Blue Still lives

These pots hold memories, even if I can't quite unlock them. The willow pattern teapot is from my parents' large collection. They could have fed a family of twenty with these. The vase is from my dad's side of the family. One of these things that was always there. And the cup is a Japanese- inspired cup that was to hold some herbs, except I'm really bad at growing things (I originally wrote "I'm really bad at drawing things"! Talk about a freudian slip!). I've enjoyed looking at this trio from many angles in the last few days. 

It was a prompt from Louise Fletcher's Art Tribe. A good way to start the year. I drew these in early January. By now, you all know I'm always late posting on my blog and Instagram, don't you?

Doodles

All sorts of doodles. Some more organised than others. I prefer the chaotic doodles, to be honest! That's a good thing to learn about myself!

The Enchanted Island and Symphony No3

 More people in action!

I had to loop these over and over to get the gestures, but I didn't pause them. That's a big step! The first page and a half was from The Enchanted Island on Met HD On Demand. And the cellos (and small violins) were from Gorecki's Symphony No 3, one of my favourite pieces of music.

More people

I'm still working through Lynne Chapman's book. I find that copying her drawings enables me to really understand what she talks about. Very often, I speed-read through art-books and never actually apply what I read. This will take me a lot longer to finish the book, but totally worth it! And then I will move to drawing actual people!! Although, given what our government are not really saying, but leaking, it will be another 8 weeks before we can meet others, and even then, it'll still be with masks, so no nose or mouth. I'd better go back to the chapter about eyes! Or bite the bullet and start sketching my husband!

From photo vs from life

Celebrating 4000 posts on my blog today, by the way! There are days when I wonder why I continue, I don't even know if people read this. But it's my way of keeping track, of my life, of my art, of my thoughts! So if you're reading this, thank you.

Anyways. There is this on-going debate in the art world - Art from photos or from life? Which is better? Which is more deserving? Which is more arty? I don't have the answers. Being an urban sketcher and a life drawer, I lean towards drawing and painting from life always. There is more energy, more passion. I have to be in the moment 100%. It's also more of a challenge. Is drawing from a photo even art? Surely, I have the photo there, and it's better than anything I can draw? But when it comes to watercolours, I tend to work from photos I've taken (unless I'm working plein air, which I would love to do more of, but wet and windy weather doesn't agree with easels and watercolour layers). And I'm just about to embark on my next challenge - 30 faces/30 days on Sktchy Art School, which is all about drawing from photos. And the artists who are leading this challenge are amazing. And they draw from photos. And what they draw is definitely better than the original photo. So where do I stand on all this? I really don't know. It's all part of the journey. To set aside my preconceived ideas. And enjoy the ride!

So, I thought I'd leave you with a good example of what I'm talking about. Sumi, our very own box of frogs. Which do you think represents him best, and how he is most of the time, and how I feel about him? But which is the drawing that looks more like a cat?

From a photo:

From life:

Sketching moments

These days, life is so busy that I grab sketching moments when I can! That means the cat or a self-portrait. I think I've got worse at the self-portraits - lack of practise! But maybe better at drawing the cat!!
All done from life, because it's better, even when it doesn't look so good!!

Kitty Kitty

Is he starting to sleep more? Will we get back to a normal life? He's definitely no longer the tiny but feisty kitten I brought home. He's still a bit crazy. But I was actually able to do the three sketches below from life. Yes, he was moving his head, and switching sides, but it was nice to be able to sit down and sketch him!

And then I tried to draw from a photo, and that didn't work out so well!

Just a few flowers

Sometimes this is all you have time for. But this simple little drawing holds the memory of time spent with a friend. And that's all that matters

How to draw a cat?

I am determined to sketch Sumi from life, rather than from photo. But he's not nicknamed 'box of frogs' for nothing. So maybe what I should do is practise from photos first so I understand his proportions better. Otherwise, we're going to end up with a lot of weird cat drawings!

