Stony Shoreline. "Sea Pictures" is an exhibition of paintings. This image supports the show in that it is one of many drwings done in preparation.
Observation -> drawing -> idea -> more observation -> more drawing -> painting. Seems a logical process. But it never quite works that way. Often the painting is a retrospective look at the drawing. The drawing shows what I saw. The painting shows what the drawing said.

"Sea Pictures" is now on show at the Art Lounge Gallery in Merthyr Tydfil. You can find the gallery here.
There are thirteen works on show, eleven are acrylic paintins on board, and two are mixed media drawings.

Another of the "new" drawings, part of the series on which the profile portrait was featured last Tuesday. They are featured here as well and on another site here.

New drawings. I am currently making a series of drawings on separate sheets of A2 cartridge paper. I was impressed recently by some minimalist b&w photographs and decided to make a few drawings where only the centre of the field has any great detail and then periphery is considerably lessened. I find the result rather encouraging.

By coincinence, one of our Studio members showed me some photos taken with a pinhole camera. Visual field is almost 180º but what is striking is the white vignetting which looks not unlike what I have been doing. Pinhole photography, by the way, has an aperture around f400 and an infinite depth of field. The exposure time is almost glacial.

But back to drawing. The information on the paper is enough. I think the eye can read what has been omitted. Or the imagination of the viewer can fill in the gaps, perhaps.

Edgar Degas was noted for his portrayals of ballet dancers. Its not only his paintings that are worthy of note, but his drawings too. As can be seen from the above example, he gridded off the paper to arrive at correct proportion. What I find interesting here, is that although the size of the squares equals one "head" as is the general rule of thumb, the rest of it appears at first to go out of the window. Normally a free-standing figure is about seven and a half to eight "heads" tall. But here, the figure only takes up six squares. Yet the thing is right. And the reason is, - foreshortening of some of the limbs. The lower part of the forward leg is correct at two "heads" from foot to knee, but the upper leg is angled away from the viewer. This is neatly hidden behind the dancer's dress. I could rabbit on.....

The message is as always in life drawing, - draw what is really there, not what we think is there.

There is another aspect of Degas' depiction of these ballet dancers; while the dancers themselves create the illusion of grace and delicacy, Degas shows in his work the sheer hard work that goes into doing this. Backstage the grim reality is far removed from the floating dreamworld shown on stage. Indeed some of the "dancer" pictures have a lot in common with his Ironers, a picture of girls working in a sweatshop.

What Degas had to say about drawing: *

"Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see".

"I am a colourist with line..... To colour is to pursue drawing into a greatetr depth."

* = " DEGAS by himself " edited by Richard Kendall, Published by Time-Warner Books

ISBN 0-316-72810-1

A ballet shoe. Some time ago, circa 2003/4 I did a series of paintings of dancers, an example can be seen on the Luneside website, click on the image to enlarge.

This drawing is from an old sketchbook. Its about 15 cms square, pen and wash.

Its interesting, is it not, how some of these sketches, never intended to be finished works become such in their own right.

Some of the "Dancer" work is unfinished business. There still are avenues to explore. Perhaps I shall get back to it some time...

Progression #2. Something I did in 2004. It shows the same piece of forest but (reading left to right), increasing density in drawing techinque. Starting with pure line and progressing to full tone. I had planned to show this at Kielder this year but the glass is broken. No time to rectify that now. Pity.

This is a fore runner of the sea series such as the example here. [Please click.]

"Fade" is a large drawing 100 x 70 cm done exclusively in pencil with the exception of the centre foreground tree which was prepainted in watercolour. Compelted in the summer of last year it now hangs in the Studio Gallery of the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster.

Pencils used ranged from HB to 9B.

The title fade refers of course to the way the background recedes into the mists; a common feature in dense forest. Easy to get lost but despite this, there is beauty to be seen here. But if one does get lost, then finding a way out or getting one's bearings can override appreciation of the forest's aesthetic charm.

Patterns made by sea foam over shallow water. Long sunny days spent filling a sketchbook and observing these patterns, how they shift and change. If the water stays calm long enough, the pattern holds itself. Then even the slightest ripple changes the whole thing. Fascinating to watch, - frustrating to draw accurately from the life. This is where the camera comes in. An instant in time frozen for more detailed study later.

This image was drawn using 3B and 4B graphite sticks and a fine point 3B pencil. Image is 21 cm square. This was drawn into a sketchbook while outdoors enjoying the summer sunshine. 25ºC here in North-west England. It could have been Cyprus!

A rotting gatepost in Wales. While wandering the hills above the valleys that run south from Merthyr Ttydfyl last March, I came across this wooden gate stook lying in the grass. It had been replaced by a new wooden one and this one was left to rot where it lay. The cavities had become filled with leaves and the grass grew around it. But the grain of the wood lent itself to a whole abstact concept.

So here, it is drawn as a free-flowing form, but fixed by the fine mesh of straight lines that make up the background.

Graphite drawing; three pieces, 10 x 10 cm on 180gsm cartridge paper.

Profile Head. This is of the same ilk as the one posted on April 25 but more influenced by fashion illustration, - whose images bear no relation to actual fashion/clothing as worn.

What interests me here is the juxtaposition of natural and goemetrical forms, viz: the hatched rectangle about the face and the further juxtaposition of monochrome black and white against colour, - an area explored in other work such as the sea and the forest.

Mixed media is used here; ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache. The work is on an A4 sketchbook page.

