawing, just spin them (!) round in your hand.
The wooden board gives a great support for the paper, allowing the pencil lines to be as crisp or soft as you fancy, and smudging for tone is equally detailed and responsive. The pencil/stump combo captures all the key information, and I can add a quick colour wash when I get home if I don’t have my tiny palette/water-brush with me (see below). This kit’s unobtrusive (slightly stealthy?) so could be good for shy sketchers, and is great for making the most of those brief moments when opportunity and subject coincide! Here are a few recent sketches made with the kit…
I’ve almost completely given up on sketchbooks now and instead use a range of drawing boards for A3, A4 and A5 sized loose paper sheets alongside this tiny one. The boards offer better drawing surfaces and much reduced weight. Finally here’s the tiny palette I use, made from a Muji card case. Full instructions on how to make one are here.
Here are around 170 people enjoying fresh-air, benches, sunshine, ice-creams, solitude and company. It’s been busy busy busy in Bath’s parks, not surprising with fine weather after months of lockdown. Due to foreshortening, trying to fit them all onto the paper, and ‘artist’s license’ people look closer than they actually are in the parks. But apart from the occasional mask it does all feel strangely normal…
(all drawn with Duke Confucius fude, dipped in various inks)
Lockdown’s lack of group sketch-crawls has led to regular virtual meet-ups. Using Google Streetview you can freely wander a static location, get lost in side-streets and find a view that suits, joined by other sketchers on Zoom. Transcribing photos/2d images is very different to drawing from life, here’s James Gurney explaining the vital difference. But it’s been fun hanging out with fellow sketchers again, sometimes adding them as Olympian observers above the scene, and the local subjects are perfectly still!
From the top there’s Liverpool (spot the near invisible correction to fit in the Liver-bird…), a roasted corn seller in Istanbul, The Alhambra in Spain, villagers in Pewsey (Wiltshire, UK), bathers in Varanasi (India), and finally tourists in Sintra (Portugal). We’re off to Hong Kong next!
Having more time to watch the loveliest Spring I can remember means I’ve been drawing more plant life. Weeds like ivy and bindweed and sticky weed caught my eye at first; I love the way they’re creeping and covering. But old trees, magnolias, wisteria and cauliflowers have their own sinuous charms… (spot the mosquito that nearly bit me while drawing the wisteria…) Mostly inks, with a bit of water-colour
Given social distancing I’m having to be more resourceful to sketch my favourite subject… Here’s a 2m distanced supermarket queue, neighbours sat outside their front doors on VE day, a man doing tai-chi in the park, three Zooming sketchers watching Sintra tourists on StreetView, and various others including quick Zoom portraits, magpies and domestic TV viewing!
I hope you’re well. Strange days and worrying times, but much to be thankful for; health, a garden, fine weather, a dog to walk, and family to share it all with. Also thankful for the daily drawing habit, providing continuity, a bit of purposeful structure, and timeless moments when it’s going well! These were done during long dog walks; mostly in inks using a water-brush, a speedy way to catch lines and shapes, and very stable for layers of tonal washes. I think our constrained times have made distant open landscapes more attractive than usual, and the clearer air probably helps…
From the top there’s Kelston Round Hill, then five views of Stantonbury Hill, a moon-set at 5am (our dog had woken up early…), our neighbourhood seen from a nearby hill, Lansdown Crescent from below, and the back of the Royal Crescent.
The second of three posts collecting sketches from recent trip to London. This time, mostly museums…
To the Museum of London to pay homage to a sacred relic, Paul Simenon’s bass guitar, as smashed on the cover of London Calling. Centrepiece of a small but lovely exhibition to mark 40 years since the album came out…
Then to the British Museum. Here’s the great court in the centre of the building, seen from an upper window…
(On my last visit I was able to study Rembrandt’s ‘Young Woman Sleeping’ up close; it’s a miraculous speedy sketch made up of about 40 brushstrokes. With my nose pressed against the glass, eyeballing it from about foot away, I had a go at recreating some sections, discovering even more details in the process. Taking the occasional break to sketch other visitors to the gallery…)
In the wonderful new Islamic gallery I copied faces from a huge 1950s linocut, fascinated by the different ways Zenderoudi made up eyes, noses, mouths etc…
Then some quick sketches of netsuke in the Japanese gallery…
And finally some more of the 6 million or so annual fellow visitors.
The first of three posts collecting sketches from a recent trip to London, all drawn with a Duke Confucius Fude pen, some onto pre-stained pages, with various washes/colours etc
Fellow passengers waiting on the opposite station platform…
Myself in the window as the train sped through the evening…
Cafe customers…
My host (deepest apologies to Adrian for this shocking libel)…
And finally Londoners out and about in the city, mostly sketched from the top deck of a bus (a few in another cafe).
