Starting to work on canvas. It’s a whole new ball game!
Something different

Starting to work on canvas. It’s a whole new ball game!
A small component of a diagrammatic drawing for an Illustration 1 exercise; “How to find my house”. It all took so long to produce – dozens of little drawings and then editing time in SketchBookPro – that I am wondering why I didn’t choose the easier option of “How to make a cup of tea”? Then again, I expect there could be someone out there struggling with the shape of a teapot wishing they had chosen to make the map….
She was asleep on the train with a huge box on her lap; every so often her head would gently fall forward and disappear behind the box so all I could see was the top of her head. It was a race against time – would she wake up and catch me drawing or would we get to Reading station before I finished – but the speed and spontaneity made for a better sketch I think. No time to over work it which is my usual failing.
Yesterday I visited the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford to see the Pearlman collection – Cezannes and Modigliani’s out in the open for all to see, at last. A memorable day all round really – a reunion with an old buddy, which was fantastic, and as I finished this little sketch on the train home, the man sitting next to me (and watching over my unknowing shoulder) told me I had a lot of talent! Everybody needs a little boost now and then.
Sitting opposite me at art group, somebody wearing a pink shirt; caran d’ache.
Sketch from our tuesday afternoon art group; caran d’ache.
This is the view as I sit at my desk – two identical Georgian houses, one spruced, one gently crumbling and fading away. The space on the left is blank to write a message as this was a page from a Sketchbook Circle that I am part of; each member draws in a book and sends it onwards to someone in the circle, who then adds to your book and posts it onwards. Acrylics.
This is the second drawing for the same Illustration 1 exercise (Point of sale display). Again a close-up, in acrylic and ink.
A zoom on to a drawing produced for Illustration 1 exercise (Point of sale display). Acrylic and ink.
Here I am procrastinating (my middle name). Today I am working on a black and white project for my OCA course, but somehow find myself still tinkering with one of last week’s spotty pictures of a polka dot plant. Printed maps are so interesting and have great potential; this is a map of China recycled into another version of Hypoestes phyllostachya. Had to look that one up. Don’t ask me to say it.
Second part of illustration exercise; subjective drawing. Indian ink and acrylics.
An ‘objective’ drawing exercise for OCA Illustration 1 course; draw an object (from a given list) as you see it. Had no idea my shoes were so out of whack…or is it just my drawing?
Sloppy acrylics painted on to layered tissue paper, dried with salt
Chalk pastel dust dropped onto wet emulsion paint.
An exercise in playing with media: build a sketchbook from different papers then work up the same image using whatever comes to hand. This one is drawn with a tea bag and Indian Ink via a dip pen.