Very early in the lockdown, when we were all meant to stay home, our local art shop, Pegasus Art (Pegasusart.co.uk) set a daily challenge to keep us focused. I didn’t do all of them, but they were a stimulus, which was welcome. These are a selection of what I produced.
A daily drawing doesn’t have to be in a sketchbook. This is a lino block, laid out for a print of the Bessie Ellen West Country ketch setting sail.
It will be carved away in several stages to create the final printed image. I have an idea in my mind of how it will look, but it is very unlikely to end up that way. The cut away areas here will remain white throughout.
These are the first two printed layers, establishing just the basic cloud tones. Impossible to judge how good the finished print might be at this stage.
A 20 minute sketch of an old Spanish carving I inherited from my parents nearly 30 ears ago. I’ve always loved him.
Today’s victorian lady. I have tried to avoid the temptation of mimicking the wood engraving and have just treated it as a final drawing. I am actually going to do a wood engraving two day workshop next month.
I found a lovely book in one of our second hand bookshops. A compendium of images of women from the 19th century. All are wood engravings from the likes of the London Illustrated News. The quality of the images is astounding. I am trying to copy several of them, just to see how they did it.
It is near impossible to accurately mimic them in pen. They are essentially white lines engraved onto a black background. With pen it is the reverse, black on white. You can reproduce some of the linear work, but crosshatch fails. It goes darker on the pen drawing but lighter on the engraving. I will try to do some copies without trying to follow the linear original later.
Corner of our living room, showing a few bits of some of our treasures. An Irish lamp, Chinese vase, Indian carving, the case of an Indian miniature painting, which is, inappropriately, quite large, and a glass plate which reminds us of a sadly missed friend.
Yesterday’s drawings were done in the life class. Today I spent a chilly few minutes sketching mute swans and black headed gulls on the water the Abbey gardens in Cirencester. Not great drawings, but this to be working from live birds rather than photographs.
The corner of our living room on a dark, dank October evening
My homemade printing press waiting for a job. Way out of proportion, but a very quick sketch. 5 to 10 minutes only.
As I say, if all else fails, just draw what is in front of you. Just draw.
JEGS ART 