Left handed

Had to be done. Reading about mixing things up a bit, doing things differently. One of the suggestions was doing things left handed ( if, like me, you are right handed )

Okay, let's sketch only with my left hand for a day.

The results...

... aren't anywhere near as interesting as the doing of them.  I seemed to have more arm that I was used to. I don't know what I do with my right elbow when I draw, but my left one suddenly had it's own ideas of it's place in the physical universe. It was like wrestling an ironing board. The line, as such, is not so different, but the feeling of drawing it was the most unusual thing.

Will do more. If only to conquer the elbow.

Bad elbow, down, down.

Waiting, and wondering.

Is life all waiting ? Waiting for trains to go to work...

waiting for trains to go home again...

waiting to see who the Judges are going to vote off this week...

Slow, quick, quicker.

Said I'd do the multiple sketches taking less time thing again. Really like what happens.

So, bloke reading his newspaper, minding his own business.

Then give myself just a minute or two to draw him again, the goal to be ask quick and unjudgmental as possible.

Then, as he wasn't going anywhere, and was blissfully unaware of me still. I thought, " all of him, why not try all of him..." ( yes, I am singing this )

The subject was...

Earls Court. Wednesday.

That is one hefty book to take out with you on your commute.

I think (hope) it was essential reading for her latest thesis publication.

Three's a crowd

Three girls jumped on the train, on their way to college. Two were sharing the headphones of an i-pod between them. Although they didn't need to, it was loud enough to know it was Rihanna's 'what's my name', even from where I was sitting. In between verses they were dissecting her performance on the Brit Awards.

The third girl stood quietly next to them, listening, but not taking part.

Then one of the plugged in girls reached out, just her finger tips, very lightly, on the third girl's coat sleeve.

"Are you okay ? " she asked, " you look a bit sad."

Chapeau fou

Hey !

Were you the French guy who got off the tube at Ken High Street yesterday, about 11.00, wearing a very silly hat with a fluffy toy face on it ?

Trust me, NO ONE is cool enough to pull off that particular look. 

Life drawing

I love life drawing, and don't do anywhere near enough of it. Time, costs and just finding a class or group can defeat even the most eager beaver. And no, I cannot ask my nearest'n'dearests* to strip off and shiver whilst watching the One show. Just not done.

Here a few from a class ages ago.

I have said this before, but I am always amazed at how little you need to put down to tell the story.

How the eye makes sense of so few marks.

* like tuna'n'sweetcorn.

A Player of Games

Sat opposite this guy intent of a game on his i-phone.

He was so still, apart from the blur of his thumbs, that I drew him several times.

And each time, as my hand got used to the shapes, the sketches got quicker, and looser.

Ha ! 

Very pleased with the swiftness of the profile line in the last one.

Look and you will see. ( or maybe not )

So what do I see the very next day ? Someone reading a Kindle on the train.

So had to add her to the collection.

Then two Tourists stood in between me and the reader. And usually I just let it go when this happens, and move on to someone I can see. But this was a KINDLE READER. So I made it clear I was sketching the person they were blocking, with an apologetic smile and much twisting of my head to see round them. 

I couldn't have been more obvious.

They just scowled at me, and proceeded to unfurl copious maps and guide books, blocking my view even more.

I know when I am defeated.

So sketch not very good.

And that is my excuse.

Another neck

Hope this isn't (another) fetish starting here !

Okay, here is a question. 

What, in your opinion, is the opposite of Fetish ?

Chat

This couple sat on opposite sides of the train, and leant across to chat to each other the whole journey.

  

But the system won't let me post them side by side, as they were. Boooo.

Tall hat

It wasn't this tall, but somehow I emphasised it in the sketching, and kind of like it.

Or maybe he was reading a hair raising story in the newspaper...

The purple fabric isn't a hair ribbon pinging off in shock, it's the sketch book page marker that got in the way during scanning. ( I know, This is a POSH sketchbook I'm using at the moment. )

3 Train readers

Three people not really there. Their bodies might be lurching to the vagaries of the brakes and rails of the 09.47 to Sutton,  but their minds are tracking murderers, or falling for the wrong guy, or unravelling the mysteries of medieval France, or....

And BOOKS mind you. not those nasty Kindle things. Not yet seen a Kindle reader on a train.

Kindle to me brings to mind kindling. Odd choice for a name. Book burning being frowned upon as it is.

Just found

Just found this one.

It had metaphorically slipped down the back of the sofa on my laptop. 

So I've blown the dust off and popped it where it belongs.

Ahhh !

Ha ! This woman was miles away ( how I like them --- err... my sketching subjects... not my women... oh no, hole... digging... deeper and deeper... shut up now... )

Not giving up on colour, but finding the time is proving hindering. Need to revise my working pattern.

Back to the sketches

Have been allowing this blog to wander a bit, spent a year keeping it on the straight sketching, think the last few side jaunts I have posted are allowable. But, back to task, back to the backbone of this...

Sketched these two at two different times, and in very different styles. But like that they seem to have a connection, on the page like this. As though there is more distance between them than just spatial.

I know, no colour. Colour is defeating me somewhat.

Quote

Just read this and it struck a chord.

" You are here in order to enable the world to live amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. you are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
Woodrow Wilson.


'Nuff said.

Windfall apples

This is quite large and was done on a piece of hessian covered flattage from above a window on a bedroom set that I rescued from a job at Isleworth studios YEARS ago.

And is currently being used to block the fireplace in the living room.

I know what you are thinking, but it isn't a cosy sit-by-on-a-dark-winter's-evening focus of the room kind of fireplace, it's a mean spirited, wheezing black hole that deserves everything it gets.

Decay is beautiful.

A quick link

If you haven't already, go and read Steve's ( ahhem ) 'Frost Cocks' post  ( Jan 31st. )

http://bloggertropolis.blogspot.com/

Brilliant.

Poppy

These 'popped' up in my garden a couple of years ago, and, despite all my attempts at sowing seeds, have failed to reappear. My garden is like that. Stuff only lasts one year. I think the soil gets too cold and wet in the winter and it all rots away, or gets eaten.

Glad I spent a day catching them in their flowery redness.

Experimented with the background on this one.

And, come to think of it, have no idea where the original is !!!