sketches

May 24, 2013 by Tara 3 Comments

A couple more sketchbook portraits, drawn from reference images. With liberal use of my new friend the blending stick.

And this quick pencil and pastel sketch without a reference. I got annoyed afterwards because all my non-referenced portraits look the same. I’m slowly working my way through Misty Mawn’s Face to Face class and hoping the practice and assignments will allow me to expand my methods for putting a face together.

And this is my niece Amber with new puppy Frank. I wanted to make a really beautiful portrait and surprise my sister with it, but this first attempt, although I’m happy with it as a portrait, doesn’t actually look like her daughter. I’m thinking of trying it in a few different mediums; capturing the essence of someone’s spirit is hard! It’s all in the eyes I’m finding. Get them slightly off and you’ve drawn someone else.

I’m also working on a painting today that I’m really looking forward to sharing with you. Yay!

May 14, 2013 by Tara 5 Comments

Still no full size paintings to report {not for lack of going up to the studio and staring at all the canvases}, but I’m keeping up a fairly steady stream of sketchbook activity. Really enjoyable for short bursts of creativity; I especially like to draw in the evenings, maybe watching something on Netflix…

If you follow me on Instagram you may’ve seen some of these. Sorry about that.

This is a drawing from a photo of my friend Ames. Looks not one bit like her but I am happy for my reference images to be just that ~ reference. If I tied myself into accurate copying I’d go mad because quite frankly I can’t do it.

This is Kristen Scott Thomas’s eye. But you knew that because it’s such a good likeness. This was the joyful day that I discovered a new love: the blending stick. I can’t tell you why but I find it deeply satisfying to use.

Gesso over crayons. The bird was just to get a shape down so i could play with the mediums. {media?} I scratched the stars in with a screw; muy satisfying.

I love how making art while watching or listening to something can remind you of that thing every time you look at the art afterwards. This one was done while watching Hope Springs, which I don’t recommend really.

A quick charcoal on a watercolour background. I’m sure it should be illegal to be able to make something that pleases your eye in about ten minutes.

I drew this feather while on the beach {love it when i remember my pens down there}. I’ve made several more since. It’s very therapeutic, drawing on stones. I also like to hunt for the stones. You turn up all sorts of treasures.

Filed Under: sketchbook, sketches Tagged With: drawing on stones, drawings, feather, portraits, sketchbook, sketchbook pages

April 27, 2013 by Tara 6 Comments

Not literally ONTO the sofa, obvs. I’ve been finding the nature of my retreat lately means that in the evenings I’m mostly becoming one with the sofa, watching tv series on Netflix or Lovefilm, and often with the itchy fingers that tell me I want to create but not to haul my ass up to the studio to do so. So I have my makeshift coffee table art studio, and here is what’s been happening:

This has mostly come about because I’m taking Misty Mawn’s Face to Face class. Here are a couple of bits I’ve done from that:

practising heads tilting at different angles

drawing from a reference ~ fortunately i don’t think this was about getting an accurate likeness

Filed Under: art class, art development, portraits, sketchbook, sketches Tagged With: misty mawn face to face class, portrait sketches, sketchbook faces

June 19, 2012 by Tara 2 Comments

I signed up to a four week Pen and Ink class a few weeks ago, because I want to bring more drawn elements into my paintings, and balance the large abstract paint areas with more detailed drawn areas. It has turned out to be good timing as creatively speaking things are really erratic round here lately. {Then again, I always seem to be saying that; welcome to the house of All or Nothing.}

Today was all about getting familiar with mark making and drawing in pen. We started with biro, not my favourite medium, but I did learn to wield it with a greater degree of effectiveness after learning a few cunning tricks from Claire, the teacher.

First we ‘took a line for a walk’, to loosen up.

Due to a communication error, our materials list had not mentioned to bring something to draw from, so most of us didn’t have anything. Claire provided us with lots of photos to choose from, although I had my own ideas anyway. I picked a lotus type flower…

And a fern. It’s not my natural way to draw plants; I don’t know, it just doesn’t really do it for me, but after Claire showed me how to make the leaves look all groovy, thus:

I found it quite therapeutic. I also got bored, hence the unfinished nature of this one.

I have to be in a certain mood to stick with something repetitive. Besides which, what I really wanted to draw was fish.

I always want to draw fish lately. Must be the Pisces in me. But check these babies out! One in biro, one in pigment liner.

