Category Archives: body

Skulls

A bit late for Halloween, but here are some recent skull sketches. The first is of the full-size medical model that I’ve drawn many times before. I love its tricky curves and deep hollows, and the brown and blue inks combine to … Continue reading

Posted in animal, body, coloured ink, death, fruit, inks, Japan, Lexington grey, monochrome, skulls | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Digital art

Lots more fingers and toes, all drawn late in the evening when there’s nothing else around to sketch. Strange to see my hands age so dramatically as the drawings become more detailed, with more lines and shading… (A range of pens and inks, … Continue reading

Posted in body, collections, coloured paper, from life, hands, night, self-portrait | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall?’

Dilute Lexington grey in fountain pen and water-brush, water-colour, A6 – 20 minutes Here’s Matthew Syed presenting at a conference I went to recently. He’s a journalist, former UK table-tennis champion, and the author of ‘Bounce’ where he explains the importance of ‘purposeful practice’, and how … Continue reading

Posted in body, clothing, from life, hands, Lexington grey, line drawing, people, sequential, sketching, technique | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Buskers

Here are two of the many Bath buskers. The first is Ben Powell, an impeccable finger-style guitar player who I’ve sketched a few times before (see below). The weather’s been fine so he’s barefoot this time. I showed him the … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, body, clothing, Feet, from life, hands, line drawing, musical instrument, people, sketching, street scene, urban, white pen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Black and white

Both done with white Gelly Roll pen, white Uni Posca brush pen, and water-brush with dilute Lexington grey ink,  A6 – 25 minutes each A life-cast of William Blake’s head (bought many years ago from the National Portrait Gallery when … Continue reading

Posted in body, coloured paper, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, objects, sculpture, white marker pen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Many hands

Drawing hands continues to be a challenge so here are some recent attempts. The first set was while watching TV, pausing the program and drawing any hands in the shot as fast as possible. The second is a range of … Continue reading

Posted in body, from life, hands, line drawing, monochrome, pencil, TV | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Life and death #1

Some sketches of famous finds from Pompeii, recently on show at the British Museum in London. The exhibition contrasted Roman art that celebrated life, with plaster casts that documented agonising deaths. The death-casts are very emotive objects, both expressionist and … Continue reading

Posted in body, collections, death, exhibitions, from life, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, pencil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

People watching

Istanbullus sitting, walking, fishing, watching, on the phone, and waiting. Slowly learning to construct figure drawings out of lots and lots of curves. Fountain pen with carbon ink, Pigma 1mm black pen, water-brush with Lexington Grey ink, A5

Posted in body, brush pen, from life, Istanbul, line drawing, monochrome, people, sketching, urban, waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Park life

A warm and sunny Saturday in the park, people reading, chatting and sunbathing, covering the lawn in front of the Royal Crescent. A great chance to do lots of fast and simple figure studies of people at rest. Fountain pen and water-brushes with … Continue reading

Posted in Bath, body, from life, Lexington grey, monochrome, people, sketching, urban, waterbrush | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Fail better’

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett A good description of  learning to sketch, amongst other things, and my frequent attempts at drawing my left hand are an excellent example! So here’s the latest batch … Continue reading

Posted in body, from life, hands, inks, pencil, sketching, watercolour sketch | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment