Making a start

Here's the under drawing for a painting of my son, TJ. I'm happy with the proportions, but I want to re-position him much lower on the canvas so there's more space into which he's looking.

Morphing

In Eire most of the shop signs in the villages are still hand-painted. This I love, because in the UK most of the signs are printed on plastic using the same lettering & fake colours (you know what I mean) that we see everywhere. There's a pub nestled amongst about six other pubs in the village downs from my dad's house, and painted on the sign is a rabbit. I love that rabbit.


Now, there's a hare, which my dad has named Hector, who visits dad's house daily, and great joy was felt when my sisters and I visited some weeks back, and we all got to see that hare in the garden. He's a bold, strong looking chap.
I decided to turn the village rabbit into a hare for my dad. I can only show you the sketches because I didn't photograph the end result, which I've painted on my dad's key box, but I'm sure dad will send me a photo and I can then share it with you all. For now, you'll have to make do with the rough stuff.

Domesic Goddess

I'm home from our holidays and I'm back at work, the kids are back to school and it's time to get back into painting. I had no idea that it is the routine I have at home that allows me time for my art. While travelling with the kids, visiting family, day trips and picnics there's been little if no time to myself and for drawing or painting. I thought it would be otherwise, I imagined afternoons sketching while the children played, but we had a full calender and the five weeks have flown past.

I've had a fantastic time and I have great plans for our summer break next year.


BUT, it's time to get back into my routines at home, and to dust off the drawing table.

What's to come? Well, I've been working in the Moleskine exchange books, I want to make notes about the exhibitions I've been visiting over the summer, and I'm determined to resume daily drawing and painting. I've enjoyed the break from it all, but goodness - it's good to be back.

Be Prepared

One of my older sketch books had a piece of elastic ribbon sewn into the cover, which kept my pencils handy and secure from rolling round in my bag. When that sketch book was full, I decided to sew myself a pencil roll. Over the weeks I've widened some of the sections to fit a small retractable knife, and a glue stick. Now it includes the following;

watercolour pencils in red, blue, yellow and black

6B graphite stick

narrow rolled paper smudger

fine and medium watercolour brushes with chopped-off drinking straws protecting the bristles

retractable knife

6B graphite stick

B, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B pencils

fine and medium Indian Ink pens

black brush pen

blue and black ballpoint pens

black Parker ink pen with refillable cartridge

glue stick

In my bag, apart from various sketch books, I also keep a box of charcoal sticks in various thicknesses, a small aerosol can of fixative and my compact digital camera.

Pyracantha!

Thank goodness I got that sorted out. The species of the tree in my garden has been bugging me for weeks now.

The wind is blowing, but leaning against the kitchen back door I have a great view of my pyracantha in the corner of my back garden. Soon it will be covered in blossom, and then the leaves will come out, though there's still a fair covering of dark green leaves high up as it's an evergreen. Even later in the year there'll be masses of small orange berries, which the blackbirds will feast on all winter long.

But for now it's bare and graphic against the wall.

Sanctuary Knocker, Durham

On Saturday my cousin and I took the kids to Durham, and wandered round the most awe-inspiring cathedral in the world, and to get damp in the drizzle down by the river. I was disappointed by the postcards available, so decided to make some studies of my own - of windows viewed from the cloister and of the Sanctuary Knocker. I hope you like the latter drawing. My son (aged 7) says it looks like it was drawn by a real artist. I took that as a compliment.

drawing every day

Well nearly. But yesterday I was inspired. I had some time to myself and sat with a bottle of Quink ink (it's for writing pens, and it's non-permanent) and a glass of water and my brushes. I grabbed the book that had just arrived of nudes by Edward Weston, and started painting.
Eight paintings later, and I was exhausted but exhilarated. I was on a high for the rest of the day.
I promise to post images of them, but my digital camera ran out of batteries this morning, so I spent some time carefully mounting them, and some other work. So now I have an A3 folder of mounted work, and it's a great feeling of accomplishment to see them all together.
Here's a pencil drawing from a few weeks ago of the view into my kitchen. I was itching for something to draw at the time, and nothing was grabbing me so i just started recording what was in front of me. It would make a nice composition, with some more work. Maybe working bigger in ink.