sketches

[helenic]

When I drew Fergus and liriselei in Oxford the other weekend, it was because I was very drunk, and because I was very drunk I gave the sketches to them without looking at them again. I regretted this later: I do draw quite a lot, but on the backs of envelopes or lecture notes, or on my skin, or I give them away, and so I have remarkably little to show for it. So when I was in the mood at the beer festival yesterday to do some sketching, I decided to keep the results. Since working on my tattoo design I've now finished a sketchbook which I started in 2001 - I went through a dry patch in drawing and painting during my first two years at uni, and the only things I produced were a painting and a few drawings of kungfuchaos, all of which he still has. I'm fairly confident that I'm through that now, and although I still don't have time to paint for pleasure I have several commissions lined up and I am sketching again. Mainly I prefer to sketch people, which usually means my friends, and I only ever have the nerve to sketch publically when I'm drinking. My models are therefore mostly under coercion and I rush the things off as quickly as I can. Which is a shame in a way, but at least it's practice.

medieval_bunny, at the beer festival yesterday. She's prettier than this in real life.



cantabulous, also at the beer festival: see above disclaimer. What can I say, I was drunk.



Experiments in deviating from my normal soft pencil into the realm of rollerball pens.



Both of these were done during the same library shift last term. My linework needs, um, work.



romauld, reading. I did this while I was staying with him during the first week of January this year. The fact that I couldn't be bothered to shade his hair to the same extent as his beard adds about twenty years to his age, but I kind of like it.



The cathedral in Prague, sketched moodily and unsuccessfully in late August last year. I'd spilled my over-priced beer, I was paranoid that romauld was bored, and the stonework was impossibly complex, so I gave up and bought a postcard instead.



Also dating back to last August. I don't know why either - I woke up one morning and discovered I'd apparently drawn it the night before, but I don't remember doing so or what I was thinking.



Downing college, where I study, and where I stayed last summer rather than living with my parents.



The composition study for this painting, drawn last August. I couldn't get hold of any decent pencils and the majority of the shading was done with an HB, which was ... interesting.



These three sketches date back to sixth form, when I begun this sketchbook and then abandoned it for two years. I seem to remember getting the source photographs from online, but I have no idea where. The first two scans date back to about then as well; hence the pseudish © notice.



I can't remember exactly when I did them, but I remember doing the third one during the rehearsal for a concert. I was sitting in the choir stalls in the nave surrounded by people and empty musical instrument cases trying to hide the page from anyone passing by.



Ah, there's nothing quite like the result of bisexual eighteen-year-olds deprived of girlsex and deciding to draw breasts.

Comments

[stopsignsongs.livejournal.com]

you never told me you were an artist. you know what, wow

[liriselei.livejournal.com]

because I was very drunk I gave the sketches to them without looking at them again. I regretted this later

out of curiosity, why the regret ?
i can return the sketch of me if it would help ?

[the-waves.livejournal.com]

these are wonderful. i hope you post more in the future :-)
i'd so love to be able to draw.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

hey, thanks. I'm sure I told you I draw? I seem to remember ranting about the irony of how much I hate painting despite seeming to be good at it, because you were talking about something similar with regard to composition...

I only hate painting, I don't hate drawing. I need to remember to do it more but it's like the other things that vastly improve one's life, like yoga and meditation and reading fiction - somehow I always forget to do it during term.

[yvesilena.livejournal.com]

RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

it was more of a "damn, I finally get around to drawing something and I didn't keep it again!" Mainly, I'm motivated by the fact that at some point I want to put all my art online so people can actually see it (I've even bought the domain, but so far all that's on it are these images and no title page) and I might be able to make some money. So you don't need to give it back :) If you ever find the time to scan it that'd be cool, but it's only a tiny thing and really won't make much difference in the long run.

Are you going to be in Oxford on the 10th-11th? I have Things to talk to you about and I want to do it in person rather than email.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I'm planning on gradually getting my artwork scanned in. A lot of it is still at my parents' house. I went on a mission in the lower IVth to scan in all my work, but our scanner then was appalling quality and they've come out mostly as obscure grey bitmaps. I intend to ask my parents to bring up my folders (most of which are A1 sized, and therefore not exactly portable) so I can do it on my shiny new scanner of love. Although I was at my most prolific at the age of 15-16, and I've improved considerably since then - but there's still some stuff I'm kind of proud of, and I want to have it online to prove I actually produce stuff, or have done. If that makes any sense :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

um. thankyou!

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

God, you're talented. It's often so cringeworthy when people share their sketches, but with you...no.

[stopsignsongs.livejournal.com]

oh, hell. you did. if i didn't tell you i have an appalling memory, then i should have done. have you got any paintings photographed/scanned online? i'd love to see some of those.

i've nothing to say, how embarrassing

[the-waves.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, it does make sense. It's somehow quite pleasing to have an online record of things too, whether it be poetry, sketches, music. And also to be able to show it off ;) you really are very talented.
I took A'Level art but dropped it after a couple of months. I was absolutely USELESS at it. Seriously. *cringe*
I sometimes wish I'd stuck with it and perhaps learnt how to draw properly. I feel I have it in me to paint but in the past have often become scared of trying for some reason. Or maybe it's just laziness. Or lack of inspiration and drive.

God. I'm rambling. I think I need to get back to the dissertation or go to bed ;)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

well, the last three are cringeworthy, but they were also five years ago, so I feel justified. It's interesting watching myself improve - and it's bizarre that this particular sketchbook has lasted quite so long, which is why I wanted to post the beginning and the end.

