Just Drawing

blauw blau blue bleu

Dec 1, 2015Stuart2 Comments

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I’m not sure, what to think of these pics from tonight’s Life Class.
Lamy fountain pen on 190gsm, A3, and Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencil.
I’m sure my pen has moved more fluidly on past evenings, but building up tone with the Albrecht Dürer pencil was very therapeutic, even if not always too easy, what with the lighting conditions we have in our Life Class room.
It’s interesting to see that I only have 1 1/2 hours of drawings but the evening is 2 1/4 hours long. So we spend 45 minutes chatting and relaxing somewhere along the line.

Sick Left Hands

Nov 28, 2015Nov 28, 2015Stuart2 Comments

[Sorry, Ed (author of Six Left Hands)]

Back in the times before Paris … <interlude> … you know, I follow a few great sketching sites on wordpress … and one of those are Suhita Shirodkar’s sketchaway … </interlude> well, a few days before Paris, Suhita published a blog entry with a tonal study of her left hand.
And I thought, hey, I’ve got one of those (i.e. left hand and even a blog, too). Here’s Suhita’s left hand: hand_shadows.jpg.

So I continued running a few days with 30(!) second gesture drawings of other peoples’ hands… Then Paris happened.

Yeah, well, anyway, and then Ed published his six lefties and I thought, Stuart, the time is ripe again, are your hand skills up to scratch? … do a few more quick gesture drawings and give it a try.

Today, in every free 20 minute slot, I jumped to the challenge. Lamy fountain pen in hand. Sometimes standing in front of the mirror. So some lefties look like righties. Enjoy.

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And here are some of the quick gesture sketches. You can see more of these gesture sketches in the gesture sub-menu.

Snow, Rain and Life

Nov 24, 2015StuartLeave a comment

[Stuart arrives at Life Class]
[Outside it’s raining, snowing, and sleeting]
Richard: Hi Stuart, the tutor called, he’ll be late, but the model’s already here.
Stuart: No heaters? No Life equipment?
Model (teeth chattering): I need those heaters, I’m soaking, need to get out of these clothes.
Stuart: Well, bad luck, get on that stage now … 10 minutes ok for you?

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[Tutor arrives]
Tutor: Ok, hi folks, let’s do a pose and then I’ve got an idea for you.
[Heaters are set up]

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Tutor: Hey, the next half an hour, we’re drawing blind.

Stuart: Yeeees, this is what I’m talking about. What a great experience! The result isn’t important, but the act of looking at the model becomes so intense.
Tutor: Now see if you can use anything you learnt in the past half an hour.

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Stuart: Well, I’m not complaining, that was really fun. Used my Lamy Safari “F” nib, Blue/Black ink, in a rough surface, 110gsm, A4 sketch book. The paper really soaks up that ink.

Chair in Charcoal

Sep 3, 2015Sep 3, 2015StuartLeave a comment

First evening class for me this semester.

Charcoal, twig of willow.

Drawing drapery is hard.

A2 sized newsprint. 90 minutes.

Male Model in the Rain

Sep 1, 2015Sep 2, 2015Stuart2 Comments

Playing with colour and umbrellas today.

Watercolours, nib, waterproof ink.

Tea Room

Jul 13, 2015Aug 29, 2015StuartLeave a comment

Slowly getting back into the drill of sketching in public places.

I actually feel pretty comfortable doing this in cafes now. Just using a cheap drawing tool here (roller-ball pen) on childrens’ drawing paper (DIN A4, 100 sheets cost 2€). Makes a light weight set to carry around.

More Faces with George B. Bridgman

Jul 11, 2015Jul 11, 2015Stuart1 Comment

The few attempts I made at practicing faces again while on holiday … need to do this more often and more deliberately … fight that sloth in me! The practice helps obviously, but not practicing helps all the hard earned skills fade away.

Urban Sketching in Lithuania

Jul 11, 2015Jul 11, 2015StuartLeave a comment

Just back from a 10 day holiday in good old Lithuania.

Visiting relatives, taking in the sites and even a short trip to the Baltic seaside.

Here are the few sketches I managed to get done while there.

(CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES)

1: from out of a Lithuanian Kepyklele (a bakery)
2: in a small restaurant in the “Republic of Uzupis”
3: an exhibition case in Medininkai
4: view from our hotel room in Vilnius
5: at the Beer Library (Alaus Biblioteka)
6: from the veranda of our hotel in Palanga

Preparing for Figure Drawing

Jun 22, 2015Jun 22, 2015Stuart2 Comments

So, I go back to figure drawing classes regularly, starting tomorrow night.

I’m going to continue from where I stopped with the ink class, so I’m planning to use paint brush and India ink on whatever I have at hand. To get into the swing of things, I’ve attempted a few sketches on newsprint tonight. All based on photo references.

Em Höttche, USk part II

Jun 18, 2015Jun 18, 2015StuartLeave a comment

Urban Sketching (USk), part 2.

Back from an afternoon in the fading sun on the top steps of Bonn’s historical Rathaus (town hall).

Looking down upon “Em Höttche” (a “typical” German tavern) and a few bistro, cafes. It was getting cold as the sun finally decided to leave us at 8 pm and the sketching process of my first picture (45 minutes with 2B pencil, kept sharp with a sand paper board) accelerated more and more. In the end, I used the accelerated technique to sketch the view onto the market place in Bonn from the flight of stairs, where JFK, CDG and QE2 have all stood before me (10 minutes, “F” pencil).