Beautiful Days music festival

Last weekend I went to the Beautiful days music festival in Devon, and I managed to do a little bit of drawing while I was there. Here is what I did:

                              

I drew this from the window of the campervan while having some rest time. I wanted to draw something I could spend a while studying, and I also didn't want to miss any of the festival, so that's why I decided to draw the campervan field. I knew it would all be the same when I got back! (Perhaps with the addition of a new flag or two) I added the colour when I got home as I only took a basic pencil case with me, and I finished off the campers on the left from a photo. (Cheating.) I cheated with the sky too and made it blue to make the weather look nicer than it actually was. It was actually a mostly white sky with occasional grey bits, (Clouds) but that's boring.

                              

I did these from the comfort of the campervan too. The drawing at the bottom is full of 'happy accidents.' I wanted the view from the window to be the focus of the drawing, but made a mistake in pen, so I painted over it when I got home. I painted it the colour of the tinted window (but exaggerated it) and I think it it works well as it draws the eye to the campervans outside. I think I'm going to leave the interior of the camper as it is and not colour it. I think I might spoil it if I colour it in.

Drawing in the cemetery

It's been very hot and sunny recently here in England, as I'm sure you've noticed, and I'm afraid I've neglected my blog slightly as I've been very, very busy with other important work. Outdoors lounging around and catching some rays. (sun rays, not stingrays.)

I have also been out to Arnos Vale cemetery to do some location drawing. (www.arnosvale.org.uk) It's a huge Victorian cemetery in Bristol, and it's fascinating. Its like a wilderness in the middle of the city. Huge parts of it are vastly overgrown and neglected, and many of the graves are sprouting huge trees and shrubs. It is terraced on the side of a hill, and from a distance looks like a forest. Back in its Victorian heyday there were only a few oak and yew trees, but the rest have self seeded after decades of neglect. When I first visited the cemetery some years back it was completely derelict and the two chapels were declared 'dangerous buildings.' This is the drawing I made:

                              

I also thought I'd show you another drawing from this sketchbook. The drawing below is from this book, which is an A5 Moleskine sketchbook. The houses are in Swanange, and I wanted to draw a particular house, and as I was a long way from Swanage, I cheated and used Google street view. The reason I wanted to draw this house is that I have admired it every time I have walked past it, and would really like to buy it. It's not on the market, unfortunately, so this might pose a slight problem. (And I haven't saved up enough pennies yet) So I thought I might draw it instead. The one next door is quite nice too. Hmmmm...

I drew this drawing in Biro, and used a purple fine liner around the edge. I didn't want to paint the sky, but I wanted a small amount of colour, so that's why I chose the purple fine liner. I wanted to highlight the house, but not too harshly. The purple works well as it's washable, so I smudged it with water. I also added a small amount of water to the page first, then drew over it in the purple. This gave a darker, fuzzy line, almost like drawing on blotting paper.

      

More from this book later....

Monsters in the garage

The photos in this blog show the mural that I've painted in the garage, and I thought I'd share with you how I made it. I'll start at the end with the finished mural. Here it is:

It started with a design that I drew in my sketchbook. The actual result differs quite a bit, but then whoever sticks to their plans? Sometimes designs just mutate by themselves. I started the mural off by painting a white square. Actually I didn't, I started it off by visiting B&Q and buying some paint. Without that it wouldn't have worked. I chose masonry paint, as it was to paint on bricks, but the colour choices weren't great, so I stuck to black and white. It was either that or bottle green and brown, and who wants that?!? I think black and white on brick looks really cool anyway.

Ok, the next bit was the white square. 

The square forms the basic shape of the white background. I then started painting in the monsters in black. I did the outlines using a dry brush first, so if I didn't like the result, I hadn't committed too much and could still change it. The painty way of drawing an outline in pencil I guess. 

Where the monsters go out of the square I also used a dry brush to continue the outline (you can see this with the monster on the left and the arrows) I then finished off the white inside the outline, and a monster grew out of the square. I thought this was probably the easiest way to tackle it, rather than painting a shape then colouring it in again, and again, and again. And so I repeated this with all the other shapes.

I think the most difficult part of the whole process was painting into the gaps between the bricks. The garage is shoddily constructed and it seems there is not much mortar holding it together, so the gaps were quite deep and capable of swallowing almost a whole paintbrush. Also, I had to evict a number of spiders from these gaps, but I'm hoping they like it now I've white-washed their houses for them. I was also hoping to continue some of the spaghetti shapes over floor and up the other wall, but I decided against it in the end. The floor would require too much cleaning first (otherwise I would just be basically painting on DUST ). Also, when I've painted in the garage in the past I've noticed quite a lot of leaves and more DUST blow under the door and stick to the paint and it's really annoying. I'd need to either tape myself into the garage or get some serious draft excluders, and it's just too much work for something that a car's going to parked on top of anyway.

                     

                                        All images copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

Monster designs

I thought today I would share with you some of my monster designs. They are very different to my usual artwork that I do in my sketchbook and just came about by doodling.

