Drawing Tuesday - queues

 A topic that might need a bit of explanation? 

Across the pond, the word for a queue (of people) is a line or line-up. "Are you in this line-up?" or even "Is this the end of the line?" Across the pond, call it a queue and the answer is "Huh?" - !

So, if you can't find a convenient queue to draw "from life"  - there used to be one at every grocery store, where have they gone? - consider the term more broadly ... lines of similar objects. 

Definition:

1.  BRITISH
a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.

2.

COMPUTING

a list of data items, commands, etc., stored so as to be retrievable in a definite order, usually the order of insertion.

1. 
   

If you're interested in the origin of this strangely-spelt word, look here  - but don't scroll down too far, the discussion goes down a rabithole about Old French spelling! 

A relevant factoid: "Cōda means "tail", and this is the original meaning of the word "queue". In the middle of the 18th century, a "queue" was a plaited pony-tail hairstyle. They were so popular that they were required in the British army - a rule which lasted 100 years."

From Hazel -  I made this drawing from a sketchbook page drawn whilst waiting in the Wimbledon queue in 2011. Today's drawing was made with dip pen, brush and ink on Bristol Board.

From Carol - Here are some of my little wooden travelling people used for my storytelling. Don’t know when I will get to use them again.  Last time they were waiting for the Red Sea to open – this time it looks like its Tescos. NB only one of them is covid secure!!

From Judith - Queues of shoes

From Sue S - A tricky one to find immediate reference for , so used my photo of July 2018 - a queue @ the RAF Centennial show @ Horse Guards Parade. Just pencil with red highlighting rear fuselage.

From Gill - A monoprint with crayon added.

From Ann - I couldn't resist drawing this queue forming at the post office. I saw an interesting range of individuals ...poses and colours plus the stop sign! Strange times...

From Sylvia - Here is my queue.

From Mags - Queuing for the British Museum??? 

No social distancing  and masks, though I suppose if you're headless...

From me - an object that always makes me smile, which the giver (you know who you are!) discovered in a City Lit pottery sale some years ago -

Drawn as quickly as possible with the left hand and a soft pencil - of course it rubbed off on my hand because I started on the left, as is usual with the right hand. It's really only a warmup drawing, but time is short at the moment! I'd like to return to this object. One day....

Drawing Tuesday - glasses

There are many videos on youtube on drawing (drinking) glasses. The three I watched were chosen by length, or rather, shortness.

This one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbW3Aq0PB0&ab_channel=CircleLineArtSchool -  comes in at 6-1/2 minutes. It has no commentary and starts with "sketchy marks", which made me fear that the artist didn't quite know what he was doing, but I liked that one area was done at a time, initially - and then revisited to balance up tones. An eraser appeared for the tidying up at the end, and adding highlights. One pencil was used throughout (or at least you never saw a change!), the tones resulting from pressure.

The second video was much shorter (3 minutes) and quite sensible, I thought, with sparse commentary, including saying what was being used when. OK, it's drawing a crystal ball, but that's only another kind of glass? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_XBYqoiAOI&ab_channel=FineArt-Tips

The "how many media can you use in 4 minutes" prize goes to this extremely realistic, gold-rimmed glass - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjY71Qp40sg&ab_channel=MarcelloBarenghi  - and you get to see the original at the end!

Of course there are other types and forms of glass than drinking glasses - the crystal ball being one such. Consider also looking glasses, and the glasses that most of us carry around on our noses for some or all of the day. 

Objects made of glass? - beads, light bulbs, car headlights (ok they're probably plastic) ... Sea glass? 

From Carol - A small but quite satisfying drawing today. It made me think about refracted light and of course how to show thick lenses which I might not have thought about before.

From Sue S - an Inherited glass inkpot filled with green marbles. Decided to swivel the lid for more shapes. 

From Richard - Thought I’d do these decanters then do another sketch more truly of ‘glasses’ but I can see I won’t! This seems confused rather than blended between the aquarelle textures when dry and wet, but it’s all learning for me. I might work it up better. I’m finding the photos show me how much I seem to miss with my eyes!

