What I'm wearing today - 2 March 2016

It's been cold. Chunky jumpers is what I've been wearing.

Fitting drawing into life

Not bad for a drawing that was done while chatting on the phone. Love these Pigma Micron pens I got in Blick!

What I'm wearing today - 1 March 2016

Better

Dublin Castle on a rainy day

My last assignment on SBS Seeing was to go out into the world and draw a local building. All very well when you live in Australia or sunny California. Although one of the artists I follow, Shari Blaukopf, lives in Montreal, and draws and paints right through the winter. But I am not driving at the moment, so even getting to certain locations, let alone spending time in the wind and rain, can be tricky at this time of the year in Dublin.

But I did go to the Chester Beatty Library a short while back and I did take the opportunity to do a quick sketch on the grounds of Dublin Castle while I was there. I stood under an awning just outside the building where they held all these Bertie corruption tribunals a few years ago, and drew the basic proportions of the building across the yard. It was a rough sketch. And I took a photograph. And then I rushed on. I really need to join an urban sketching group.

So I drew this from the photograph. Which is probably why it looks so stiff. But I think I captured the arches quite well. And the greyness of the day.

And while writing this, I decided to see if I could find any urban sketching group in Dublin and I've discovered Dublin Sketchers. So it will be onwards to new adventures!

What I'm wearing today - 27 February 2016

I'm currently experimenting with different ways of telling a story (Storytelling, Sketchbook Skool). 

One of the suggestions in this week's class is to illustrate recipes - So not me!

Another was to draw your breakfast - I eat porridge every morning. And I really don't think porridge looks good, even in watercolours. Plus I don't want it to be completely cold by the time I get to actually eat it. By which time we have a big boy here who is pining for his walkies.

Instead, as I mentioned the other day, I decided to pick up the thread on What I'M Wearing Today - WIMWT. I will be exploring different ways of telling that story. Well, not much of a story, but that's really the only thing I can think of for now. I'm not very good at drawing from imagination, as you can see from the skirt, top and cardigan below. But I'm rather pleased with how the handbag came out (I did place it on the desk in front of me while drawing - that always helps. I was wearing the clothes already at that point, so I decided to simplify them). Maybe I should try to draw in the style of fashion designers?

Will definitely have to do something about the handwriting. My real handwriting (cursive, I mean) is hard to read, so over the years, I've got into the habit of block lettering. But it's too anonymous, isn't it? And not very pretty.

So, let's summarise:

Things I like about this drawing:

1. The handbag and the shoes, drawn from life (is that even the right term for inanimate objects?)
2. The border. Framing the drawings brings the whole thing together
3. The text giving context
4. The vertical format for the date
5. My signature in a little box

Things I will explore further:

1. Using my cursive handwriting to tell the story
2. Drawing in fashion designer style - not sure how to do that yet!

What I'm wearing today - 28 February 2016

Quick quick post. Lots of things still to do - study Japanese, do the laundry. But I decided to give priority to drawing today, because I felt I was on a slippery slope - I haven't done any serious drawing in a week. And doubts can creep in.

So, I decided to revive one of my old blog categories - What I'm wearing today - with a twist. 

What does K.I.S.S. mean, you may ask. Keep It Simple, Stupdid (something I learned in Sketchbook Skool today)

K.I.S.S. is a great excuse for not drawing my eyes, nose and chin - all difficult features. It works for me.

Mug

I've completed Andrea Joseph's class on Sketchbook Skool. And I will definitely try out more button drawings and biro drawings.

But for now, I have moved on to Liz Steel's class - Liz Steel is an Australian sketchbook artist and her two big things are cups of tea and buildings. So, I've just completed the first assignment, which I loved. Rather than jumping straight in, she recommends you hold the cup in your hand, feel it, then explore all its features, its overall shape, the details, how they all fit together. When you're done exploring, you're ready to draw and colour without having to think out every detail again.

