Sketching Catch-Up

This  weeks Sketching Tuesday was at the V&A  in the newly opened 'Europe 1600-1815' Galleries. So much over the top ornamentation isn't really to my taste  (and lighting levels were low)   but I found much to enjoy in the section on drinking vessels !  I   was trying out combining graphite and watersoluble colour pencils ( and finding colour pencil marks don't  erase)  and in the last few minutes  scored into my paper with a piece of wire and then rubbed it over with pencil  with intriguing results - one to explore further.

 

Last week it was opaque turquoise glass vessel in the  Islamic Gallery at the British Museum,  separate drawings in watersoluble colour pencil and in graphite exploring the negative shapes.  One of many discussions that day in the café afterwards ( apart from sketching stools )  was how the objects that interest you most initially seem to be the ones that fall off the edge of the page!  

 

Looking for art classes more locally, I've just signed up for course on using oil pastels ( not a  material I've used much ).   I was late for the first class yesterday  , no bus turned up for 50 mins and then I couldn't find the Adult Education Centre  in the large Canterbury School campus! But I soon got stuck in, making simplified tonal sketches from photocopies of photographs, b&w to start with and then  more difficult colour ones.   

 



 All useful exercises and I've ordered my pastels   for next week when we'll be playing exploring their properties.  

Hard not to get distracted with views of Canterbury Cathedral  in the distance and  glowing wintry skies.  

Drawing Tuesday: Islamic Glass at British Museum

 I made good use of my watercolour pencils today  attempting to capture the colours and quirky shapes of the glass in the Islamic Gallery at the British Museum

  These  photos I took in April when I last visited - the light was rather better than today

  I chose this collection to sketch first  with a blind drawing  in watercolour pen , then in  pencil  before concentrating on the yellow-green bottle with the odd-angled twisted neck (a rose water sprinkler apparently!)

 

 

 

 

Having had enough of sitting down , I stood up to draw the even more bizarre shapes on the top shelf 

 It's always a dilemma whether to use waterbrush on the watercolour pencil drawing - decided not to risk  losing the fine lines  but did another little study of the  bottle top  where I did use a brush.
Loving colour as  I do, I'm inspired  be  use them  more and  maybe hunt out  my Inktense pencils.

Off to York very early tomorrow  for the ' Quilt Art -Dialogues'  exhibition - last chance to visit the Quilt Museum before it closes  for good at the end of October.

Drawing Small Treasures update

 In preparation  for tomorrow's return visit to the Islamic Gallery at the British Museum  for 'Drawing Tuesday' I've been practising sketching old glass using different materials  - this fragment  with patches of iridescense  came from Syria .

  Today's other subject was  a shell with  lots of worm-eaten holes ( worth drawing on a much bigger scale to analyse the different shape holes.

 

  More shells - this time  a couple of mussels from the '100 objects' exercise in Puglia

 An exquisite  piece of lacy coral.

  A stripy shell

 

 

A stripy stone 

 A white flint nodule

 A partially worked green flint

 

 

A piece of wood with a beady 'eye' 

 

Meanwhile overnight  a large inkcap popped up in the  gravel - I did consider  sketching it but it was already oozing with black 'ink' and our buyers architect was visiting so  it was tidied up into the compost. 

Meet 'Ms Incy'. This splendid garden spider has been building her web against the outside glass of the conservatory  so we've had an excellent view of the process. Late one night we were also witness to the courtship  advances of 'Mr Wincy' as he very cautiously  vibrated the web and inched forward with one leg tentatively reaching out to touch her leg. They both  recoiled several times - he seemed to be making some progress but then she lowered herself on a long line out of the  way - 'not in the mood'. At least he wasn't eaten.