2 minute warm up in dip pen and indian inkA while ago now I lost my evening Life sessions at Stony Street Studios due to low numbers and have really missed it. Drawing the figure is something I have absolutely loved ever since my first life drawing class aged about seventeen in the wonderful old ramshackle Georgian building that was Sydney Place in Bath. It was a rambling maze of corridors and winding stairs, odd little cubby hole studios and huge high ceiling rooms with enormous windows. I learnt a lot in the few weeks I did Life drawing there, but sadly never got to do my Foundation course in that building. The year I went to Foundation college they moved it from Sydney Place with its gardens and beautiful architecture, to the basement of the old Victorian hospital in the city centre that used to be the morgue! No windows! Never mind!
Head study 2 minutesAnyway, I am really pleased to have found a once a month Life session at Shortcombe Studio, run by an Artist friend of my mums, which will help cure my itchy fingers. It is in a beautiful setting overlooking the Chew Valley lakes, all huge skies and wide open landscapes - next time I will take my camera and show you the view...
So, my first life session in a few weeks - here's the rest of the results...
2 minute dip pen and indian ink
30 second poses
4 minute pose, back to the good old charcoal!
5 minute pose
another 5 minute pose
about 8 minutes for this one I think
10 minute pose
And finally another 10 minute pose...I did miss the longer poses today and was itching to use my ink and gouche a bit more but its great to have a model to draw again... looking forward to next month!
Now that the weather is nicer again, you ought to take your pad and charcoal outdoors and try capturing the faeries/sprites that live at your house. It would be a good exercise in quickly getting down those few key lines that visually define a subject and help train your eyes to pick them out. -- an exercise in minimalism. Could be very Zen. . . . not to mention fun. . .
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely WOL, if I could just get disciplined enough to do that everyday, even if only for 10 minutes, it would make a huge difference to the rest of my artwork... just need to find those spare minutes and make good use of them!
ReplyDeleteyou can draw, really good!
ReplyDeleteNow I want to know how you achieved such good results with gold leaf on your red kite design. Can you recommend a book?
Thanks Valerie! As for the Red Kite, I was just giving it a shot really, bit of first time experimentation on paper...
ReplyDeleteI used the metal leaf and acrylic 'wundasize'we use in the picture framing workshop on watercolour paper which has a nice texture. I underpainted it first in watercolour so colour would show through any gaps, painted on the size and left it a few minutes to go tacky before laying on the leaf amd working it in with a dry brush. Then I embossed the design with an old engraving tool I had knocking around.
Metal leaf is much cheaper than real gold but unlike real gold leaf will tarnish unless you seal it with button polish or similar...
Hope thats of some help, I'm pleased you thought it turned out well!
I've got some giclee prints of the Kite now which I'm going to add gold/metal leaf onto so I'll get to give it a few more go's!
Great that you found another place for drawing.... its such a good thing to do, but I haven't done it in years! - it really gets gets me to really look and SEE and the short poses are such a good challenge... happy drawing!
ReplyDeleteThese are stunning! I especially like the inky ones!
ReplyDeleteThankyou James! I had no idea you actually read my blog from time to time, what a nice surprise to find your comment!
ReplyDeleteI love using the ink for life drawing, it adds a whole new challenge, especially with my broad unpredictable dip pen nib - it does force me to work differently...
Carrie, isn't it great, I just found a local class too and am back to life drawing after 15yrs, so rusty but i love it. Your quick sketches are fab, i think i need to be braver and get back into charcoal.
ReplyDeleteFantastic! I really hope you enjoy drawing a model again, I'm sure you'll soon get into your stride, (would love to see some of yours)!
ReplyDelete