be careful

Light and shadow

One thing I never appreciated, back in art school, was how rare and wonderful it was to set up the studio and the model, and have hours of uninterrupted painting time.

Or even one hour, as in this case. Life is busy.

The picture is a watercolour, sketched out first in pencil. The model stood there for the hour, give or take a break or too. Her position in front of the window made things a bit more challenging - it was a bright Italian day, and I had to squint at her. That light had the effect, too, of washing out everything else, hence the pale tones of the fabrics. The brightness of the sun accepts no rivals.

Tulips

Aaron

A quick drawing from life.

It's a good theory

He'll drive you home

Sexual dimorphism...

...can be pretty extreme.

A drawing done from life with a Copic brush pen.

take one

A one minute drawing.

Shaking their fists, second state

And the same view, at an earlier and brighter hour.

Shaking their fists, 9pm

When Monet painted his series of Rouen cathedral, he had to set up a new canvas and palette for every hour of the day because of the constantly changing light. Think of the hassle.

These days, of course, we have iPads, and we can simply open a new file for each new painting. Assuming, of course, we have the patience to sit and paint anew for each hour of changing light.

whose head?

Reinisa poses with a prop. It's a quick drawing, of perhaps 10 minutes, done with a brush pen and crayons.

New build, low ceiling

over the rooptops

An old drawing, done with india ink and a dip pen from the fifth floor of a studio in Florence. The studio was housed in a late 19th century highrise. But the architecture visible from the balcony is a little older than that.

This drawing is among my first forays with a dip pen. In retrospect, I rather like its awkwardness.

2 figures

quick sketches from around the campus:

After The Shower (Hollywood style)

So I've taken a leaf out of others' sketchbooks and added colour to one of my drawings using procreate. The original was drawn in ink with a brush.

The last of the blossoms

I drew this in Victoria park. Blossoms were falling into my water jar and chasing babies across the fields. Work on Victoria park commenced sometime in the 1840s and took several decades to complete, perhaps because it was in a part of town that the Queen rarely visited. It sits on the north side of the Regents Canal and is probably one of the nicest places to live in London; to live by that is.

The price of property in now far beyond the reach of those for whom the park was originally built, but that's the way love goes. If I am in no rush I commute along the canal to get to my studio in Bow. The canal is built up slightly above the park and affords a vantage point of, say, a twelve foot tall person. It's very pleasant.

Girl reading Twilight

Everybody has to read something.

Buffalo?

The man walking a dog told me as much. Loseley Park is going into the mozzarella business it would seem.

Summer in the country...

Drawn from life in around five minutes with various crayons.

Animals of this size disturb me

But today I was told that an smart parrot has an intelligence similar to that of a three year old child. Still, I don't feel parrots, or mice, will try to take over the world. Although if they could get the Buffalo and Albatross on side...

Iris

at the library

Train coming 'round the bend.

lay me down

Drawn from life in about ten minutes at the Arts Project in London, Ontario.

it's like that

Green army jacket

I don't know how to say it

New novel.

Danilo

It's been a while since we've seen one of my small sketches on cardboard. They're old works, and date from when I was too poor to mess around much with canvas.

Here we see Dan, a painter with whom I shared a studio in Italy, much longer ago than I care to remember.

It was done with pencil. acrylics, and some watercolour.

Hard Sun Up

so lonely

Tulips

I fancied these were growing on the verge of a mediterranean patio, but where did the umbrella come from? It's quite ugly.

Young beauty waits to be undone

I'm not here for you

Drawn from life in about five minutes.

two at home

Young Beauty Prepares To Go Out

James

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

The story of Tess is one of my favourites. Most women distrust the expectations of men who have fallen in love with the protagonist of this book. Well they might. Most men respond to that distrust with the blunt retort of, "baby, I'm no Angel."

Please excuse the glare. It's the aura of light that follows Tess around. She can't help it.

It's where you take me

Eam ut cum patre suo laetanter biberet invitavit

Once upon a time Alboin, warrior king of the Lombards, made war against the neighbouring kingdom of the Gepids. He overthrew them, killed their king and seized the king's daughter Rosamund to be his wife.

Some years later, Alboin led his people south across the Alps and set up a new realm in what we now call Northern Italy. One day, in his court at Pavia - about half-an hour south of Milan - he had too much wine at dinner.

He called for Rosamund. When she arrived, he took out the cup he had made from the skull of the dead king, and invited her to enjoy a drink with her father.

Whether she drank or not is unrecorded. 
What we do know is that soon afterwards she had him murdered.

The story allegedly took place around 570. The written version that still survives, and from which I took the Latin title, was written perhaps in the 770s.

Although the picture illustrates a historical event, it does not attempt to be accurate. Even if the story is true, we know so little of how people appeared in the 500s that attempting a reconstruction would be futile. And also tedious.

Instead, I've tried to imagine how the scene might appear in a modern stage production, in which accuracy is less important than visual impact and the impression of exotic antiquity.

This drawing appeared in the 2013 edition of the Hart House Review.

Hannah

At the end of a long night of posing, sometimes the model needs to relax with a drink. It might be a Bloody Caesar, or it might be kool-aid.

Ostracised Tête-Tête

leave the light on, baby

1920s era candle stick holder.

If I had a voice I'd sing

Simple Planning

Young Beauty Applies The Rules Of Science

Time for a manicure