An exercise in layering. I am trying different approaches to interpreting the sea. These two strips of sea are as viewed from overhead. The one on the left is in traditional graphite while the one on the right has been made with successive layers of transparent coloured ink.

What I find fascinating is the random abstract shapes of the patches of foam. Even more interesting is meticulously copying these abstract shapes rather than simply generating my own. None of the shapes readily resemble a predetermined or recognisable object so in drawing them all preconceptions are eliminated. It makes for a good exercise in pure observation I think.

The continuous movement of the sea makes these shapes extremely transient. They change by the second and no way can an accurate drawing be done in that time. So these are made from photographs and drawn in the comfort of the studio.

Despite the foregoing, the drawn shapes do take on a life of their own as the character of these components change with the application of each successive layer.

This is "work in progress" I reckon.

I was at a week-end family get-together up in the Lakes recently. Sunday morning I got up early and went for a walk. Things come into very sharp focus at times like this and seem to say "Draw me, now."

The distant hills rising out of the mists melting in the growing sunlight and the small puddle on the byway reflecting the sky and shining like a sapphire.

Actually my mainstream art had been a bit in the doldrums of late and this walk awakened my eyes again. Now back in the studio the ideas are flooding in more than time and energy can cope with. But then that is the sort of problem I'd rather have.

A modern dress study and an Amazon from Classical times. An interesting similarity in clothing style. I don't think our ancient Amazon would look out of place walking down a 21st century street.

Study of a Hellenic image made during my residency at Lemba, near Pafos in Cyprus.
Mixed media drawing; watercolour, gouache and graphite on size A2

300gsm paper.

I always tend to give these Hellenic deities intense but sightless blue eyes partly in defference to their mediterranean origins but also that although gods, they were not all-seeing. If they were they would not have so selfishly inflicted so much suffering on mortal humanity.

A classic example is Leda and the Swan where Leda was seduced by Zeus disguised as a swan. She in turn gave birth to Helen who ultimately caused the Trojan War.

Another interpretation in the Hermaphrodite series. Each square is 10 x 10 cm. Gouache on paper. The whole mounted on a 60 x 20 cm panel.

Ερμαφρόδιος Hermaphrodite, one of a series of drawings using various media, - this one in watercolour with the figure drawn with a graphite stick, - taken from a sketchbook image I made when last in Larnaca. The original statue has the left leg broken off at the calf. In the sketchbook version I added the missing component but in the series of finished works I decided otherwise. I am coming to realise that part of the aesthetic to modern 21st century eyes is this ancient statuary in its incomplete state. It makes us appreciate what remains and in that way make a link with artists of the past.
Some of the series here on my studio walls.

Matthaias Grünewald made this drawing of a crucifixion some twelve years before his famous Isenheim Altarpiece which can be seen at the Musee Unterlinden in Kolmar. This drawing is a study for another altarpiece for a church in Germany. This drawing can be found in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, Germany. It is on paper 32 x 53 cm.

Grünewald's crucifixions marked a turning point in Christian art. Up to this time the crucified figure of Christ was portrayed as standing on the cross as if He could get down from it at any time. The brutality of being crucified was never really emphasised. He was depicted on the "Throne of the Cross." But Grünewald pulled no punches. He showed such a death for what it was, - painful. Not only was the posture of the corpora more contorted but the cross was crudely fashioned. It may well have been nearer to what actually was used. In some of the crucifixion paintings I've seen you'd think the Roman soldiers had had the cross specially made at Waring and Gillows, the famous Lancaster furniture makers!

Even for non- Christians, the Crucifixion makes an interesting and strong subject; the outstretched limbs make an ideal for anatomical illustration and the cross shape makes a strong impact on the psyche. The cross has featured in art for millenia. There are pre-Minoan examples of cruciform statuary which can very easily be mistaken for something made two thousand years later.

This is part of an ongoing intermittent project which I return to from time to time as a rest from my regular "bread and butter" Sea Pictures. I started exploring the Hellenic female figure in Cyprus and has now emerged as something of a recurring theme. It makes a change I suppose from the Enigma series which has been an obsession of mine for quite a few years.

We discussed obsession the other day during our lunch break at the studios and concluded obsession is probably the main driving force behind art. We do the same thing over and over but each time vary the interpretation and perhaps the medium used. I have discussed this at some length on my other site which you can see here.

All the drawings have been made on A3 size cartridge paper cut into strips about 10 cm wide. This interpretation shown here is a pen and wash effort, the line drawn with a 0.5 mm Rotring pen.

Mantegna's "Dead Christ" is, in my opinion a turning point drawing in the development of Reanaissance art. Mategna was a most draughtsmanly painter. This work is done in tempera on canvas and was completed around 1490. It measures 46 x 81 cm so is roughly A1 size. In the years when I was a life model at the art faculty in UCLAN in Preston there would always be a time when I did this pose. It was a favourite for it gives a classic lesson in foreshortening.

It was one of the more relaxing poses in a life class. The pose usually lasted all day, I don't suppose I would have been a "dead" figure but if I'm honest, I will have certainly been a sleeping one!

Drawing the foreshortened figure from life is a good exercise, it forces you to abandon preconceptions about what the human form looks like. You have to draw what you see, not what you think you ought to be seeing.

