The last few

The last few faces in my 2019 faces sketchbook, now looking for a new project for 2020.

 

Back to life

Found a great weekly life drawing session, run by 2 local artists.

They provide the models and tea and we get 2 hours of life drawing, I had forgotten just how exhausting  the concentration is.

Hope to make this a regular thing next year, you can’t beat drawing from life and I need to get better at it.

 

Sketching faces

Getting close to the last page of my sketchbook of faces.

This little selection are ink, tech pens and biro.

It’s been a great project hoping to fill my book before the end of the year (committed now)

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

Daily sketch

Started this year with a little pledge to sketch a face everyday, things started well but finding a few hours  each day to sketch is not that easy, still I have  started to gather a book full of faces and any practice has got to be good practice, even if its not everyday.

 

Stop to sketch

Up to now I have never made time to sketch while on holiday , this year I set out to change that making a little time to stop and sketch.

After you get over the strangeness of getting your sketchbook out in public, making time to sketch and not to just grab photographs, makes you more aware of the place even if it’s not always captured in the sketches.

Got to get into the habit of doing this more as it’s more personal record of the places you visit, I am sure they will help me remember if I want to make paintings later.

 

Drawing days

Attended a one day workshop Drawing with Confidence, hoping to pick up some new stuff to help me with my drawing.

Some good advice on sketching landscapes, looking at the shapes and tone without getting lost in the details.

Discovered some new pens in shades of grey to add to my nice to have equipment list.

A good day sketching with others is always a pleasure.

Charcoal and paint

Always trying things never feeling like I make a finished image, something I am going to have to get my head around, perhaps it’s the doing I enjoy and I should not really worry about making a final image.

That’s enough pondering, I have been doing some charcoal and paint stuff it’s interesting the charcoal works into the paint and you get some interest marks and effects, it all feels very free.

Thanks to Lee Jeffries a very talented photographer for his reference pictures .

New approach

Started my painting of John Lydon never really thought it wouldn’t end up being a painting.  taking a couple of new approaches to this, first I am going to spoil the canvas before I start, the idea behind this is it takes the pressure of starting with a pristine canvas and allows you to relax before you start.

Second I am going to do the underpainting in acrylics and then move to oils, this has speeded up my process and is keeping things very fresh.  Not sure how long to wait before starting with the oils have to look that one up.

Next Project Perhaps

Watched Lynn Barber interview John Lyden on Artsnight the other night, fascinating to see  at 60, how motivated to make music and have his say about the world he still is.

I liked the idea that he now wears glasses and how this has changed his public image

Sketching some ideas and trying to understand his face this might lead to a painting.

Charcoal and Watercolour

This week I have been messing with charcoal and water colour, sketching out another slightly surreal illustration for my strawberry tale, I think this is a little closer to the darker feeling of Jeremy Hush paintings and my starting inspiration.