Session 17- Musicians!

Yesterday's sketching session was on the subject of Musicians chosen by musician Martin Ansell who couldn't attend because he's also a cab driver and he had to work. A few of our regulars couldn't make it and I suspect that as the restrictions ease and the weather stays nice our numbers will dwindle. But I'll keep going for a while although the Sunday session is off because I'm going to a friend's birthday barbecue! Hopefully, we will all be back on Wednesday for a subject I like chosen by Vivian Salzman- SCIENCE FICTION! So here are are our Musician sketches-

First up is Alan Bartlett who painted (in oils) in one hour the image on the right then added extra figures later. I like both versions!

Annalisa Renee over there in Dorset gave us this fabulously exuberant performer. Alas, I don't know her name!

My old pal from several years ago in Palma- Anna K Lange who is now locked down in her home country of Poland
gave us this gorgeous and dramatic rendering of Sir Elton John!

Julia Xandru this time has forgone her dazzling vibrant colours and drawn this diva in full voice!  What a strong composition! It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings! And it ain't over yet-

My own effort shows the world's first rock band slammin' out a funky beat for the scantily clad cave girl to gyrate to!
Look at that cave girl go!

By contrast a delicate and serene drawing from Pearl Bates shows a string section about to start playing!

Then from the Sdour twins-Khawla and Somaya a gorgeous black and white drawing of early Elvis and a colour study taken from the film Whiplash! Great to have you both along this time! 

A superb late entry from talented young artist- Emily Woolf. This is the soul queen of New Orleans- Irma Thomas!

Sophie Birritta has given Freddy Mercury the thumbs up with the much loved singer in full flow, teeth and all!

And finally, the very talented young Vivian Salzman did this digital portrait on her iPad, I think, of  Dan Avidan who is new to me but Wikipedia says he is half of a comedy music duo called Ninja Sex Party so I'll have to check him out!

The gang of scribblers and Alan's palette!
See you next Wednesday for some SCIENCE FICTION!
Weeeeeooooooooooo

Session 15- Native Americans

Sunday's theme for our gallant team of speed sketchers was Native Americans chosen by Andrea Salzman so off we go back to the wild wild west before the dreaded invaders arrived to cover it all in shopping malls. We explored the images of the fascinating indigenous humans of the Americas!

Anna Lindenberger kicks us off with this moccasined  beauty which she managed (somehow) to draw from scratch during the one hour live session. She draws swift as an arrow!

All the way from Morocco Khawla Sdour has sent me this gorgeous drawing of a fearsome looking warrior woman! 

Working together during the session my partners in animation Daniel Houlle and Jainie Cowham have put together this short animation of the true story of idol worship in the days of the Incas! So that's what happened!

Newcomer to the group- Anna K Lange is an old friend who I haven't seen for about 7 years. Great to see her again albeit digitally! Anyway, she's given us this striking image of a cross-eyed Red Indian! Great colours, Anna! Glad to have you join the tribe!

Anne Alderson couldn't attend the live session as she was having a pow-wow with her family but she sent me these  fabulous images later.  A noble looking Red Indian Chief and an action scene of a buffalo hunt. There were so many buffalo roaming the plains before the white man arrived that their herds would stretch from horizon to horizon. Then they were hunted to oblivion from over 60 million then to just over 30,000 now.

Emily Woolf who was away with a hunting party whilst we were sending smoke signals has given us this very kinetic sequence of drawings of one young Indian brave doing a dance. A rain dance? A war dance? An Ouch-there's-a-stone-in-my-moccasin Dance? Only Emily knows!

Then in vibrant colour Julia Xandru has sent me an image that she calls "Indian Kiss".
I've heard of a French Kiss and the Kiss of the Vampire but I have no idea what an Indian Kiss is! Perhaps you can show me Jools when next we smoke the peace pipe!

Martin Ansell who is a blood brother that I've known for many moons drew this stern looking person that we all thought was a woman but apparently is a man. Don't tell him what we said, Martin, or we'll all be wearing tomahawks in the back of our heads!

I decided to attempt another sculpture as I enjoyed doing the Minotaur so much, so here's Big Chief Wind in the Pants sporting some fabulous headgear courtesy of my local Chinese shop and my ex-flatmate's sewing kit.

Annalisa Renee sent me this lovely study of White Buffalo Calf woman who, apparently, has a whole mythology about her!

Sophie Birritta has beautifully combined a Native American portrait with one of the dreamcatchers that inspired the subject as Andrea collects them.

