Taiko Drummer

Water soluble graphite pencil (HB and 8B), Inktense pencil and watercolour pencil

Inspiration

Dirty Burning by Victoria Morton

I visited the Generation exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern art in Edinburgh today. It celebrates the last 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland.  Here are some of the pieces I saw which caught my eye:

Child by Julie Roberts

Restraining Coat
 by Julie Roberts

 These four pieces are by Charles Avery, an artist who is largely self taught.  His pieces were outstanding. In particular there were two enormous pieces (the image above with the pyramids in the background is one large piece and the other three are tiny details from two of his largest works on display which caught my eye.  This type of drawing is what I aspire to (although not quite on this vast scale!).  His pieces were wholly imaginative and beautifully rendered.  I spent ages looking at these and enjoyed finding delightful little elements. Mr Avery, you blew my mind.

These beautifully rendered images of fabric
were quite stunning.

These two are small elements from two
paintings from Alison Watt's Shift series







Big sheets and smudges

I bought some willow charcoal and A3 sketching paper today. I've not used willow charcoal before.  It is really lovely to use and I was surprised by how easily it smudges, but I really liked that effect and it was fun to apply.  I'll need a fixative if I draw anything worth saving.  No doubt I can hang fire on that for now. I did this very quick sketch whilst waiting for my pasta to cook at dinner time.  I'll try some more tomorrow.

 

 

A wee bit ambitious

As you may know I've been spending some time during my lunch breaks at work doing some drawing, which is a pleasant way to pass the time in the middle of the day.  As ever, coming up with ideas for drawing projects is difficult for me.  I need to find something I feel I am capable of rendering in sketch form and also which interests me.  I am an avid follower of current affairs and I've found photo journalism to have given me some inspiration (my Kobani and Gaza images for example).

I've used an HB pencil and 4B pencil here.

 

 

I found a great shot  of workers dismantling the Indian Navy Ship INS Vikrant at a ship breakers yard in Mumbai by photo journalist Danish Siddiqui.  This is my work in progress based on this shot.  I want to gradually improve upon my urban sketching and whereas in the past I've focused on single figures or buildings I want to try and move on to piecing a whole scene together.   Clearly I am over-stretching myself but I think you have to do that to try to progress.  

Boxer

Kobani air strike

The Brazilian fisherman

Soldier

Face

Speed skaters

Tom Hardy, looking better every day

I decided to re-visit a photograph of my favourite actor Tom Hardy which I attempted to draw in July of this year.  I wanted to see if my drawing had improved.  I am rather pleased with the update (the second picture) as I think this demonstrates a big improvement. There is still a long way to go of course but I think this goes to show that anyone can teach themselves to draw if they put their mind to it.  The picture is unfinished but I wanted to record here what I had done so far.    

The sculpture studio

Street art - Edinburgh

There is very little street art in Edinburgh which is a shame.  We have had a new addition to the urban landscape however.  Work In Progress Edinburgh have recently brightened up the otherwise dull East Market Street.  The group describe themselves as "a new organisation representing a group of independent artists, creative practitioners, urbanists, activists and others who like to collaborate across all cultures and disciplines".  I hope this work is an impetus for the growth of artistic pieces across the city.

The boy with the guitar

Hong Kong gardeners

I did this little sketch during my lunch hour at work.  My source was a photograph I took in Hong Kong in the Nan Lian Garden, Kowloon a few years ago.  I'm really chuffed with how the figures turned out.  It is this type of Urban Sketching that I am particularly keen on developing

Blue nude

 

Untitled

Dancer, charcoal on black paper

Little Seagull

When is Lauren Bacall not Lauren Bacall

I've a loooooong way to go before I achieve a decent portrait.  I had an old Hollywood shot of the fabulous Lauren Bacall to draw from.  Whilst this bears no resemblance to Lauren whatsoever, I think this is a (tiny) bit of an improvement upon my previous attempts at a portrait.