Paul, London '07

Another Paul in the family, my brother this time. I've been meaning to draw him for years! After doing the outline, I copied it in case the colour pencils didn't work out but I'm happy with this and compared to graphite, drawing with the Cretacolors is incredibly quick! The coloured pencils seem so natural and instinctive, I wonder why watercolour isn't the same? Now I've scanned this I can see a little more colour might be needed around the mouth (although the scan has dulled the colour slightly) but I'll leave it for a while and look at it afresh in a week or so. This drawing is one of the largest I've done in a while - at 12ins high and it didn't quite fit on the scanner - I dread to think how long it would have taken in graphite.

Cretacolor Aqua Monoliths on Daler Heavyweight (220gsm) cartridge paper.

Counting my chickens

A self-portrait, drawn yesterday afternoon. I wasn't going to post it, it was a very quick sketch to try and warm up and instead of capturing the signs of ageing that I hate, I chickened out and managed to make it look flattering!


















I tried drawing from the TV this week and goodness, is that hard to do! On Monday night I gave up and drew Mark's feet instead!





















On Tuesday evening I had better luck, I was watching Richard & Judy and they had two guests on the sofa, twin doctors. So when the camara switched to the other one, I could still carry on with the same drawing!

I wouldn't have posted any of these drawings if it hadn't have been for the news last night of Heath Ledger's death. I haven't followed his career very closely but I did see him in A Knight's Tale only a few days ago. I saw him in one scene, surrounded by others and the thought occured that he was a very lucky individual to have those looks, he certainly had star quality, he stood out. Just yesterday, I saw a roll call of actresses who are up for Oscars this year and it struck me how similar their features were, especially their foreheads! As I drew the doctor on the sofa, I noticed this high forehead again, and wondered if these two good looking twins would have had the chance to make their programme if it wasn't for the way they looked. Heath Ledger had that same high forehead, that same mathematical formula that we think defines attractiveness.

I was about to turn off the TV last night when I switched to the news and saw the report, his body being taken out on a stretcher with a crowd of people taking photos. A female voice saying how sad, as a private person he wouldn't have liked all the publicity. Well, no doubt she and her cameraman raced there just as fast. Another reporter in the studio said his death was a shame as he was just about to break into the mainstream, on the verge of making a big name for himself. Well, yet again, I have to wonder, what on earth has anyone got to do to be considered successful? He was nominated, amongst other things for an Oscar for 'best actor'. That is pretty successful in his profession I would have thought.

Why I watch Richard & Judy, I don't know - Richard tries so desperately to be cool it's uncomfortable to watch. Maybe it's to see the guests trying not to laugh as he puts his foot in his mouth again and again! He had Tom Skerritt on one day, and asked him about Tom Cruise, his co-star in Top Gun. Regular readers know I use Tom Cruise to illustrate the nonsense that is written and said about celebrities. Tom Skerritt described Cruise as being the way he was because "he had limited life experience" to which Richard smirked and nodded knowingly. Of all the things Cruise could be accused of, I think that was the strangest. (Sour grapes, Mr Skerritt?)I think I'd be exhausted by his 'limited life experiences' if I swapped places with him for just one week.

So Cruise, not long ago voted 'world's most influential actor' has limited life experience. Ledger, with his BAFTA and Oscar nominations was still trying to break in and make a name! As that artistic genius Joni Mitchell once sang ' And I looked at myself here, chicken scratching for my own mortality'. Another talent, Amy Winehouse was on the news most of the day, everyone fearing her self destruction, but it was Ledger, with the movie-star looks and trappings of wealth and success, who ended up on the stretcher.

I remember when Paul was a toddler and Alex a baby and tidying up the whole house in a mad frenzy in time for the baby group to visit. Every room was spotless and I was exhausted. One of the mums said it was such a tidy house, it didn't look as if any toddlers lived there! Well, it was spotless for the duration of the visit - one brief shining moment - and then it was back to normal, dust bunnies, toys everywhere and happy children! That is what success is, I think, in reality; one brief shining moment, impossible to hang on to, impossible to sustain, an illusion - some can't see it even when they have it, others waste their lives chasing it. So today, I'm quite happy to be a chicken scratching, with my saggy face and limited life experience, so I'll post my little sketches and count my blessings!

