Black on Grey on White

"Hurricane" Graphite on Paper. 36x56 cm. Sheona Hamilton-Grant Finished. Hurricane is my first drawing this big. The result was well worth the extra hours. In this post I thought it would nice to share the set of instructions used for preparing and producing this specific drawing. (p.s:The ingredients used can be found worldwide, the way in which they are combined comes from trial and error.) INGREDIENTS 1 sheet of Mellotex paper, whole 3 clutch pencils, filled (6B, 2B &2H) 1/2 piece of Blu-Tack 1 gorgeous subject (1.1 tones/2425 lb) 12 finely detailed digital photographs XL Foam board Artist Tape 1 “ White Lies ” cd 2 Marillion cds Collectors Edition Pink Floyd 11/2l of drinking water (daily) 2 nespresso coffees (daily) Preheated studio to 19 ºC = 66.2 ºF. 65 hours of drawing time. Freshly ground passion. DIRECTIONS In a warm studio, over angled drawing board, outline subject and study eyes, movement and ...

Long hairy legs really do make for nice viewing...who would have thought? (insider tip: make sure they are from the animal kingdom.) Another Christmas commission finished and a few more hours spent on the dashing Hurricane. Wanted to share a detail of the progress. A few more hours still needed tweaking here and there but overall looking OK and then it will be on to the chest and right shoulder muscle. May well be a few more days before the next update. The week end is approaching fast and I'm already tucking down taking on tackling position... Cheery waves to all of you wherever you are!

"Self Portrait" Adolph von Menzel 1815-1905 The week-ends always do this: knock me for six. I know they are coming. I know their speed. I brace myself, hunch down, tuck my elbows in ... tight and wait for impact! Never fails: the impact gets me wobbling off balance rocking back and forth like a pin, sometimes worse... This Monday morning balance has been regained. This is what helped. Reading about the work of the Master draftsman Adolf Menzel in the latest issue of Drawing Magazine. (Highly informative and insightful article written by Ephraim Rubenstein .) The discovery of his work is sobering (despite wanting to drink it all in the hope of gaining a portion of his knowledge) . The execution of his work is stunning, the ease at which handles his pencils and paints to be envied and his mastery of light and form spot on. His work quite simply has to be shared. "Living Room with artist's Sister" Adolph von Menzel, 1847 "Balcony Room" Adolph von Menz...

Here he is, the big chap with all sorts of strange feature problems. Notice how the eyes and the nose are wonky. Easy fix (phew!) and not a big worry at this stage as all is still in the "getting it just right" process. I will ask you however to forgive the quality of the scan. This drawing is so big and getting it to sit on the scanner is pretty challenging. I will have to revert to my Eos's help from now on. Thanks for popping by. More to come... soon. Tomorrow is another "no school" day.

It is a certainty, when "no school" days come round, my days begin to turn in very strange circles indeed. (I'm sure all you working mums can totally relate) The result: weird working hours and very little time for my "puter" and all things cyberly connected. To cut a long week short: it was a great success on the art front. First three Christmas commissions approved and delivered safely (woot !), new orders come in (2x woot!), went to a great vernissage and have a diminishing stock of Christmas cards . On the "mummy" front: sadly, been dealing with 2 sickly kiddies with sore tummies and grumpy dispositions. Nursed, loved and entertained them as best I could. Seems to have done the trick: they're back at school and up to all sorts of tricks. With "normality" returned my pencils have been actively scribbling. Very happy indeed to be able to catch up on lost time. In fact, have been working on Hurricane's portrait (visual up-date tomo...

Nothing like the present to think about the future, the not so distant future: winter and Christmas. Vision: create a card not too ornate with the whole Christmas theme but still totally at home under a Christmas tree... "Snow" was ideal. This is a drawing a did last year from a reference by fellow artist Donna Ridgway . She lives in Montana and never leaves the house without her camera. What exactly made her leave her warm cosy house on that snow blizzard day is a mystery... However, she captured shots only my imagination would ever see. Thank you. "Snow" Pencil on Paper Sheona Hamilton-Grant. All rights reserved. 250 Euros One of my bullet points (now ticked) on the "to-do-list": Christmas cards. Took it a wee step further and created winter cards . Ideal for the entire winter . They have been printed on great quality Strathmore white Deckel card (acid free, 5"x 6 7/8" (12.7 x 17.4 cm)) with matching envelopes. Deliberately left blank inside...