Borough Market Illustrations - 2

I've been working on these for a while, now. I posted the first incarnation - 'Borough Veg 1' a while ago, but have kept the others hidden until completion. I think my favourites are 'Fish' and 'Veg 2' partly because of that creamy, almost edible green in the background. I like the fact that all five form a little set, and also because they really do remind of the market. I can smell the fresh vegetables, the grilling sausages, the sweet cakes, the strong cheeses. Ok, I'm hungry now. I need a train to SE1 soon!

Drawing for Life - 6

I've been back above the Sparrowhawk pub again, in Crystal Palace, doing another evening of life drawing at Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room. This week, I used watercolour paper (300gsm, so pretty thick) and some water soluble pencils. I've not used the pencils with water before, so my first forays have been a bit tentative. However, even without adding water with a paint brush, the pencils are gloriously soft and black. I think next time, I might take some larger sheets of good paper and try and be less inhibited. Anyway, here are some more, done on the same evening.

Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013

Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013

Life Drawing 9th Sept 2013

Drawing For Life - 5

There is a slight burlesque feel to these life drawings from Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room session in Crystal Palace (above The Sparrowhawk). Our model wore a few vintage items of clothing, which actually helps with getting the proportions right when drawing the figure. Tried a new medium for the quick drawings this time: ink (using Faber-Castell pens).

Life Drawing 5th Aug 2013

Borough Market Illustrations - 1

Here's the first of the Borough Market illustrations: Borough Market Veg 1 that I was researching the other day (see post). Using reference photos taken with my phone, I constructed a composition in Photoshop then worked from that. It saves having to stick a scary camera lens into people's faces whilst they work/sell/eat in London SE1. After that, a lot of colourful monoprinting ensued (using dry paper), followed by an addition of all the contrasty detail, afterwards, in ink with a pen. There are four more of these to come (Bread, Veg 2, Juice and Fish) but I'll share those when they are all complete.

Drawing For Life - 4

My task on Monday was to put some curves back into my life drawing at Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room, SE19. As an exercise, I tried to keep my pencil on the paper as long as possible. Instead of drawing all over the place, to get from one side of the page to the other I had to follow an existing (or create a new) route. This increased the darkness of the lines, sometimes, but did make it harder to measure or prepare proportions. I'm really pleased with this picture but none of the others made the grade for the web, I'm afraid.