Initially I hadn’t filled in the scales or done the backround on the black one, and I’d left the head and tail white on both. Claire showed me that with just a few lines I could literally transform them into something with much more depth and interest. After I finished the scales on the black fish I was so excited!

I’m so pleased with both of them. So pleased.

I’m really looking forward to next week, when we’ll be working with adding washes. It’s going to be brilliant.

Filed Under: art class, art development, drawing, sketches Tagged With: art class, biro, drawing, fish, pen and ink, pigment liner

May 1, 2012 by Tara 2 Comments

That’s ‘ark’ as in godDAMNIT my whole week’s turned upside down and it’s only Tuesday, not ‘ark’ as in ‘Noah’s’. I am overreacting really; just all the things I was looking forward to this week have been cancelled. All of them! I am disappointed but I assume the universe has a very good reason and if I just pipe down and listen it’ll probably tell me what that is.

So I’m not feeling QUITE as serene as my latest sketch, but I fully expect to be thoroughly zenned out shortly.

Oh, and France was lovely, in case you were wondering. We managed to squeeze in a trip to Mont St Michel, Honfleur and the beach as well as doing the errands and collection of offspring. Here are just a few photos…

{the abbey on Mont St Michel}

{arches inside}

{D and me at sunset}

{Honfleur}

{moules mariniere}

{Mont St Michel from the ramparts}

{sunset}

{car picnic in the grounds of an empty chateau}

{view from a tiny window in the ramparts}

I do love France.

So now I have a very open week ahead; goodness me anything could happen! If it does I’ll let you know.

Filed Under: sketchbook, sketches Tagged With: france, pastels, sketch, sketchbook

April 24, 2012 by Tara Leave a Comment

I’m off to France tomorrow for a few days with D for a bit of errandry and a bit of road trippery.

I’ll be taking my sketchbook obvs.

Last night I got busy with a pencil, which I don’t often do to this degree of detail/effort actually, and I’d forgotten how enjoyable it is. I was watching Beautiful Lies and there’s a scene where the mother is sitting forlornly on the front step waiting for the postman, and I had to pause and photograph it because I loved the shape of her, all folded together, darks and lights. It seemed like a potential painting.

Obviously my drawing isn’t all that, but I tend to copy things to understand what the shapes feel like and how they fit together, not for accuracy {which is fortunate}.

Once I’d got the main shapes down, the bit I enjoyed most was drawing the outlines really hard with the pencil.

From this point if I was going to develop it into a painting I would want to ‘spiral out’ as Flora Bowley puts it, and bring it more into abstraction. Whether I’ll actually make a painting from it remains to be seen, but it’s all part of the process. It can percolate while I’m away.

So au revoir mes pousses, see you next week. Happy times to you.

xoxo

PS. Pauline at Journal Illustrations has written a fab post today on how to do sketching without needing a rubber {or eraser, for you non English folks}.

Filed Under: drawing, sketchbook, sketches Tagged With: Beautiful Lies, drawing, Journal Illustrations, maddy, Pauline, sketching

April 10, 2012 by Tara 3 Comments

D runs a painting class a couple of times a week and tonight I’m going to be a student. I’ve been preparing a canvas today as well as playing in my sketchbook ~ I am hoping the class might kick start me back into painting as it’s been a while since I’ve been near a canvas. I seem to have come up against something {resistance in some form or other} which means that the idea is there, but it’s not translating into tangible reality.

The other thing about the class is that it’s oil painting, and as I always work in acrylic and have never tried oils it will be an added challenge. Painting in oils is on my list of things I’d like to do this year {I was astonished and slightly alarmed to note I’ve done most of my list already and it’s only April ~ will have to think up some more! Or I could just practice Being instead of Doing… ANYWAY.} so I’m looking forward to seeing what that’s like.

read: The 12 Steps of Forgiveness by Paul Ferrini. A.Mazing.
hear: my ipod. Man I am tiring of all my music. {also my clothes and food. This usually indicates a shift so I’ll go with it for now.}
see: art supplies; yes the studio is a mess again.
smell: oil paints {I seem to have gone into the future}
taste: chocolate. Too. Much. Chocolate.
touch: gesso. Gesso is the best.
think: Yay, it’s Nia tonight and art class straight after ~ perhaps one will influence the other. Also, none of this is very interesting and I am clearly procrastinating.
feel: battle between ‘not enoughness’ and ‘accepting/being grateful for what is’, like, ALL the time at the moment.

