Drawing Tuesday at the Petrie Museum

 After drawing in the African Gallery of British Museum  in the morning, I spent last Tuesday afternoon  drawing pots at the Petrie Museum as I have many times before! I still get overwhelmed by the amount of  objects stuffed into the cases and deciding what to draw  always takes a while. In the end it  came down to sitting at a convenient table with a chair  and drawing what was in front of me !  

UPDATE :   As  Margaret Cooter notes  in her blogpost on our visit,  such delicate drawings are difficult to photograph  well, the marks get lost on the page. I   scanned in the drawing, , increased  contrast in Photoshop and printed out a copy , drawing round the  shapes with a large Pitt  marker in sanguine.

Drawing in the British Museum African Galleries

Last Tuesday   we were meeting up at the Petrie Museum  at 1pm  to sketch  but  I still  caught my usual 8.59  train  and headed  to the British Museum  beforehand . Fortified by a coffee and pastel del nata  in the  Members Room  , I spent an hour in the African   Galleries .

 I've drawn the knives before  but its always the pottery  than inspires me.

 A couple of quick drawings  then a wander around.

While I love seeing the shadows of the El Anatsui  work, it was good to remind myself of  his   wooden  ' Kente Cloth' ( below)

 I loved this drawing ' Tree'  by Ibraham Mohammed El Salahi  based on the 'jibba' worn by sufi brotherhood.  I missed this exhibition at the Tate, looks amazing 

  My lunch of soup in the members room was cut short   by  an evacuation of the building  ( fire sirens  went off , they initially said it was a false alarm but then we were all told to leave ) We were directed through a  side entrance  through   what looked like the boiler room.  We were out there about 20 mins , no point in returning to my soup so collected my bag and coat from the cloakroom  and headed off to the Petrie. There was strike   and demonstration going on outside UCL ( on  outsourced staff rights)  so  respecting  their wishes  not to cross the picket line, had to make  a detour. My geography of the area is getting much better!

Drawing Tuesday: Captain Scott's Overshoes at National Maritime Museum

 It's a long time   since I've  met up with the   'Drawing Tuesday'  gang ( last time was the Petrie  in August! )  Lots  has been going on  in the intervening months  ( which I might eventually get round to blogging about )  but it's easier to start from what I did today. 

I do like visiting the National Maritime  Museum  in Greenwich and can get there  by train without going through London, travelling  on Thameslink train from Gravesend  seeing a different part of Essex from my 'Javelin Journeys' . My last visit there  in January I didn't do much drawing as I was  investigating maps.  I spend about half an hour wandering through the Pacific  tempted by the barkcloth,   before heading to the Polar Worlds.

 With a convenient  stool nearby ,  I drew  Captain Scott's  Overshoes , first in pencil and then  with a calligraphy  pen .  Difficult to get the proportions   right  in either medium, kept get different things wrong ! 

At home, doing more research ,I found this  blog post on their conservation.   Both poignant and fascinating. 

El Anatsui at October Gallery and Drawing Tuesday at Petrie Museum

Nearly a month since my last blogpost , too busy doing things to record  here  so a lot of catching up to do!

 Last Saturday  I had my EDAM Term 2 tutorial with Ute Kreyman  and I made the most of my trip up to London to fit  in  a visit afterwards to the October Gallery to see the El Anatsui exhibition. 

I nearly didn't make it as there was trouble  with the trains as signalling cables had been stolen overnight  and spent nearly an hour  on a stationery train . Just as well I had my sewing with me!  So I only had time for a quick lunch  in the British Museum Members Room before my tutorial. 

The El Anatsui exhibition  was of relatively small pieces ( if you compare them to the covering of the front of the Royal Academy!)  as well as some interesting prints. It was lovely to get so close to the work and the shadows cast were wonderful, I was very aware of the 3D sculptural qualities.   

On Tuesday I was once again back in the British Museum Members Room for lunch before an afternoon's drawing session at the Petrie Museum. One of my favourite places,  it's so  crammed with stuff it can be overwhelming and difficult to choose where to start.I just love all the pot shards and fragments. I was distracted initially by this wonderful footstool and  thanks to Carol , spent some time opening some of the many   drawers and finding bizarre collections.  

But as on my last visit there, I settled in  a chair with table to spread out my materials (including  new calligraphy pens)   in front of a cabinet  and drew just what was in front of me 

Pen and coloured pencil over initial rough pencil sketch 

Trying those new pens in continuous line ( sort of) 

Looking at the negative shapes

Toned Khardi paper with white gel pen, Uni pen, graphite, coloured pencil and limestone  from Deal Castle 

Drawing Tuesday at Museum of London

 Tuesday's drawing session    was at the Museum of London. I was starting a new sketchbook ( the 3rd devoted to museums) , always scary, so I'd been looking through the previous 2 as inspiration for what I might draw ( and therefore  what materials  to take).  Ancient pots and tools, ' the hand of the maker'  evident   still continue to fascinate me  so it was no surprise I headed to the Neolithic gallery and  after a bit of wandering round, settled on the other side of the case I drew from last time!

It's surprisingly difficult to  capture  wonkiness accurately! I had several attempts with lots of rubbing out then concentrated on the marks and textures  combining different media ( watersoluble pencils; Pitt pens in varying thicknesses in sanguine and sepia; 0.1 and 0.3 Unipens: pencils and graphite) . The items made of antler horn were particularly difficult.

At lunchtime  when doing 'show and tell' of our sketches ( as ever, widely diverse subjects) , the others wanted to know how I  got the effects on the black pot.  I first developed this technique drawing at the Petrie Museum : scoring lines with a leadless propelling pencil then rubbing over with 6B graphite . The inner part was graphite partially erased with tombow eraser, another of my essential tools  

Drawing Tuesday at the Petrie Museum: small pots

 First Drawing Tuesday of the year for me - an afternoon at the Petrie Museum . As on a previous visit , I had lunch in the British Museum Members Room then visited the current exhibition' Living with the Gods'. Having listened to  all the episodes either on the radio or as downloads on my phone, it was good to see some of the objects discussed, a mixture of old items and contemporary pieces.

The final exhibit , shown above, featuring the Lampedusa Cross ;small boats made from bicycle mudguards and burnt matches ; and  plaster casts of  tshirts  commemorating  drowned refugees brought a lump to my throat.

 The Petrie Museum's cases are so jam-packed with items, it's overwhelming and difficult to choose what to draw.  Having found a reasonably  comfortable chair  with a table to spread out , my tactic this time was to  draw whatever was in front of me: small broken pots with faded markings and quirky double flasks. 

There was also the  bonus of  overhearing a curator explain to a couple of students about how to handle, measure and photograph objects and where to find further information about them - fascinating. 

I mainly used different sizes of sanguine PITT pens  and  pencil  but also experimented with some  khadi papers. I should do more of this ,it's so much easier to work on a toned background adding darks and lights ( white gel pen) and the texture of the paper adds another dimension.