Drawings
These drawings represent a variety of approaches to practising drawing.
Primarily exercises, few of these are to be seen as finished pieces. Many of the drawings have write ups which explain what I was doing at the time and why.
Portrait Drawings
The portrait drawings are primarily self portraits, since that model is always available and will sit for me as long as I want. Occasionally my wife gets press ganged into sitting, and the odd friend. These drawings serve primarily as barometers of the success or otherwise of other exercises.
Still Life Drawings
The series of still life drawings represent an ongoing investigation into what I believe is one of the most important basic fundamentals of painting, tone (value).
Bargue Drawings
The Bargue drawings are hard core accuracy practice, done sight size.
They also have a lot to teach regarding the simplifying of form.
Old Master Copies
The old master copies have discontinued for the moment, but I may revive them at some point and do some more.
Cast Drawings
The cast drawings are still near the start of the series and have stopped, but will be picked up again at some point. Like the Bargue drawings, this is accuracy practice, and learning to simplify of form.
Cafe Sketches
The cafe sketches are mostly designed to get me out of the house. I haven't done any since September 2006, which was the last time I left this room and ventured outside. I'm now very pale and talk to myself a lot.
Older Practice Drawings
These series of drawings were done near the beginning of my journey, when I was finding my feet. I include them here for completeness, and to remind myself of where I began, so I don't get too big for my boots.
I hope they also show you, when you compare these drawings to the ones I do now, that it's possible to progress through effective practice methods.
Twenty Hand Drawings
Hands can be a very difficult subject for beginning artists, especially when foreshortened.
These drawings, primarily of my own hand from life but with some copies of hands from old master drawings, helped me to improve my hand drawings.
Twenty Eye Drawings
At first I had a fear of eyes, to the extent that I would sometimes not draw them at all.
By taking eyes out of the context of the face and practising them on their own, I gradually got over my eye phobia.
It must be called occulaphobia or something. Lots of budding artists suffer from it.
Twenty Mouth Drawings
I never got to the end of this series - perhaps I should revisit it sometime - but it was an instructive one.
This series features my first tentative drawings from a cast model too.
Twenty Self Portraits
For this series, I resolved to do a self portrait a day for twenty days. I think, in the end, I missed one or two days, but most of them were done.
At the time, this was probably the most difficult series I undertook. It cost me a lot of heartache as my drawings repeatedly disappointed me.
If only I'd known then what I know now!
Prepare for much gnashing of teeth and anguish in the write-ups of these drawings.
Twenty Nose Drawings
A thoroughly enjoyable series, if only because I got to draw my own lumpen protuberance so many times.
