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.

Emmanuelle!

Last night I went along to the regular Tuesday night life drawing session at the Sussex County Arts Club in Brighton with my old pal and comrade on the boards (and now magician) Anton Binder who hadn't drawn a live model since his art college days back in the dim mists of time. Our model was the inspiring Emmanuelle who was stick thin and could hold a difficult pose like a statue! I've never seen anyone more French and I know a lot of French people! Anton did well and loved the experience. Here are some of my scribblings.

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.

Drawing Circus: Petty and Leyendecker

On Tuesday night I went along to Jake Spicer's regular Draw session at the Old Market in Brighton.
Emma Sandham-King chose the theme this time which was the advertising and pin-up work of George Petty and J C Leyendeker (who is one of my all time faves). It was quieter than usual which meant that you could get a seat and I spent most of an enjoyable evening sitting next to my mate and fellow cartoonist, the fabulously talented Geo Parkin. We were mainly sketching Beth, a new model to me, who has the longest legs since I last looked at mine in a funny mirror at the fair. Here are my best
attempts at capturing Beth along with a couple of lovely Emma.

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!

Naomi encore!

Naomi Wood and I had another drawing session on Thursday night. I'm trying to draw her as much as I can before I return to Majorca in a couple of weeks. She's a great model and a great girl too. I love drawing her and I hope it shows in the work.

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.

Laura the Fabulous Finn

Last night at The Sussex County Arts Club our model was Laura the fabulous Finn. I saw her a couple of nights ago playing her double bass in a local bar and belting out her own excellent songs. She's a talented lass and a great model too. One of the group's favourites. Here are my best six of the night.

Clementine

Last night here in Brighton was my first life drawing session at The Sussex Arts Club for about 3 months. I'd attended a couple of sessions in Palma but I'm not keen on how the Palma session is run. There is no music, no tea break and the same model for months. So it was very pleasant to get back
to Bill's Tuesday night class where he plays a great variety of fab toons, there is a decent tea break (with biccies) and a different model every week. Last night's model was a new one on me- the delightful Clementine, a lovely French girl with a fantastic mop of curly red hair. It's good to be back!

Gods and Goddesses

I went along to another of Jake Spicer's art events at The Old Market in Brighton last night. The theme this time was Hindu Gods and Goddesses and our wonderful models were Frankie, Laura Kate and Felix. The fabulous costumes and colourful sets were definitely an inspiration too and I was slightly miffed that I hadn't brought along any watercolours to do them justice. Anyway, I've tickled them up a bit in Photoshop so judge for yourself. My mate Mark Harrison was in attendance before jetting off to the U.S of A in a couple of weeks to inveigle himself into the American at scene. Go get 'em, Mark. And a welcome to the vibrant Brighton art scene to new girl Jelly who, impressively, makes a living out of art!

Drawing Circus

My first life drawing session back in Brighton after a 2 month stay in Majorca was down at The Old Market where Jake and the girls put on another intriguing event. The 4 girl models struck a mix of nude and dressed poses with a variety of times from 3 minute poses to Mary's heroic 45 minute standing pose that my fellow cartoonist Geo Parkin manage to do justice to. I was working exclusively on my iPad using the fabulous drawing app Adobe Ideas. Here are my efforts. Pip pip!

Leyre again!

For my second week attending the only life drawing session in Palma (which still amazes me!) it was my turn to pay the model which meant that I had also had to direct the poses. It's not as easy as it looks!
Luckily Leyre who is the same model we had last week is excellent and quite experienced and she also speaks very good English or all kinds of embarrassing misunderstandings might have occured with hilarious quinsiconces! Anyway, it all went well despite the differences to the classes I'm used to in Blighty as stated in my last post. No music and no tea break (Spanish tea is awful!)

Apparently they used to have music but they got so sick of the same CDs that they stopped. I might take along a compendium of 2BC's massive oeuvre next week. That'll put them off their stroke.

Jas and Kitty

I've had two private sessions with the lovely Jasmine Glover over the last couple of weeks. In the second session we were joined by Jas's friend Kitty, who wanted to try modelling and my friend Alexa who wanted to do some drawing. Both sessions were relaxed and fun affairs and here are my best scribblings from them.

Jasmine's Body Double

After making over 50 life drawings in the series I called "Me and my Shadow" trying to indicate the shadow psyche that we all carry according to Jung, I wanted to do something different but still with a psychological angle. So I had an idea for a kind of double exposure thing where the model strikes a pose then just moves part of her body into another pose on the same drawing so that that two figure are connected. I also wanted different expressions of attitudes  on her face to indicate two sides of her personality. My model was the lovely Jasmine who got what I was on about immediately and was very helpful in trying this idea out. I was rather chuffed with the results and am keen to do more. Here are the best ones. Thanks again to Jas!

Laura's Shadow

The other day Laura the fabulous Finn came over for a private modelling session.
I'd already chosen 6 of the "Shadow" series that I'd been working on for the forthcoming exhibition but I wanted to do some more with Laura in case I manage to sell any and need some more for the internet.
So here are the best ones. For a change I was working larger on A2 watercolour paper the only drawback to that is that they won't fit on my scanner so I had to use my iPad camera, hence the slightly odd colour gradation.

Amy

At last night's drawing session at the Sussex County Arts Club a full class (despite the God-awful weather) gathered to draw the lovely Amy who plays cello in A band with Lucy and Laura. Talented girls all! Here are me best scribblings.

Jasmine and Michaela

I had one private session with Jasmine and a SCAC session with Michaela a couple of weeks back but because of the pressure of Christmas deadlines I've only just got around to scanning and posting these and I've had another session since these which I need to scan in too. It's all too much! Can I have 8 more hours in the day please Time Lords?

Lichtenstein themed session

Last Tuesday night Jake Spicer's Draw group held a Roy Lichtenstein inspired life drawing event at The Old Market in Brighton and Hove. As usual it was well attended and there were three tableaux design and built by Laura and three models in suitable pop art costume and make-up to pose in front of them. I seemed to spend most of the evening drawing the magnificent Laura Nenonen who was throwing some suitably cartoony shapes. Great fun! Next month the theme is Norse mythology so get yer helmets out gang!

Kate times 2

Over the last couple of nights I've had two drawing sessions with Kate Shields at the SCAC.

The first was Bill Donahoe's regular Tuesday night class where he plays great music to accompany the scribbling and last night was a special event organised by Kate (who has more fabulous curves that the Amalfi coast road) and her fellow fab modelling pals Frankie and Emma. The theme was the three muses linked by red twine in a varied three hour session accompanied again by a great soundtrack. There was a fabulously tranquil and inspiring atmosphere and it was good to see my old studio mate Dan Lish there for his first life drawing session in yonks. Thanks Kate for a great event.

Jake Spicer's Drawing Circus

The other night I went along to another of Jake Spicer's excellent drawing events.
This time it was in the main hall of The Old Market so there was plenty of room. The event started in the afternoon but I went along to the evening part which ran from 8 to 11. There were 6 model. 5 girls and one guy. They were painted white all over to give a kind of Pierrot effect and their poses were accompanied by an excellent group of musicians playing drifty, ambient music which leant to the relaxed vibe. very enjoyable. Here are my best ones.