Initial drawing for EDM #21

EDM #21 - Draw something old, antique or vintage

 As I am leaving my rented accommodation soon, and I have been looking at this beautiful antique stove for a month, but haven't got around to drawing it, so I thought today is the day... but I now have to go to work and I've barely started. I am posting the initial drawing, in order to motivate me to finish it later.

Sketches in offices III

Arrived for a meeting this afternoon and found a locked office. Nearby was a huge, touching the ceiling, office plant. I have had my eye on drawing this for awhile, so I took advantage of the situation, leaning on the office wall to sketch. After 10 minutes, with the majority sketched, I called my office to find out what was going on. Sketched a couple more minutes before I was called back with the news that the meeting was cancelled. 

Result - no meeting, one sketch, and the chance to pop home for a cuppa, which is what I'm doing now.

SketchCrawl #26

 Journey down south: (top left)waiting for the coach to leave Turin; (bottom left) early Milan breakfast; (top right) gate signs; and (bottom right) waiting to board. Below is the sunrise witnessed after doing the 3rd sketch.

 

I'm not very happy with my lack of results this crawl. My problem was travelling most of the morning, then arriving in Orsomarso to cold & grey (there were patches of sun, whilst I was doing other things). It was to cold for me to sketch outside and the local churches would not have been any better. Still my first sketch I think is the earliest I have ever drawn. Hopefully, in May I will have someone else to sketch with, which I found to be a great motivator on #25,  and it should be warmer too.

Orsomarso clock tower from lounge window.

Sketches in offices II

 

Recently, I seem to have spent a lot of time waiting in/or near offices, and so am unintentionally making a series of office drawings. These two were done, on that very productive Wednesday this week, whilst Stefano completed a test and I was sat doing nothing,

 

Tomorrow is SketchCrawl #26, so I won't be sketching in offices, but down in Calabria where I am spending the weekend. Check out the website to see where you can join in, and to see the results published in the subsequent days. www.sketchcrawl.com

A better result... Laziness 0 - Drawing 2

On Sunday, after I had published the post  Laziness 2 - drawing  0 I received a challenge from Stephen Gardner, an Urban Sketcher correspondent, and who has the great blog  Sketch of the day. He said:

Oh boy do I know all about this. ...
I'll get past the laziness if you will, next time I check back I'll expect to see a drawing of an orange.

For Stephen, here it is. The oranges were bashed, dented, and ill-shaped, anything but round, which is great as I can't draw circles, but taste Delicious!  

The orange drawing was done when I was home between students this morning. Afterwards, I headed back to work and I arrived 20 mins. early for the next appointment. The sun was shining, it was almost warm, I had time to kill, so I sat in the bus stop and started to draw the factory. Unfortunately, the time sped passed and this was all got done.
However, that is 2 drawings during a weekday, plus the Rick Tulka quickie sketch last night. Roll on Saturday's SketchCrawl #26. (I'll be in Calabria if anyone wants to join me sketching).

A sketching virus???

 

Urban sketchers are having some fun copying Rick Tulka's pic, so I joined in with this ink, conte & white pencil on brown fruit bag.

To view the original photo and see other interpretations click on this flickr link.

I've just discovered who RickTulka is... a famous illustrator and caricaturist contributing to many American & European magazines & books, specifically Mad magazine. Check out his website here.

Laziness 2 - drawing 0

What a deadly combination... drawing because you feel you should, after all you promised yourself, and trying out a new pen, which you find to be scratchy and you don't like. That was me earlier.

I did find something I wanted to draw, just not then. In January I painted carrots, after looking in the market for some with their tops still on, so it was a nice surprise to take an orange out of the fridge and discover it had its beautiful glossy leaves attached. A perfect subject, shame I just didn't want to do it.

Attempt one "blah!". It looks like I have tried so hard to draw well, so it is overdrawn, but it was not taken far enough to rectify as I fought the compulsion to be lazy, and laziness won.

Photo: Inspiring subject, horrible new pen and attempt 1.

Update: After ignoring the earlier attempt for several hours, I thought I would try adding a colour wash to attempt 1  ha ha I forgot that I'd draw on proper ink paper... as it says on the cover "Very resistant. Extra smooth surface". The wash just sat looking murky and pathetic. It is now in the paper recycling bin.

7 DAYS LEFT!!!!!!!

Click HERE to find details on how to bid.

Sketching inside and out

Yesterday, it rained and rained and rained. I had a couple of hours to kill so went to the mall at Lingotto. Whilst there I was fascinated to watch the people sitting around. It was not the most successful sketching session: I couldn't sketch very much as I was eating a huge piece of carrot cake, which was too delicious to stop and draw; the 1st man, in the cap, moved his chair to a new position; the 2nd took off his hat; the lady reading a menu decided; and finally the young lady decided to get "friendly" with her boyfriend - too much to watch.

In contrast, today it was a lovely day here in Turin. It was even warm enough for me to sit and do a quick sketch of a band playing in the Piazza Vittorio Veneto as part of a demonstration against something. After 5 minutes, I stopped as my fingers had started to freeze and coincidentally the band stopped playing. The word of Urban Sketchers must be spreading because an Italian student asked me if I was a journalist, and checked out the very rough sketch posted above.

RAI Nuovamusica 2

 

 I went to another concert on Monday, and whilst the music did not excite me, as the previous week had, I still enjoyed sketching. My seat was only 4 rows from the front, so a great view, but on the same side as the previous week. This meant I drew some of the same instruments, and a new one like the trombone above.

Whilst waiting for the concert to start, I drew some of the percussion instruments set up on the right of the stage (and was very tempted to add a figure during the second half, when the percussionist played them.)

The first piece of the evening was very slow, and to my uneducated ears, sounded like the instruments were tuning up for the whole 8 minutes the piece lasted. A positive aspect was that the conductor, who was different from last week, moved very slowly and I think I got quite a good study of him.

Also different, was the double bass player. This guy was about 5 foot tall (1.5m) tall and held his instrument more upright than the previous musician. I wonder if that was for a technical or practical reason?

Finally, I think this was the same cellist as last week. However, either he has lost weight or one of the drawings is wrong. If you want to compare he is here.