Electricity boxes, Planpalais/Carouge

I like the artist's sense of humour, here a mammoth is protecting an electricity box!







































I'm not entirely sure where Planpalais ends and Carouge begins but I think these two above are in Carouge (the lion and kitten are two sides of the same box)







































and this one, on the other side of the tram lines, is in Planpalais. I don't see a name here but the face may be that of Guillaume Henri Dufor.

Correction - it's Henry Dunant.

Say cheese!

Paul, drawn from a photo taken in Dubai, '97. I noticed he's wearing the same clothes as in the first colour sketch and again this shade of blue posed problems with my limited colours. I used a blue/grey Cretacolour pencil but it was too dull so I hunted around and found some Prismacolours and Supracolours that I bought a few years ago. I tried layering another blue on top and made it worse but a little black and some darker black lines to accentuate the creases brought it back. I put a little green in the background to pick up on the shorts but it doesn't seem to show well from the scan. I'm not entirely happy with the result (a little overworked in parts) but I'm very happy with the progress and I learned a lot from doing this.

It feels quite bizarre to see these colour drawings - the style is mine, the method is almost the same and yet they look so different in colour. It's like looking at a twin you never knew you had! The last couple of weeks have been quite a revelation but as if the art progress wasn't enough I found out, I think, the answer to my food intolerances. I've been drawing from photos taken in Australia, which is strange because, no offence to anyone reading, I don't actually like the place very much! Two trips and two nightmare experiences - the full cost of the trip refunded the second time. But Australia is where I finally made the connection that bread was causing my problems. We were staying in hotel that did wonderful salads, which I don't normally go for, and I practically lived on them. Back to the normal diet the difference was obvious, no bloating.

So fast forward to this week, drawing photos of Oz. I bought some gluten-free bread rolls a few days ago but this is unusual for me, I avoid gluten-free products as they are so calorific and I started putting on weight when I was eating them a few years ago. I thought they would save time though, this week, a quick roll and I could get back to drawing. Well, all the same old symptoms came back and to cut a long story short, there were so few ingredients it can only be the yeast. Well that is a surprise, after nearly eleven years, but apparently, and I had no idea, these two have symptoms that are easy to confuse in mild cases like mine. I was surprised too to see the long list of foods that contain yeast, like my favourite hard cheeses. It solves the mystery of the second trip too, to tie in the Australian connection, when we visited some relatives for a barbecue. They knew I was wheat intolerant and bought some special veggie sausages for me, (not that that was necessary so I felt I had to eat them)...Now I know that lovely flavour must have been Vegemite! I hope next week will hold just as much progress but I'm not sure I can take any more surprises at this rate!

More progress!

This is cute overload, I know. I got a little distracted from my purpose - going through the photo albums I came across this photo of Alex and had to draw it. The drawing at the top is of a Quokka when we visited Rottnest Island in Western Australia, 2001. I drew this one on Saturday with the Museum watercolour leads and felt that when I needed to use them to build up layers of colour, they are actually not as hard as I would like. They get blunt quite quickly and need constant sharpening and sharpening them is a bit of a messy business. Hmm. But when I woke up on Sunday morning the first thing I thought was 'Cretacolour'! The Cretacolour Aqua Monolith watercolour pencils that Bonny introduced me when we met in November. I liked them immediately but in my quest to paint, I had forgotten about them. To cut a long story short, I think, by Jove, I've cracked it! I've only got four, but I used them together with the leads on Alex's portrait and it was a huge relief - not to mention great fun.

It's funny too, that as I drew this little portrait, I was reminded of a book I saw on the last day of my watercolour class this summer. It's called Carnets d'une Longue Marche and it was a good thing I saw it on the last day because I didn't pick up a paintbrush for months after seeing it. I thought at first there were two illustrators and then I realised it was just the one but his colour pencil drawings were so much better (in my opinion) than his watercolours. So why didn't I do the obvious and try colour pencils? I don't know but now that I have it feels 'right'. I have the book now so I got it out again to see how he deals with skin tones and shadows. He keeps his colours clean and simple whereas, with the few colours I have, I've had to layer them to get the right shade and it looks a little messy. So I have ordered the complete set of Aqua Monoliths and hopefully I'll be in business very soon!