Andromeda - one of the mythical series from Cyprus. As mentioned in the previous posting I spoke of super-imposing contour made with tracing paper. This is the original water colour sketch idea. This is a contour drawing of the model's head. She is not bald or shaven headed by the way. The outline of the cranium needed to be gauged. I did the contour drawing on cartridge in the normal way then later traced the image.
And here, we have the final result with the traced drawing over the painting.
I did this the old fashioned way with papers and inks etc. I am experimenting with Corel Draw and Corel OCR Trace with this idea. Some of the results are proving interesting as some of the program functions can be a bit unpredictable. Besides, drawing with a mouse is a bit like trying to draw with a brick with a pencil pushed through the middle.

One of a number of figure studies in my current sketchbook. This drawing has been tidyed up on Corel Photopaint. The grey rectangle behind the figure is in gauache but the brushwork is visible. I have used the software to eliminate this. The rest of it is "as drawn".
There is an idea germinating in my mind to make an artist's book of figure images. The ideas are manifold if not a little nebulous. For example, a series of maiden/nurse-like images as above, (this imagery has occupied me off-and-on for the last ten years or so), or perhaps ballet dancers, - derived from a series of paintings I did some four years back in which there are a number of undeveloped sketches, or again, more recently, grecian figures developed from my trips to Cyprus.
What I have in mind is a painterly image covered by a removable piece of tracing paper with a line drawing of the figure.
I will post an image of this idea at a later date.

My seven year old Grandson in Wales showed me some of his work. He has put together a portfolio for me to look at. I must admit to being quite impressed. This first image is of his home and the back garden. The garden is an elongated affair and at the time of drawing had a pile of large logs at its far end.
This next one shows a flower of some sort. He told me it is a venus Flytrap. It does resemble one. He drew it from memory after visiting and exotic park. I think he has a good eye for form for his age range.
Most striking, is this drawing of a dinosaur. (He has done lots of drawings of various dinosaurs. He is rather "in" to them just now.) This drawing is remarkably accurate when compared with the original illustration he worked from and featured below.
This illustration is from the "Collins Book of Dinosaurs" published by Harper Collins.

Like my grand-daughter featured on Jan 28, he too has artistic ambitions. I find that most encouraging. Perhaps its a sign of the times. If there is an active artist in the family, the younger element seem more encouraged. I can remeber my childhood when drawing was actively discouraged as time wasting, both at school and at home. All I wanted to do was draw, - anything.

Cornish Engine House. Done in 2003 and as the note says, it is a composite. As I recall, I was on a bus along by Zennor and Pendeen way and we passed several of these ruined buildings. It was a good excercise in speed drawing but I didn't have to try too hard to remember what I'd seen as successive engine houses hove into view. They are dotted all over western Cornwall.
In a way I suppose you could say, "When you've seen one, you've seen 'em all." But you can say that about a lot of things. Whatever, this image is somewhat evocative I think. A sort of snapshot.

Rooftop study done along with the previous Slaidburn drawing shown earlier. This one turned up in an old sketchbook from 2003. I was having a bit of a "ratch" (Cumbrian word) through some old stuff when this one turned up. That period in Slaidburn Youth Hostel was a one of long hot lazy summer days with good light that clearly picked out every detail. Again, the tinting was done in cold tea. You can just about visualise it, sitting there in the sun with a cup of tea, drawing this and geting absorbed in the activity of drawing. My teas goes cold. Can't waste good tea... use it as a drawing medium.

This little drawing was done some three years or so ago while I was wardening a youth hostel in Slaidburn, near Clitheroe in Lancashire. "Slaiburn" which is the title of this piece is a real olde worlde type of village. The view from the back window which is only about a foot of so square, if that, is of old roofs and chimneys. It was asking to be drawn. I did this in watersoluble pencil and afterwards applied a wash of cold tea. No wash was applied to the window frame so as to preserve the original whiteness of the paintwork. The use of unconventional materials, like cold tea, wine dregs and whatever else is to hand at the time can create interesting effects. It probably doesn't show up too well here but cold tea is rather like water colour raw umber. Is there a tannin pigment I wonder?

Another version of the patch of shingle featured earlier. As I hinted, I have drawn this using a Rotring pen. The technique is tighter definitely. What is also interesting is the way these objects seem to have something of an organic element to them.

" Shingle Drawing" - for want of a better title. 27 x 27 cm pencil drawing on pre-tinted Bockingford paper, 250 gsm. I laid down a watercolour wash and after it had dried I drew on it using 8B watersoluble pencil on the coloured area and washed it in and a 6B normal pencil on the rest. I worked from a photograph I took on a beach in Corfu some two years ago.
What is interesting is what arises during the drawing process. The first part of the actual drawing involved setting down the contours of the individual pebbles. In a way I would have liked to have stopped there. But the original concept was to arrive at some sort of photorealistic image but at the same time have part of the work with the colour bleached out to highlight the drawing element of the work. I think I have managed that to some degree where it is full colour at one end and monochrome (B&W) at the other.
However, I think I will be doing another version of this showing contour only. I shall probably do the initial contour drawing in pencil and finish with an ink drawing using a [Rotring] technical pen. It seems to demand a technical drawing element. Certainly calling for a somewhat tight technique. What do you think?

New drawing taken from a fashion photo. There is some retouching of the dark area to the left of the upheld finger done with photoshop. The dark area is as intense as this but the black graphite surface, being smooth, reflects the light giving it a silvery appearance when photographed.

Image is A4 size on paper at A3 size, 180gsm. Drawn throughout in soft graphite. No charcoal used. This whole picture is simply an exercise.