Back to the Bee's Mouth

As the snow mounts up outside I thought I'd scan last weeks drawings from the life drawing class at The Bee's Mouth Pub. It was the busiest yet and movement and space was limited for both the model and the artists. This time my friend Roni joined Lizzie and I. Roni has NEVER draw before and she found it a draining and emotional experience. I was already impressed with her for turning up and giving it a go. I was even more impressed when I saw how well her drawings came out. I look forward to seeing her develop her style and skills because she has made one hell of a strong start for a first timer.

I myself struggled a little with having a female life model...not because I was shy you understand....it's just I find the softer shapes of the female form more of a challenge then drawing the male figure. I'm not sure why, I think my style just sits better with sharper angles and straighter lines.

Finally, I dug out this old life drawing from my university days as Lizzie was taking about may be trying to use an ink pot and dip pen next time. I was sure I had done some life drawing with a dip pen...this is the only evidence I could find. It is not that I decided not to draw the model in this class, it was that the model did not turn up! The tutor insisted that we carry on as planned and draw the space without the model. I still remember him informing some French exchange students that the model was merely 'the cherry on the cake' and one of them writing this down in her notes baffled.

Once More Into The Bee's Mouth

After about four weeks absence last night Lizzie and I returned to Brighton's charming little public house The Bee's Mouth for more life drawing. It was the busiest I've seen it, which makes me suspect there have been a number of Brighton based New Year's Resolutions made around being more creative. Everyone seemed happy to squash in and the atomosphere seemed more open than usual. People talked a little, drawings weren't hidden quite so fast. It was nice.

The lady (her name escapes me) who normally runs the show was on holiday and the twist of this week was that the class was being run by one of the life models (her name also escapes me but she made it into the second drawing below). Doing the actual modelling was the original model from our first session in the curtained back room. I think his name is David...thought it is quite possible his name has escaped me. "You'll be happy" Lizzie whispered to me and she was not wrong. David....if that is his name, I can't be certain.... is perfect to draw, a long thin strip of knotted muscles and elongated limbs. He looks like an Egon Schiele selfportrait in the flesh.

I mixed things up like a mad man....instead of using black in I used sepia coloured ink! I know, I'm pushing the boundaries of free thinking and creativity almost to breaking point. The sepia pens were a gift from my neuroscientist hypnotherapist friend Lynne and I needed to break them in. It's pretty nice drawing in brown for a change.

Cats and Bobs

Two of my oldest and closest friends had themselves birthdays. I made them presents. Hannah as a child had a cat fetish that extended as far as a shrine to cats.... she got over this but the rest of us never have and she has never escaped the nickname 'Hannah Cats'. Hence her presents.

Our friend Alan does not have a cat fetish, he does have a Mark Knopfler fetish...which is far more disturbing. More naturally Alan also loves Bob Dylan....especially when Bob got Mark in to play on his track Blind Willie McTell. Alan (to his excitement) saw them play together a year ago...and they weren't selling commemorative chinaware oddly. I rectified this over sight. Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler together on a plate and bowl...with my favourite lyrics from Blind Willie McTell on their heads.
I'm a great friend.

iphone cases - the gift that keeps giving

Before I started slapping my doodles on plates I had already forsaken paper in favour of another surface....iphone cases. I don't actually own an iphone myself but as the majority of my friends do I thought personalised iphone covers might make nice presents. I discovered a website called wrappz.com, gaudy and brash in design (as the use of a 'z' in replacement for a 's' might suggest) but easy enough to use and they provide a good service. It's a simple case of uploading your image and then leaving the rest to them.

I have made three iphone cases and am pretty happy with them all.
Firstly for my medical student friend Flo a personalised Herge style phone case. We are both obsessive fans of the Tintin books (I could corner you and explain why Herge is the greatest artist who ever lived for many hours if you had the misfortune of running into me at a party) and though I've know Flo for about five years it only occurred to me recently to try draw her in Herge's style. I was pretty convinced that any attempt to re-create Herge's style would be shambolic but I was thrilled when it worked out okay. The patients head is a nod to Tintin and the Shooting Star, Flo as Tintin and as I am a nurse I decided to throw myself in as Captain Haddock (considering this has been a nickname for me in the past).

In a previous post I mentioned my film maker friend Leanne Welham, I also mentioned the fact she is working on her first feature Twitcher....so I made her a Twitcher phone case. The iconic symbol of the film is a Wryneck bird....thanks for choosing that Leanne... what a pain in the arse to draw.

