Drawing Tuesday - Natural History Museum

Because I knew I'd be missing the session, I did some work at home beforehand.

First, crumpling a brown bag into an "instant sculpture" of a fantasy creature - a relative of a chicken, perhaps?

(The second attempt, the reverse side, was less interesting - not enough contrast!) I went on to copying the green-eyed tiger from the "Animals in Art" book (by Jessica Rawson, 1977)  that came to hand,  and adding the eyes from some other more or less realistic animals in the book -

Tiger by a torrent, painted by Kishi Ganku (1756-1838);
hanging scroll, 169 x 114 cm

Other contributions -

Janet B splashes out with colour!

Sue's preserved fish

Carol's fluorites

Judith's collection of feet

Joyce's whale skeleton, seen from above

Janet K - Guy the Gorilla

The homework was to draw fire. Some of us are still trying, or thinking about it, and some of us have done it -

At the moment all participants are nameless, to encourage the laggards (including me). Here's a starting point ...

Woodblock Wednesday - lining things up

Just when I thought I might almost be ready to print, a proof of the blocks cut so far caused me utter confusion - why weren't they lining up?

 I made temporary kentos with masking tape and moved them around again and again -

 ... and then decided to wait till help was nearby.

So, in class I took a methodical approach, using rubbings. First the key block several times, then add each of the  other blocks separately -

It seems that the half-block (green and blue - not the final colours) is the one that needs recutting.

Another block with more pots needed cutting first, and I got started right away. I'd taken some of the stripes out of the key block and put some stripes back into this final block -

Just a little cutting left on that block. Hoping to print next week - I'll do all the layers on one print at a time, in case the registration still needs adjusting.

Drawing Tuesday - Imperial War Museum

Climbing the stairs, I got this view of a Spitfire and a nice ledge to rest the sketchbook on -

... and on second glance got a better idea of the proportions; the carpentry maxim "measure twice, saw once" comes into mind -

Others viewed the plane from other angles -

Janet K

Janet B

I also found the "roof terrace" with its view of the cupola and various finials -

as did Janet B, who - as her "warm up" - fit a larger view onto a smaller page -

Judith had drawn from a WWI source - this is the aftermath of Ypres -

 and more recently, Irish leaders Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley -

Najlaa found the Whittlecoach motif, and a poster showing a textile panel that hung in the home of Constance Markievicz, the first women cabinet minister in Europe, elected to the parliament in 1918 -

Carol was intrigued by a jeep with all its equipment on the outside -

Sue paid close attention to a wrecked Japanese plane -

Extracurricular activities -

Najlaa printed with big leaves on cloth

Janet K stitched a tiny rug for a doll's house, based on a rug that
had belonged to her grandmother 

World palindrome day

In the UK today (2nd February) is 02.02.2020 

In the US today (February 2) is 02.02.2020

In some other parts of the world they write 2020.02.02 - but country by country, date formats get complicated!

(And if you look at how your digital photos are automatically labelled, you're likely to see something like this

IMG_20191027_083039.jpg  )

This article tells you more, and has asked for readers to submit palindromes. This one has to be a made-up story - but it's a good one -

My mate with Aspergers has just completed his PhD, as it happens -- on palindromes.
We now call him Dr Awkward.

Studio Saturday - heaving a sigh of relief

"Last year" I signed up for a ceramics course at Morley, "Exploring the ceramic surface with texture and colour" - four Saturday afternoons. A good way to ease back into the ceramics studio, to get re-enthused, I thought. 

And it promised well in terms of content, inspiration, opportunity. I hadn't taken in that there were two classes, a two-week break, and two more - which makes for some good thinking-time in the middle.

But I haven't grasped the nettle with any enthusiasm. There is a mental block, kinda like the one I get when faced with wiring diagrams. Yet it could be so much fun! I'm kicking myself for being "lazy"....

Thus it was was much relief that, preparing to go to the penultimate class, I realised that today is the second non-class week and it doesn't happen till next Saturday. But the knock-on effect is that I won't be able to attend the final class, on account of needing to be at my son's wedding. 

So I feel lazier than ever about this course. 

Never mind, here's what's happened so far.

First week - piddling about with over-complicated mark-making on tiles -

 ... much more fun to experiment with the leftover bits of clay -

 ... including this "water flowing over the scholar's rock" thing (or perhaps, "back view of wavy hair") -

 These went to the kiln -

Week 2, these came back from the kiln -

and these tiles had been kept back for further development -

 I'd looked for some things that might make interesting marks and enjoyed mucking about with this one -

Printing coloured slip onto tiles was fun - here's a (yawn) coordinated set - yes yes, it does look like a textile....

 These are a bit freer -

As for the sigh of relief, the free afternoon leaves time to make a panful of brownies, and do the hoovering, and go for a walk.

Woodblock Wednesday - another block cut, another bit of confusion

(Some of this is repetition from last week - I haven't quite "processed" it yet!)

This time I'm using the hanshita method, in hopes of better alignment. Usually the hanshita is the ink drawing that is pasted down and used for the key block, and once that is cut, the prints are used for subsequent blocks.  I made several prints from my block and used one, gluing it on with nori, letting it almost dry, then rubbing off the paper but leaving a thin layer with the ink lines -

Before I could cut, I needed to decide which jugs would go on which block, and spent the week thinking about colour and using my yummy new tubes of watercolour to get a feel for what might work in the print -

Cleaning up the key block -

Working on the light box (rather than on a rubbing) and trying to get the colours of the jugs separated -

Adding handles makes a difference -

 The key block has two striped pots - I feel the need for more stripes -

Added outlines - are they necessary? -

This colourway is based on a couple seen on the street, he in three shades of grey with a bit or orange (labels), and she in two shades of aqua with a pink hat -

That gets the jugs onto three blocks, and the "mouths" onto two other blocks. Is there an easier way?

After cutting some of the mouths, and leaving the background....

... I took the quandry to class and made a little progress. It helps to see things in a different environment.

 The mouths were printed (oops that's upside down) -

 ...to look like this -

Another hanshita is glued down on the other side of the plate, but I'm not quite sure what's to be cut away -

Carol showed some work by students (she teaches at Morley, Art Academy, and City Lit) -

 ... and during an idle moment an accidental collage revealed itself in a magazine that way lying around -

 After class I needed a walk to clear the cobwebs and found myself in Intaglio, buying another "thick" sheet of shina ply -

"Just in case"...