'Wood' and 'would'

I've given myself a bit of a break from drawing which is why the blog is so quiet but a combination of things got me started again this morning. Firstly, I'm a prisoner in my own home. Actually, I'm waiting in for someone who said they'd come by this morning for payment (we had our Catalpa Nana trimmed back this weekend) and, naturally, he hasn't turned up. So that meant I have plenty of time. (I could have done some housework, I suppose...) Secondly, as I was drying my hair this morning, my brush snapped in half and, thirdly, I saw the challenge this week is to draw something made of wood.

I've done a few wood drawings before but the reason I had to draw this is that this brush was very special to me! As a family, we are not out shopping at every opportunity always buying new things, we tend to hang on to the things we have and use them until we either grow out of them or they break down or wear out. So whenever we throw out something, like a pair of shoes or a jacket for instance, I joke that it's 'the end of an era'! But this brush really does represent the end of an era for me. I was working in the City (of London) in 1982 (talk about a fish out of water!) when I swapped my short bob for an even shorter hairstyle, which I've more or less kept ever since. That week I went out during my lunch hour and bought two very narrow styling brushes in a chemist - there were few shops there in those days - one slightly larger than the other. It dawned on me later that these very narrow brushes are as rare as hen's teeth and I couldn't find them anywhere else, but by that time it was too late.

I wash my hair every day, bar the days I'm ill or have a migraine, so I've certainly got my moneys worth for 25 years of almost daily use! This one didn't last as long as the first. That one went all over the world with me and always in hand luggage where I could protect it but it finally snapped maybe four or five years ago. So I trimmed the bristles on the larger one to make it the same size and hoped it would last as long. Over the years too, I've squirrelled away similar brushes I've found, but none have quite the same combination of short but not too dense bristles that you really need when your hair is so short you can barely get it round your finger.

So, it's a very sad day today, a day I dreaded but knew deep down was inevitable. It won't be binned just yet though. Like the other brush, I'll hang onto it 'just in case'. Just in case of what, I don't really know! A welder in shining armour maybe?

And the box of tablets? Well, both of these things would have been drawn for the 'grateful' challenge. Now the brush is broken and these tablets are discontinued. I take Imigran for migraines but, for bad headaches that might lead to migraines, these tablets were the best I've tried. Trouble is I can't find anything else with the same ingredients and the new Saridon tablets are just ibuprofen and, like aspirin and paracetamol, absolutely useless!

I'm not sure it's a good thing to get so attached to material things but sometimes, when they really work and nothing can replace them, it's hard not to. I sometimes think it would be so useful to go back in time and buy multiples of those things that have been invaluable and in doing so, save a fortune on not having to buy all the second rate stuff trying to replace them!

A bonny afternoon!

I'm always envious when I read about EDMers from various parts of the world meeting up but last week Canada and Switzerland formed a new alliance and joined the growing list!




















Bonny and her husband Rob have been to some amazing places this year but last week they were in Switzerland en route to Italy and fortunately had time to spend a day in Geneva and asked if I had time to see them. Mais oui! And what a fun day we had too! We met up at the Four Seasons Geneva Hotel overlooking the Pont du Mont Blanc. I passed it today and there was a Bugatti Veyron parked outside so I had to take a deep breath before going through those doors! But it was surprisingly welcoming and cosy inside (the doorman didn't throw me out anyway!) and Bonny and Rob greeted me like an old friend. We sipped afternoon tea in beautiful surroundings and I could have stayed there for hours. In fact, someone behind us was sound asleep in his chair so I wasn't the only one!





















A short stroll across the bridge and we paid Branchard a visit. I've posted this photo before and it really doesn't do justice to this lovely street or the beautiful shop. I was in there only a couple of days before so I managed to control myself but Bonny found some lovely things.

From there we took a short tram ride to Jallut which I think is the largest art store in Geneva. It's very good for papers and brushes but this time I discovered Cretacolor Aqua Monolith pencils and Bonny recommended I try the Graphitint pencils too so I came away with slightly more than I'd planned!

One of the things that tempted Bonny were the new Daler Rowney sketching pencils. I bought them last week in a 'Nostalgia' tin decorated with an Arthur Rackham illustration. I couldn't resist the tin and the paper cover! Bonny bought them in a gorgeous cylindrical pencil case.



















