Life drawing pt.5

Amsterdam

Hopped over to Amsterdam last weekend to visit my good pal & awesome artist Gerby. It's a great city to explore on foot, strolling around the canals & skinny houses is very relaxing. With such a short visit I had to limit the cultural visits; we got to the Van Gogh Museum & Rembrandt's house, but had to leave the Rijksmuseum for another time.




Rembrandt's house was very impressive. To see where the master lived & worked, and the recreation of his studio & household really was remarkable.





It was fascinating to see the collection of 'reference' objects Rembrandt kept. Classical busts, animal skulls, stuffed crocodiles, tribal weaponry-there was even a sabre tooth tiger skull- how did he get that?!




Disappointingly there was not much of Rembrandt's work currently on display. There was however an exhibition on of the work of Rembrandt contemporary Jan Lievens. As a painter he didn't come close to Rembrandt but he was a fine draughtsman.






This drawing of a woodland copse was stunning-right in the far background you can see the artist at work.

Life drawing pt.4

I tried a different approach this time, not quite gestural but more like contour drawing.

Bank Holiday

Over the long Bank Holiday weekend last week I headed to London to catch up with my old pals & absorb some culture.


First stop on the agenda was the Prints & Drawings dept. at the British Museum. Pete Weston & I donned the white gloves & dug through all the original Ronald Searle's in the collection. It was fascinating to view the drawings up close & see the details that are lost in the printed books.

Next day we had perfect weather for a fantastic afternoon in the Grillo's garden talking art & animation with Oscar, Patricia, Gerby & Crookie. We took a crash course in the South American version of the Famous Artists Drawing programme & marvelled at footage of Saul Steinberg's shorts.


Oscar had highly recommended the Kuniyoshi exhibition at the Royal Academy so I checked it out the next day. Kuniyoshi was a contemporary & rival of Hokusai. A couple of his sketchbooks were on display. The page above is courtesy of Oscar's blog He thought it bears remarkable similarity to some of Ronald Searle's sketches.



On the last day I caught a screening of CORALINE in 3-D. Breath-taking artistry & gorgeous designs on show. The 3-D effect is quite subtle giving it a view-master feeling. There are really inventive moments & it keeps springing delicious surprises. The fat naked lady, the scottie dogs, the garden & the insect furniture were stand-outs. I was impressed that LAIKA had managed to keep the material pretty dark & hope that they can continue to produce such outstanding films.

Life drawing pt.3

Last week was back to life class to start a 10 week course. I managed to coerce most of the art department & half the story crew of 'Arthur Christmas' into joining the class. We were all somewhat rusty but felt good afterwards having made the effort.


This was a terrific pose with interesting shapes but the fore-shortening was problematic. I really failed with that top knee cap & delineating the orientation of the pelvis & insertion of that near thigh.



This model had a natural elegance which I figured may make an interesting drawing but I got caught up in the tonal work & goofed it up.


This older model had a great silhouette in this pose. I was struck by the negative space formed by the love handle & the tension in that arm.




By this last one I was just loosening up but the class was over & we had to leave!

Edinburgh

Another weekend, another European capital! My early childhood was spent in Scotland & I've always wanted to return. Edinburgh is a gorgeous city with stunning architecture. Regrettably I didn't get time to draw the famous castle but I'll go back.





At the Modern Art Museum I was struck by the paintings of Anne Redpath. Terrific colours & almost naive forms. There was a pertinent quote from her about exaggerating architecture.



Along The Royal Mile.








We visited the National Gallery of Scotland to see 'Turner and Italy'. He was hugely influenced by Italian landscape & art, making four trips to the country in his lifetime, resulting in dozens of paintings & countless sketches. On one trip he filled 23 sketchbooks! Several were on view. They were packed with exquiste little studies of landscape & architecture.
You can browse Turner's sketchbooks in the Tate's online collection.


Finally some airport people & the ubiquitous bagpipe player.

Praha

I spent the long weekend of Easter exploring Prague with Kris & Dave-two colleagues from Aardman. It's one beautiful city, the architecture is stunning. I didn't get too much sketching done but managed to squeeze in what follows between meals, cabarets, sight-seeing & surreal encounters with the 'night-folk'. It happened to be my 33rd birthday too so we celebrated every night with many exotic drinks and I would draw through the hang-over the following morning . . .

The Old Town Square was heaven to draw in-I got down the astronomical clock & a quick sketch of the gothic Tyn Church.







On my birthday we headed 40 km out of Prague to find the famous Ossuary of Kutna Hora. It's packed with thousands of skulls & bones, many of which have been used to create macabre decor. The centre-piece is an enormous bone chandelier-tackling all the detail in a drawing was daunting but I had to try.




That evening we ate in a medieval banquet hall where we were entertained by fire-breathers, duelling brigands, belly-dancers with snakes and a dwarf pirate who put Kris in thumbscrews.



The next day we visited the Alphonse Mucha museum. There were dozens of his exquisite art-nouveau poster designs on show, alongside preparatory drawings, lithographs, oil paintings & sketchbooks.




The Cathedral & Prague Castle


The western end of Charles Bridge




It was an enlightening trip & a fine way to celebrate my 33rd birthday. Only an hour & a half flight from Bristol it's very tempting to return soon to capture more of this charming town in my sketchbook.

Life Drawing pt.2

Here is a selection from last week's session.
Warm up sketches of my fellow artists & the robed models.


I think there were 6 models that evening-in the short pose section we had 3 to choose from at one point.


There will be a break in the life classes now until the end of the month then a new 10 week course begins, so more in May.