Rogier van der Weyden was a Flemish Painter based in Brussels and did this painting around 1435. It started out as the reredos at a chapel in Leuwen but is now at the Prado in Madrid. It is almost certainly one of his most famous pieces and I feature it here for comparison with a drawing he did later in 1460. What I find striking about this, apart from the composition being very similar to the painting is the style of the figures. They seem to have a quality very similar to a much later artist, Giacometti who was a twentieth century sculptor. Giacometti went in for elongated figures that posessed these same expressive qualities found in this Northern Renaissance drawing. You can read more here. Follow the links to Rogier van der Weyden.
Its worth switching on the speakers on your PC when visiting the wga site for its baroque music.

One of the images shown by the Drawing Research Network on their Flickr page.

Sarah Lightman
Originally uploaded by DRN_SWG

I started my working life as an engineering draughtsman and because of this I get the urge to draw something mechanical from time to time. This particular image, done in my usual way with graphite on 300 gsm paper, is the latest example. It is of a motorbike brake caliper. The nature of the piece meant I had to approach it as a technical drawing at first. Because the detail shows man made machined components the initial drawing utilised tee-square and set square. Then, once the line work was done, more traditional drawing methods were used. I think that well made machine parts have quite a sculptural quality about them. It elevates the everyday and mundane to the realms of so-called high art. But then that is what art is all about in my opinion, to highlight the mundane and say to the viewer, "Look at this."
There is another example of this "highlighting the mundane" on my other Blog where I have a photo of newly installed pipework beneath a boiler. The soldering is not so neat but I plan to make a drawing from this sometime and I'll probably tidy it up a bit.
Picasso once said, "Art is a lie. But through this lie the truth is revealed."

Beach #5. Graphite on watercolour paper with some tinting. Size A3. I used water colour paper to get the graininess for the stone texture. This particular rock pool is on the Morecambe Bay tideway where the rock is a soft variety of sandstone which means the sea's action makes the stones rounded but never smooth. Compare that with say, Cornwall where the indiginous rock is granite which can be smoothed to a fine polish.
I remember drawing this on site in a cold November gale whose only interruption from America was Ireland. Clear blue skies, an empty beach, the sussurating waves, the call of the birds..... and frozen fingers. Who says I don't suffer for my art?

Larnaka. This too is A3 in size but done on smoother 300 gsm cartridge paper. As above, blue skies, sussurating waves, birdsong but this time not frozen fingers but a risk of sunburn, even at seven o' clock in the morning.

Seeing I'd mentioned my "Sea Pictures" in the last posting I though I ought to show a couple here. Most of the series are paintings so strictly speaking, they hardly qualify for a draughtsman's Blog. But you can see some of the sea pictures here.

"Beech". Graphite drawing on A3 size 300 gsm paper. This is one of the coppiced beech trees growing by the Luneside cycle track that once was a railway in Lancaster. I did the drawing only a couple of days ago.
While still settling in to the new studio space the tendency is to produce very varied work. I should be working on Sea Pictures for the upcoming exhibition at Arteria Gallery here in Lancaster but...
.....watch this space, eh?

Having moved into new premises I have been sorting out some older work including life drawings. It is hoped that at some time in the not too distant future we may start life-drawing sessions again at Luneside, but not just yet. We still have a lot to do just getting the place straight.
This drawing, done in .35 mm micro-pencil on lightweight (90 gsm) paper, - layout paper, - was done some four years or so ago at one of our sessions. I drew it on an A2 sized sheet but cropped it down to 42 x 32 cms.
Sometimes it is a useful exercise to limit the means of drawing and to work with a set set of rules. The equipment I used is more compatible with a tight drawing technique and by extension, drew the floor texture with a straight edge. Definitely borrowed from technical drawing.
And yet...
I think I still ended up with a fre-flowing feminine form. Within the above mentioned constraints one still has to draw what is really there.

Botticelli's "Flora" from his Primavera painting that I referred to yesterday.

A drawing by Botticelli. I think its called "Allegory". What I like about it is the way the female figure's clothes are highlighted in such detail. It is a lovely drawing, pleasing to the eye. What more can I add?

I think the model was the same one he used in his painting "Primavera". Note the third figure from the right of the painting, - "Flora".

Drawing No. 11.
Another in the recent series of figure drawings. Graphite on 300gsm paper. size A3

An experiment with the Graphic Novel. I am putting together a graphic novel from a short fiction story I have written about a life model and a group of art students. It is simply an exploration of the form and I have no plans on publishing.
That said, the challenges of this format are interesting, arranging how the pictures should be displayed and how the story can be allowed to unfold. Another aspect of this is it requires me to make drawings of objects not normally within my ouevre, e.g. street scenes, close ups of hands etc. and objects such as cameras as shown here. Many of these things need to be drawn "from the life".
This project may take some time to complete as it is not intended as my mainstream work but a useful fill-in during fallow periods.

These images have been made from digital photographs of pencil drawings done on cartridge paper subsequently uploaded into vector format using CorelDraw. With this process the whiteness of the original drawings is lost making for a b&w photo effect. This is a sample page whose size is A4.

Thumbnails of the twelve figures as mentioned in the last Blog entry. I shall feature them all at a later date, probably after the New Year.