Life Drawing - Anuta

My second life drawing session of the week - with Anuta who was standing in for someone else. She's such a pro it's always a pleasure to draw and paint her!

Most times, the initial short poses are really just a warm-up to the second half of the evening, when we move to 10- and 15-minute poses. My favourite is often the last pose of the evening, when the model lets her haird down (literally) and uses a prop or costume. I did this one in direct watercolour, only using a watercolour pencil to hint at the chair and reinforce some of the creases and patterns in the dress.

I'll spare you the one-minute poses, but here are a few 5- and 10-minutes. Interestingly, the fives are better than the ten I think. It's a balance between having enough time to get the shapes and proportions and having too much time to start doubting myself!!

People on the Luas

In an effort to fit in more people drawing into my life, I am planning to bring a little sketchbook with me any time I'm on public transport and draw people in transit. Most people are absorbed in conversation or social media, plus there are urban sketchers around the world who have been doing this for years, so I can do it too! Despite the fact that the little sketchbook I have chosen for this has an orange cover and it may not be easy to work discreetly!! I haven't been entirely successful in this new endeavour, due to my own doubts in my abilities to draw people, and also the fact that the tram is so busy most times that I end up standing most of the way, but here is one set of sketches I did manage to draw:

Life Drawing - Cindy

I didn't have much time for art last week, but I did go to two life drawing sessions, to make up for the two weeks I had missed! I was a little bit apprehensive, feeling that I would need time to get back into the flow of drawing. And yes, while a few of the drawings were painful, I did eventually get into the zone and started enjoying myself.
Cindy is statuesque and it was wonderful to have time for a longer pose (a total of 70 minutes).

Here are a few of the shorter poses:

Gelli prints

It's a while since I did any Gelli printing. But I was quite busy and that was a good way to fit a little bit of art into my days! I worked with premade stencils and it was great fun. I had forgotten how relaxing Gelli printing is!

Capel Street

On the same day Dublin Sketchers went to 14 Henrietta Street, we also sketched in the Capel Street area. It was a long day. So I needed food. Blas at the Chocolate Factory on Kings Inns Street had the perfect lunch for me - a vegetarian Irish breakfast. And plenty of inspiration for my Bloomsday 2019 Sketching!

Inside Blas. I miscounted the number of panes in the window, but you wouldn't really notice, would you?
'—One thing I never understood, he said to be original on the spur of the moment. Why they put tables upside down at night, I mean chairs upside down, on the tables in cafés. To which impromptu the neverfailing Bloom replied without a moment’s hesitation, saying straight off:
—To sweep the floor in the morning.'

I tried to sketch it from memory (I like my food hot, well not too hot, so I rarely sketch my dinner!) with a pencil and it wasn't pretty. But when I got home, I added a dash of colour and everything worked out all right.
'So anyhow in came John Wyse Nolan and Lenehan with him with a face on him as long as a late breakfast.'

Another sketcher had found a great spot to sketch on Capel Street - towards the top, across from the Black Sheep pub there is a business with a railing in front of it where you can sit down in peace without disturbing any of the passersby - good on a Sunday anyway). This was my last sketch of the day. I was pretty tired at this point, but also energised and I did this sketch in no time - a quick line drawing from right to left (and I'm not left-handed but I often sketch from right to left) and loose watercolour. I was done in less than half an hour. Sometimes, you get beyond tired and the most expressive sketches can appear on the page like magic!
'Where was that? Ah, yes. Mutoscope pictures in Capel street: for men only. Peeping Tom. Willy’s hat and what the girls did with it. Do they snapshot those girls or is it all a fake? Lingerie does it. '

14 Henrietta Street

Dublin Sketchers were invited to 14 Henrietta Street a couple of weeks back. Due to safety reasons, we were only given access to a small part of the building, which was disappointing, but we made the most of it. Since we were in the lower kitchen, I put myself in Leopold Bloom's shoes, preparing breakfast!

'Kidneys were in his mind as he moved about the kitchen softly, righting her breakfast things on the humpy tray. Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere. Made him feel a bit peckish.
The coals were reddening.
Another slice of bread and butter: three, four: right. She didn’t like her plate full. Right. '

And then I went outside and tried to sketch the building itself - dark bricks and dark window frames. My watercolour went a bit heavy, but I enjoyed drawing the bricks after I got home later that day.

'All kissed, yielded: in deep summer fields, tangled pressed grass, in trickling hallways of tenements, along sofas, creaking beds.
—Jack, love!
—Darling!
—Kiss me, Reggy!
—My boy!
—Love!
His heart astir he pushed in the door of the Burton restaurant. ' (and yes, I even managed to sneak in a food connection here!!)

Doodles when waiting

I try to carry a small sketchbook with me most of the time, so I can sketch any time I have 5 or 10 minutes to spare. As I'm an obsessively punctual person, I'm often early for appointments. So that's handy! Sometimes I just use that time to catch up on social media, but it's much more satisfying when I spend the time sketching!

At the movies

I was a little early at the cinema before the Met Opera transmission of Dialogue des Carmélites started. So I had time to do a sketch. The opera was brilliant by the way.

Travel sketches

Recently, I was in Belgium for a few days. I didn't get a chance to sketch in my hometown, which is a shame, as it's really picturesque. But I did sketch a lot at airports. And even on the Aircoach from the airport - traffic in Dublin was so crazy it took me  as long from Dublin Airport to home as it did to fly from Brussels to Dublin! I had brought minimum supplies - one fountain pen (with my current favourite ink - Pilot iroshizuku in ina ho colour) and one multicolour pencil. And my Firmo Diário Gráfico!

Sandycove, James Joyce Tower, rockpools

Dublin Sketchers were in Sandycove a couple of weeks back, sketching around the James Joyce tower. It was a beautiful day and the sea was a gorgeous colour. There were families nearby and the dads and kids were playing in the rockpools. I don't know who had the most fun.

And it was one of these days when I just kept sketching!

And I was inspired by James Joyce's Ulysses of course! Between the breakfast scene at the Martello Tower and crab fishing in the rockpools, I'm really loving the Olives, Oysters and Oranges theme of this year's Bloomsday project for which our sketchbooks will be exhibited at the Olivier Cornet Gallery!!

'Where's the sugar? O jay, there's no milk.'

'She praised the goodness of the milk, pouring it out.'

'He could hear, of course, all kinds of words changing colour like those crabs about Ringsend in the morning burrowing quickly into all colours of different sorts of the same sand ...'

'God made food, the devil the cooks. Devilled crab.'

'...  and plant with eucalyptus trees. Excellent for shade, fuel and construction.'

A boat

Not all sketches work out - like you realise you're not going to have enough room to sketch the whole boat, but you plough on all the same?

And I still managed to fit in a Ulysses quote to do with food! I'm really inspired by this year's Olives, Oysters and Oranges theme!

'As?

Eeltraps, lobsterpots, fishingrods, hatchet, steelyard, grindstone, clodcrusher, swatheturner, carriagesack, telescope ladder, 10 tooth rake, washing clogs, haytedder, tumbling rake, billhook, paintpot, brush, hoe and so on.'

Dublin Sketchers at Harold's Cross - an exhibition

A few photos from Dublin Sketchers' exhibition at Harold's Cross for the Harold's Cross Festival. More on Dublin Sketchers' website. It was a wonderful experience. Great work by everyone.