Vivian Salzman was working on her iPad during the session and produced these fabulous images! The purple squaw gets my vote!

The live participants. Heap big fun! Whose got the fire-water?

session14

Yesterday's quickdraw sketch club was on the subject of The Roaring 20s! Queue the hot jazz music and tap dancing flappers in rah-rah skirts doing the Charleston! Boop boop be doop!

Anna Lindenberger starts us off with a beautifully drawn image taken from two different sources- Marion Cotillard from the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris and some of the men from Peaky Blinders. Greta stuff, Anna!

Julia Xandru dazzles us with some elegant ladies and a moustachioed gentleman in black and white followed by a very colourful piece of more elegant ladies and the same gentleman lurking about looking suspicious! Love the butterflies, Jools!

Our first of two newcomers to the group is Andrea Salzman who is a friend of Anna's originally from Rumania (like Jools) now living in Uzbekistan with her American husband and daughter Vivian. She has given us a very lively flapper in full fling with a great sense of movement! Glad to have you aboard, Andrea!

Annalisa Renee has painted this vibrant image of cows in front of a roaring bonfire! Ah, "roaring!" I get it now!  (apart from the cows!)

Anne Alderson has done a lovely, lively watercolour of two cuties doing The Charleston (or is it the Black Bottom?)

Emily Woolf (who chose this subject) has done this gorgeous rendering of a painting by Tamara de Lempika. She used oil pastels for the first time and found it difficult but the result is stunning! Nice one, Emily!

Off-line from Morocco Somaya Sdour has drawn an image from the film City Lights by Charlie Chaplin. I saw this film at the Bristol Comedy Festival a few years ago in a packed cinema with a live orchestra. We laughed, we cried! A fabulous experience and a lovely drawing. Thanks Somaya!

Talking of films, here are my efforts taken from two famous and very influential silent films of the 20s- Nosferatu (the first ever vampire movie!) and Metropolis with the iconic robot woman! Both great films that have been copied endlessly. Nosferatu is still genuinely creepy!

Sophie Birritta has drawn a wonderful combination of jazz, music, old car, old gramophone and very stylish looking dancers. I can almost hear it! Fab!

Here are two great drawings by our second newcomer to the group- Vivian Salzman who obviously has a natural talent . I want to see more of your work, Vivian! Didn't get much of a chance to chat during the session but you're very good. I hope you enjoyed it and will do more!

The sketch gang! Don't buy a second-hand car from any of this mob!
Andrea has chosen the subject for Sunday which is right up my boulevard- Native Americans!
I hope to see you all then!
Paul
xxx

Session 13- Mythology!

Our sketching session on Mythology produced a wide range of creatures including fairies, elves, a giant, goddesses, medusas and a melange of Minotaurs! I think the official collective noun for Minotaurs is a maze of Minotaurs. But that's too obvious! I prefer a mob, a mellifluence or a menace! Or for the Star Wars fans how about a Mandalorian of Minotaurs. Anyway, here are the results of this fabulously interesting challenge! And Emily has chosen the subject for Wednesday- The Roaring 20s!

Dan Lish starts us off with a beautiful watercolour and line image of a giant in the forest with some tiny creatures looking on. I think this is part of a forthcoming book by Dan.

Then Alan Bartlett comes thundering around the maze with three versions of the Minotaur and a legend of the Firebird!

Next we have a lesson in Slavic mythology from Anna Lindenberger over in Uzbekistan! She says. "The Fiend or Bes is a demon from Slavic mythology who, after the Christianisation of the Slavonic nations, is often associated with the devil.
Whispess or Sheptucha (in the middle) demanded tribute in the form of human ears! These she hung from trees and through them, using primeval magic she could hear all that happened in the forest.
Noonwraith or Poldenica (at the bottom) is a ghost who appears int eh fields when the sun is at its highest. These creatures can kill humans who venture into the fields at noontime therefore the farmers run home or seek shelter in the shade at this time of day."
Wow! Don't say you never learn noffink from these sessions. gang!

And from the downright sinister to the charming! Elsa Lish painted these delightful images on pebbles during the one hour challenge! That unicorn is so good I can see it moving! Well done, Elsa!

Back to the horror now with Emily Woolf's beautiful drawing of  Perseus beheading the Medusa. Because the gaze of the gorgon Medusa turned all who looked at her to stone, Perseus guided himself by her reflection in a shield given him by Athena and beheaded Medusa as she slept. 

Ana Ripoll also couldn't make the live session (had Love Island started again or something?)  but sent this lovely watercolour later. I asked her if it was St. George and the Dragon but she said she didn't know! Something from the nether regions of her imagination then! Love the horse!

