Thursday 5 January 2017

2017 ....

Well, the silly season is over and its back to some semblence of normality again (you may recall I'm a Bah Humbug sort of person)!

I really didn't get much artwork done in the latter part of 2016 - we were very busy but I'm sure I could have tried a little harder to make some art time.   If I was the sort of person who makes New Year resolutions I would add that plan to the usual 'lose weight' improve my Spanish, cut down on wine etc etc ... but we'll see.

We are going to be travelling a lot in the first 3 months of the year starting with a few weeks at our house on Fuerteventura (Canaries) from this weekend whilst work is being done at at our house here.

So ... I had to submit my entries for the UK Coloured Pencil Society's Int'l Exhibition today.   Entries have to be in by 3 February and I don't know when I'll be around for long enough to deal with it.   I haven't done anything new - these are all old practice pieces which I've tweaked a little in order to have something to submit.  You may recall some of these as I've probably posted them here at some stage:

The first is my coloured pencil drawing of a fisherman we often see around Corralejo harbour on Fuerteventura.    After hours spent at sea the fishermen congregate at a nearby bar for daily card sessions which become very intense and noisy at times.    He always looks very fierce but I guess his piercing stare is really due to hours spent squinting into the bright sunshine ...

This is the finished drawing:


I've added more detail to the background and more layers to his skin and clothing.    I also thought he looked a little too 'clean cut' and as I couldn't add any more white whiskers over the darker pigment I scraped away the top surface of the paper with a craft knife which has 'roughened' him up a little!   This was the earlier version:



This is Sax on the Beach.   I've never really been happy with this drawing as I struggled so much with the fiddly bits on the saxophone.    But there is a 'music' category in this year's exhibition so thought I might as well take a chance with him.   He is part of a  'hippy type' band of people who travel around holiday resorts in Europe and perform for money as street musicians/artists.    They are known as La Familia Flotante (the floating family) and they are actually very, very good - especially the saxophonist!   I photographed them several times whilst they performed by the Town Beach at Corralejo, Fuerteventura.

Again, I added a few more layers of coloured pencil - he was drawn specifically to fill a tall narrow frame I had at home:


 and the earlier version



This is a coloured pencil drawing on drafting film over a black backing sheet.    The subject (Spock) belongs to a fellow artist.  I met/photographed him last Summer - he really does have the most amazing curly coat.



and finally, the sikh character I drew earlier this year.     I've called this one Wisdom as apparently having a turban in saffron colour is a symbol of wisdom and I think he has a wise face and kindly eyes.



Now I've submitted them I can't do any further work on them which is a good thing as I'm very good at overworking pictures!


3 comments:

  1. I wish you the best of luck with your entries. I would vote for them, but then I am biased. Assume you will be dealing with "all" your property in Fuerte!!



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  2. I definitely think you'll get into the UKCPS exhibition with these, Sue. The old fisherman looks even sterner and scarier than before. Sax on the Beach has always been a favorite of mine in spite of your dislike of it. The dog is so endearing and cuddly looking and the Indian man is perfect. If you don't get juried into the exhibition, then there's definitely something wrong with the judges!

    Have fun in Fuerte!

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  3. Good luck with your submissions :)

    scraping the paper on your fisherman really worked well to make him look a little more rough and gritty :)

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