Strong Arvid

Strong Arvid

isn’t he just – a direct response drawing with details (and weights) added afterwards.

This is another one which has it’s origins in the incomparable Swedish Outdoor Life.

Things have been busy round here – and hot! It’s so stuffy here. August has wrapped us in a warm damp blanket – urgh. Still the corn is high, the courgettes are coming on and we have a bumper crop of garlic and red onoins to lift and dry this weekend – so it’s not all bad.

An update on the Lauren Nassef/Samantha Beeston issue – SB has stolen more than 32 drawings by Lauren – and a few others by other illustrators too. There are images of her website on Book-by-it’s-Cover and even her header was one of Lauren’s drawings. Incredible! What was this girl thinking?! I’m astounded.

Excitement!

Running on the Beach

This one’s taken from another photo in Swedish Outdoor Life.

I’ve been neglecting this blog I know – the last couple of weeks have been, not exactly busy (I have ME: life is never busy exactly!), but by my rather low standards, full. I’m adjusting to pacing myself so I avoid crashing out completely, I’ve had a medical assessment that I found rather stressful and I’m doing an online course, which is fabulous (more about this another day) but takes up a lot of time.

And then there is the Exciting Thing.

The Exciting Thing? The Thing that is so Exciting it warrants capital letters? Yes that Thing. And what is it? I’m going to be featured in Carla Sonheim’s fabulous new book, Drawing Lab!. Oh yes I am! Now how great is that?!

So much so that I had to spend some time simply being excited. I know. But really, I am only 6 years old you know, I just have a large vocabulary so you think I’m 43.

Drawing Lab is aimed at mixed media artists who would like to include drawing in their work, and it’s going to be full of interesting, varied and most of all fun drawing assignments. I am so honoured that Carla asked me to be a part of this. It will be out in 2010, which is not too far away now….

Woman Plans, God Laughs

So in my last post I said I was building a webiste…well it ain’t going well! I thought (oh my arrogance!) that as I was familiar with WordPress (I’ve used it for three years in the free version) using it with a host, as my content manager, would be reasonably straightforward. It. Is. Not. It just all seems to be very technically demanding and I have few techy skills. Added to this, WordPress has been updated and there are one or two glitches…and, frankly since it’s been three weeks and I haven’t even got the thing off the ground yet – I haven’t posted or uploaded any content – I’m putting it on hold. So scrap that last post, for now drawing diary stays right here!

And so here are a few more sketches:

Hungry Man I

Continuous line, without looking at the paper

Hungry Man II

Continuous line, without looking at the paper

Hungry Man Satisfied

Direct response drawing

I hope you are all having less technologically frustrating times

Waiting

I was in town with Dave on Wednesday – or rather, he was in town, I sat in a cafe for most of the time – after we’d done the errands which needed both of us anyway. I didn’t do much sketching being way too hot and way too tired (we’re having a heatwave here and us poor Brits are just not used to it). I did try doing a continuous line drawing with my brush pen though:

i founf this more difficult with a brush – the fibres are so flexible it’s almost impossible to tell whether the brush is hitting the paper or not unless you are looking. Consequently the direct response drawing I tried was a complete failure – most of it wasn’t even there! I had just drawn it in the air.

Anyway, I did another but with my fountain pen:

And rounded off with a portrait of the first chap with the brushpen. I didn’t finish it though:

It looks set to be a hot weekend – I hope you all have a good one and happy Independence day to all you Americans out there!

More Scenes from Swedish Outdoor Life

I’ve had rather an eventful few days but I’m keeping quiet for now!

Here’s some sketches anyway

Mr G

Direct Response, details added afterwards.

Mr G was the former King Gustav’s ‘tennis name’.

The Once Future King

A rather frightening drawing of another King also called Gustav. Mostly direct response but i forgot and peeked a couple of times.

Meeting my own challenges!

The challenge at everyone-can-draw this week is to sketch out ‘in the wild’ and I have been lax recently at participating, (which is bad since I’m supposed to be setting an example) so today I went into town for an hour and sat in a well known coffee place to meet the challenge. I could only manage an hour – I’m just not good at the moment, energywise, but lucky for me the bus picks me up outside my door and drops me off there too! I only had to walk a few hundred yards once I was there. I sound like an elderly woman, don’t I?! Well I have the (prematurely) grey hair…

Ruminative

Contemplative

A Man and His Son

The top two aredirect response, and the bottom one was supposed to be but I forgot halfway through and started looking at the paper. I added the brush lines and white pencil at home, later.

He’s so handy…

my love. He can do all sorts of things, including, as it turns out, splice rope. This is a direct response sketch of Dave splicing new rope handles onto the wicker laundry basket on Saturday afternoon.

I added a little watercolour wash but it is all too pale for my taste.

Dave splicing rope

Just some quickies

I went into town this morning and did a few quick sketches whilst I had a cup of tea – all direct response.

Monumental

I love the way the girls small head and large body make her look monumental, like a statue or a goddess.

The Thin Friend

Shortly after I drew the large girl her skinny friend arrived.

It's a Rum Old World

These two seemed to be contemplating the rum nature of all things.

Looks like the weekend may be fine here in the UK, hope you have a good one!

Just Dave again…

Last night I sketched Dave quickly whilst he was reading. My concentration wasn’t too good though: I have ME and tired doesn’t even begin to describe how I was feeling but the desire to draw was warring with the fatigue so I went with it.

Dave - Direct Response

Dave Reading

I was going to add a little colour to this one but after 20 minutes of drawing I’d had it and went to bed!

That new pen again

You know I said I hated it? Then I sort of liked it? Well, I love it now. It’s well and truly broken in, I’ve got used to it, my converter has arrived so I now have waterproof ink and I may even be retiring the technical pens. I used the ArtPen for an illustration the other day and I was delighted with the result – until I smudged the not waterproof ink the next morning with a hand which I swear was dry…ho hum. Thank goodness for bleedproof white!

Anyway whilst I was still awaiting the delivery of the converter I was messing about with the watersoluble ink – which does have its advantages.

The Patriarch

The Patriarch mark two

The Patriarch mark three

Unfortunately the paper wasn’t quite up to two wettings. Never mind, I like drawing over the lines, anyway. The man is a distant relative, I’m not sure how he’s related, but his name was Whitehead, so I like to fantasize I’m in some way related to Alfred North Whitehead. I have a few photos of him and his family. Wonderful beard.

Finally at about 4.30 this afternoon my Great Art delivery arrived with the converter so I changed over to Noodlers Bulletproof ink,which I haven’t used before but have heard great things about.

Swedish Tennis Player

From a photo in a 1950s book promoting Sweden. Drawing was direct response with details added afterwards.

The ink is certainly nice and black and it is still water soluble until dry so it’s possible to add water for a wash effect. I’m really pleased, which is good since it was a £30 investment, altogether.

Right I’m off to get something to eat now. Have a good evening!