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!