Art Blog

birthdays

I calligraphed the menu (modeled after my friend Deirdre’s script from the workshop she led!) and cooked all the food from scratch. I really do love my hubby. Please visit Deirdre’s website if you want to see her work http://www.calligraphicworks.com/

hackers

So my art blog and photo site was hacked by some guys in Russia. I didn’t realize that my art sketches were that good…. This is a default appearance until I find time to revamp the blog. Thanks to my cousin Jason for figuring it out !

Émile Zola

I got a new (well, it’s vintage, so new to me) Blackbird fountain pen. So much fun! Here’s one of my first sketches with it (after a Manet painting…)

I certainly am wavering between two styles – wanting to do more of a Brent Harris’s Leo Schofield type thing, like my life drawing (with Gillot 303 nib) from a few weeks ago:

; but instead my hand simply cannot seem to get away from detailed sketches, like my graphite renditions of Jannis and Nick below.

It’ll be interesting to see where my hand takes me in the next few months… I am still eagerly awaiting a Pump Pen for my favourite calligraphy nib (the Gillott 303), which has significantly more flex than the Blackbird. But the Blackbird is good fun in the meantime and for regular writing too.

cakes

Our most recent creative food pursuits: wedding cake for Oliver & Sazz (fresh not edible roses) and the birthday cake for Adam.

25 yrs

The Canberra Calligraphy Society celebrates 25 years this year. We had a little party at the AGM two weeks ago. Nick and I made the cake, fashioned after a William Mitchell Scroll Nib.

shadow mapping

Intimidated by the beard on the model at drawing class last night, I decided to try out a new technique – shadow mapping, still using my copperplate nib – and received a really wonderful compliment on showing this and the last few Copperplate Portraits (as I call them) to my Art Friend. Thanks John

just before a swim

I did this one a few weeks ago and still quite like it. She’s part of my Emotion Of The Day sketches that are still continuing strong. I’m quite struggling with shoulders for non-frontal views, but I can see improvement, so that’s good.

more life drawing with a copperplate nib

Yet another 10-minute bodyless head. Hopefully soon I’ll get a little faster to be able to put bodies on them.

life drawing

Back from a lovely holiday in Turkey, I managed to win the battle against jet lag for long enough to attend life drawing class again. I certainly did miss it! Here’s the best from tonight’s efforts. One of my neighbors said he thought I had really captured her likeness, which is such a fabulous compliment: but I don’t quite see it in this one; maybe the mouth.

I am very much enjoying portraiture with a Copperplate nib. I think I’ll continue this way for a while and see where it leads me. I need quite a bit more practice with them, because the point is so fine and pressure exerted so miniscule that it’s very hard to keep my hand steady. I’m still doing the Emotion of the Day and I got quite a few hats in during our trip to Turkey. Maybe I’ll keep on them and see what comes of it.

emotion of the day

Yesterday, I had a great idea (as always just a take off on an idea from someone else) to do a portrait (or several) using my brand new Copperplate calligraphy nib. I tried it tonight during life drawing class and – wow – what fun!! I still need quite a bit of practice with the copperplate nibs, as I’ve only used them 3 times now. But I really like this!!!

But really what I want to say here is that I’ve finally found a way to draw every day. I’ve turned my nightly journal into a bit of an Emotion of the Day sketchbook. I still write a lot of words, as I’ve always done since I learned how to form the letters; but for the last month or more, there are lots of pictures in there too. I have to say, it certainly makes it more interesting to look back on! Here are a few of those.