Beth

Last night at the life drawing session at The Sussex County Arts Club our model was the fabulous Beth who , unfortunately, won't be modelling for us for another year as she's off to study circus skills in Paris. Apparently, clowns are very big at the moment even small ones.

Katieee!

My final life drawing class at Bill's Tuesday night session at Sussex County Arts Club was very enjoyable as the attendant scribblers grooved to Bill's cool tunes as we tried to capture the tall and elegant Katie on paper and iPad. Here are my best ones.

Zoe

After several months away from the life drawing scene in Brighton I returned to the regular Tueday night session hosted by Bill Donohoe at SCAC in Brighton. OUr model was the excellent Zoe who brought along her extremely well behaved dog. It was a packed class as usual with the usual gaggle of scribblers including Rich Newman, Hamza Arcan, Jeremy Radvan and fellow cartoonist Geo Parkin as well as some newbies. My good friend Alexa came along too after a very long break. It was great to get back into the life drawing saddle. Here are my better efforts.

Katie

Last night I attended my first life drawing class for a while at SCAC in Brighton and our model was titian haired beauty Katie who was a delight to draw. The sparce class (first of the new year and bloody cold outside) was attended by regulars- fellow cartoonist and lover of Mad magazine, Geo Parkin with his newly sprouting full beard and Rich Newman showing off his new iPad to the envious attendees. needless to say, we repaired to the favoured local hostilery afterwards to discuss all and sundry and quaff strange ales. Fun fun fun!

Portrait of the artist as a young nude man

I'm back in Brighton briefly and was asked by Amy Squirrel from Draw if she could interview me about my career as an artist for the Draw blog. She was hosting a life drawing session on Thursday night so I braved the wind and rain of mid-summer England and went. There were only a few attendees, probably due to the lousy weather but one of them was Jan Irving whom I've known for a while and always admired her amazing skill at capturing the figure in motion- that's tough! Our model was Ollie who I hadn't drawn before but he was very good. The theme was colour in art so he was posing with a paint brush and palette. Here are my best efforts from a very enjoyable session.

Rachel under the Cathedral

There is a big contrast between the availability of life drawing sessions in Brighton and Palma.
In Brighton you can go to many different life drawing sessions in different venues all over the city both day and night and in Palma I can only find one. And it only happens once a week on a Wednesday afternoon but it does take place in the exotic setting of the ancient stone vaults in the shadow of Palma´s magnificent cathedral. So it was there that I persuaded my Russian friend Anna with whom I had a recent exhibition at the German Consulate to join me in drawing the beautiful Rachel. Here are my best attempts.

Sploshiness abounds!

After a self-imposed 6 month period of drawing in coffee I attended last night's life drawing session at SCAC in Brighton and went a bit doolally with the colour. Our model was the excellent Jenny and I had great fun capturing her lovely curves in pencil and splashy watercolour. Then the usual suspects repaired to a public hostillery for copious quaffage. Maaaaarvelous!

Naomi

On Tuesday night I attended the SCAC life drawing session hosted by Bill Donohoe. It was a really packed class and our model was everyone's favourite redhead Naomi. She's a fabulous girl and an amazing model and as a special treat she joined the boys for a bevvy after class. I'm off to Majorca again tomorrow where there's only one rather dull life drawing class and no models as good as Naomi so I'm glad I got to draw the Goddess twice in a month! Here are my best attempts!

Princess Frankie

Last night I attended Bill's Tuesday night life drawing session at SCAC in Brighton for the first time in ages. Our model was the fabulous Frankie with her unbelievably long hair done up in two buns as a tribute (possibly but probably not) to Princess Leia in the new Star Wars film. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable session and afterwards some of the usual suspects (me, Geo Parkin, Mark Harrison and Bill Donohoe) plus newcomer Gillian (I didn't get her surname) repaired to the local jam packed Witherspoons for some cheap quaffing and blather. Then on the stroke of midnight we sang happy birthday to Bill who had just turned 60 and is now officially an old git! Happy birthday Bill! Much jollification!

A Brace of Beauties!

I'm off back to my small flat in Palma tomorrow so I've been doing as much life drawing as I can in the knowledge that despite its plethora of galleries there are bugger all life drawings classes in Palma.
So for two days running I drew two of my favourite models- Laura the Fabulous Finn and the Divine Naomi! I'll miss it when I'm out there but weather should be nice!

The Drawing Circus- Matisse

I went along last night to the Drawing Circus which is a monthly event held very near where I live. I was only going to stay for an hour or so of the 4 hour session but it was so good and inspiring that I stayed 'til the end. The theme was Matisse and the bar area at The Old Market was colourfully decorated with large cut-out shapes taken from Matisse's famous works. We had four beautiful models-
Frankie, Laura B, Laura N and Clementine who was painted entirely blue which contrasted wonderfully with her curly red hair. And for the final tableau they were joined by the impressive and gorgeous Belle who organised the whole thing. It was great fun and it was a pleasant surprise to see old friend and marvelous puppeteer- Daisy there with her lovely friend Sofia. A great evening's drawing!
Here are my best efforts, some of which I've tickled up in Photoshop.

