Drawing Tuesday - British Museum

The Islamic World gallery, near the north entrance, is a favourite because it's quite light and mostly quiet.

Currently (till 20 November) there's a small display about love and marriage in Iran (through the ages), which includes miniatures depicting famous love stories, and a number (seven or eight) of marriage contracts, formidable documents containing bits of family history (of the fathers) and listing the bride's dowry. They can be large (80cm high) and some are very decorative, more so than the ones I drew.

Some textile items are in the display, wedding clothes among them, as well as a delightful set of what had been thought to be doll's clothes but now seem to be a dressmaker's miniature garments to show customers - 87 of them. They date to the 1800s and were acquired by the museum in 1934 -

Carol found dice and game pieces -

 and then in a larger sketchbook, started a draped figure -

 Sue's choice was pottery -

 Najlaa chose a modern artwork, which consisted of about 60 lines of text, and a child's dress -

Having tackled peacocks and harpies, Janet turned her attention to helmets and jars -

In the Living and Dying gallery, Michelle found some carved figurines -

 Michelle also brought along a book she'd made - instructions are in this video -

She's gone on to use the format with her own prints - here.

Tool of the week this week constitutes three "bargains" I found at Hobbycraft in Cardiff ... Pitt Pens (0.1 to 0.8); Derwent charcoal pencils (light, medium, dark, and white) in a nice box; and smallish sable brushes.

All very useful no doubt ... if only I knew how to use them to best advantage! Well, no excuses, plenty of videos about charcoal pencils available. Basic info about artists' brushes here, and as for Pitt Pens ... here's what the manufacturer says (they come in colours too).