What Comes Next 2017

Christmas Books - 2016
29 December 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

Elaine gave me Experimental Drawing by Robert Kaupelis and Expressive Drawing by Steven Aimone for Christmas. I intend to use these to structure my drawing practice in 2017. The other book in the sketch is Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory. It’s a book I’ve wanted to read for ages and was a present from Julie.

It’s a long time since I’ve thought about what I want from drawing and painting. The last time I wrote a blog post on this was in July 2013 (see What Comes Next).

I enjoy ink and watercolour sketching and I intend to carry on with this in 2017, but I also want something more. Sketching stuff around the house using the same techniques is becoming repetitive, so I’m going to explore some other approaches to drawing and painting.

I’m going to be more experimental in my sketching - use some different tools and maybe even try some collage, but this can wait until the summer. Initially, I am going to focus on drawing and painting techniques.

I know I want to paint, but I don’t know what or how. As a result, I’m not very inspired. Part of the problem is also my lack of mastery of watercolour, so I am going to continue reading and following the exercises from Watercolor Painting by Tom Hoffmann.

I want to make more confident and interesting marks and to incorporate more emotion and spontaneity into my drawings and paintings. I hope to achieve this by reading and following the exercises in the books Elaine bought me for Christmas. The exercises in Experimental Drawing look like they could take a couple years to get through, so I’m going to start with Expressive Drawing - which is all about intuitive mark making. The emphasis is on nonrepresentational drawing which will be a change for me but I’m excited to give it a go.

December 2016 Sketches

Additions to My Sketching Kit
28 December 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

Father Christmas’ helpers were kind to me. Julie (Elaine’s sister) gave me an excellent bag for my sketching kit and amongst the many presents from Elaine, were a couple of pencil cases.

Holly 2016
December 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

In recent years, Elaine’s friend Nicola has kindly donated some holly for me to draw. I look forward to the challenge. Holly is a tricky subject and Nicola’s holly is particularly challenging because not all the leaves are especially spiky.

Fancy Chair
30 December (not September) 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

Over the New Year, Elaine and I stayed at the Marlborough House B&B in Bath. The chairs in our room were interesting. I am not sure how old they were, but the castors under the front legs seemed out of place.

Fancy Chair Foot
30 December (not September) 2016
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A6 Ebony Sketchbook
10.5cm x 14.9cm (4.1" x 5.9")

I wasn’t particularly happy with the feet in the sketch of the chair, so I drew one of them more accurately and modelled it in pencil. I haven’t done much pencil drawing recently and I want to keep my eyes/hands in.

(I don't know what I was thinking when I dated these sketches - we were probably rushing to get to the Hop Pole.)

Bronzy Looking Plate
31 December 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

The decoration in our room included a bronzy looking metal plate. It was covered in low relief pictures/sculptures. In the middle, there was an ox or horse pulling a chariot which I assume is some kind of sun (or moon) chariot because around it there was a ring of reliefs representing the signs of the zodiac. There was an outer ring of pictures which I couldn’t identify. I thought it might be the Chinese zodiac, but there seemed to be too many of them and I couldn’t find a dragon.

Happy New Year. I intend to keep up the ink and watercolour sketching in 2017 and to explore some other aspects of drawing and painting.