Things that worked well for me (very different from Brenda Swenson's approach - both work, but create a very different look - I must try this mug in the Brenda Swenson style - to be added to the ToDo list):

1. Using a light-coloured watercolour pencil to do a basic shape drawing, including vertical middle line
2. Drawing with a water-resistant pen (uni-ball)
3. Going lighter on the shadows 

I'm rather pleased with how this mug turned out. It's my favourite mug. It was a Christmas present from my sister-in-law (my Irish sister-in-law, that is). It's part of a set of 4 in similar patterns, with different colours. Each one has a name. This one is called Véronique. I only use it for special occasions, as I don't want to break it. And I was reluctant to paint it, as the patterns looked too intimidating. But following Liz Steel's approach, I was ready to tackle it.

On the left side below, you can see how I explored my subject.

Next assignment is a building. I'm procrastinating.

Buttons

(Ignore the text above the drawing - I was at a funeral that day and the priest was talking about the seasons of life and said the decease was in "the autumn of her life" - she was 91, so it got me thinking)

Inspired by my muses, I went ahead and drew a small sample of my button collection. Most of the buttons I have in my box are from Boden clothes that I bought over the years. But don't ask me to match any of them to their parent top or cardigan. And the irony is that if I had been organised, I could have kept track, as each button came in a little Boden paper bag, on which I could have written the name of the outfit. But life is too short for being that organised, even for me. And anyway, I took a lot of them out of their bag over the years, so I could see the buttons instead. I wonder would a jar be better than a box? So I could see them at a glance.

Do you have a button collection? Do most women have a button collection? What about men living on their own - do they have a button collection? Do children still play with buttons? These are important questions. And I'm not on any drugs or alcohol even. But some days I ponder the meaning of the universe. While most people turn to philosophy (I did read Sophie's World) or religion (I haven't read the Bible - but we had Religion in primary school and secondary school), right now, I'm thinking buttons.

They do hold the key to a lot of our emotions, buttons, don't they? For me, it's afternoons spent at my Granny's kitchen table (the Knitting Granny), going through her button box (one of these sewing boxes that opens like a toolbox), organising the buttons - mostly in rows. I can't remember if I organised them by size or colour (probably both, I'm a very organised person), but I remember long sinuous rows, snaking around the table.

I also remember playing with her old sewing machine, one with a big pedal that you had to press in rhythm to activate the wheel that made it work. She did have electricity in the house - my grand-father was an electrician and they were amongst the first on our street to have a colour television. But I'm not sure she ever had an electric sewing machine. She was more of a knitter than a sewer (although I do remember a beautiful strawberry red velvet dress she made from fabric my god-mother had bought for me. I must ask my mother if she still has it. I wouldn't be surprised.)

We didn't have iPhones in those days. And yes we got bored sometimes, but buttons were always there for rainy days. And the sewing machine.

So there you go - Thank you for the buttons.

Stones

Crows, stones. I think they are all pointing to my love of Irish beaches. The first thing I'll do when I can drive again is drive to Killiney beach and sit in the car and draw and paint!

At first, I thought "Pick a pen, any pen, and draw" - that's it? that's all Andrea Joseph has to teach us? But as I worked through her assignments in Sketchbook Skool, I finally got it. How cross-hatching with a biro can be so soft, how you can build layers that blend into each previous layer, without looking heavy. How this pen or that pen is not going to make you an artist. How drawings build themselves up organically. 

And I've already started a button collection drawing. Inspired by Bake-A-Yarn and Andrea Joseph. Muses can appear in any guise!

At this point, my only regret is that there is nobody left in this Sketchbook Skool class to chat with. That's what happens when you buy more than one Kourse at a time (I bought three last September - I did Beginning, this one is Seeing and the next one I have is Storytelling) - everybody else is gone. 

There is an eerie end-of-the-world feeling about it. But this is the internet, so my thoughts and words will probably be discovered by an archeologist or an anthropologist in a few hundred years' time! And that happy thought keeps me going! Plus, I'm posting the same drawings here on my blog, and Twitter, and Google Plus and Pinterest, so at least 30 people will see them (my blog stats were much better when I was posting screen shots of Jean Byrne and other female weather forecasters. Strange that, or a sad commentary on celebrity and leather dresses!). That's not bad. Why not Facebook, you ask? Well, I don't want to drown my friends and family in my daily musings, so I only post my best pieces there. And if they want to know what I'm really up to, they can check this blog whenever they want to - few ever do. You're different. You come here by choice. Thank you.

I think blue is my favourite colour now, à propos of nothing. Though I rarely wear it or paint it.

