paintings prints and stuff

More playing with Sketch Club on the ipad.   A portrait of my grandson. I need a finer stylus for finer detail, like features.   There is a good comparison, i n 2 parts, on youtube .   I want that pen type with the circular clear disc.   The brush would be fun maybe, though not essential.  He also recommends the Bamboo stylus - but buyers on Amazon slated it for an ephemeral lifespan - has anyone any experience of this? This was sketched in a mix of the pen and brush tools in Sketch Club and then using the text tool just for fun. The drawing was done on one layer with the colour added on the layer beneath, varying the opacity and brush size so that colours were overlaid and blended. more to come ................

Little courtyard off the waiting room, people waiting to be seen by the doctor; Rotring pen, water soluble felt pen with waterbrush and Parker jotter in Stillman and Birn Gamma Sketchbook I'm seeing rather too much of hospital waiting rooms at the moment - but the weather was nice so we waited in a little courtyard garden, just off the waiting room, for our appointment - which of course was running late.   Sketching people out in the fresh air relieved the boredom considerably :>) Not great sketches - my excuse is that the models kept twitching and moving and crocheting and suchlike, making it impossible to do the woman's hands for instance  - for me anyway. I just can't enjoy sketching like this with my Rotring pen - I find nibs too scratchy.  :>(    (man on the top right).   I binned my Lamy pen because no matter what I did or how I cleaned it,  it refused to let the ink flow freely - not one I'd ever buy again - unless Lamy...

More quick sketches of moving people - moving far too much! These two were done with a Rotring art pen and a a little water to smudge and create areas of tone. They are in a moleskine sketchbook - hence the bubbly effect on the washes, which were rubbed into the paper - the waxy paper moleskines don't like water much! and the next 2 with a mechanical pencil with a B lead They were all absorbed in what they were doing and moving a LOT, not making life easy! but it was good practice even if the results aren't great :>)

The latest life drawing - it will not photograph well for me - there is a soft cream in the highlights but they are reading too garishly :>( Done with willow charcoal, compressed charcoal and cream pastel. Again about 90 minutes work, I wanted to concentrate on the 'portrait' aspect with this one. Charcoal is such a lovely medium to work with, messy but so adjustable. I can sweep mistakes away with a brush of my hand (yes I do get very grubby) and redraw, draw back in with an eraser to paint lights back in and be really flexible. I edit. A Lot. We've got the same model, Lucy, very chatty, again next week, with the same pose for those who paint and work slower. So I'll choose another view.

With tonight's life drawing group in mind I did these very quick sketches of some of my class with the Pentel brush pen. I like the variety of marks it makes but of course, being ink, it's very unforgiving of mistakes! I've added a few unflattering years to the poor student below! Of course they moved constantly - so inconsiderate ; >D

Kerry, A3, Charcoal and compressed charcoal, 90 minute study The first life drawing in years . I worked in charcoal because it's so fluid and a brush of the hand erases and allows you to move elements around, lay down blocks of tone and push-pull until it's something like. It's done on grey pastel paper. I could have used white - or better cream, which I didn't have with me - for the highlights but decided not to. Next time I may work on a warm cream paper. It's a drop in session and I'm definitely going again. Life drawing is such good practice for observation. There's no hiding anything lazy or wrong. There's definite room for improvement but practice practice practice ......

Life Drawing with Channel 4. Willow Charcoal, Vivien Today I managed to catch the Life Drawing Class on Channel 4 - really interesting and hope they continue with the idea. These aren't the best drawings! very quick and unfinished as they were relatively short poses so it was essential to work fast. I like to work in tone and line, letting the background darkness define some of the edges and using the lost edges to unite figure and background. The model was a dancer - a little androgynous, muscular and compact, interesting to draw. The second pose was identical but seen from the back - even more unfinished! c&c? - I need to practise more I think :>) I hadn't done life drawing in a long long time and never from TV. There is a good site called ???Poser with male and female digital figures showing muscle structures from all sorts of viewpoints for those interested - ideal for those doing fantasy art. It's a Japanese site with quick and long poses. Annie has kindly rem...