Drawing Tuesday - Wellcome Collection

The "Play" exhibition started with a display of all 24 of Froebel's Gifts, structured play/learning materials invented by a 19th century early-childhood educator -

Froebel's original set (1837) included six activities

... more complex activities were added later

Beloved toys were in glass cases, including a Stieff bear that had had exploratory surgery to find out why his growler wasn't working, sewn up with red thread. His owner went on to become a vet -

A trio of toys, by Jo

Surgical bear

Pumpie, recently made famous by being restored at the V&A
(programme available till May on the BBC iplayer)

A Lego dog, before the firm made bricks

Joyce focussed on the simple Froebel blocks -

In other parts of the building, Sue tackled the glass model of the Giardia organism -

 Judith spent time with the glass implements in the Henry Wellcome display -

Most of my time was spent looking at the exhibition, which included a charming child's drawing of figures with their shadows, presented as an animation in which the shadows gradually appeared, from the figure down, rather like this -

It drew my interest to the shadows of people watching a video

drawing in the dark

I tend to shy away from human figures so this quick sketch - and the won't-hold-still children in a play area - were a bit of a breakthrough, small as it seems.

Extracurricular activities included life drawing along with "that programme on the telly" (available till early March) -

 ... and Joyce made a Beavers shirt for her grandson's beaver toy -

Drawing Tuesday - V&A

The ceramics department of the V&A always offers a lot of scope. I had figurines in mind, for some crazy reason, but definitely not this bunch -

 I did quite like this commedia dell'arte family -

 and "woman with a fish"

 but settled on these two...

 and couldn't resist the mythological(?) creature on this bowl -

They all fit on a page, and turned out rather pale...

Carol was bold -

 Joyce found pomegranates -

Sue's choice was a large sculpture by Peter Voulkos, "Standing Form" -

 ... and a teapot with orange peel glaze by Peter Meanley, 1994 (he's been a saltglaze teapot maker for several decades now) -

Najlaa found patterned plates by Patrick Caulfield (1992) and Peter Ting (1997) -

Janet K started with a couple of heads

 ... and moved on to a form by Merete Rasmussen -

 Judith liked the collection of shapes

 ... and the patterning of a huge plate that hangs on the wall -

 Extracurricular activities 

Carol had a vintage railway experience -

Janet K spent a family-filled fortnight at a cabin on a lake in Canada - this is the "shed" in its back yard -

Drawing Tuesday - V&A

The medieval rooms are one of my favourite parts of the V&A, and it seems the others in the group like them too.

Najlaa scooted off to the Mary Quant exhibition first, then found an Islamic subject -

 Carol tackled stained glass and promised to finish it later -

 Sue was attracted to the stained glass too -

 The standing figures that Janet K chose are from 1500-25 -

Extra-curricular activities

Carol's close observation -

 Sue's encounter with a Henry Moore -

 Najlaa's continuing daily drawings, inspired by found images -

 Janet K at the V&A earlier in the week -

Nearly forgot to add my own work - I had settled down in front of what turned out to be the Syon cope, attracted by the dragon and the many-winged seraph, when a woman came along and said she'd be bringing a tour group in half an hour and they'd be standing right where I was sitting. Hmm.

I carried on and got this far by the time the group approached -

Nearby were these floor tiles* from about 1300 - a nice simple subject -

At home during the week I tidied it up a bit - lots of erasing -

Now you can actually see the pattern -

What I learned from this: Be Bolder! Get some contrast into the drawing. Never mind if it "goes wrong" ... go with the flow ... be bolder!!

* I spent a lot of time looking for a link to these tiles, and found many interesting things along the way. Can I draw your attention to an exhibition of old textiles collected by Seth Sieglaub that was held at Raven Row in 2012. A pdf of the catalogue is online and the textiles are beautifully photographed.

Drawing Tuesday - V&A, medieval galleries

There's always too much to choose from in the medieval galleries - probably my favourite part of the V&A. I was very tempted by the goofy horses in a huge tapestry p

 and by some lively textile fragments 0

1370-1430, Italy, probably Venice

1270-1330, Italy or Spain

but it was the availability of not just a seat but a surface that settled me down in front of the roof bosses -

 The magic of the camera allows "awkward" views -

Top right is where better observation was needed...

Winged bull and winged lion

The staff in the members' room were very helpful in finding a table for seven. I have been very grumpy about the flash new members' room, and wouldn't bother using it on my own, but in company it does have redeeming features!

Going round the table -

Judith's large wood statues

Carol's St Margaret

Joyce's misericord

Jo's demons

Drawing stained glass is rather time-consuming - the colouring-in needed to be finished at home -

Janet K

Sue

 Extra-curricular activities

Carol went to the Isle of Wight

Joyce met up with Urban Sketchers

Joyce and Sue had been to a kantha workshop

Janet K made a dinosaur jumper for a family teddybear

 And from that ill-fated outing to the Natural History Museum - Carol persevered, with these results -