I’ve been taking a holiday over the festive period, so not much to share.  We did, however, visit Leeds City Art Gallery and I spent a very pleasant half hour sat drawing this detail from Paula Rego‘s ‘The Artist in Her Studio’.  The good thing about drawing a piece of artwork is that it makes you really look at it.  This painting is actually far more painterly and textured than you would ever expect from looking at a reproduction of it.

You can also get a feel for the physicality of the artist’s process – how they actually may have moved to make the marks.  For example, this sketch is drawn whilst looking at a charcoal drawing by Frank Auerbach in the Manchester Whitworth Art Gallery.  Just by trying to replicate the way the marks were made, I could sense the vigorous movements that he may have made in making the drawing.