Marks sans Sparks

Marks & Spencer, or Marks & Sparks as it is affectionately known, closed down last month. Since it only opened in April 2007, I'd have to say that was a spectacular failure. I love M&S - if it ever went into liquidation, my life would be over! I can go to the branch in Marble Arch, London, and stock up on almost everything I need for the rest of the year. The clothes are made to fit real people of all sizes and heights and they have ranges to suit everyone from newborns to elderly. The quality of the food is legendary (although usually griped about by those who have no idea what supermarkets in other parts of the world are like!) and although it has good years and bad years, it has managed to maintain it's standards and provide good value for money.

I moved to Dubai in December '95, and by April I was so desperate for summer clothes, ( it was short notice and I couldn't find anything in the winter ranges that were then on sale!) I made an emergency trip to London to stock up. Fortunately for me they opened a branch the following year, and by the time I moved to Kuwait, they were already there. So why did it take so long to open a branch here? Prior to the opening of the Dubai branch, ex-pats stocking up on their clothes were advised to cut off the labels before coming back through customs as the goods would be confiscated. Marks, of the original founders, Marks & Spencer was Jewish. Even so, it took longer for a British name to break into French speaking Geneva! And now it's gone.

Whether it was deliberate or unbelievably bad management, I can't say, but I could see the writing on the wall right from the start. I'm a size 10-12, a combination of fairly standard sizes. I noticed that if you saw something you liked in there, you had to buy it there and then because the size would be gone by the next day and they didn't re-stock. What was on the floor was what they had, no stock rooms to check if your size wasn't available. So I noticed that they would have around two to four size 10's and 12's and a whole caboodle of sizes 18-22's! Week after week, I'd go in to see the same old stock in these huge sizes and no-one was buying them. Not even the 14's!

Why? Because the Genovoise are not overweight! Who were these clothes aimed at? And that wasn't the only problem. To compound it, this tiny branch (it only occupied a small space of this large building on a prime location on the Rue du Marché) brought over the most dull and boring ranges. These ranges are M&S's bread and butter in the UK. Great for the elderly and those that want something inoffensive (in fact, it even worked for the Kuwaiti women, where the long sleeves and bottons to the neck were de rigeur for those wearing more western styles) but very definitely not for Geneva where money is not an issue - here even the elderly look well dressed and groomed.

However, while these less exiting ranges (M&S calls them 'classics'!) sell like hot cakes in the UK, there simply isn't a need for them here. They could have brought over the more classy Autograph range, or their quirky Per Una range. They could have brought in more stylish men's suits (rows and rows of light coloured, standard fit jeans and dull jumpers!) and emphasised the choice of sizes. It's impossible here to find anything shorter than a 32" inside leg in jeans or suits! Anything M&S had, it could have been bought from any cheap clothing store here. It needed to show off why it was so special and it certainly shouldn't have brought over all that over sized stock! Come to think of it, they could have sold only food and really taken Geneva by storm! If they can export food to Kuwait, there's no reason why they can't bring it to Geneva, one and a half hours flight away- except that the market is obviously strangled by the two giant (and spectacularly dull!) Swiss supermarkets Migros and Co-op.

No doubt, it will have a whole container full of size 22's going back to Head Office. But why, I wonder did no-one look at those rails of unwanted stock and put (or rather see!) the two and two together and work it out? I bit my tongue every time I went in there. Maybe I should have said all this when I had the chance!

Sketching indoors and out

Some TV sketches done a while ago (before the migraines got in the way of posting!). Starting with the faces on Mastermind. I like these two together as they show how different the human profile can be. I don't use measurements but I'm sure if I did I'd confirm what I think about those 'how to draw portraits' type of books - that there really is no standard measurements. Eyes are not exactly half way and lips are not always as the same as the distance between the pupils etc. Sarah Simblett's book Anatomy For the Artist - whilst an excellent book - annoys me for having used young, perfectly symmetrical, athletic and toned models - even, in one case, a woman who seems to have breast implants! Where are the books with older, skinny and overweight people? Human beings are so diverse and interesting it has always seemed strange to me that artists (and the media) have an obsession with females of a certain age and size. We should be celebrating it, not torturing ourselves to conform to an 'ideal'.




















Two more from Mastermind.





















I crammed too much onto this page. From Sky News I drew Andy Gray, former footballer. Next to him I've forgotten the name except it was a double barreled Irish name which I thought seemed odd (more of a British class thing usually). Below them, the man on the right (I liked his top lip!) I've forgotten but on the left is Max Clifford, publicist for Jade Goody. I hadn't realised quite how big his nose is in profile until I drew him!




















Top here, a name again forgotten, and below is Harriet Harman, looking very serious in an interview with Andrew Marr (whose show is one I try not to miss and whose face I'm still hoping to catch).

