Double Trouble!

I managed to fit in two drawing sessions this week in between packing to move house. The first was part of the Brighton festival and was a Drawing Circus hosted by Jake Spicer incorporating three hours of live music and a host of excellent models in a variety of circus themed costumes. Jack's event are always superbly organised and inspiring as was this one. It took place in the Bosco Theatre beside the Spiegeltent on the Old Stein and the steeply tiered seats gave an excellent view of the varying tableaus as they changed and evolved. I had to leave early, unfortunately, so I missed the fabulous Naomi gyrating on a hoop. Great fun!
The following evening I went to my usual life drawing class hosted by Bill Donohoe at the Sussex County Arts Club where our model was the beautiful and statuesque Kate. She liked my drawings so I gave her one! I'll rephrase that- I donated one to her! That's better!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

Laura the Fabulous Finn

Last night at The Sussex County Arts Club we were treated to a session modelled by Laura the Fabulous Finn who threw some wonderful poses while we all grooved to Bill's excellent (always)
compilation of banging tunes. I hadn't drawn Laura for a while and had forgotten how good she is to draw.

Kate Shields

On my birthday, having already celebrated for the previous two nights I went along to the regular Tuesday night session of life drawing at SCAC where our model was the ever fabulous Kate Shields.
It was a hot and clammy night and the assembled stalwarts (including fellow renowned cartoonist and comedy sketch writer Geo Parkin, flamboyant fashion artist Hamza Arcan, fitness instructor and illustrator Alexa Garside, anatomy expert, teacher and animator Jeremy Radvan and lovely new friend and healer Ye Ping Tsim) were wilting a bit but it was a fun session. Here are my best attempts at capturing Kate.

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!

Good Old Egon

Just over 2 months ago before I left Blighty for the Med and a life of bibulous bucolicity in Majorca, I attended one of Jake's art events at The Old Market. The theme was Egon Schiele who is probably my favourite artist, certainly my favourite drawer so I went along. The following morning I was in such a flap packing everything I thought I'd need to work out there that I didn't have time to post my best efforts so here they are. It's impossible to do justice to the great man but us mere mortals can but try!

Leyre week 5 (week 4's files got corrupted!)

One Wednesday I attended my fifth life drawing session in the old stone cellars under the cathedral. Allen thinks he saw a ghost! After my abortive attempt at getting to grips with oil paint I thought I'd go back to my comfort zone of using acrylics but my comfort was stretched by the length of the poses- ten minutes. These are the best with a couple of drawings thrown in too. The model was our lovely regular- Leyre who is an excellent illustrator too.

Third time with Lyre

My third time at the art session here in Palma in an old stone vault below the cathedral. Our model was Lyre again. They seem to have the same model every week. Luckily she's great although on Wednesday she wasn't feeling well cos she has to have an operation on her stomach and the one person in a million who has an allergic reaction to the necessary pills is her. Nevertheless, she posed magnificently and here are my best efforts. Hope she's OK.

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.

Michaela

Last Tuesday night at SCAC here in Brighton we were treated to a drawing session with the fabulous Michaela.
Here are my best efforts from the night.

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.

Laura the Finn agin!

Last Tuesday's model at SCAC was  the fabulous Laura everybody's favourite Finn.
She's always great to draw as well as being one of the most confident young women I've ever met
and makes an impressive sight singing and playing her double bass in the bars of Brighton.

Moths!

I went along to last night's Draw session at The Old Market with art titans Mark Harrison and Geo Parkin. Frankie had chosen the theme- Moths! The various bizarre scenarios were modelled by Frankie, Emma, Felix and Charlotte (I think). This monthly session is great fun for newcomers and us old hands too. Come along to the next one!