From Judith -  lots of negative spaces this week!

From Joyce -  my glass came from my Grandmother’s house when she died many years ago.

From Mags - Various interpretations in different media of the Victorian glass eyebath given to me as a small child as a vase for daisies. Why is it that the quick biro sketch in my daily drawing sketchbook or the tryouts on my paper 'drop -cloth'  are more satisfying than those done 'properly'? 

From Najlaa - perfume bottle

From Gill - Two monoprints of glasses.

From Ann - I completed this week or so before...of three vases. Loved the intricacies of shapes and patterns forming. 

And finally - my computer glasses turned into a "tracing" monoprint - 

A piece of glass (appropriately!) was inked up, a piece of paper laid gently on it and the drawing on top of that, then the drawing was carefully traced. I had blotted the ink a bit with scrap paper, but the smudges are due to a bit much ink left on the plate, or perhaps to unexpected finger pressure during tracing. I feel that they add to the feeling of blurry vision!

Drawing Tuesday - pointy things

 This subject is rather obvious but can also be puzzling in terms of "how will this make a satisfying drawing". 

As well as concentrating on just one pointy thing and its details, or tonality, or ?, there are other strategies. Multiplicity, variation, repetition, layering come to mind - I'm thinking of a pencil, a collection of pencils, different sorts of pencils, using them to make a pattern, scaling up, exaggerating perspective... And now that I've imagined it, it's done with - on to something else, something that grabs me when I actually have a pencil in hand! 

Looking around for pointy things, I see pencils and pens (of course), some pointy leaves on houseplants, the bulbs in the string of fairy lights that never get taken down, the hands of a clock, paintbrushes, chairlegs(!), candles in candlesticks ... and there are kitchen utensils lurking in drawers, and lots of craft implements like scissors and needles. Weapons of many kinds, of course ... some, as we've seen at the Wallace Collection, beautifully decorated. 

A quick google found - from the Museum of Witchcraft, no less - this "drawing of three objects, two sharply pointed" -

For the sewers among us - functional seam rippers and some beautiful stilettos are mused over, here - https://my.modafabrics.com/2015/04/pointy-objects

And then there's this -

From Ann - The pointy things we love to use. In coloured pencils. 

From Hazel - I enjoyed drawing and painting the pointy leaves of my yellow courgette plant. I have yet to finish it!

Painted in gouache. 

From Mags - These metal tulips are in their 3rd garden . Enjoyed sitting in the last of the summer sun using calligraphy pens and  watercolours.

From Judith - Quick sketch of spiky/pointy  plants then a longer drawing trying to see what was actually going on !

From Joyce - Tools used for clay modelling inherited from my mother, I’ve never actually used them.

From Sue S - several of my own implements & some inherited from my mother - rug making & crochet?

From Najlaa - First one is the Beak of the common Kingfisher. 

2nd one is the pen. I used to buy the parker pen.

From Carol - This turned out to be devilishly difficult. It was such a beautifully crafted tool moulded to fit the hand. I doubt if the more recent models are like that now. It was well worth taking a closer look at.

From Gill - I started by drawing the two knives and thought It would end up really dull.

I needed to be more impulsive, experimental and take risks in order to create a drawing that pleased me instead of being precise, neat and detailed. So I drew the implements in different styles with different media and superimposed them to create something more irreverent for me. (Apologies for the quality of the photo.)

From Janet B - Life got a bit in the way this week, particularly on Tuesday. But inspiration struck while I was swimming in Millwall Dock - my pointy things are a couple of cranes. 

From Jo - "Bay Leaves, aka Bug Art". Jo reports that on the bay tree at the front of the house she couldn't find a single leaf that hadn't been "re-imagined", but the much larger tree at the back was untouched.

From me - At the outset I could NOT get the layout of the pins right, nor keep their sizes consistent ... after three attempts and some decent nights' sleep I returned to the job, got on with a different section, and didn't worry about small matters like "being realistic".

