Category Archives: museum

Swedish birds

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Ed Mostly

A collection of birds seen in Stockholm. First there are two sketches from the Biologiska Museet, a beautiful wooden Victorian museum full of dioramas populated by stuffed animals who’ll hold a pose for as long as you need (the first picture looks like a scene from … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, Birds, from life, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, museum, Stockholm, Uncategorized, watercolour sketch | Tagged Biologiska Museum, duck, goose, heron, Mercury Rev, Skansen, sketching birds, sketching from nature, sketching stuffed animals, Stockholm, swan family, swans, watercolour sketches, wolf | 2 Comments

Worshippers, ancient and modern

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Lexington grey fountain pen and water-brush, white Gelly Roll pen, white gouache, on coloured paper, A5 – 10 minutes line drawing at the museum, and 30 minutes adding the light and shade at home A small fraction of the 2,000 votive figures … Continue reading →

Posted in collections, coloured paper, exhibitions, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, Stockholm, urban, white pen | Tagged Ayia Irini, crowd, crowd of statues, Field for the British Isles, monochrome, monochrome sketch, shop window dummies, Stockholm Mediterranean Musem, The Specials, urban sketching, votive statues | Leave a comment

Topkapi #2

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Water-brush, dilute Lexington grey ink, watercolour, gouache, A5 – 30 minutes Back in the Harem section of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, this time looking through to the Black Eunuch’s Courtyard, with direct sun on the columns beyond. One of … Continue reading →

Posted in buildings, coloured paper, from life, grisaille, inks, Istanbul, Lexington grey, museum, people, sketching, travel, urban | Tagged Andy Williams and Pearl Bailey, Black Eunuchs courtyard, decorative tiles, gateway, gold gouache, grey ink, Lexington grey ink, passers by, portraits, Topkapi | Leave a comment

Cursive

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Ed Mostly

Water-brush with Lexington grey ink, tea, A5 – 15 minutes I copied this from the inside of an Egyptian mummy at Bristol City Museum. The whole inner surface of the case was covered with beautifully relaxed and flowing cursive hieroglyphs, … Continue reading →

Posted in brush pen, death, exhibitions, Lexington grey, museum, objects | Tagged Ancient Egypt, Bristol City Museum, cursive hieroglyphs, cursive script, Egyptian mummy, Grateful Dead, hieroglyphs | 2 Comments

@ Bristol #2

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Ed Mostly

Some more from @Bristol. Two sketches overlapping on one page creating an odd couple; a gorilla skeleton and a large model of Morph, a 1970’s children’s animation classic from Aardman. Each sketch took about 10 minutes, and that’s a paint accident, not … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, collections, exhibitions, from life, museum, sculpture, skeleton, sketching | Tagged @ Bristol, Aardman, bones, cold nose, gorilla, Gorillaz, Morph, skull, the Odd Couple, thermal imaging | 1 Comment

@ Bristol #1

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Ed Mostly

The massive main landing gear of an airliner, sketched at @Bristol. The wheels are about 5 foot high and it has an ‘articulating bogie unit’, hmmm… I spent 5 minutes marking the key lines in pencil to get the perspective … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, collections, from life, Lexington grey, machinery, museum, vehicles | Tagged @ Bristol, articulating bogie unit, Grandmaster Flash, greebling, landing gear, main landing gear, Messier Dowty, wheels | 2 Comments

The Wild West

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Ed Mostly

Guns, tipi pegs and keys from the recent ‘Gangsters and Gunslingers’ exhibition at the American Museum just outside Bath. Strange to see so many battered objects intimately associated with legendary figures. Dillinger’s fake gun was a particular delight. (Following a … Continue reading →

Posted in Bath, collections, exhibitions, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, objects, pencil | Tagged American Museum, Custer, fake gun, John Dillinger, prison keys, revolvers, The Specials, tipi pegs, Tombstone jail, Wyatt Earp | 1 Comment

Life and death #2 Mostly dogs

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Ed Mostly

More sketches from the recent British Museum Pompeii exhibition. First the famously contorted death-cast of a guard dog, followed by a mosaic door sign (“Cave canem”- beware of the dog) found in the same villa; it’s hard not to see the sign as a portrait … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, collections, death, exhibitions, from life, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, pencil, sculpture, sketching | Tagged British Museum, British Museum Pompeii exhibition, cave canem, death-cast, dogs, guard dog, hounds, House of the stags, hunting, Pompeii, stag, Talking Heads | Leave a comment

Life and death #1

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Ed Mostly

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 body casts, boxer pose, British Museum, death-cast, dogs, Hercules, mosaic, plaster casts, Pompeii, Roman art, Simon and Garfunkel, the muleteer, urinating | Leave a comment

Archeology Museum #1

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Ed Mostly

I spent a very hot afternoon sketching in the cool shade of the Istanbul Archeology Museum. It houses a wonderfully rich collection created during the Ottoman Empire, when Turkey ruled Egypt and the ancient lands of Mesopotamia, Assyria, etc. A large … Continue reading →