I think that's a good excuse for a photo so here they are on the right, the tin and the cover. I've included the Cretacolor and Graphitint pencils - here on textured grey paper bought in Branchard. I bought Drawing Animals by Victor Ambrus (one of my favourite artists) recently and his technique interests me so I want to give the textured paper and soft smudgy, hard pencil combination a go. The book with the black cover is in line to be a tram sketchbook (I've only just started a new one!) and the book with the blue cover is a present from Bonny. My favourite format, square, and beautifully textured I can't wait to try it. I love that paper covering it too, I think I'll try and keep it on. She also gave me an American Artist Drawing magazine - I think it's just brilliant that drawing is still regarded as important enough to warrant a magazine dedicated to it, so that was quite inspiring.


From there we went back to the city centre and chatted some more over an extremely chocolatey hot chocolate in the tearoom at the Martel Chocolatier. Time flew by but I had a super time and hopefully they did too as we hope to meet up again next year! Thanks Bonny and Rob for a really lovely afternoon!

A bit sketchy

Well, I did say I wasn't sure if it was a good idea and at least now I know for sure - it wasn't. At least, not for me. I could certainly write a post a day. Yesterday's would be all about my migraines and it's quite likely that in November there would be a few more. Bit grim, I think you'll agree! The main reason though is that although doing a sketch a day is a great idea and something I can easily manage, posting a sketch a day on a blog means I put pressure on myself to post something worth looking at.











Generally speaking, I do three types of drawing. Very quick sketches that snatch a moment outdoors. Like this one above - I was sitting on the tram and this toddler was staring at me almost the whole time! I worry, when I get my eyes tested, whether I have answered all the questions right and got the correct prescription. So, I wondered, looking at this child, how do you get the correct prescription for such a young child, barely more than a baby?
















Another snatched moment, this time to capture that nasty fan heater on the older trams. Great if you are frozen to the bone but on a milder day you don't want to sit opposite this thing or have any frozen food in your bags!

The second type of drawing I do are the slightly longer more detailed drawings for the EDM challenges. They make me think about the things around the house, things in my life that affect me, trips I've been on, family mementos etc. They are both relaxing and fun to do but quick enough to fill the sketchbooks and not to get bored. The sketches open your eyes to the world outside your door and the challenges to your own life and how unique that is.

Then there are the portraits and the cat drawings. These may not differ too much from the EDM challenges in terms of quality but the process is much slower. But it's that process and the reflection that is most important to me. I've had my drawings described a couple of times as 'contemplative' and I feel that is very apt. These are the ones that are most reflect who I am.

There are three different speeds, three different mindsets. These days I read a lot about not fussing over details, loosening up, keeping a sketchbook with you at all times. But in reality one size does not fit all. Sketching can have many purposes and some sketches, like these two above, are not really for show, they are simply moments that interested me. Some of my tram sketches are nothing more than a couple of lines but they trigger a memory of a moment or a person. I feel that artists need to do very basic sketches like this and not worry about making them pretty, adding lovely lettering, putting them on show, making them worthy. I was worrying about my sketches, tidying them up, making them presentable and that is not really why I do them. That in turn takes away the time I need to get into the right frame of mind for my other drawings. Ironic, I feel, that some people imply that drawings like mine are all about the end product (just because they are 'finished') when in fact it is the process that is so important to me.

So, it was a worthwhile experiment, but now it is time to change down a gear again and tootle along at my own speed!

Sketches and thanks

First of all I have to say thanks for all the encouraging comments. I got the inevitable headache after yesterday and missed my life class this morning, the results of which I had planned to post. I was feeling very glum until I read the comments. So for that, I will subject you to the sketches I didn't think were good enough yesterday!

I drew this boot with a brown watercolour lead (Caran d'Ache 'Museum') because I like how hard they are compared to other chalky brown pencils and added a touch of white. In general I love this technique but it can get overworked in a second and I usually end up ruining the thing! These are my newest boots and something of a miracle - I didn't have to break them in! I'm sure most ladies shoes and boots are actually instruments of torture. Why all shoes aren't soft and comfortable, no matter what style, is beyond me.













