Golden oldies

I scanned this drawing from a few years ago for a fabulous new website, Combined Internet Artists, that Annabel has invited me to join. Do take a look, the work there is amazing.

I've never really been happy with Paul's face on the right, but Alex's is one of my favourite drawings, I enjoyed it so much. Stripes always look great in a drawing too, I think! We were living in Dubai at the time, a very happy period for them and for me.

Since I was scanning that and have no life drawings to show this week, I scanned the others in the sketchbook as I haven't shown them here before. I've been worried about copyright as all of these are taken from commercial publications but since I have been told it is OK to do this if they are not used for commercial gain, I think it's probably safe.


















This, again, is one of my favourite portraits. Dark skin is so satisfying to draw, there is a wonderful sheen on her skin and her face was pure joy to draw. Her eyes were done quite a bit darker and make the drawing I feel. I enjoy taking the drawing from highly detailed to a few lines, just to emphasis that it is a drawing not a photo. The hair was kept a little sketchy for that reason too. I like realistic but I can't see the point in photo-realistic. I came across her face in an ad for furniture in an American women's magazine so I can't credit the photographer.














This one, however, is taken from Vogue magazine, part of a photograph by Raymond Meier. The photo was one of a series of very beautiful photos with Helena Christensen showcasing some exquisite jewellery. Again, a lovely sheen on dark skin, and that dark outline I mentioned before. Add to that a tropical beach and plenty of gold - perfect! (After drawing this, I realised how old and wrinkly my own hands looked!)


This one of Diana was drawn a month after her death and felt quite strange to do. I liked her enormously (we share the same birthday, I never hestitate to mention!) and I feel the British should be more proud of their royal family and their history (even though I'm Irish!) Here, I particularly enjoyed doing her neck. I enjoy rendering the parts of the body and body that have no lines, that needs shading to bring to life. Hands and noses are a favourite too, things that others say they hate doing!

Although I credit the EDM challenges for enabling me to draw faster now, I think I was beginning to do this anyway. The portrait of Diana was done in 3 days. Even though it was quite small, that is a lot faster than I had taken previously. Many of my drawing could take months if they were A4 size or larger but this was beginning to frustrate me as I got few drawings done over the course of a year.