Drawing Tuesday - tools of the trade

 We've done this topic before and now, as then, the first thing that jumps into my mind is Jim Dine's paintbrushes - here's one way to draw them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxXJjLeWWI0&ab_channel=LaurenStacey - or, better (imho), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHbPrVgB3E&ab_channel=AllisonMaurais. Those are both videos for schoolchildren - I found them very liberating!!

The next thing that jumps into my mind is the tool collection at Docklands Museum - the hooks etc used to move the big bales and bundles around.

Those (Polish?) young men on the tube or train with their canvas bags of tools and the spirit level that is too long to fit into the bag, off to the day's job. (The other day I saw a man pushing a bike that had a ladder attached. Cool.)

18th and 19th century travelling seamstresses - spending a week or so with a family, living in, making the year's new clothes for them. This would have been before the sewing machine era, so I imagine they carried needles, shears, etc with them.

Stonemasons, building a cathedral for dozens of years, or perhaps just staying on the job for a while, till they hear of something better....

In Japan, and formerly in UK, apprentices made their own tools and used them throughout their working lives.

Remember all those forceps and other instruments in the "Medicine Man" collection at the Wellcome?

Consider the rockets etc that launch the missions to the moon, Mars, Saturn, and even right out of the solar system. 

And perhaps the delivery vehicles that have become so necessary, and now it's possible they could become robots rather than human-driven.

Thinking 'way back, and looking ahead, and examining what's around us now. In the office, or the kitchen, or the garage perhaps, and certainly in the studio. Easels! Palettes! Pencils! Cameras! Devices! Sketchbooks! Brushes! 

From Ann - Thinking a little outside the theme of ' tools of the trade'. Here are a few sketches from a recent fashion session. The male model is a dress designer and models his designs ...a lively fun session of quick response.. loved it! The designs being the tools of his trade!

From Sue K - ‘Tools of Trade’ - here are some Instruments of torture or comfort - used to mend/ease our various aches & pains over time - forgot the wheatbag!!

The head massager is rather a ‘marmite’ item:- either loved or hated! 

From Carol - I did a trowel audit.  How many does a woman want? The thing is I know there are some more around – I just could not find them.

From Gill - Sorry this is late but the weather has been lovely and my gardens look tidy now. It’s a bit cold today.

From Janet B - One of my "trades" is baking bread. Here is my Kenwood mixer with two dough hooks - I’m firmly of the belief that there is no need to knead - my wonderful German euro shop scraper and a spatula. 

From me - i was intrigued by the videos that showed teachers an art activity for 9-11 year olds. So I followed the instructions and used pencil, pen, charcoal, and watercolour, in that order, finishing with a bit of spatter

From Joyce - I followed the same tutorial, what interesting shapes my brushes are, I need to be more aware of the shape when I choose which brush to use, not just use the one in my hand at the time!

From Sue B - …this is a bit of stretch of concept!…if tools are daffodils to use in flower-arranging (!)…herewith an offering!

the garden of a friend outside henley this spring

From Janet K - My husband is rebuilding our bathroom. This industrial vacuum has been invaluable.

From Mags -  Making ' Tanglefoot Pens'  from beer cans,  bamboo sticks, an old paintbrush and some coffee stirrers, proved difficult  wearing gloves  ( the metal was very sharp )  especially when  wielding scissors and dealing with  recalcitrant Ducktape. Perhaps I should have drawn those as the 'tools' ....Instead  I  drew the pens  that had produced  the marks. 

Drawing Tuesday - strange shapes

 Would you agree that shadows make the strangest shapes of all? The distortion - as they fall at an angle and hit surfaces at other angles - makes them hard to "read".

Or perhaps what makes "strangeness" of shapes is previous expectation - our minds take a while to analyse what we might actually be seeing.

Reversing, distorting and combining letters can make for very strange shapes. 

Strange negative spaces can enhance the strangeness of already-strange shapes. 

We're apparently programmed to look for - or see - faces wherever possible, but these might look very strange indeed and still look like faces!

Picasso's portraits of the women in his life have some very strange shapes in them. Distortion can be deliberate, or it can be intuitive. 

Would you agree that distortion=strangeness? Or might you be looking for "natural" forms that diverge so much from the usual that they seem strange - my example would be the beak of the spoonbill. Or the curlew, come to that - both adapted to their purpose but so exaggerated that they seem strange on first encounter.

It could be that something we've become used to seeing  will become strange when seen in low light, or from an unusual angle. 

From Mags - On my daily walks seeing strange creatures  emerge  from  huge wooden structures  left  among the brambles , I feel like  Mary Anning! Rubbings with crayons on  used Colour Catchers. 

From Sue K - Here’s my fuzzy pastel rendering of a shadow spotted on the kitchen floor - some snappy creature snapping at blue circles.

From Richard - Our attic ceiling provides interesting shapes, light and shade, plus I thought that if I sat close to my subject (had to crane neck up and down to take it all in) then an interesting perspective might follow. It didn’t. My brain must have rationalised it into what one expects to see; very disappointing. Clearly, I’m not David Hockney, nor Lucien Freud …… Ah well, enjoyable just to put 2B to paper.