Julia Xandru couldn't make the live session but sent these gorgeous images to me later depicting a mirrored Medusa and John the Baptist in an earlier painting. Great colours as ever, Jools!

From Morocco Khawla Sdour wasn't able to join us on Zoom but she sent this lovely fairy design later.
Is she a  moon-fairy, Khawla? What is she reaching for? I wanna know! An intriguing image!

Another later edition from Annalisa Renee who sent us these elegant Celtic designs which he hopes to use in a later painting. Celtic design is stunning and can be seen in the famous Book of Kells (800AD approx) which is an illuminated  religious manuscript in Latin considered a masterpiece of Western calligraphy.

This is my Minotaur. I wanted to try and do a sculpture of the beast in clay but I knew it would take me a lot longer than an hour so I started early and finished before the session. So during the session I drew the horny fellow on the left.

Marina Renee-Cemmick also couldn't make the live session but did this gorgeous drawing of the Egyptian goddess Isis later. I think the colouring was done in Photoshop. Is that right, Mimi?

Rory Walker also nearly didn't make it to the live session but arrived ten minutes before the end and still managed to draw this hunky, hairy Minotaur chap! Is he wearing leopard skin pants? What a trendy fellow!

Sophie Birritta cos this fascinating subject and instead of drawing some horrible monstrosity gave us this utterly charming acorn-elf! What a sweet face! A nice antidote to the mass of Machairodontic Minotaurs!

Some of the participants! See you on Wednesday I hope gang the the subject is
The Roaring 20s!
Paul
xxx

We have a late addition from Anne Alderson who couldn't make the live session either but has sent me this spectacular and fearsome dragon which she drew from her spectacular and fearsome imagination plus a lovely watercolour study of a painting by Peter Paul Rubens.Thanks, Anne!
Paul
xxx

Session 12- Trees and People!

 Wednesday's art challenge was to draw or paint something on a theme chosen this time by Dan Lish (who couldn't make the session alas!) on Trees and People. The subjects seemed to bring a lot of dryads, nymphs and tree-folk out of the woodwork (ha ha!) with the usually unusual diversity of styles including the fabulous animation above made by Daniel Houlle from a photograph taken by his friend Natasha Zupan who normally lives in Mallorca but is currently stuck in Panama with no way back. So here is what our multi-national, multi-talented little band of outlaws came up with-

Anne Lindenburger who hails from Siberia and is currently locked down in Uzbekistan gave us the mythical figure of  Leshy! In the beliefs of the Slavic people, Leshy is the protector of the forest and everything that lives in it. His natural form looks like a human but he can easily shape shift into any plant or animal. A handy trick to have! Love the red!

Next from Anne Alderson we have the first of our wood-nymphs. Drawn from her vivid and saucy imagination Anne has produced this watercolour of a blend of womanhood and wood. Also, we have a woodpile and a rendering of the famous Pre-Raphaelite painting by Edward Burne-Jones called The Tree of Forgiveness. Would you Adam and Eve it?

Alan Bartlett (a master of colour IMHO!) during the session painted these gorgeous dancing dryads and also offered up a dazzling golden image of two other dancers which he'd done earlier.

Another dazzler with her colours is Julia Xandru from Rumania who always likes to supply several images. The big one is one that she'd previously begun but was working on during the session (our rules are very flexible) and we also have two more images of trees and people. At least, I think there's a tree in the top one but I like it anyway- tree or no tree!

Working at the same time but off-line from Morocco we have this lovely tranquil scene from Khawla Sdour.
I wonder what she's thinking (the dog I mean). Only Khawla knows!

Some gorgeous drawings and a watercolour painting of trees and a figure from Annalisa Renee.

My own effort! It's those tree-nymphs again! They get everywhere. There should be a law to stop them cavorting around in the nude upsetting local hikers!

And here we have a beautifully contemplative image of a girl's face in the tender embrace of the hands of a tree!
Sophie Birritta drew this during the session and I think it's a lovely image. Nice one, Sophie!

And finally, our newest sketcher, Emily Woolfe in Worthing drew this startlingly strong image  during the session.
Fantastic stuff! And I hope she will return for the next session on Sunday where the theme is-
MYTHOLOGY!

Since posting up the blog I've had a couple of late entries from regular sketchers Marina Renee-Cemmick and Pearl Bates. Above are Mimi's lovely black and white hybrids of people and plants. Then below is Pearl's gorgeous drawing of a tree creature. Superb work everyone!