Translucent Egg Cards

I found that some of my ink drawings on certain kinds of paper looked really beautiful when viewed from the back of the page while held up to the light. I wondered how I might use this property - lapshades that reveal extra detals when the lamp is turned on sprang to mind.

So far all I have done with them is to turn them into greetings cards. I paint the picture on the front of the card, then completely cover it with a cut-out drawing of an egg. When the card is held up to the light, the original painting is revealed, shining through the egg.

Tui Nestling painting ready to be covered up by an egg!

You will need to do some tests to find a paper and painting technique that works well when held up to the light. Also a way of attaching the egg to the front of the card that doesn't show up would be good - spraymount is probably ideal, I have used double-sided sticky tape here, but you can see its outline a little.

Tui Egg and Nestling

Oil Portrait

Over the last four weeks I have been learning traditional oil painting techniques for portraiture at Draw with Jake Spicer.

Below is an image sequence showing weekly progress on my practice painting.

Draw 'Manifesto'

Saturday 3rd November was a big night for drawing in Brighton -  Draw's 6 hour themed life drawing event 'The Drawing Circus: Manifesto' The event was elegantly organised, very well attended and there was a great atmsophere in the place.

This time round I decided to work on a single long sheet of paper folded concertina-wise into a book form. 

All of my work was in charcoal with gold paint used for highlights, lending continuity to the finished product and affording me a really intensive block of practice to hone one technique.

Here is my work from the last big Draw event -> Grimm's Tales. Last time round I worked on a scroll - it was nice to not be impeded by page folds, but the finished scrolls are bulky to store and I rarely open them as they are awkward to browse.