I've discovered a trick to drawing from TV, and that is to do it on Sunday morning when the interviews are much longer! You can easily get a 5-10 minute pose if there is something juicy happening at the time!




















I've actually finished this little sketchbook and it's the first time ever that I have filled one! I thought it was appropriate to have Eamonn Holmes and Jacquie Beltrao from Sky News on the last page as they are the two presenters I most enjoy watching in the mornings. I wonder if anyone notices that I rarely draw people face on? Not just because I love profiles but because they are a whole lot easier to do!

Last but not least, an unfinished sketch of L'Ecole des Arts Industriel here in Geneva. I say not least because although it's really not worth posting (and it nearly went off the top of the page!), I learned something important while I drew this - I really do not like drawing buildings! Inspired by the Urban Sketchers, I took myself off into town one Sunday just to sketch but after only a few minutes I was bored, bored, bored with this! Geneva has some interesting buildings (and a whole lot of very ugly ones!) and I felt bad for not recording them. Well, not any more. It's just as useful to know what you can't or don't want to do, and buildings are not my thing - not unless they are, say, buildings in my close environment or something I feel I must draw - but from now on I'm happy just enjoy the drawings of others who are more passionate about them!

Self portrait with migraine

After the self portrait with glasses, this is the self portrait with migraine - or the closest I'll get as I felt unwell when I started it, gave up, then finished it yesterday. I love the technique this paper allows me. I can build up skin tones by almost literally scribbling. That in turn allows for a 'what if' attitude so it's ideal for getting my momentum back and because it's so quick (after fussing over the initial sketch!) I have a finished drawing in a fraction of the time it takes with graphite. I have noticed though, that the surface of the paper breaks up very easily so it doesn't allow for much erasing and fussing. I find it interesting that graphite on white paper, colour pencil on white paper and colour pencil on brown paper all seem to need a different mindset. I know it's the key to cracking watercolours but I haven't cracked that code yet!

Sugar and spice and all things nasty

I have a very desirable body - for a hypochondriac. So many things to moan about but I'd much rather not! (Actually, come to think of it, my body is fine, all my problems are from the neck up!) I'll make a bit of an exception though to explain why the blogging and drawing have been so sporadic. Lately I seem to have been up and down like a yo-yo, in and out of my sickbed. I had a horrible migraine not so long ago and I was so fed up I decided to go for a super healthy diet to see if it made any difference. About four days later I had acute sinusitis followed by yet another three day migraine! To cut a long story short, I think I may have finally nailed it - and I'm cutting out all fruit and sugars (along with the wheat and yeast - I had an inkling of the problem here but I obviously didn't take it far enough).


I was rather surprised though to find that this probiotic drink I started taking is sweetened with aspartame. I normally avoid sweeteners simply because they are not natural but when I Googled this, then aspartame, then the enormous list of things that contains it, I was really shocked. The packet of orange lozenges I take now and again and carry in my bag has it. The Lempsip I took for the sinusitus has it, even my migraine tablets have it. So when, last week, I started drinking these yogurts every day, I upped my intake without even realising I was taking it at all. I'm surprised, not just that it hasn't been banned, but that it's use is so widespread. Like the banking system, I wouldn't be surprised if the food industry is harbouring many, many dirty secrets on an enormous scale that need to be exposed. Almost every food or drink you can think of has been tinkered with in some way - from hormones in meat to pesticides in your tea. And yet, what trust we have in our food suppliers!

So it seemed like a fitting subject to do a little sketch of today and to mark what I hope, cautiously, will be a turning point. Time will tell.

Retail therapy

I was out and about this morning looking for birthday cards - Alex is 16 and Paul is 18 this week! - and tried the only shop I know with a fairly good selection. Manor is one of the few department stores in the city but I tend not to go there are as the layout is confusing and they seem to have been refurbishing for years! But today there were signs indicating the stationary department had moved upstairs and I expected to see it downsized and stuck in a corner (on the tram on the way I saw that Marks & Spencer's 'new' store has already closed down!) but it looked really good - bigger, better laid out and nice and bright.

This display really caught my eye!





















Considering Caran d'Ache's factory is based in Geneva, I'm surprised they don't showcase their products better. This is the best I've seen so far. I really liked how all these pencils were displayed according to colour.






















In fact, I'd really love this for my room at home! Shame I'm not a big Caran d'Ache fan though!

















The new Luminance range finally selling in 'open stock'. I bought a Silver Grey and Buff Titanium to try as highlights on my brown paper (Lyra and Polychromos whites seemed a bit weak).






















But this was the best - have you ever seen such a big testing pad?! Utterly irresistible -it would bring out the 5 year old in anyone!

