Love in an Age of Pestilence: Minuet

 

The second print for Rugby Open 2020. This one is obviously about social distance, and having to make that calculation. But unlike my pre-Covid print “Purgatory”, with its uncomfortable alienation, my protagonists here are aiming to close the gap. My wife suggested the footprint stickers you see in shops to make you queue at proper distances. And that put me in mind of the illustrations in ballroom dancing books.

I had called it Minuet even before it had really formed in my mind. I wanted some form of distant dancing, and the minuet with its arms-length figures seemed just right for our time. As the idea developed, it became a much more sexy dance, more tango-like, as they seek to close the social distance.

This one is a mix of wood and lino. I really liked the individual elements, but struggled with the composition. This is version 3 or 4, with different colours, distances between the protagonists, background shapes. But at last I’ve arrived at something with the right dynamic. I like the movement it gives them, especially her.

Anyway, the story continues.

Love in an Age of Pestilence: Barrier Methods

This is the first of three prints I’ve entered for Rugby Open 2020. The deadline was yesterday, so I’m posting them each here separately over the next couple of days.

The challenge has been how to talk about the world today without, on the one hand, being sentimental and mawkish, or on the other, browbeating the viewer. Or both. I hope I’m getting there with these prints.

I’ve done three images on the theme of “Love in an Age of Pestilence.” There is of course the danger that if the judges don’t like the idea, all three are out. But I really wanted to give these a go. I feel that two things will get us through this mess. Love and humour. So this is me shining my tiny light into the void. We shall see. We shall see.

This one is subtitled, “Barrier Methods.” It’s a kind of fugue on my Meditations prints, but bigger. I didn’t look at the Sistine Chapel fresco, because I wanted it to reflect my faulty memory. And my hands. Well, both are my left hand, wearing rubber gloves from under the sink. I knew it was God’s right hand and Adam’s left, but I wanted a degree of equality between the two. So two right hands. This is not God and Adam here. It’s Everywoman and Everyman.

I plumped for woodcut here to give the swirling effect of the world of bugs we live in. And I wanted the fight of cutting the hands. Symbolic of the act of reaching out. The wood is from an old packing case that was dumped on the drive. Giving these things a second life brings me joy.

Inktober: Part 2

 

Here comes the second batch.

11. Disgusting. One person’s disgusting is another’s mildly unpleasant… So more that lip-pursing, nose wrinkling thing than any object or event. I did a rough drawing elsewhere and went straight to ink here.

12. Slippery. Did some drawings of the wee figure to try and get the angle and action. Then straight to ink here.

13. Dune. There are dunes near where I grew up. They had engulfed and buried a thriving town in mediaeval times. Then the Americans camped there in WW2 and left various concrete structures behind to be undermined and filled with sand. Straight to ink here.

14. Armour. Thought of Renaissance armour for some reason. And decided to put a woman in it. Like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Did a drawing elsewhere. Can’t remember if I did any under pencilling here. Probably a rough structure.

15. Outpost. Thought of Kasr Ibrim on the Nile, where Bosnians were sent to watch the edge of the Ottoman Empire. They were sent and forgotten about. Took up with local girls. Their descendants are still there and think themselves a cut above the other Nubians. Anyway. There you are, watching the people watching you. Pencil structure here.

16. Rocket. Stephenson’s of course. My vague memory of it. Emerging from clouds of smoke and steam. Pencil structure.

17. Storm. The coolest of the X-Men. Building up thin layers of ink in this one. Did a pencil drawing elsewhere, then some pencil structuring below the ink here

18. Trap. Pony and Trap. Excuse to try and draw a horse, really. Quick drawing elsewhere, some under pencil here and then ink.

19. Dizzy. Gillespie. The bent trumpet. The glasses. Those cheeks. The trumpet’s not right but there you go. 15 minutes is too long for one of these. Some pencil under drawing.

20. Coral. Joe Coral. I really didn’t want to draw the underwater gnarly things, so I’ve revisited the Fancy. This time more 20^th century. Quick pencil sketch under.

Inktober: Part 1

 My son mentioned this to me during September. He does manga-style drawings and thinking of giving this challenge a go. I said if I did it I’d do quick things with a sumi brush and indian ink. I then didn’t really give it another thought until October 1^st. I’ve only been sharing these with my son and not doing the social media thing, but I thought I’d put them here in 3 blocks of 10ish cuz you never know, one or two of them might turn into something one day. They are all in a little 13cm square sketchbook.

 

1. Fish. I did this one in a bit of a rush just to get something down. Otherwise I might not have started. We’d got one of these fish vase/pots in the garden and I’d got it in the shed to clean it up, so it was the handiest fish, really. I did some pencil under drawing on this one.

2. Wisp. Used some watered-down ink on this one, and then full-strength over. First picture that came into my mind. Woman with tightly pulled-back hair with that one wisp escaped. No under drawing here. Just went for it.

