You need hands...

At the end of the life drawing session we did a series of two minute poses.

But I was brain fried by then and not up to the effort of trying to catch it all in such a short space of time, so I just concentrated on the model's hands.

Which is always a pleasure to do.

Applehands

As in anything you do consistently, you occasionally make little alterations and refinements to the way you do it, and gradually, accumulatively, you get better. So it is with sketching, I find I will make a mark, or a way of dealing with something that works well, and I use it again until it becomes part of the whole.

This is often just stylistic things, the real changes - how you really see things, how you interpret everything around you - happen magnificently rarely. This isn't one of those posts.

But what does happen, is all the little tricks and quirks you have added come together and you do a drawing that seems to you to be a new step forward. A sign post that you are on vaguely the right path.

Or at least some kind of path, rather than thrashing in the brambles.

Yesterday gave me just such a sketch.

You'll need to click on it and enlarge it as it gets a bit lost as it sits here.

Usually I sketch and turn the page, move on to the next one, and only really go back and look at what I drew at the end of the day. This one stopped me, and made me think, you know, I like that.

The guy was intent on doing something with his i-phone ( nothing new there then ) and I took the opportunity to focus on his hands, trying to see the shapes and structure of them, as his thumbs jabbed and swiped.

What do I think makes this a signpost sketch ? The way I now treat hair. The hands. Loving hands, but they are BUGGERS to draw. The lack of wrong lines. ( only one and I shaded it in to loose it ).

The overallnessness of it.

I don't really know.

Okay, trumpet blown, back slapped. Going back to the day job.

Made it to 50 !

From last year, Open House day in London. Met up with a friend and went to nose around various buildings. Went for lunch at the Leon's behind Tate Modern - hence the falafel sticker.

This bloke was waiting for the train at the station on the way in.

Did that trick of thickening the outline on the shoulder, head and neck, to give it weight. Obvious, but always effective.

Very pleased with the hands.

Added his profile when he turned, but not good at all.

The Boxdub sticker was peeled off a lamp-post somewhere. Always picking up stuff like that as I go around. It's all valid.

The falafel was excellent.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

A very old sketch to start a new year. And I like that it is on red paper. Festive.

This guy was sitting on a bench in the park in Soho Square, but I can't remember when. Sometime in the last five years, but can't be more specific on this one. Just went off to look in the sketch book, to see if it had a date in it anywhere, but can't even find the book. So this one only exists here at the moment. It will turn up one day.

Have posted this one before, ages ago, my space I think. A few people saw it and commented on it. But didn't follow up then. Let's see if I can get people interested this time. Will start trying to move this out this year. Now I am assured that I am going to stick with this.

A favorite of mine, like the squareness of the head, and the cartoonish quality it ended up having. Quite crude really, in the shading. I think I was only just starting to try and add shape to the lines at this point. It feels different from most of my drawing, and was one of those sketches that points a way forward, that you do and then look at and see that you have progressed from how you used to work.

And the hand to face detail that is always guaranteed to get me sketching.

sketch 14

This one I have had on my computer for ages. I have even posted it elsewhere. I love how I revised the back of the head halfway through. And still not certain which one is better.

I always get excited ( steady on ) when someone chews their nails, or puts their hand over their mouth, or leans on their hand. Anything that puts the fingers near the face, then you get double the pleasure of sketching.

Hands are brilliant to draw, get them right ( not often ) and they look great - get them wrong ( here ? ) and they haunt you forever. I try to use the knuckles to describe them, but always get the heel of the hand, and how it connects to the wrist, way off.

And ears as well. I usually just let a quick squiggle tell the story, but you could really get into the folds and shading of peoples ears.

This was also drawn on a train ride home. It was in the summer, and there was a very argumental couple dominating the carriage, and this bloke was doing his level best to ignore them, staring fixedly out the window.