Light and darkness

Last attempt of the term to get the shape of “that” jug. Almost there, even if i did have to add an extra piece of paper to be able to include all of the handle.

 Thursday evening

Friday morning

Bodies and trees

Another morning of life drawing, 5 minute, 3 minute and 15 minute poses with both wet and dry media.

Holding a brush and sitting on a stool, although the holding a brush looks more like spear-fishing and I’ve made the beautiful model look rather squat and rather heavier than she was.

The brown ones are done by another member of the class. The two on the right hand side and the pink one, with the brush, are mine.

Combining or overlaying the 3 minute poses on one sheet of paper.

Wet ink and charcoal, seated.

Struggling to cope with the strong pink wash to get enough contrast between light and dark

Happiest with this one.

After a rest and lunch, off to Highgate to see the works by Richard  Downer, the father of our tutor.  Richard’s drawn work will be known to all of us in the UK who used phone directories between 1967 - 1985, as his drawings were on the front cover of every local directory.  This exhibition focuses on his private paintings of trees, their life, demise and regeneration. Very striking and with echoes of Paul Nash in the series about the aftermath of the Great Storm of 1987. On until 23rd June and well worth a visit.  Great views walking down Highgate Hill are a bonus.

 

Life drawing

A morning of life drawing this week.  I started out full of trepidation, but on balance, enjoyed the morning and was reminded again that the rubber is as important as the pencil / charcoal/ crayon. Our regular teacher, Abigail Downer, was away this week, and we were therefore taught by a replacement teacher, whose name has shockingly gone from my head.

We started with a rubbed charcoal ground ( messy!) and then drew in the darkest shadows and the lightest lights.  It was a sunny day in the studio, so the contrasts were easy to see.  

After 20 mins of short poses, when the model changed her pose without any notice, captured with pencil in the sketchbook, we then moved on to two 30 minute poses, one seated and one standing.

The foreshortening on the seated pose was really tricky - are the feet really that huge?

Standing should have been simpler after that, but those legs look decidedly wonky and where is the left foot?

More to come next week apparently.

On a related note, Abigail downer’s father is Richard Downer, whose exquisite pen and ink drawings used to adorn the covers of British telephone directories. He has an exhibition on in Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution until 23rd June.

Last day or so to see the most recent PRISM exhibition. This group seems to be moving away from "textile art" to t"extile-inspired art."  I wasn’t so thrilled with it as in previous years,but a gorgeous all white quilt by Niki Chandler rewarded much quiet contemplation.

Things that fly

I have not posted for a few weeks as my energies have to be focused on surviving the barrage of continuous aircraft noise that now assaults our home.  Although we can now get away most weekends, family commitments have meant that we have been at home for a stretch of 10 days of ongoing noise from 0430h - 2400h.

A 24h break, because of the recent storms, allowed me to do some quilting on the Kaleidoscope quilt.

My mind must be obsessed with flying beasts, as I’ve ended up with shapes that look rather like moths.  Each side of the quilt has a series of moths with different patterned wings. These are dreadful photos, the triangles really do have straight edges!

Now to ponder what to do in the striped triangles between the “moths”.