Thankyou for the compliment. It's really really good to hear. I take it that the Sudan plan, as well as other things, mean that you're no longer interested in commissioning me? You said you wanted a nude - I have no ideas for composition but in terms of style I'm thinking something dark with scratchy metallic bits and an abstract background with maybe fields of red and gold, but, um, that could just be influenced by the decor of your lounge. I'll be putting out a request for work over the summer when I have time to actually do it, but this seemed a good opportunity to ask :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

they were also five years ago

three years ago. Get it right, girl!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

the only painting visible online is the one linked in the entry, this one (http://www.livejournal.com/users/libellum/80105.html). I need to poke evil_nick to take a photograph of his sometime. Those two are the only serious things I've done in paint since my AS Level, but that will hopefully change over the summer. I have at least two commissions to get done, for starters.

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

Cool, especially the composition sketch for the painting (I think I like it more than the actual painting, but then I've always been fond of monochrome).

I've done the "create something beautiful, gift it to someone, and then wish you'd at least scanned it in first" thing. Ah well.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

annoying, isn't it? :)

I quite like the pencil sketch, but the scratchiness of the shading annoys me, and the fact that he's not looking out of the picture in the same way he is in the painting. I still think that painting is the best thing I've ever done, to the extent that I have no idea how I actually did it. But isn't it always the way?

[oakwonder.livejournal.com]

No, the last three are not nearly as good as the rest: merely someone with an artistic bent trying out things artistic and conventional (i.e. they're more "artistic" than the others). But all the more recent ones --! What a natural gift you have. These perfectly capture scenes and characters, and are simple, direct, unpretentious, precise. It is utterly disgusting that you do this and write, act, make music...! I dread to think what you'll achieve when you really get into your stride.

[liriselei.livejournal.com]

So you don't need to give it back

i'm glad, i like it :)
will see if i can find someone to scan it in.

Are you going to be in Oxford on the 10th-11th?

indeed i am ! i very rarely leave the place.

I have Things to talk to you about and I want to do it in person rather than email.

eep ! capitalisation always worries me...
do i get a hint to set my mind at rest, or must i wait on tenterhooks till then ?

[suzerain.livejournal.com]

you realise that some of that work is easily of an equal standard of technical draughtsmanship than many semi professional artists I know? and a few professional ones, for that matter.

even the ones from a few years ago are pretty good - I know a lot of people who got into good art colleges on worse work...

JGE

[libellum.livejournal.com]

if you can't, like I said, don't worry about it. I can always do another one next time I see you!

It may indirectly relate to my solstice plans. My magic is going in a direction I have very little experience of, and something Helen mentioned to me gave me the idea that you'd be a good person to ask. I was talking to romauld about it this evening and he agreed that you'd probably be a useful person to sound ideas off. If that would be okay?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

yes, I did. What do you mean by "technical draughtsmanship" - are you referring to the sketches of buildings?

I know I'm good at this. I intend to make money at it - I've already sold one painting and am being paid this summer for two more. I'd rather stay freelance and part-time around a more reliable job, for the moment, than do it fulltime and risk utter poverty, or being obliged to produce substandard/uninspired work for the sake of being able to buy food.

God, it's something I hate admitting, I feel so appallingly arrogant. But yes, I think drawing and painting are the things in life that I'm best at. I'd be intrigued if you have any ideas about how I could do it professionally other than freelance commissions. I'd love to go into (e.g.) book cover illustration, or graphic novels, but I suspect I'd need an illustration degree to get work and I'm not that bothered. Although I do have a friend who's suggested an illustration commission if/when they sell their novel...

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

The painting is truly fantastic, and I would love to see it in person (hm, odd choice of phrase on my part, but it'll do). It's just that, as you might have noticed, I do appreciate the purity of monochrome. All the things I find most beautiful are in stark black and white (and sometimes red, but that I think is different). I could manage quite happily if I were unable to see colour.

Actually, I like the colours of metal as well. Dark bronze and polished brass, verdigris on corroded copper and the black patina across silver, the vibrant mirror glare of chrome and the dull, sorrowful skin of lead, the glitter of sharp, well-honed steel and the creep of rust across neglected iron.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

forgive any cringeworthiness in the above comment; I'm crap at talking about the fact that I have a talent for this.

The fact that people tend to like my stuff is the main reason I'm so keen to get art online which took me more than a few minutes ... the closest the above gets to a real "developed" piece is the composition study.

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

I wish I could draw or paint. I can write, but words take enough effort to translate into images that many people simply don't bother.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I did AS Art. I had a scholarship at the school to do A Level but I had to drop it to concentrate on my Latin and Greek, or else I'd have no chance of getting the grades I needed for Cambridge. I was sorry to drop it, but it took up all my time. I still take the fact that I frequently got over 98% (as did other people in my school) in national art exams as an indication that the system was shot to hell. It shouldn't be possible, and as such was completely devoid of value.

I don't remember ever "learning to draw". I started copying people out of magazines when I was thirteen and just made it up as I went along. I suppose I had lessons and such in art class, but I never paid that much attention because still lifes and perspective exercises bored the hell out of me. I was taught to paint during AS level, but I don't think I was taught to draw. I could be wrong, however, and I've just realised it probably sounds like I'm bragging so I'll stop here :)

Laziness is the main reason I have so little artwork to me name. It's sickening. After finals is currently my mantra...