summer sketchbook

I thought I would share some of my summer sketchbook work which I am using for this years project, where I will be looking at the human figure, portraiture, and people in places.

(left) collage and biro drawing, A4 (right) photograph, pencil and oil pastel drawing A4

(left) pencil and coloured pencil drawing A4 (right) finaliser drawing with sandwich bag collage, A4

pencil and coloured pencil drawings, all A4

(left) newspaper and biro drawing A4 (right) coloured pencil drawing A4

(left) fine liner drawing A5 (right) pencil and coloured pencil drawing A5

(left) David Hockney postcards (right) pencil drawings A4

(left) biro and chalk pastel drawing A4 (right) coloured pencil and oil pastel drawings A4

after Matisse, pencil, pastel and biro doodles, collage. Both A4

graphite and highlighter sketch, A5

(left) collage A4 (right) graphite sketch A4

(left) fine liner sketch A5 (right) pencil sketch A5

both pencil drawings A4

(left) pencil sketches A4 (right) charcoal and coloured pencil drawing A4

pencil life sketches both A5

recent commissions

'Cressida' oil paint on coloured A4 paper

'Louis' oil paint on coloured A4 paper

First year final piece! Leazes Park II

The piece I will be exhibiting in the end of First Year show is an enormous painting I did on a piece of wood I saved from a skip! Originally around 200cm x 180cm, I decided I wanted the piece square, which did cause issues - due to the fact the wood had previously been nailed together, I had to hand cut it with a jigsaw, so the line ended up slightly scruffy and splintered. The wood was also incredibly heavy, but the grain of it gave a lovely texture to the painting, and complemented the subject matter of trees perfectly.

The square is 180cm x 180cm. I primed it and drew the underlying drawing in charcoal. U can see the wood I needed to saw off on the right hand side (also gives you an idea of the texture).

I used a very turps-ed down mix of oil paint to provide a ground for the painting

studio space

me working on my piece with George's piece of feet in front - studio

I deliberately made some areas more blocked in and graphic, juxtaposed with more washy, blended areas. I think this successfully added depth to the painting so it did not look too 2D and you could travel through the layers of the painting. 

the final product - I had to change the orientation as the jaggedy edge from where I had sawn was better disguised when it was at the bottom of the piece. The line on the left is poly-filler - wood can be in terrible states when salvaged from the skip!!

The piece was too heavy to hang from the wall in the exhibition, but it looked like it had been forgotten about just resting on the floor - thankfully the venue had these wooden plinths to raise it off the ground

commissioned painting 'Joyous Nude'

I was recently commissioned to do a painting with the words 'Joyous Nude' in mind. I made the canvas stretcher in the wood workshop and stretched the canvas myself. I used my sister as a model which is why I have blurred out my reference photo    
                                     

I often hold my painting up to look at it through a mirror. This can give me the illusion of fresh eyes; seeing it from a different perspective to see what can be done to improve it 

birthday gifts

To celebrate my parents both turning 50 this year, I made a series of sketches, paintings and prints of the family to gift to them. 

a mono print of my brother and sister. I used oil-based ink on copper and used cotton buds, pencils and kitchen roll to create texture and shape

A4 paper

a mono print of my father doing a squat A4 paper 

for this print I used a mixture of hard ground etching and an acrylic medium for aqua-tinting 

the pink is the acrylic medium - you can cover areas you do not wish to be 'bitten' by acid, therefore controlling the intensity of the black when inked

'My dad' each on A4 paper

'Me' charcoal and oil paint on A4 paper

'My mother' oil pastel and oil paint on A4 paper

'Phoebe' charcoal and oil paint sketch on A4 paper

another of my dad. Oil paint on A4 paper