Escaping the Outline!

Like my fellow cartoonist and all round good egg- Geo Parkin, I have recently become enamoured with the joys of watercolour. It's such a happy medium! Prone to the surprising happy accident. I love it. Normally I would draw the subject in outline and use the watercolour to freely colour it up but last night I decided to get out of my comfort zone and paint the model ( the excellent KIARA) without any guidelines. Just watercolour paint straight onto the paper. Below are  the mixed results of this nerve racking but enjoyable experiment before I scurried back to my comfort zone like a scalded cat and took up the outline again.
Well you've got to challenge yourself occasionally incha?

Clementine

Last night at SCAC's Tuesday night life drawing session our model was the beautiful French girl Clementine.
This is the second time I've drawn her in a week as she was one of the two models in the Egon Schiele inspired session for the Brighton Illustators Group.
I was working larger than I normally do and being very splashy with the watercolours hoping for the happy accident that watercolours can give you.
Afterwards a few of us repaired to the local hostilery for copious quaffage and the discussion of wide and varied topics as usual. Much fun!
Here are the best attempts.

Naomi Noir

I've been trying to emulated the great film noir images from crime novel covers of the 40s and 50s with the help of my new muse the gorgeous redhead Naomi. My intention is to get enough paintings together for an exhibition glorifying the redhead. It's early days yet as acrylic isn't my usual medium but
Naomi is inspiring me to keep trying. Here are my latest efforts.

Doing a Double

Over the last two nights I've attended The Sussex County Arts Club for two life drawing sessions.
The first one was Bill Donohoe's excellent Tuesday night session where the assembled scribblers tried to capture the fabulous curves and huge eyes of Michaela whilst groovin' on down to some chilled vibes, man.
Then last night Jo Moore on behalf of the Brighton Illustrators Group hosted a session inspired by the work of Egon Schiele with models Laura Kate O'Rourke and Clementine (I'm sorry Clem but I don't know your surname) for 3 long poses in suitable Schiele-esque clobber and finally in a nude tableau.
It was a great and inspiring session and here are my best efforts from both nights.

Kate Shields

I'm trying to get in as much life drawing as I can in Brighton before returning to Mallorca where there is only one class and it isn't very good. So I attended Bill's always excellent session at The Sussex County Arts Club last night where our model was the immensely talented Kate Shields sporting a snazzy new haircut which was great to draw. Here are my best ones. Afterwards some of us repaired to the local Wetherspoons for some cheap quaffage and arty-farty chat! Much funnings!

Naomi yet again!

I went along to Jeremy Radvan's very informative anatomy class at SCAC last night where Jezza told us all about the muscles from the pelvis to the knee. Now I know what the sartorial muscle is for! Our model to illustrate the relevant parts of the body was the exquisitely lovely Naomi. Here are my efforts.

The Return of the Redhead

I was priveleged enough to get Naomi the fabulous new (to me!) model round for a modelling session at Wick Hall.
I would love to do some mock pulp crime novels with her as she's exactly right for a femme fatale despite being a really sweet girl. In the meantime, here are my sketches from a few days ago.

Naomi!!!

As there is a different model every week at SCAC (we are sooo spoiled in Brighton for life drawing!)
sometimes you get a very pleasant surprise. Such was the case last night when Naomi, who has been modelling for a while in Brighton, did her first session at Bill Donohoe's class.
Not only does she have a perfect figure and a lovely face AND a shock of magnificent red hair BUT she's a fantastic model who can hold a difficult pose as though she's made of marble. All the regulars were impressed and Jeremy Radvan immediately booked her for one of his classes.
She's like a cross between a Mucha maiden and a femme fatale. I'd love to work on a project with her. We'll see! Anyway, enough blather from me. Here are my best attempts at capturing her loveliness.

The Drawing Circus

After spending Christmas and New Year in Palma I was looking forward to some life drawing back in Brighton and last night was another of Jake Spicer's monthly events called The Drawing Circus. We had three models dressed in harlequin and clown costumes and it was packed with enthusiastic scribblers including my good mates Mark Xavier Harrison and Geo Parkin. Also there was the extremely talented graphic novelist Hannah Berry and Jan Irvine among many others. Our superb models were Laura Kate O'Rourke, Michaela Meadows and Felix. It was a great session after which Geo, Mark and I decamped to the Conquerer to plan our conquest of the world.
Look out world! Here some some old gits!