3. Bulky. Sumo of course. I did a rough drawing elsewhere and then did an ink version here.

4. Radio. Seemed an oddly old-fashioned subject. So I’m trying for a 1950s/1960s thing here. Maybe she’s looking sad because it’s a sad song, or she realises that she’s a nostalgic image of something that’s already past. I borrowed the drawing of her from one I did some years ago. I don’t thing I did under drawing here. I can’t remember. Can’t see any.

5. Blade. The sharpest blade in our house is the bread knife. This one involved lots of squinting in the mirror with the knife in my wrong (left) hand. Anyway, could be an idea for a meditation, maybe. Definite under-drawing on this one.

6. Rodent. My son did an art thing when he was 11 that involved drawing rats. It’s something that has stuck in our minds. We’ll always know how to draw a rat. This one is more Rat Couchant, rather than the Rat Rampant of my new year card. Sketch elsewhere and no under drawing.

7. Fancy. Fancy? My mind went to Hazlitt’s essay, “The Fight” in which he excitedly relates watching some bare-knuckle boxing. The Fancy. Used my little action figure here because he’s built like a boxer, though the guy in the picture turned out more … late career. Did a sketch elsewhere and no under drawing.

8. Teeth. My parents were of the generation where you had your teeth taken out as a 21^st birthday present. So these things were always knocking around the house when I was a kid. I must’ve been maybe 16 when I last looked at a set of dentures. My teeth are getting gappy enough to justify them for me soon, maybe. Some under drawing for this one.

9. Throw. Action figure again. I draft him in for the athletic stuff. No under drawing, painted from life, as it were.

10. Hope. That kind of light in the darkness thing. Whether it’s for a boat or a wayfarer, or whether its the people inside hoping that the wanderer returns, we’ll never know. Just went for this one. No under drawing.

 Anyway. More to follow in about 10 days.

Rollers

Listen to any decent lino/woodcut artist and they will tell you to get a soft roller. Eric Gaskell also said to me, “You get what you pay for.”

When I started doing this, I hadn’t taken time to listen to anybody, so I just bought a couple of the cheapest rollers I could find. Ones like these. Hard rubber rollers. They were about £5 each.

Doing lino cuts with hard rubber rollers, price doesn’t really come into it. You just can’t get a decent even coat of ink no matter how hard you try. The results are always just disappointing.

Softness or hardness of rubber (or the like) is measured against a scale called “Shore”. It is a measure of the material’s resistance to being stabbed with a needle by a machine. 100 Shore would be pretty much invulnerable and 0 Shore might as well not be there. I don’t know what shore these rollers were. I’d guess something in the region of 60 or 70. You can feel some give if you squeeze it, but not much.

Well, it wasn’t too long before I’d listened to advice, so was seeking a softer roller. I got one of these.

It’s by Essdee and note that its the blue one, not red or black. I think these are around 40 Shore and I paid just under £20 for this one. It’s much, much better than the hard rubber ones. The get-what-you-pay-for scale would suggest almost 4 times better. I’d probably agree with that.

I’d not had the Essdee long when I stumbled across this one on ebay. Someone had bought it in a fit of enthusiasm and then never used it. Still in its cellophane wrapper. It’s one of Lawrence’s Artist quality rollers, made from a rather cool-looking material called Durathene. 25-30 Shore. This one was £100 as opposed to around £150 new. I pounced. 

It’s a god among rollers. Really. If something happened to it I’d have to get another one. And I’d pay full price, no question. Lawrence also supply replacement rollers to fit the handles, so in the case of damage or wear, I can be up and running again for about half the price.

Now this got me thinking. Lawrence also do a “student quality” version of this roller also with replacement rollers. The handle is a straight one and less bulky, but the roller is just a narrower diameter. It just happens to be the right diameter to fit the handles of my rather naff hard rubber rollers. Handles I quite like, really. The hard rollers were easy to remove with a pair of pliers, and I’d got some M6 threaded rod, nuts and washers in the shed, so I was good to go.

I had a bolt long enough for the small roller, and used one of those nuts with a plastic insert that don’t come off easily on the end of the threaded rod for the other. Then I’ve put wing nuts on the other end so I can get them off and on easily. 

So now I’ve got a little set of three Durathene rollers for around the price of one.

Wales Contemporary/Cymru Gyfoes

 

Maenir didn’t make the cut for the Wales Contemporary. One has to take these little disappointments. It’s certainly the best Welsh picture I have in me at the moment, so I’m not that downhearted.

I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the Old Country. I have to dig away layers of nonsense and sentimentality before I can get anywhere near the place. Anyway. It’ll be interesting to see what the judges selected this year. So if you’re around Milford Haven (6 – 26 Nov) or London (25 Feb – 7 Mar next year) do check it out.

Maybe I’ll try again next year if I feel I have something to say.

Rugby Open Exhibition 2020

Got notification of this year’s Open exhibition. Due to COVID restrictions, submission and selection is online this year. Also the deadline is earlier (October 4^th it's now October 25th), I guess to allow for a more drawn-out selection process.

Made me think I’d better pull my finger out. I’ve got various ideas in my head, and I’m drawn to 3 linked ideas. It’s putting all your eggs in one basket, so it might be an all-or-nothing situation. But I think I can live with that.

Here’s a link to the info on RAGM’s site.