Doodles and musings

It was National Doodle Day last Friday, apparently. "Really?" said I, "I hadn't heard that". "That's because", said Mark, "it's National, not International!" Sometimes I think I watch too much Sky TV and forget I don't actually live in the UK!

As I was rooting around to find the brown Paperchase sketchbook, I came across two little drawings I made last year and forgot all about. The one on the left is a doodle of Paul's face which emerged, strangely, out of a page where I was practising some cross hatching. The middle drawing is of Alex, using a photo to practice some colour - and getting the hair colour all wrong! It's a pretty dodgy portrait too but I wasn't worrying too much about accuracy.

There is an interesting page about meanings of doodles, here on the National Doodle Day site. I normally do one of two things - either meandering, unbroken lines, or lots of arrows coming from a central point - so I'm not sure I fit neatly into any of the categories. But when I was working at one unhappy job, I used to do the same doodle for years - rows and rows of bricks! Not deliberately either, they just came out like that every time! Definitely a meaning in that...

As I was mulling over those brick walls, I remembered another thing that my doodles revealed. At that time, I used to draw for hours and hours every night, working on one portrait for weeks. I discovered, doodling on my office note pad while answering the phone, that I could draw the same portrait from memory. It was smaller and without all the detail of course, but it was almost the same and would stay in my memory and only fade when I had begun a new portrait.

I was mulling over these things in relation to my TV sketching because, actually, my memory is not too bad, even though I think it's terrible, and I suspect, with practice, it could be much better. I was drawing someone on TV last week and realised I'd finally crossed that line - my drawings with and without 'pause' looked the same. While it's almost impossible to catch some people without it (and all the colour sketches are done with it on) I think it's become irrelevant now, once the quality is the same.

I met a now famous pencil artist back in 1992. I have some of his prints and nine times out of ten visitors will ask me if they are my drawings. One thing he said always stayed in my mind, and that was that he admitted he couldn't sketch. I very rarely sketched back then either so I found it comforting. But something kept niggling me about it. Artists often dismiss those that draw or paint only from photos and I think there is some truth what they say. However, I don't believe the technique is wrong, but the way the artist applies their mind to it.

I see many artists making wonderful art from photos but it's only when looking at their other work that you can see where the problem lies. Whether you draw free hand, use a grid, or trace it, it's not only easier to draw from a photo, but the problem of putting something from real life onto a flat surface, and putting your unique stamp on it, has already been solved. It's one flat plane transferred onto another flat plane and that is not so hard to do and I think many inexperienced artists look at that photo simply as a surface with an image. It needs to be looked at like a window. It's an insight into the subject but the artist must investigate further and compare and contrast it with reality. I see some great drawings done from photos and I'm surprised to see that same artist drawing like a 10 year old when either drawing from life or imagination. Why have they not learned about anatomy, proportions, perspective, light, etc. from the photos they have used? It seems to suggest that using photos is somehow tricking the brain but also that there is a trick to making good art from photos without having the necessary skills or experience to apply that to drawing anything else.

However, I will still defend the use of photos as that is how I taught myself to draw. This drawing of Alex's sunglasses was only my second sketch after I started sketching in 2005.














I surprised myself - up until then I had been drawing very detailed pencil portraits from photos that would take weeks and weeks. I convinced myself I couldn't do anything else. But I think the key was that I applied what I saw in photos to life. They have a great deal of potential but only if they are not used as a party trick or a shortcut to actually looking, perceiving, analysing.

If this post sounds a little defensive, but it's not meant to be. (I think in the last year, happily, finally, at long last, I know the meaning of 'past caring!') It's simply to illustrate that to pause or not pause is not relevant for me. I draw from life, photos, the TV, on public transport and sometimes, yes, I even doodle! Whatever the starting point, it's the resulting quality that matters to me and I no longer have the fear that I'm a 'one trick pony' - there is no such thing as cheating if a shortcut is only a matter of time. I read that the pencil artist sold one of his drawings for about £10,000 (for charity) but I do often wonder, did he ever discover the joy of sketching?

TV sketching - now in technicolour!

I was watching Who Do You Think You Are? the other day -a programme that traces the family histories of certain celebrities - and was very taken with Zoe Wanamaker's glasses! In fact she must have had about 4 different pairs on throughout the programme, all of which I would love to have, and not just her glasses, I was coveting some of her clothes as well! This black and white spotted pair were my favourite, teamed with a lovely red cardi (I live in cardis!) so I knew I had to draw them.

How to make those white spots really stand out? Of course, that lovely brown paper sketchpad I keep meaning to use. I don't know why I don't use it because it's so much fun and especially using white pencil for highlights. It makes doing hair a lot easier, especially for this very tousled look of Zoe's. It's probably the only technique I don't think too much about beforehand- I just throw in a bit of this and a bit of that and see what happens. I think there may be a few more in the near future!