Chiara

I went along to last night's life drawing session at The Sussex County Arts Club where our model was the excellent Chiara. Here are some of my daubings.

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.

Catherine

Last night's life drawing class at SCAC in Brighton was pretty full and the gathered horde of scibblers (including the return of last week's newbie Anton Binder) attempted to capture Catherine's
curves and curls on paper or iPad.
Here are my best attempts.

Magnificent Michaela!

Last night after a two month break, I attended the SCAC life drawing session where our model was Michaela. I hadn't drawn her for a few years but she's always been one of Brighton's best models do I was delighted to draw her again. She's been away for a couple of months working on a project in Ibiza, an island I've never visited despite spending a lot of time in Majorca. One day!

Different Jenny

At my final SCAC session last night before returning to the hot embrace of the Mediterrenean I thought I'd try out a different technique. More cartoony inspired by the work of the brilliant Shane Glines. Our model was Jenny but a different Jenny to last week's Jenny. Brighton's full of Jennys!

Cleudo!

Last night at The Old Market there was another of Jake Spicer's Draw events. These are always fun, inventive and well organised. This time the theme was Cluedo with our four excellent models- Naomi, Frankie, Laura and Amy dressed as characters from the game. I went along with sisters Nadia and Rowena and we all enjoyed it immensely. Here are some of my efforts.

At the Double

I had two life drawing sessions on the bounce this week. First was at SCAC with artist and model lovely, lissom Laura Ryan then a private session at my bachelor penthouse flat where Alexa Garside and I drew the fabulous Naomi Wood. After a fairly long gap in Mallorca where the life drawing sessions are very thin on the ground it was great to get back in the saddle in arty farty Brighton where we are spoilt rotten for drawing. Her are my best scribblings from the two sessions.

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.

Naomi, Mimi and Me

My very talented and lovely niece came to Brighton for a couple of days. It was her first visit since she was six (now nineteen) and she loved the place. She's an excellent oil painter (better than I'll ever be) and is starting at Glasgow College of Art in September. I'm sure she'll go far! I arranged a private session with the wonderful Naomi so that Mimi and i could have a chance of drawing together. It was great fun and we all got on swimmingly. Here are my efforts. Mimi will post hers up on her own blog I expect.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Life drawing in Majorca!

Finally, after 5 years of looking and asking and trying and failing to set one up myself, I've found a life drawing class in Majorca. A friend of a friend took me there yesterday afternoon to try out the regular weekly 2 hour session. I took place in an ancient building in the shadow of Palma's magnificent cathedral and was attended by 7 or 8 men and women who conversed during the poses in Spanish of which I understood very little. Our model was the lovely Leyre who is also an illustrator. There were a few differences to the classes I'm used to in Brighton. NO TEA BREAK!!! and no music which was a shame but after 5 years I'm not complaining! I'm going again next week with another local artist Alan.

Eleanor in the land of pink and grey

In Tuesday night's session at The Sussex County Arts Club a packed to capacity (26) crowd, including such eminent luminaries of the illustration world as Geo Parkin, Mark Harrison, Jeremy Radvan and of course, Bill Donohoe our gracious host and perveyor of cool toons to the artisans, tried to capture the lovely likeness of our model for the evening Eleanor. Here are my best scribblings.

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.

Greta

A packed to the gunnels life drawing class last night at The Sussex Arts Club were treated to the sinous modelling skills of Greta. There were some notable newcomers in the class including master designer Nigel Spall, reknowned cartoonist Phil Dobson and expert illustrator and generally fab chap Pete Greenwood, who were all enthused by the experience and keen to repeat it. Here are my best efforts at portraying Greta. And then I'm off to Palma for a few weeks where life drawing classes are as dragon's eggs.