I have also mentioned my contour fashion student friend Ruth, who designs wonderful bras and pants. Well if you've glanced the images below you'll realise I not gone down the underwear root for Ruth. Ruth and I bonded over our incredible taste music and in particular Joanna Newsom (the single greatest song writer of my generation).  One Joanna Newsom song in particular is dearest to both our hearts, a song called 'Only Skin' in which every line is spine tingling and soul piercing in its beauty and perfection. I illustrated a line from the song for Ruth with a nod to her own blog Lesson's in Scarlet.

And there they all are on phone cases. I should have got a picture of each one in use by each person. Darn.

Paper No More

I have an idea, it involves my drawings on ceramics. I experimented last night with this concept. It is not an easy process and with the three attempts I made to plaster my drawings onto plates or bowls I learnt something different with each one.

The first thing I learnt with plate one was that if you really need an image with a good clear outline that you can cut right up to because other wise the decal paper is quite obvious once attached to the ceramic.

The second thing I learnt is if you are going to apply a glaze to protect the decal image once it is on the plate...then be careful and exact. Just put it on the image and not a wash covering some of the plate as well. It is quite obvious where your new bit of glaze is and it does not look good.

Finally on a bowl I learnt if the surface is curving, you might have to deal with a wrinkle or two in the image. It is early days but I think it might be possible to do something real nice with this. Wish me luck....

Christmas Card

It's been a while and this is largely due to Christmas preparation. My days have been spend fighting through the busy rainy streets of Brighton and braving establishments filled with consumers shopping seemingly with the notion that the world is ending and only presents will save them. It has not been at all like the Dickensian imagery I always create in my mind before I head out Christmas shopping, the streets are not snow covered, I have not strolled cobble paving my arms steeped with string tied parcels while ever shop keeper calls a cheerful greeting, I have not even tussled the hair of a newspaper boy and given him a shilling to buy his family a fine Christmas goose.

Inside The Captain’s Lodge (…my flat…) things have been more festive and traditional. I have hung clove studded oranges by red ribbon and wrapped gifts with bows while the spicy zest stings my nostrils. I have also sat drawing with yuletide purpose while listening to high quality Christmas music bathed in the light of a hundred fairy lights.

The first of my Christmas creative endevours I will share are this years Christmas cards. Again I had them printed at printed.com, this saves me time and probably money. I’m pretty pleased with the final result even if they printed them slightly too dark and the detail of the hair was lost. Anyway you can see for yourself. I am a man of little money at the moment and was unable to print very many so this year only a very few people got a Christmas card from me. I hope this doesn't make me hated.

Black and White Original

Colour

How it may have looked on your shelf if I had sent you a card

Merry Christmas ya'll

 

Digression and then Sharing The Love: Part Three

Due to the boiler death outline in the last post I had to shower at work this morning and will have to continue to do so until Thursday. The male shower at work is located gents toilets, there are three cubicles, two contain toilets and the last a shower. These are the communal toilets for patients and staff alike, so it was with a certain degree of uncertainty I embarked on this venture. The shower cubicle is just that, no shelves or anything, so no where to put clothes and bags, so after a period of hesitation I disrobed in a toilet cubicle and left my mountain of winter clothes in there. Though it is a short distance between cubicle to cubicle the anxiety of the prospect of a meeting (an early patient sent to provide a urine sample or a lab technician planning to void his bowels for the first time of the day) while in only boxer shorts can not be underestimated. Also crossing a hospital toilet floor with bare feet is one of the more psychologically unsettling tasks I’ve had to undertake.

The water was at least hot even if the stream feeble and fluctuating, it was very much like standing under an elderly gentleman with prostate trouble attempting to void his bladder. I have often ideally wondered why the sinks and mirrors above the sinks in the unit toilets are so low; they reflect your torso and cut out the head all together. This had always been a mild curiosity but post shower upgraded to mild inconvenience. Kneeling on the floor to comb your hair makes you feel like a dick.

So that was my morning and it has nothing to do with this post, I just needed to share that. One of my best friends is a film maker called Leanne Welham. She is a partial deaf little creature with one hand bigger than the other, she progresses through life managing to be confused and irritated by it at the same time. Look I did a picture of her.

 Despite this she is a beautiful and talented film maker and will be a very big name in British film making I promise you. She is currently working on her first feature film, Twitcher a dark yet uplifting human drama. I can tell you it is going to be brilliant already because I have read every draft of the script so far (and made lots of wise suggestions). I can also tell you it will be brilliant based on the three short films Leanne has written and directed so far: Novo, Transgress and her latest Nocturn. Nocturn has played many important festivals and impressed many important people and has won awards and that and is quite incredible. You can download it at itunes for less than £1.50p, you’d be a fool not to and you don’t want to be a fool do you?

Some links for ya'll

 twitcherthemovie.com

http://nocturnfilm.com/

Leanne being interviewed at SXSW

Buy buy buy Nocturn