I was on the tram yesterday for the first time in ages and I sat down, got out my pencil, searched for my sketchbook and...horror! I had left it at home. Then, this guy sat in front of me and amazingly, he was the same guy I drew a few weeks ago in the same seat! The first sketch is on the right and the second was done on the only paper I had in my bag, on a supermarket receipt. He had a different skiing jacket on and his hair had grown a bit, although still looking as greasy as last time!













Mind you, I can't criticise when I looked like this a couple of days ago! (That's clingfilm on my head and not really noticeable here, I had plastic covers on my glasses like a blinkered horse!)Looking ancient and miserable yet again, it's Nora Batty hoping for a miracle!

Changing seasons...

It was 'one of those days' so I don't feel like putting another hasty sketch on the blog. I hope to have something for tomorrow. This photo is one of the trees in the cemetery very close to us. It's very well kept - in fact there were two teams of workers in there today - and it has some of the loveliest trees in the area.

To the hairdressers

I set myself a challenge within a challenge today - that if I didn't draw outdoors today, nothing was going on the blog. So I'm pleased to report that I succeeded. I've wanted to sit in Place Favre and draw this statue of Louis Favre for ages now and kept bottling out so I set out half an hour before my hair appointment to get this done. I half expected I would just sit there paralysed but I braved a few stares and got a fairly decent likeness! Funny I never noticed that pick axe before. Presumably he hacked out that rail tunnel single-handed!

I went back to my local hairdressers, one that I have had a couple of not so nice experiences with but to one of the other stylists who had been recommended. This was the first time I've been to a hairdressers and not got my hair cut. About four weeks ago I tried out another international salon (no names!) and had the shortest haircut of my life. Even today it is still sticks up at the back and it was three weeks before I could even get it around my tiny styling brush. The stylist was shocked when I said the cut was four weeks old! She did a brilliant job with the colour last time and even better today so I'll be sticking with her from now on. I don't want to set any more hairdressing records!

















Is there anything worse than sitting opposite a mirror in the hairdressers? Perhaps looking at the back view in the changing room mirror comes close but I always look terrible with my hair covered in goo sticking up at all angles. Today she popped a few sheets of clingfilm over the top as well just for good measure. I was going to draw myself but unfortunately I was sitting in front of the wash basins and resigned myself to reading a book I'd brought along - Danny Gregory's Creative License. He obviously doesn't care much for pencil judging by his latest blog post but I have him to thank for two more sketches. I was reading a bit about how a day is a canvas stretched out before you and another bit about being in the moment and just doing it. Right now. So I just pulled out the sketchbook with about ten minutes to spare and captured the chair behind me and the clingfilm on my head. I'll have to tidy that one up though and hopefully post it tomorrow.

Dogs and quilts

Two unrelated items, dogs and quilts but this daily blogging is time consuming and this is easier! I'll choose quality over quantity any time so I'm already feeling that maybe this daily drawing business is doomed to failure! Again on the 'blotting paper' sketchbook, this drawing has everything I don't like, namely dark backgrounds and indistinct detail. I don't know what it is about backgrounds, although I do like very dark ones like this, but it's hard to make that work with pencil. I also think too much background information takes away from a drawing or a painting and looks more like a photo or a chocolate box illustration. A drawing should, I think, always look like a drawing.



I wanted to draw a dog this week because for the last couple of weeks or so, The Dog Whisperer is a programme I simply cannot miss! The problem is always the dog owner and not the dog and the analysis is very interesting - it illustrates how unnatural and irrational we human beings are especially when we see what we want to see, not what is in front of us. It's fun to see every dog owner falling into the same traps (dogs are not children!) and seeing the dog transform! It's a great lesson in common sense - which, as the saying goes, is not so common these days!




















Annabel asked to see the quilt from yesterday's drawing - well, ask and ye shall receive! This is the one on the stairs. The yellow fabric was ironed onto... crumbs I've forgotten the name! Is it Wonderweb? The design was then cut out to leave a positive and negative shape and they were then ironed on to another fabric - so one becomes the foreground and the other the background.




