Oh, and forgot to say that Stones is also the title of an old Neil Diamond song!

Biro

I was moaning (in my own head - nobody else listening) about the lack of guidance for this Sketchbook Skool assignment - it was basically "draw with a biro". I wasn't very inspired. So I picked a boring old pot holder - is that the word in English? Cache pot in French. And I was muttering to myself the whole time I was drawing this (Let's blame it on premature old age). But then, I looked at the shading (and I'm not good at this cross-hatching business), and I was there "Oh, that's not bad". Now, I know this drawing is far from perfect - I am not completely blind, thankfully, although I am eternally optimistic when it comes to my art output. All I mean really is that I see something interesting in it and I think I will explore this biro drawing technique in future.

One piece of advice from Andrea Joseph that spoke to me is to go really soft with the pen when hatching and cross-hatching, and layer and layer, rather than press hard on the paper. Someone says that you should be happy if you get one really good recipe out of a cook-book. Maybe the same is true with art courses - one good tip is all you need. As long as you actually remember to practise it.

Painting trees

Another assignment from the same teacher in Sketchbook Skool. She painted a beautiful watercolour view of her backyard in the woods, and it looked so easy. Maybe I'll go back and have another look at her video to see if she actually explains any technique that I've missed, because I found it so hard.

The one lesson I learned from it is to keep items in the distance bluer and lighter, so that's something I guess.

But I wasn't happy at all with my first attempt, so I had to have another go!

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

For the birds

Another Sketchbook Skool assignment - I didn't particularly like this class. I didn't feel the teacher covered the brief very well. Some of the teachers just show us their sketchbooks, their art supplies, and then do a quick drawing, and they call that a lesson, which is a bit frustrating. Plus I'm not that interested in birds. I drew these from old photographs we had taken a few years back.  The crows were photographed at Bray seafront, always a good spot - they are attracted by the presence of fish and chips establishments on the promenade. The other bird, I honestly can't say I remember where or when that photograph was taken, and my pencil drawing will not help in identifying what it is.

Vase, orange and pear

Now this one turned out better, didn't it? This time I chose a colourful vase, one that used to belong to my grand-mother, not the knitting one, my other grand-mother, who died when I was six, and whom I don't remember very well, except that one Saint Nicolas she gave me the most beautiful ballerina doll I had ever seen, with blond hair, a pink tutu and a pink crown (which served to control her movements). She came with a little record that you could play, and she used to dance to the Nutcracker suite theme - a twist of her crown would send her in the most delightful pirouettes. I'm sure she had other moves too, but I was not even six, so I don't remember much. I do know that she lost a leg eventually (the doll, not my grand-mother) and she ended her days wearing a cream satin dressing gown made by my mother or my (knitting) grand-mother. To this day, when I hear the Nutcracker suite, I can't help bringing my arms up in a crown and twirling like a six-year-old. I still remember one of my engineers in IBM. He was Russian and the ringtone on his phone was... you guessed it! And yes, one day, I couldn't resist, I did my twirl. It didn't seem to affect our working relationship.

So back to the vase. I decided to add a pear and an orange to both contrast and complement, and I'm rather pleased with the result.

Other lessons learned from this class with Brenda Swenson on Sketchbook Skool:

1. Use watersoluble ink. It will blend in beautifully with your watercolour.
2. When applying the watercolour, start at the top, with the paper on a slight incline, so the colour slips down (but not too fast).
3. Keep highlights unpainted so they pop.
4. Frame your drawing on the page. The drawing will come forward instantly.
5. Touch colours with colour from the adjacent object.
6. Drop a tiny bit of the object's colour in its shadow.
7. Maybe make the shadow lighter - it's a bit too blocky here.
8. Make sure to be consistent in terms of expressing where the light is coming from.
9. Don't worry if some colours bleed from one element to the next. It will add to the painting. But if it's too liquid, use a thirsty brush to pick up the excess.

And here is the original drawing, with my Manuscript calligraphy pen and red ink:

Continual Contour and Watercolour

The final result of this continual contour drawing is a bit sketchy and wobbly, but then, it's a Sketchbook class I'm doing after all, not learning how to paint a frameable masterpiece.

I love how the red ink blended in with the watercolour paint. How the colour from the pear bled into the jar (intentionally). And how adding a touch of the object's colour to the shadow makes it more vibrant.

