More sketches for the doll series. I need to put brush to canvas soon!
Category Archives: Drawing
Sleeping Susan
Lost and found
Two studies for an idea I have for a painting:
Sketch in graphite stick
Tonal study in acrylic on A1 paper
Introducing Mandy …
I don’t think I’ve introduced Mandy yet, have I? Here she is, drawn in sanguine oil pencil. Her head isn’t really that big in proportion to the rest of her. 🙂
I’ve also been playing with wax crayon and gouache, attempting to do some wax resist drawing. The results are not fit to be seen. But maybe one day something will come of that little experiment.
I’ve also been making lots of paper – more of that later.
Why dolls?
Tiny Tears, drawn with my new dip-pen and indian ink (purchased from the wonderful shop at Salts Mill)
I’m getting increasingly curious about dolls. What sort of relationships do we girls have with our dolls, and how does it change when we get older? Why do artists make dolls? Why do adults collect dolls?
I’ve been doing a bit of internet surfing and can find surprisingly little. There is a short article in Wikipedia, but very few references. A search on doll psychology didn’t really give me answers either. Searching for ‘artists dolls’ came up with a few artists sites, but very little about why they make them.
So, reader, help me out with my research. How do you feel about dolls? What role do they play in your life now (children, grandchildren etc), and what role have they played in your life in the past? Do you make, or collect, dolls? If so, why?
More dolls
A quick sketch to take advantage of the sunlight streaming in through the window, creating those lovely defining shadows on Tiny and Susan. Drawn in (blunt) graphite stick.
Tiny Tears
Another doll drawing – in colour pencil. A bit faint for the scanner, unfortunately.
Edit: Mum reminded me that it is possible to autocorrect images with photo software! This is a bit more like the original.
Dolls
We visited my Gran this weekend. When I went into the room that we were staying in, there were three dolls propped up against the fireplace, carefully wrapped in clear plastic. I recognised them straight away – Tiny, Susan and Mandy. My old dolls. Gran had kept them because she thought someone else might want them some day. Presumably she’s given up on that idea. So I’m taking them back off her hands.
It feels really strange to hold them. The feel of them is so familiar, as is the smell of their hair and the faint clicking noise as they blink their plastic eyelids. With them was a bag full of their clothes, most made by my Mum. They are really lovely. Buried under the clothes was another old doll – one of those Sindy-type stick-thin dolls. I don’t feel as attached to her as I do the other three.
I’ve decided to draw them, and started by using children’s drawing materials – crayon and felt tip. The dolls actually look much nicer than this; the drawings look rather sinister.
Tree resilience
Just some quick oil pastel studies. The trees around here are incredibly resilient. The picture below is of a tree growing on a dark bank alongside a track. It obviously crawled along until it managed to find some light. The picture above is of trees growing out of a stone wall. This is quite a common sight around here.
Lifedrawing monoprints
Monoprinting involves rolling out a thin layer of ink onto a plate (plastic or glass), and then either
a) drawing into the ink, then placing the paper over and rubbing to transfer the image; or
b) placing the paper gently over the inked surface, then drawing on the back of the paper to transfer the ink where you draw the lines.
We had to work very quickly, as we were using waterbased ink which was drying fast. Most poses were a maximum of 15 minutes, many were shorter. I took several drawings from each pose, with each drawing taking only 3 minutes or so (that’s fast for me!) I produced about 20 drawings from the one class.
I found that this way of working suited me very well, and I think I need to do something like this more often.