From Najlaa - scutoids and a vase -

From Judith - Strange shapes from a reflective sculpture and a cut up cardboard box.

From Ann - Batik pieces transformed into an abstract composition. 

Unsure how this next strange shape came to me but liked the palette of colour.

From Joyce - ivy clinging to a tree in my local woods this morning. Can you hear the birds singing? It was so nice to be there sketching, bluebells coming out together with celandines and wood anemones.

From Gill - I’m on an all week art course but managed to do this while listening to other students during a crit.

From me - the strange shapes of "things behind things" - not quite negative space, but also they can be unidentifiable ... I can't figure out what some of them were!

Drawing Tuesday - in the garden

As the arctic blasts return, it's bad timing for this topic!! At least we're not meeting in some chilly park....

A useful video for drawing landscape-design trees, starting with a circle:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOzVvlGHJ58&ab_channel=EricArneson. Part 2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd0AK5u4ImA&ab_channel=EricArneson, shows how to colour them in. Lots of possibilities for pattern making.

Another line of attack for this theme is via gardens in the history of art; Monet, anyone?

Or, look out the window into a garden... 

From Joyce - This is a collage I made yesterday at a zoom workshop by the Curwen Print Study Centre.  The Pagoda is a transfer image print, all prints made on my Gelli plate, my latest lockdown toy!

From Ann - Memories of sketching this scene in the sunny garden of a lovely small hotel in Breil sur Royale, south of France. As the waitress prepares a table for lunch ....

From Judith - Mostly painted indoors as so cold but very cheering in the garden.

From Sue K - used a pic taken in sun & warmth the other day!

From Carol - Starlings squabbling on the feeder. I have enjoyed encouraging birds into the garden this year.

And suncatchers made with glass and glue -

From Janet K - My alpine strawberry plant survived the winter outside and now is flowering!

From Mags -  I did several quick sketches... My favourite  is the  one with  green Pitt Calligraphy Pen in A6 daily sketchbook. In regards to the other - note to self to test pen is waterproof before adding watercolour.... 

From Janet B - My garden is looking particularly woebegone at the moment so I drew this selection of pots and plants from photos and memory. I never realised quite how many green pencils I had, none of them the right shade obviously, but it was fun to play with them all. 

From Gill - My camellia and euphorbia in full bloom.

A drawing done with my left hand then ink added as I couldn’t resist using colour.

From me - Clippings from very very old sage plants that we took out of the garden - they resembled wild beasts -

Brought indoors and left to roam...

Drawing Tuesday - balance

Balance is one of the "rules" of composition. There's certainly lots of scope in playing with those rules!

"Balance refers to how the elements of art (line, shape, color, value, space, form, texture) relate to each other within the composition in terms of their visual weight to create visual equilibrium. That is, one side does not seem heavier than another."

Symmetry (around an axis) is useful for balance, but can be boring. Manipulating the other elements can achieve asymmetrical balance. Think of, or go find, The Great Wave or The Last Supper to see how Hokusai and Leonardo did it. 

Alexander Calder's mobiles come to mind - a very physical manifestation of balance. http://www.thewestologist.com/arts/calder-and-the-art-of-balance  - "Calder’s mobiles are not simply about balance in relation with gravity. Their ever-changing forms manage to balance the natural and the abstract, the timeless and the modern, order and chaos, control and letting go"

There's visual equilibrium, and there's visual DISequilibrium. There's a tipping point. There's overbalancing, and being out of balance, as well as being balanced....

From Janet K - Wasn't sure what to do this week so decided to try 'off balance'. Spending time on a ladder replacing lining paper and painting so do worry about off balance.

From Gill - As slacklining is all the rage in Clissold Park I thought I’d join them this evening.

From Carol - I was never very good at maths, but things don’t add up like they used to.

From Judith - More negative shapes from La Merc Festival Barcelona where they build people towers with kids in crash helmets on top!

From Ann - Taking the idea of balance literally. I did this life study with ok don drawing on zoom a few weeks ago...how the model balanced on the stools and  equipment was amazing. 

From Sue K - This is my garden mobile made from a (sadly) broken porcelain lampshade - luckily a calm day to do it - when windy it makes a lovely tinkly, resonant sound!

From Mags - Today I  had my first trip to  Tescos since before Xmas ! ( I always hang my trolley from the trolley )  

Then took advantage of the sun to wash our winter dressing gowns.  They're very heavy when wet   so definately a balancing act to ensure the whirligig doesn't fall over !  ( Photos manipulated in Photoshop , I could twiddle for hours ... ) 

From Jackie - Ceramic sculpture in 3 pieces: ‘balancing act’

This was delicately balanced  but sadly it only remained like this for a couple of years until someone jogged the shelf…..it had a short but much appreciated life! 

It remains a continuing challenge to work out a way of securing pieces like this….

From Joyce - I drew this at the Alexander Caldwell exhibition “Performing Sculpture” at Tate Modern, March 2016. Fascinating exhibits and some witty ones of people.

From me - Thought about this topic a lot and nearly got stuck into drawing a heap of stones, but "simplify" is my current watchword, so I resisted that till the last little sketch. Trying how to figure out how to (a) get the lighting right and (b) indicate that they are all overbalanced and about to tip and topple!