Playing with India ink

So much to explore. But when you don't have much time, you tend to play more, and explore without the need to plan a full painting. The trees on our estate are beautiful at this time of the year - or bleak, depending on your perspective. But you can see their branches, their structure. So I picked up the little bottle of India Ink from the Amsterdam Symposium goodie bag, and I played. I had to close the door to make sure the kitten (whose name is Sumi, how appropriate) wouldn't jump on the desk and cause havoc! And now I'm so happy with how it worked out that I want to paint it! Typical!

Playing

What I do when I get frustrated with watercolours is play with opaque tools! On this occasion a bright yellow Posca marker and a few other colourful mark-making tools! Instantly felt better

Life drawing practise

I do try to practise life drawing concepts at home sometimes - it's hard to fit it in with everything else. I have two great books on the subject: 

• Drawing and Painting the Nude, a course of 50 lessons, by Philip Tyler - quite accessible, with practical exercises, and a section on colour, which I like of course. To the left is a little practise of studying tone from this book.
• Complete Guide to Life Drawing, by Gottfried Bammes - the bible of Life Drawing, with lots of diagrams and technical terms. I might not be quite ready for this one yet, in terms of my skills and practise, so I can only take it in small doses. I should probably take one concept a week (a month?) and practise it!

Windows

I did a 10-minute sketch while I was on location to get the main shapes. And then I started the tedious process of hatching some evening when I had a bit of time. This is why I'm a watercolour person.

More sunflowers

 I don't think I've ever immortalised flowers so much. Well, I guess generally they fade before I have time to get tired of them! These sunflowers are hardy! They lasted a full week. So be prepared for more sunflowers in the days to come.

Having failed miserably in the direct watercolour approach, I picked up my fountain pen and attacked it from a different angle. I loved how the stems shifted from outside the vase to inside and then again when they hit the water. Proportions are all over the place - my drawing looks like the flowers are standing in a pint glass - actually the vase I have them in is huge. But, hey, I won't worry about proportions at this stage!

On the Luas

Every so often, I decide that I'm going to start sketching people on the Luas (that's what we call our tram here in Dublin). I bring my little book and a pen, and I set to work, hoping not to get caught. And I have so much fun. And I tell myself I must do this more often. And then I don't. These are a little bit disjointed but I had a man sitting beside me on the tram who was very interested in what I was doing and started talking to me, and admiring my work and telling me about the art class he goes to. He kept looking up and down from my page to my unknowing models. (Don't look up and down!!) Thankfully, they all were absorbed in their own worlds and never noticed us! Next time, I must think about composition before I start sketching randomly!

A few more Sktchy people

When there isn't enough time in the day, or energy in me, to paint. 

White markers

The search for the perfect white markers continues. Posca is still leading the league.

Plants

This one was just for fun - to remind myself that it's what art should be all about, not the amount of Likes it gets on Facebook or Instagram! And that I should be using all these gorgeous art supplies!

Notan discovery

I had never heard of Notan until a couple of weeks ago, when Marc Taro Holmes mentioned it in a blog post about his approach to #30x30directwatercolor painting this year.
Basically Notan is a Japanese design concept of light and dark that can be used to help with composition in paintings.

Since managing value contrast is something that I often forget when I paint, this is a new tool for me that will help me ask the right questions. Whether I find the right answers when I paint or not is a different matter, but thinking about composition and value before I put brush to paper is as important as the act of painting itself. You could argue that it's actually more important. And there is actually an app that you can use on the phone to 'notanize' your photos - it basically transforms every photo in a strong pattern of black and white, accentuating the value contrast to an almost abstract extreme. Fascinating! So this is my new new thing!!

More people drawing

Trying different tools for drawing people. Thank you Sketchbook Skool for the inspiration!

Lamy Safari with Pilot ink in Ina-ho

Brushmarker (alcohol-based) 

Fountain pen 

Fountain pen and watercolours 

Brushmarker 

Stage 1 - Brushmarker 

 Stage 2 - watercolours

 Stage 3 - Fountain pen to tie everything together - I'm really happy with this one. 

And then a couple from Sktchy, done in the same way, Ecoline marker, watercolour and pen.