Travel sketches

Well, the armchair variety, anyway! I didn't want to say it out loud, but doing travel sketches in colour was one of my New Year's resolutions. It seems indecently hasty by my normal standards (not to mention immodest) to say, on January 11th, that I feel I've made some significant progress. I had given myself a timescale of months and maybe years! It's not correct, I know, to say these are travel sketches but I went through my photo albums this week to practice and get a feel for it. I tried to do these quickly and tried to imagine which scenes I would most likely have wanted to draw and how much time I might have had. I know from my carnets de voyage, that using photography to colour in scenes afterwards is common practice so I'm going to include things that I might sketch on the spot and colour later.

I started with watercolours and as usual, I overworked them. (Not shown here!) I also realised immediately that watercolours - with the palette, water container, brushes, paper towels etc. - are really quite difficult to manage on a lap and as sitting my be a luxury, I can't imagine how anyone manages them 'in the field'!

I'm not a fan of looking back and I don't use photos very much these days but I felt I needed to go back to basics, to what worked for me, in order to break through the barrier I've had with watercolours. I have no desire to draw or paint landscapes or still life, as is usually taught at watercolour class so I thought about what I wanted to achieve, what subjects appeal most of all and what scale I'm comfortable with but most importantly - forget about making progress and 'just do it'. Well, after the first few disasters, struggling to make them look light and loose and with getting the pigment ratio right and fighting some absorbant paper I thought I'd try out the Museum watercolour leads again. Mentioned before but here they are again.












I've included a pencil and Cretacolour pencil on the left for comparison. The watercolour leads are very thin and hard and come with a lead holder which has an in-built sharpener. I've been using them without the holder as I find it very heavy and unbalanced - it feels as if the centre of gravity is somewhere at the top. So after feeling very disappointed with the watercolours I finally gave in to the leads. I'm sure my brain works differently to most people's because I've resisted using pencils to apply colour as I knew I would enjoy it and most likely find it easier than painting! Also, I hadn't really found a coloured pencil that has the same feel as graphite - until I discovered these leads. They feel very hard like my graphite pencils and the pigment dissolves completely, unlike other watercolour pencils I've tried, but the real advantage of these over paint is that without the holder, these are extremely light and portable, just like my pencils. And what's more, I can apply water later if I want that effect. Ah, but there is just one, rather significant, disadvantage - they only come in these 18 colours. I'm going to have to learn how to mix them!




















The drawing at the top of the post was done first. The bird (I don't know it's name) I'm most happy with as that was drawn very fast. It was photographed in an enclosure so it could realistically be captured on paper, they don't move around so much. Down from that is Paul, on a beach. It was drawn quickly but I don't think this sort of portrait would be easy from life. And below, Paul and Alex feeding fish from the back of a boat on the Great Barrier Reef. Here I had trouble mixing the leads to get a good skin tone. Their skin was tanned and there was a lot of reflected light and deep shadows. The kaola and kangeroos would be very easy to capture as these were photographed in an enclosure and the animals didn't move about much.

So I'm going to continue with this for a while. It's very interesting to go through the photos with an eye for drawing - I'm spotting things I didn't notice at the time like, for instance, how long this koala's claws are! I still want to improve my painting but for the first time I think I'd like to try mixing media. Of course, I have a way to go but I'm finding that my normal perfectionist tendancies are not kicking in with this type of drawing as it has been doing with the watercolours.

Double-take-away

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so they say! (And no, I don't believe that!) Still, it amuses me whenever I'm passing through Planpalais on the tram and it reminds me of a similar photo I took in Kuwait. Mr Wong must be quite audacious to do this when he's right next door though. I've only just realised looking at the photo - isn't that the Nike logo too? Good grief!Wong on so many levels...




















Across the road from McDonalds, a bronze commuter is also turning a blind eye.




















There are still signs of Christmas all over Geneva. I like this - why bother going to the trouble of decorating the whole tree? Just put one big bauble up and voilà! it's a statement!

