NOT A LEAP, BUT A STEP FORWARD

Derwent Softcolour Pencils - Jez

Creativity this week has been more of a spurt than a leap, with three quick drawings but I was determined to draw something.  This coloured pencil picture was developed from a blind drawing and a continuous line drawing made in the Atkinson Gallery.

We had an appointment in Southport and had arrived in town with half an hour to spare.  I suggested going into the Gallery to pass the time usefully and to get away from the viciously cold wind.  We usually have our sketchbooks with us 'just in case', and in the gallery I looked for something quick and easy to draw.

This is where my coloured pencil drawing started, with a completely blind drawing of part of the main figure of Edward Wolfe's painting of 'Mohammed Ben Laitzi'.  It takes a great deal of concentration and one of the gallery staff said she spoke to me to ask if I needed a chair, but realised that I hadn't even heard her because I was 'completely in the zone' as she put it!  Nothing like the original painting, but that's not the intention, and I like the face that is hiding inside all the scribble.

At this point the gallery girl kindly brought me a chair anyway.  This time I attempted Mohammed with a continuous line drawing.  Once again there was only a vague resemblance to the original, but I was really captured by the face that had appeared and wanted to develop it a bit further to produce an image inspired by these two sketches.

I changed the face and head quite a bit from the continuous line sketch to produce the picture I wanted, and decided to stick to various shades of brown - unusual for me. Without the process of the two line sketches I would never have achieved this unusual face, and I'm really pleased with it.


On Wednesday at the hospital clinic yet again I made an I-Phone drawing to pass the time away.  Not marvellous, but perhaps I can feel the sun coming up behind the grey clouds!

Linking with Paint Party Friday and Manon's Paper Saturdays

ART EVERY DAY IN NOVEMBER

Here's my collection of 7 pieces of art, one each day during the past week for November Art Every Day Month.  I'm posting at the end of each week to make life a little easier for myself.  Nothing special, just the practice pieces, experiments and generally the results of fiddling around.

SATURDAY

My arty plans for Saturday were completely squashed when it turned out to be a day of several different callers - no complaints about that, but this silly ATC was all I managed to complete in the whole day.

SUNDAY

Experimental day today.  I've been wanting to continue experimenting with these A4 sheets of craft foam for printing for a while, since I can't do 'proper' printing in the flat.

I created these two figures, each from a full sheet, by just picking up a pair of scissors and a sheet of foam and starting to cut, with no idea as to what I was going to cut and no pre-drawing.  If you've never 'drawn' with a pair of scissors you should try it because it's surprising what happens and how pleased you will be, as long as you don't have high expectations of the result.

Once the man had been cut out I decided he needed a dancing partner.  I started from the left foot (being left-handed) and found as I approached the top of the sheet there was too little room for her head.  Never mind, who cares, I like her even if she has got a flat head.

I stuck them to an A3 sheet of cartridge paper with diluted PVA glue, covered them with cling film and stuck a heavy book on top.  When they were dry enough I coated each figure with the PVA glue, and they will need another coat before I can experiment further - perhaps next week.  Creating this easy piece so far left plenty of time for drawing and painting during the day.

MONDAY

Insects are fascinating to draw and learn about (as long as they are not spiders).  Thankfully we are not invaded by Bloody Nosed Beetles, so this sketchbook drawing is copied from a book - "The Illustrated Book of Insects" by John Burton, Peerage Books.

TUESDAY

Yet another long clinic visit with Dev.  I used the time to sketch people in the waiting room using the Brushes App on my I-Phone.  Helps to pass the time.  At home I made a digital montage of these four and added a frame.  Once again, this was the total sum of my creative efforts today.

WEDNESDAY

         

Another experiment.  I was looking for something in a cupboard and found a piece of fabric as I searched.  It's a piece I saved when I gave away most of my quilting fabric stash when we made the move to our last flat.  I felt inspired to try doodling with Pitt Pen on the fabric, using the pattern on the grey section as the starting point for the doodle.  Very enjoyable, and it led me on to colour my design with sparkly gel pens.  A dreadful stormy dark day, which means that the photo is very poor, too dark on the top half, and I apologise for the quality.  I added a narrow frame on Photoshop.

                             

Couldn't resist trying a couple of colour changes, but the purple/green and blue/brown were the best I could manage.  Nothing like a bit of doodling to pass studio time enjoyably.  I'm not sure yet what I'll do with the doodled piece, but it will certainly be used in another project.

THURSDAY

I've been doing short course involving a piece a week for six weeks.  This is the final piece, an exercise using pastels to create a sgrafitto image of two cats in front of a window.  I hated every moment of doing it because I dislike using pastels and getting my hands dirty.  In addition, all the dust it created meant it triggered my asthma and I coughed all the way through it.

I was probably distracted by this because I forgot to leave a line of black indicating the window sill, and I chickened out of trying to leave lines for any window bars.  So it's one big pane of glass in the window.  I drew the cat shape and cut out a stencil to make it easier to work around the cats with the sgrafitto, which I did with a knife because I didn't have any better tool.  I added the black frame around the arch digitally.  Not a success, but at least I made myself do it and I learnt something.  But any future sgrafitto work will be done with a different medium.

FRIDAY

Like many artists, I nearly always start an arty day with a quick loosening-up exercise.  There's almost always a sheet of A3 paper on the big easel, and this was today's early morning, very quick doodle, drawn with a thick black pen.  Bunty was disappointed that I hadn't given her a coloured dress, so I added the colour on Photoshop.  Champagne anybody?

Linking with November Art Every Day Month, Paint Party Friday, and Manon's Paper Saturdays.