A close up showing the yellow fabric on top. The edges were free-motioned three times




















The purple and yellow hangs in my study. I didn't have enough of the mottled purple fabric to make a border but it has touches of the same colour in it and pulls it all together - I hope!




















Close up showing the yellow fabric as background. The stitching has to go on the top fabric so with this one it goes on the outside of the leaf shape.

As I said, this was a pattern from Dijanne Cevaal's book Tifaifai Renaissance, one of my favourite quilting books and certainly my favourite method. Once you've done one, you see the possibilities for creating your own designs are endless.




















A gratuitous shot of another quilt which is one of my faves - just so you can see I do actually like to use colour! I had the most fun with this one and I wished it was a lot bigger so I could have played more with the stitching and beading! I used to hate people looking at my quilts and saying 'those are not your colours' because I love to experiment with all colours. I think it's a way of putting you in a box and trying to keep you there. I love autumnal colours too and spent a lot of time with them (and those were supposed to be 'my' colours) but I don't see why we should limit ourselves to any colour scheme if we don't want to. I did try out some very luminous almost florescent colours on one quilt and realised that some colours can actually give me a headache, so I did find some limits!

Room with a view - EDM 128

I'm killing two birds with one stone today because this is drawing no. 5 for the November drawing a day and also EDM 128 which is to draw a view from one interior room into another. Again a two for the price of one as there are two doors that I can see from my side of the bed - the door to the room open to the stairs and the door into Mark's little den.

I've been meaning to draw parts of this room as it has so many different and interesting angles. Feng Shui experts would probably throw a wobbly but that is one thing I no longer believe in. After all, if there was anything in it, the Chinese would be the healthiest, wealthiest and happiest people on earth!

If I was really greedy I could include the challenge to draw something I've made as that is one of my quilts on the wall of the stairwell (a pattern of Dijanne Cevaal's, and a technique which I loved doing). It looks from this drawing as if we sleep in a corridor but we don't usually have the door to the den open. Mark likes to keep the door and the shutter of the window closed, either to keep the room from getting too hot or too cold, something that drives me mad. All the boys in the house seem to like to close shutters and curtains during the day while I need as much natural light as possible! I love the windows up here too as we aren't overlooked and at night you can lie in bed and see the stars! Alex loves the sound of the rain on them too but I find that a little loud especially during a thunderstorm - you really feel much more exposed when the windows are facing the sky!

Buddha

This is a Buddha carved out of bamboo that Mark bought in Shanghai back in the 80's. It was a quick sketch that turned out to be not so quick! HB pencil.

More cats and dogs!

I'm not sure whether to mention this but I read that there was a challenge to do a drawing a day for November so I thought I'd see if I could attempt it. I seriously doubt my ability to stick with it but perhaps, just for November I'll try and up the output a bit more! Even if I don't manage one a day I'll try to sketch more and I think I'll focus mostly on some of the very ordinary things around the house as there is usually a story attached.

The cat above is called an Exotic Shorthair which I thought would be fun to do. It was interesting to explore it's face and how it's hair grows around the face but it was also slightly disturbing to me. I have no idea what cat breeders are allowed to do and what regulations they are subject too, but I can't help but feel breeding animals to look like this is very wrong. I know breeds like Siamese that have very long narrow noses can have respiratory problems and with a nose as tiny and squashed as this, it must surely cause difficulties. I finished this one on Thursday (1st). I should point out that this is not one of the things to be found around the house!













This one was drawn in my 'blotting paper' sketchbook. It seems to absorb the graphite so that I have to go over and over in soft pencil to get dark values and any sort of sharpness or precision is out of the question - which makes it ideal for very quick sketches. I can smudge instead of hatching which makes for less fussing. I had thought I had gone off this sketchbook but now I'm changing my mind again! These are dried oranges and limes I saw in a supermarket last week. I love those deep cuts, the patterns they make and how the flesh inside has become very dark in contrast. I put them in a wooden bowl which I think I should draw separately as that has quite an interesting story behind it.



















This morning, before getting out of bed, I drew this little guy. Alex went on a school trip earlier this year, had a great time even though it was quite rigorous, and yet still thought of his Mum and brought this back for me! So naturally it has pride of place on my bedside table. Another quick sketch on the 'blotting paper' in HB pencil.