Carnets de Voyage

Carnets de voyage are my latest obsession. There seems to be quite a large market for these publications in France judging by the all the titles available. One book I should have included in this photo perhaps is Carnets de Voyage by Cecile Filliette, as this was the first one I found here and the one that sparked off my interest. Perhaps it's unusual, considering my own style of drawing, but I find this loose, colourful, sketchy style very appealing. Drawing a subject or scene cements it permanently in the memory, so how exciting it would be to come home from a trip with a sketchbook of colourful memories! The second book I bought was Richard Schilling's Watercolor Journeys with it's illustrations from his travels but also a mine of useful information on creating your own journals and all the pros and cons of sketching in the field. As a cruise ship dentist, he has the perfect job for travelling the world and having the time to paint the places he visits!

Thanks to the very talented Laura, (hers is a must-read blog and now it's official!) who wrote about the carnets de voyage she came across on her trip to France, I bought Mali Secret, a fabulous, inspiring book by Stefano Faravelli, and just so it wasn't lonely on it's way from Amazon.fr, I added Madagascar by Claire and Reno Marca. This one is illustrated by Reno and includes photos by his wife Claire. Madagascar is my favourite place in the world - I'm amazed it still hasn't been over-run by tourists - so it was doubly thrilling to find this beautiful book. Mes Carnets des Iles by Rolf Weijburg has a more distinct, highly stylised feel to it, I can't really imagine these detailed illustrations were done completely in the field but it's interesting to see how different these carnets de voyage can look.

















So with no lack of inspiration, my blog should be full of colourful sketches but alas, I'm still struggling with watercolours! I think my main problem is that I've had trouble finding paper that I'm happy with. I now have brushes I'm comfortable using - having accidentally bought synthetic and not sable travel brushes when I visited Green & Stone, I found I really liked them! They seem to me to be much more controllable than sable - which made me feel like Alice in Wonderland trying to play croquet with the floppy flamingo!

These books, above, are some of the papers I've tried. From the top, this one is 300g cold pressed paper by L'Atelier du Papier and it has a too regular pattern on it's surface, and a little too rough for my liking. The Bockingford is quite nice but again slightly too rough although good for practising. The Arches Carnet de Voyage I like very much but as it is very smooth - hot pressed satin grain - it's perhaps too challenging for a beginner like me, I have a long way to go yet before I can make the most of it. The 'carnet du fond du jardin' is also by L'Atelier du Papier and is incredibly absorbent paper - I must remind myself not to be fooled by the attractive covers this company employs because I don't like their papers at all! Ah, but thank goodness for Green & Stone yet again, because I only bought this little pad as I liked the size but the paper is just the thing I've been looking for - fairly smooth but with just enough tooth. The only problem is, I bought only two little pads so I'm afraid to ruin them! On the positive side though, I think I've found a good excuse for a return visit!

Happy New Year!

It's traditional in our house to take the Christmas decorations down in time for the new year - despite Mark and I having different attitudes towards the festive season, that is one thing we do agree on. Since the build up to Christmas starts in October I can't see any reason to prolong the agony any longer than necessary! The virus I caught in London was not as harmless as I had thought and I spent most of Christmas feeling very sore from all the coughing - another good reason for wanting to forget it for another year!

This drawing was supposed to be finished before I went to London and a new one posted for Christmas but somehow Christmas takes over everything and then the virus finished me off! So I lost the rhythm of it and decided it was either going to be finished today or I'd scrap it. These are not really presents as they were bought for myself - this super-slim phone to replace the Motorola I could never get on with (so slim I keep losing it in my bag!) and a compact camera that I can carry all the time and also for Paul to take on a school trip to Morocco this year.

I never make resolutions but just before I went to London, a rather exciting travel opportunity came up for this year and some ideas have been percolating in my head. I'm not going to say too much as I find that putting my intentions into words has the effect of taking the wind out of my sails but one thing I will be doing is sketching more often and trying to improve my lines and speed. Seeing my own work nominated for an award on Katherine's blog, Making a Mark (I've written about it on my other blog) has also made me think about the directions I'm taking and given me renewed focus - not a bad start to the new year!

And the new year is a good time to say a big thank you to everyone who visits and leaves comments, I appreciate it very much especially when I think back to my first post and how I wondered if anyone would ever read my blog! Thank you and I hope you have a very happy, healthy and creative 2008!