                                       

I've made two monster tables now, one pink and one white. They're Ikea lack tables (very cheap but sturdy) the first one I made was the white one, which I made for my brother and sister-in-law as a house warming present. The second one I made for myself and I've got it in my bedroom. I chose a white table to start with, then spray painted it white as the table surface was plasticky and shiny and I wanted to cover it up. The pink one I sprayed white first, then waited for it to dry and sprayed pink over the top, but I deliberately left some of the white showing through. All the monsters are drawn in a chunky Berol marker pen. I didn't have any kind of design I worked from, I just made it up as I went along. I've drawn these monsters for a while now, so I can remember what they look like now! I added two layers of varnish over the top and voila! Finished.

The bag and the skateboard have a little character on called Gerald. Gerald is a woodlouse. Gerald WAS an ACTUAL woodlouse once. He was my first and only pet when I was eight years old. He lived in a ice cream tub and went on holidays with me. When he died he was buried in the garden of my childhood home in a matchbox. (Weird huh?) Since then I have started to draw him as a little logo and he always appears on all of my monster designs SOMEWHERE.

                             

                                                  

                                     

                                                                      Gerald.

The image below is the first ever monster design that I did, about eight years ago I think. I did it at art college when I was supposed to be working on another project (actual work). I thought I would show you this as it looks very crude now and a bit rubaaaash.

                                      

                                          All images Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

Finished! And Monty the cat.

I have just finished off my first visual journal. Hooray! I have two new ones ready and waiting to go. However, I must make some space in my bookcase if I'm going to keep them all somewhere.

                                         Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

I have added some more to the page above, despite me saying that it was finished. Well I lied. I took a long time over this one and ummed and erred over the background, then decided I didn't like it and painted over it. Then I decided, actually, that wasn't what I wanted either so painted over it again. I think I really need to leave it alone now. Stop. Cease. Desist. 

The drawing below is my (possibly) completed 'snail page' that I showed you before. Here I did the background last (which is a bit silly I guess and makes NO SENSE, but whatever.) I painted it with a dry brush, so just dipped it straight in the paint and let it run out. It gives a nice 'scratchy' effect. I'll probably leave that great big blank space like it is and not draw anything on it. But I've said that before...

                                               Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

So here is the first page in my neeeew book, which is a work in progress:

 

       Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

Also, I have bought myself a longboard which I am learning to ride. Monty the cat is teaching me.

The snail stowaway

Today I have been accompanied on my bike ride by a stowaway snail. The cheeky thing decided to make a home on my bike wheel, so I thought I would be nice and not evict him from his resting place, but take him on an adventure with me. He woke up a bit by the time I got to the cycle track and started to stick his 'horns' out. I'm not really that surprised. After three miles he'd started to make a run for it, so I let him escape as he was getting dangerously close to my brakes and the edge of the tyre. I hope I haven't made him sick.

                                        Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

I've included this snail drawing so you can see a page in progress. I'll post a photo of it completed later. It's the last page in my book, so I'll be starting on number two soon. (Woo hoo! Starting this visual journal feels like the best thing I ever did) Here are some more of the last pages:

                                       

Please note: Henry is my car, I am not being cruel to a child by buying him car mats.

                                     All images Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

Looking at this last double page I can see now that I've scanned it and got it on the screen that I need to add more colour. The page on the right would be improved with a rough colour background next to the jam jar, as I am not planning on colouring the drawing itself. Sometimes when I've looked at a drawing too much I can't tell whether it needs anything else to finish it off. Scanning it and looking at it on the computer helps me to take a step back and get a different perspective. The same effect can also be achieved with a mirror.

Thunder and lightning. And an Iris

I thought as it's raining today, now would be a good time to write my blog. I decided to go on a walk today to wear my new shoes in, but unfortunately this was not one of my best ideas ever as I got caught in a MASSIVE thunder and lightning storm. I could see the storm coming when I set out, so it was my own stupid fault really. I got stuck under a subway for about 15 minutes and nearly drowned as it was flooding from both ends. I really should have learned to swim. Anyways, this is not really about art. Here is some art:

                                             Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

I have been drawing in the garden this week, so I thought I'd make the most of the irises. (I think they look a little bit like tiny mauve aliens) I did the purple handwriting first on a separate piece of notepaper and stuck it in. I don't usually tend to stick things in my Moleskine books as it breaks the spine, but I thought just one thing wouldn't hurt. I didn't really like it at first as I thought the lines and the stark white paper were too harsh, so I created the background in pink and white acrylic and emulsion and made sure I painted over the edges of the paper to integrate it into the page. I think the iris works well with the writing as the colours mirror each other. I was going to draw more, but I think a single flower is much more of a statement on its own. It would have got too overcrowded otherwise with the splodgy (technical artist's term) background.

                                              Copyright Rebecca Gregory 2014

I deliberately didn't use too much colour on this page for the same reason. It's quite a detailed page and I like the way the coloured parts stand out. The baseball boots are just not the same without the colour!