After tackling a different section of the paper of pins, I had vague thoughts, and a small attempt, at returnig to the original drawing, but decided to overlay the shambles with the lovely old tracing wheel, which once belonged to a Mrs Douglass. It is a thing of beauty and I treasure it.

Poetry Thursday - I Have Loved Hours at Sea by Sara Teasdale

I Have Loved Hours at Sea

I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,
The fragile secret of a flower,
Music, the making of a poem
That gave me heaven for an hour;

First stars above a snowy hill,
Voices of people kindly and wise,
And the great look of love, long hidden,
Found at last in meeting eyes.

I have loved much and been loved deeply --
Oh when my spirit's fire burns low,
Leave me the darkness and the stillness,
I shall be tired and glad to go.

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

Born in St Louis, Mississippi, Sara Teasdale was the child of older parents, with teenage siblings, and her first word was "pretty". Throughout her life she was frail and sickly. She was homeschooled and had no playmates of her age till she was ten. The first of many poetry collections was published in 1907. She married in 1914, divorced in 1929, and lived the rest of her life for her poetry. She caught pneumonia in 1933, which weakened her not only in body but in spirit; she committed suicide in New York city that year.

Drawing Tuesday - cat's eye view

What do cats, low to the ground (or wherever else they get to) actually see? Some have hiding places in boxes etc ... some like to be high up, tops of wardrobes etc ...

According to this article, their visual fields are a bit broader than ours, and they don't see as sharply as we do. " the things humans can sharply resolve at distances of 100-200 feet look blurry to cats, which can see these objects at distances of up to 20 feet." But in dim light they can see much better than we do. And they see colours differently from us - the equivalent of being red-green colour blind. 

Further research on the topic reveals that there's now a Pets Eye View Camera....

And I'm delighted to share this little video of cat's-eye-view photography - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-13286470

From Janet B - The view through the cat flap.....
                          

From Sylvia - Here is my attempt at a cat's eye view (from a photo)

From Hazel - "Weetie's (my cat) Midnight Garden". Drawn with charcoal and then made into a negative image using my 'effects' option.

From Joyce - A cat’s eye view of a squirrel eating sunflower seeds on our patio.

I thought I would look at the wide angle view a cat sees and the muted greys, an interesting challenge today! 

From Judith - Playing with Procreate, takes ages, much quicker to sketch!

From Mags - On Sunday ' Doodie-Pie' the stray cat that has adopted next door, was dozing under our potting bench and when disturbed took up position by the fence underneath their bird table. She's got too portly to catch anything and its a bit of an effort to launch herself. (Watercolours on watercolour paper)

From Ann - Here's a cat's eye view. I found this looking up cats' views and loved the cat so here it is in coloured pencils.

From Sue S - Liked the block shapes. Not even a cat’s ear in sight! Soluble graphite & caran d’ache

From Gill - A dull view from lying on my rug pretending to be a cat. Even held my pencil as if in my right front paw.

From me - "Cat's eye view through the long grass, with moonrise". Graphite (=pencil). 

When I finally got started I realised there was a good reason for procrastinating - I had the idea of what should appear on the page, but no idea where or how to start. Thank heaven for the technological breakthrough called The Eraser, and for "visual reference" (=photographs). 

Poetry Thursday - Childhood by Kathleen Raine

From my ad hoc 1992 collection in a notebook

Childhood

I see all, am all, all.
I leap along the line of the horizon hill,
I am a cloud in the high sky,
I trace the veins of intricate fern,
In the dark ivy wall the wren's world
Soft to bird breast eggs of round nest is mine,
Mine in the rowan-tree the blackbird's thought
Inviolate in leaves ensphered.
I am bird-world, leaf-life, I am wasp-world hung
Under low berry-branch of hidden thorn,
Friable paper-world humming with hate,
Moss-thought, rain-thought, stone still thought on the hill.

Never, never, never will I go home to be a child.

Kathleen Raine (1908-2003)