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 hands from the first few pages of Tintin in Tibet; Herge’s hands are brilliantly clear and simple and very hard to reproduce… Finally my left hand drawn from life.
Black, blue and brown Pigma pens, watercolour, A6
1mm Pigma pen, watercolour, A6
Pencil, watercolour, A6
Toy figures are well-behaved models, holding their poses indefinitely. They also give the opportunity to sketch rarely seen creatures, and from unusual angles.
Broad dip pen with Carbon black ink, water brush with dilute Carbon black ink, A5
White Uni Posca marker pen, 1mm Pigma pen, Lexington grey ink, pencil, A6
Pencil, Lexington grey ink, A6
Pencil, watercolour, tea, A5
Returning to a favourite model for a Halloween still life. This one’s a full size plastic medical model, bought in a flea market years ago. Skulls are fascinating subjects to draw, loaded with cultural traditions and artistic baggage, and currently appearing on t-shirts all over the world; ‘memento vivere’ or ‘memento mori’?
I used a cream Uni Posca marker for the initial lines, following contours to suggest volume and form, then Lexington grey ink for the shadows, and some pencil for final detail.
Uni Posca marker pen, Lexington grey ink in a water-brush, pencil, A7
And here are some earlier skull sketches…
Three pictures of seated subjects from the same day sketching around Bath. Ceramic ‘Immortals’ at the Museum of East Asian Art, an excellent busker called Ben Powell, and a resting shopper. The last two sketches are tiny, and the black line through the first picture was left from a previous drawing…
Pencil, lexington grey ink, watercolour, A6
Pencil, watercolour, A8?
Pencil, Lexington grey ink, A8?
Looking down The Shrubbery, a steep path near our home in Bath. You have to squint a bit for it to work, and that’s a conservatory half-way up the house on the left, built on a balcony. (I blended dilute Winsor and Newton inks to make complementary colours and then loaded them into 2 water brushes. The sepia tone ages the picture, but it’s a very portable set-up…)
Dilute Winsor and Newton ink in water-brushes, A5
Here’s an earlier sketch from further up the same path that I posted in February.
Marker pen filled with carbon ink, water-brush filled with Diamine grey ink, A3
People watching at the seaside this Summer. The first was drawn at beach level, with nearby families, passing promenaders, distant swimmers and surfers. The second was from a cliff path, the figures tiny and silhouetted on the sunlit beach below; some of them look like they’ve wandered out of an L S Lowry street scene.
Pencil, water-brush with dilute Lexington grey ink, A5
Water-brush with Lexington grey ink, A6
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 of the dead dog when alive…
And this was one of a pair of sculptures depicting violent hunting scenes, found in the ‘House of the stags’ alongside the drunken Hercules I posted last week.
All pencil, with a little dilute Lexington grey ink and watercolour, A5
Two sketches looking West towards the Suleymaniye Mosque from the terrace of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Once I’d drawn the key buildings I added an approximation of the city’s texture all around them (roofs, domes, chimneys, walls etc) not having the time or patience to capture the actual detail. I think this is a bit like ‘greebling’, but different.
Water-brush with Lexington grey, watercolour, A6
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 realistic at the same time, provoking visitor reactions ranging from pity to disgust via fascination. (Pencil was ideal for these loose drawings, feeling out the key lines and shapes within the objects.)
Lots of figures were found in this ‘boxer pose‘, caused by muscles and tendons contracting in the appalling heat.
Hercules ‘relieving himself’ after a heavy night of drinking. One of many ‘bawdy/obscene’ works at the exhibition, including flying phallus wind-chimes and Pan having an intimate encounter with a goat. Parents were having fun explaining these works and the death-casts to their young children…
This death-cast was made out of clear resin, so you could see jewellery and a skeleton within the figure.
Pencil, with dilute Lexington grey ink for ‘the muleteer’s’ shadow, A5
I found these in a cupboard while on holiday. I’m afraid a link to this sketch is unavoidable; homophones abounding.
Uni Posca markers, water-brush with Lexington grey ink, blue and red Pigma pens, A5
Mostly drawing 