The one thing I don't like (I didn't say the only thing, mind) is that the objects I chose for this still life were a bit dull, in terms of shapes and colours.

Do we have time for one more?

Continual Line Contour drawings

On Canson 300g/m2 XL MixMedia Medium Texture paper (grain is quite rough)
With Manuscript calligraphy pen with red ink (water-soluble)

Found this assignment quite difficult, as my fountain pen was struggling against the grain of the paper when I was pushing it away from me. So the lesson learned here is to use smooth paper and pen when doing continual line drawings.

I get the feeling I've said this before?

J'ai la mémoire qui flanche!

By the way, all my French-speaking friends on Facebook are up in arms about the spelling reform! I haven't read anything more about it, but from what I've seen, it sounds like the circumflex accent is going to be done away with, and oignon is going to be spelt ognon! Talk about dumbing down! I'll probably just ignore it and continue writing in the old way. The only people I write to in French are my mother and a few friends anyways.

But coming back to my drawing - two good tips I got from this Sketchbook Skool lesson:

1. Draw three objects of different sizes. It's always more interesting than one or two. And the different sizes is an important composition trick!
2. Draw a little frame around the objects, crossing behind them in one or two places. It immediately makes them pop forward
3. And then, three, which I nearly forgot again: use a smooth pen and smooth paper when doing continual line drawing!

Selfie from a Selfie

 

Does that even look like me? Or my incarnation as a jazz singer? This was the third assignment for Sketchbook Skool. This time, the self-portrait was to be taken from a selfie.

• Good thing about it: with a selfie, you're more likely to smile than when drawing yourself in the mirror, which is serious business.
• Second good thing about it: when I smile, the deep wrinkles above my lips disappear. I will be smiling a lot in my old age!
• Third good thing about it: I took the photo without my glasses, as I was wearing lovely eye shadow and I wanted to take a photo of it. So, one less thing to draw. Glasses are not easy.
• Fourth good thing about it: I used water-soluble ink, so I could add extra shading after drawing.
• Fifth good thing about it: I think I got the size of my eyes right this time, not too big, not too small.

I bet that by now, after reading about all these positives, you've forgotten about the fact that this self-portrait doesn't really look like me! Magic!

Struggling with handles and lips - Continual Line Drawing

They don't all turn out great! I'm practising continual contour drawing (drawing without lifting the pen). But this jug is giving me lip!

Self-Portrait in pencil

This one was quite interesting, and I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. Again, this was an assignment for Sketchbook Skool. We were supposed to do two of these, but I felt I had done enough with one.  Did I tell you by the way that I think I'm becoming addicted to self-portraits?  

This assignment was to do a live drawing, from looking in the mirror, looking at shadows to define the features. I could probably have done with stronger lighting (I worked with natural light to my right), or exaggerated the shadows more. And I tried to create some highlights with a little battery-operated eraser I have, but the paper didn't take well to it. So, lesson learned (hopefully) - next time, I'll have to work around the areas I want to keep white, like that little flicker of light over the pupils, rather than relying on a gimmicky eraser that promises to bring highlights to your drawings by magic!

I hope this is not as scary as my previous self-portrait!

Quick Self-Portrait

After seeing this, you will never be able to look at me again in the same way! This self-portrait was done as an assignment for Sketchbook Skool's Seeing course. It's done as a continuous line. In other words, you're not allowed to lift your pen from the page until you're finished. Quite a challenge! Thankfully, we were allowed, encouraged even, to add watercolour afterwards. It's stark enough as it is!

Vase - Fast and Slow

Second assignment in Sketchbook Skool Seeing. A fast/slow drawing. I drew a quick outline with a brush and gouache (less than one minute) then I drew in detail with a PITT pen (ten-fifteen minutes).

This is a vase/jug that used to belong to my grand-aunt and grand-uncle, and I've been meaning to paint it for ages (it's stuck on a shelf in my little art room). So at least now it's immortalised. And I don't feel as intimidated by it, so I think I'll be able to tackle it properly some day.

Although handles are still a mystery to me, I have to admit. I'll have to check in a book how to draw and paint them. Same about cup or vase rims - there is a bit that disappears at the front, and then appears at the back, but I never seem to get it right!