Ballet dancers in coloured pastels which I don't use very often. I did this work a while ago as a test piece for the medium which I'd never used before. To be fair I don't enjoy doing pastel work myself but love to see it by other artists.
Artwork on paper. Pen, graphic pen, coffee and watercolor. Part of the Hybrid Mythologies series. Inspired by different mythologies and stories, this series is an intuitive exploration and associative drawing project with multiplicities of scenes inside each other.
The complete first task of my lettering course. I thought maybe wait for the critique and refining it it before uploading here. Yet the suggested changes would make a whole different work.
Been a busy couple of weeks, school holidays are always a bit tricky to find time. I have been working on some illustrations for a software product that my husband and I are building so I can't share those at this stage but I was back at the gallery today sketching with my new drawing group, I spent most of my time with a bunch of Mesoamerican statues. I am starting to not get so freaked out by people watching me draw :)
Oils on canvass. This is Charlie. He's the parrot owned by the supermarket where my husband used to work. The owner of the shop brought him in to keep him from getting bored and pulling his feathers out. He has a large cage at the entrance which he often escapes from, and can be found hopping from trolley to trolley on the handles, to amuse himself. He's usually found by a staff member who brings him back. A real character lol
I need to decide which one is going to be the final work as my first task for a lettering course i’m taking. Already hate them all - 3 sketches was too much
An article/rant/annotation to an illustration. A #Hackney bar and its flies.
This picture is not as sad and blue as it might at first seem, I promise.
It is early in the week and the pub becomes the territory of the most outspoken drinkers. Raised somewhere between Churchill and Harold MacMillan, a night such as this is time for them to spin out a yarn of nostalgic fantasy. Encouraged by the lack of a crowd and with space to fill, statements start to fly.
In the opening rounds the barman athletically hits back with factual blocks and reality-check haymakers; statistics and personal experiences are given. Two histories cross examined, one where 1982 means Thatcher and the Falklands, the other renders Reagan and the AIDS crisis. Stoicism and national pride vs mental health and realism.
In the latter rounds the barman is fatigued, swaying on the backbar, glasses begin to stack up as form begins to drop. The older men seem stronger than ever.
The barflies come in close now, they scrutinise his generations work ethic and make wild political comments on poverty, immigrants and the minimum wage.
The barman is close to sheer bloody despair, he maintains his defence and focuses on breathing while maintaining his professional stance.
But at the end of the night the barman knows HE will ring that bell, they will politely leave and they will return again in a week and maybe, just maybe there will be a change, common ground or maybe at least polite silence.
But what these interactions have given despite the salt in the eye is community and an exchange between generations, culture and class of those participating. No home is ever straight forward, no relative without their good and bad traits and in a world where we often slide into echo chambers online or in our physical environments, the pub is still a place where society is family, face to face, pint to pint. Or maybe it's just a room with alcohol on tap?
My tribute to my good friend who died earlier this year. Another white pastel on black paper. Not my favourite media but I love the effect of it. I need to practice more as I can't get my head around working on negative lol, erasing to get shadows and filling in to get highlights etc. I used a chunky white stick and a white pastel pencil but detail still eludes me lol. It's a technique I need to refine. It's the second picture of a dead person I've put on, apart from humph, so I'm a cheery little soul aren't I lol? Thanks for looking
Rad experience joining a local drawing group for the first time yesterday although I didn't realise how inconvenient my backpack was going to be, it made me slow to set up / pack up and a few of us had to organise a locker at the gallery as we didn't know backpacks weren't allowed so I spent most of today sewing a bag/sketchbook cover which fits an A4 sketchbook, pencils, id and phone and also has some backing in it so I can easily sketch on my lap without dropping my stuff all over the place. I'm going to do a bit more work on my weird comic book page tonight but in the mean time this is my sea serpent digitally coloured, he lives at Apollo Bay and likes to sleep camouflaged amongst the lifesaver rings.
Next up is the finalized sketch. Specifically when I'm working on prints and commissions I do a detailed final sketch. It makes the inking/painting process a lot faster.
