Learner's Licence

After saying I wouldn't have time... yesterday I had plenty of time to draw people waiting in queues at the Traffic Licensing Centre. My son was booking to take his Learner's Licence next month. We had tried the day before and I had been reduced to a gibbering frustrated wreck by conflicting instructions on what to bring, where to go and what the opening and closing times were. But yesterday we got there early and a mere three hours later we were able to go home.

I'm so glad I've got into the habit of taking sketching stuff with me wherever I go. As always, the time went quickly (not for my son, for whom it stood still!) and I felt a productive sort of morning had been spent.

Voting on Earth Day

A really scrappy sketch in between a lot of other things - this done yesterday in the voting queue at our local primary school. Standing up, cold and shuffling along (and trying to be unobtrusive), it's not my best effort, but - no excuses! It was a good-natured and exciting sort of day mostly - today hopes soaring and diving as the results trickle in. We all know who will be the gov, and President, but behind that the race is quite interesting.
It was Earth Day as well, and though I didn't manage to paint anything appropriate, I did plant some bulbs and pansies, which I'm sure will bring inspiration come Spring.
I've got some commissioned drawings for HIV/Aids education in Lesotho to do, which will keep me busy, so may have some gaps in between postings for a while. See ya!

Proteas and pearls

These are flowers my husband gave me for our 30th - yikes -wedding anniversary on Tuesday - and pearls too... pearls, for me! He is a very special man and I'm exceptionally glad I married him - but I'm not going into that too deeply here - I thought I'd just show you sketches of the magnificent proteas and roses (I didn't feel like drawing the bowl - and the pearls are a bit too much of a challenge - to do them justice).
I coloured the top one with the rather disappointing Pitt artist pens that I blogged about here - seeing if I might get a range of colours and values that I could use for quick sketching, but they're all rather uniform not being water-soluble, except for the pale yellow, which is as dry as a bone - I had to lick and scrub to get a slight tinge from it.

I drew them again, a bit more loosely - might colour this with watercolours, or just work into it with more linework - I'm on a bit of a drawing pursuit at the moment, since discovering this nib again that is so pleasant to draw with.
There's a good article on Empty Easel about foreshortening that I am looking forward to trying out. As much drawing as I've done over the years, I've had little tuition in the basics, having been dozing or daydreaming at school when they asked who wanted to do Art as a subject, which I really, really did! I'll let you know how it goes...

Easter in the Square

Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, we went to a free performance of Handel's Messiah at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton. The marquee was packed by the time we got there, so I found a plantpot to perch on, and sketched the back end of the audience, with the statue of Madiba doing his slow dance as the focal point. The acoustics weren't the best outside the boundaries of the tent, but there was a joyful atmosphere of sharing this wonderful music, and the day with others.

My husband, meanwhile, had found a young man that we'd met at church in the morning, an American working for the Clinton Foundation in Kenya, on his way through Johannesburg.
He had had dinner the night before at one of the restaurants in the Square, and would you believe Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon were there, in the country shooting a movie about Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup! How I would have loved to have sketched them for Urban Sketchers, though I'm sure I would have been too dazzled and star-struck to have put quivering pen to paper! We went to have a drink after the concert and I had to make do with a couple of ordinary, but no less worthy I'm sure, South Africans - ah, but for what might have been!!!

Strange doodles

You wouldn't think a simple action like picking up a coffee cup would give you a flash of how life could change completely in an instant - but something in my back went twangg and I was suddenly unable to perform a hundred tasks and movements that I'd previously taken for granted. Thankfully it is on the mend - whew! - and bending and stretching seems once again feasible!
I've been reading an old out-of-print book that came my way called 'Techniques of Drawing' by Fred Gettings - full of interesting insights, one of which is the connection between handwriting and drawing. When I think how little I write longhand these days, it's no wonder a pen sometimes feels awkward and unnatural in my grip. He recommends creating abstract forms from your own handwriting and developing them into 'meaningless' drawings with texture, light, shade and form. My doodle above is not this exercise, and I can't remember if I did it before or after reading that, but I enjoyed making the (gobbledy-gook) script just as a tone in the negative shapes - makes me think I should make the effort to write more often.
I did some urban sketching yesterday - and felt strongly the awkwardness of the pen as I started drawing the excavations on the left. A bit more comfortable with the curvy staircase on the right, but still not as loose and free as I'd like to be. These with more info if you'd like, over on Urban Sketchers...

What I love

I've received this Award - again! - from Adam Cope, someone with a real, palpable passion for painting and everything to do with it, including teaching it to others. Do visit his blog Dordogne Painting Days and have a look-see.

The award involves naming seven things that you love, but I decided that instead of composing a written list, I'd spend the time drawing the 'things' with this dip pen, which I've re-discovered and love, and sepia ink, ditto...

My studio - still in a mess, but I love it anyway!

Beach Family

I spent a happy few hours yesterday painting the Different Strokes from Different Folks project, and blew out some of the doubts and negative energies that have been assailing me, though I must say for the first hour or so my overriding sensation was one of fear and panic - performance anxiety? Until little things started happening with the watercolour like
<--this and
<--this
which just made me remember how I love this stuff and to enjoy the process. I've also been devouring various articles, such as the latest Painter's Keys clickback and Karin Jurick's pep talk on motivation on DSFDS, which addressed many of my ponderings, and dipping into my copy of Art & Fear... it's wonderful how you can send out a little SOS to the world at large, and the answers come flowing in.