{via Bohemian Twilight}

Filed Under: sketchbook, sketches Tagged With: figures, sketchbook, sketches

April 6, 2012 by Tara 12 Comments

I didn’t know whether I wanted to post these sketches; I did them the other night while watching Bones so I wasn’t fully focused on them, and was kind of surprised-verging-on-disturbed when I really looked at what I’d done. They’re not a whole lot like my usual productions! I’ve been wrestling with a particular demon lately, and I wonder if my current reading matter and my horrid dreams are all contributing to producing what can really only be subconscious purging.

Then I read Pauline’s post about how art is expression of self in any given moment, and I thought do you know what, actually I do want to post these because they are stepping stones on my creative and spiritual journey and are as valid as any aesthetically pleasing piece, maybe more so in some ways.

Lately I’ve been noticing how I’ve been posting more for you than for me, which was not why I started this blog and certainly reflects the presence of my people pleasing demon, who is leading me on a merry dance of late. I love that you are here, but ultimately I am creating my own path by walking it here, and that means not hiding ~ including and especially from myself ~ the parts that aren’t as pretty. As in art, so in life, or something.

As Pauline says ~

Art allows me to honour and express

my own truth at the time.

Exactly! I am learning {apparently the hard way} how to do that in my life, so of course it is tied in to my creativity.

These wonky, rough sketches, with their tinge of anger and frustration and confusion, remind me of art I used to make as a teenager {what can I say, they are trying times!}. I guess I don’t find them that disturbing, they are quite familiar really. I actually like this yellow one more each time I look at it.

And really, it’s not all about pretty girls and joyful colours is it? We must embrace all our parts, not just those we are happy for the world to see.

Filed Under: art development, creativity, drawing, journey, sketchbook, sketches

April 1, 2012 by Tara 8 Comments

Hi guys. Sup.

I’ve been very lax on the art front the last few days. Actually that’s not true. It just LOOKED like it because it’s all been going on inside. Some of it came out today though, yay!

D and I went down to the seafront and set up camp on the promenade. On a sunny Sunday there’s no shortage of passers by, aka potential purchasers of art. For D anyway, I was just sketchbooking it today. D set up a little gallery, we appropriated a bench, and Friday… was also there.

Here he is at work.

Anyway, back to me. I was mostly just colouring in today. Actually this one I coloured in a few days ago, with water soluble pencils. The only thing I like about it is the composition, and that is borrowed.

Moving swiftly on. I do love this one, both drawn and coloured today over some collage and gesso I did last night. I’d like to add more in the space above the figure, but it wasn’t forthcoming. I’m very keen on the idea of symbolism and wanted to put in images relevant to my thought processes recently. Still drawing a blank. Literally. I’m happy with the shapes though. This goddess painting that still hasn’t emerged is slowly taking shape in my head and there will definitely be some combination of figure and abstraction.

I really like this one too. Again with the figurative abstraction.

This one was totally new on the page today, over some coloured inks I’d been using up a while back. I find her slightly haughty and cold, but then I had been saying to myself I want to move away from the innocent little princess faces I’ve done so often.

And here is Frides, who had to be put on a lead after running away to the cafe and not coming back. Naughty.

EDIT: Every post lately I’ve been wanting to tell you {and forgetting} about my new Picnik Substitute Discovery – PicMonkey. For those of you who are properly bummed out about the imminent disappearance of Picnik, Picmonkey is the solution. Mainly because it appears to be Picnik with a different name. Seriously check it out, all your favourite editing tools and effects are there. YAY!

Filed Under: art, brighton, sketchbook, sketches, the beach Tagged With: Friday, outdoor studio, pastels, sketchbook, the beach

March 6, 2012 by Tara 10 Comments

Hello!!!

I’m back. Almost a month of amazing experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia and I don’t even know where to begin. So I’m starting with a quick peek into my sketchbook from my time away, and will follow up with as few photos as I can manage! {I took hundreds so brace yourself.}

I didn’t do a whole lot of art but here are a few of the more developed sketches I did, plus a drawing by a little boy of nine named Bobi in Lombok, who marvelled at how many pencils I had and asked if he could have a go. He worked so carefully, and didn’t even want to keep his masterpiece when it was finished; a great lesson in letting go for me!

You may notice a theme to these… apparently I can only do faces now. Probably just a phase; they are easy and quick when you want to just move a pencil around. There was so much inspiration out there I look forward to seeing how that comes out in future paintings.