This has been my predominate practice of late and so I hope I’ve begun to show already some of the learning points this exercise is designed to cover. Specifically, interpreting rather than transcribing, attending to composition and being selective, and … Continue reading Part 4, project 5, exercise 3 – working from a photograph
In the absence of any possibility of a live model, I looked through a number of art books with good colour plates to find a substitute. The one that drew my eye, largely because of the sullen expression of the … Continue reading Part 3, project 2, exercise 3 – mood and atmosphere
This is based on one of two earlier sketches that I quite like. The other I am reserving for a later exercise. It doesn’t quite meet the criteria in that there are no limbs in view but for now, this … Continue reading Part 3, project 1, exercise 3 – tonal painting
I am on something of a treadmill at the moment and so I’ve taken the brakes off. This exercise is the second in this project leading towards and eventual still life assignment, and requires the use of natural objects. I … Continue reading Part 2, project 2, exercise 3 – still life natural objects
Task: a portrait from memory or imagination. Not so long ago I would have looked at this with joy and relief. Now, after struggling to make sense of what I see in front of me and realising the advantages that confers in terms of perspectives and all those unevennesses faces have, I’m glaring at the instruction with an expression somewhere between disbelief and horror. Someone I saw in passing? A person I used to know? A character from a book? Strange how that wipes every conceivable memory and drops my imagination through a trapdoor so that I can’t even remember … Continue reading Part 4, project 6, exercise 3 – portrait
Almost missed this – slip of the page or my head telling me only what I wanted to hear, that there was no such task? Anyway, after establishing I wouldn’t need to risk assess myself for sketching while strapped to a chimney, I had a look through my google photo store to see what I might have in there that would meet requirements and there was a fab little snap of a section of Brighton beach, the lower promenade, where construction was taking place and the sea and sky and the pier took up most of the space. Not a … Continue reading Part 3, project 4, exercise 3 – aerial perspective
Sketchbook walks. It’s still a bit nippy hereabouts, also damp so this was quite a sprint. And my biro gave out so luckily I had a piece of conte about my person, as you do. This is a quick gallop round the village at around sunset so when the sun appears there are long, deep, shadows. Otherwise it’s a grey, dismal, flat light. I can’t say this is easy, compared with sheep which are a doddle because of where they are, for quick sketches, I find streets over-stimulating – too many lines, too much material, and too unaccommodating in … Continue reading Part 3, project 2, exercise 2
Strayfish Arts 