John Izod

John was one of the first people we got to know when moved to Rye. Since then we came to realise that he became in a way a feature of the town. Drawing from our conversation during sittings, I see him as a bit of a gypsy, artistic wonderer, an aged child…

The idea was to draw him and sell that on a charity auction for the Sea Cadets whom he supports. That charcoal drawing of him is now hanging in the “Ypres” pub in Rye after having raised £250 as far as I remember.

But there were more drawings coming from those couple of sittings.

John Izod

One of them, an ink drawing of John, I turned into a drypoint print “The Devil You Know?”

I love drypoint because it is the most immediate of the printmaking techniques and closest to free hand drawing.

I am still to break through the intimidation of the metal and draw directly on the plate. At the moment I mostly copy my drawings to the plate and then re-trace the lines with the steel point… Freedom isn’t easy.

John IS easy though. On the second day of the sittings he came armed and said, he’d be drawing me. Here are a couple of drawings he did of me:

Me by John 1

Isobel turned into a very bubbly and bright young lady and baby Sam was sweet. He couldn’t quite decide whether to trust me or not, one minute giving me a lovely big smile and the other – urgently needing the reassurance from the mummy.

One and a half hours for the session, and drawing the two children, I relied on the television to have them slightly more stationary than it would have been without it. My plan worked. As a result, I had about 12 drawings, half of which were rather nice, all done while they watched the “Beauty and the Beast”.

I love drawing young children, and regret that I didn’t do more drawings of my children when they were younger. Now they are too aware of being looked at.

Georgina, mummy of Isobel and Sam, kindly let me use their images for creating original prints. Two of the drawings from the first series, of baby Isobel, are now drypoint prints: “Asleep” and “Flat Out”. I am hoping to have new drypoint prints done in the near future, based on the new sketches of both children.

Dear Georgina, thank you for the beautiful models! I’ll be sending the new prints as soon as they are ready. Souvenirs for the grandparents

This portrait commission requires a life sitting and takes between 1.5 to 2 hours. Although the term “sitting” is used here rather loosely.

I had several portrait commissions where I had to draw children. Of course, I couldn’t expect them to be sitting absolutely still! Here is a post about one such commission.

by Philip Scott Johnson

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

Music: Bach’s Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV

An artist came to the gallery today => I posted a link to his work => Someone “liked” my post => I went to see their blog => that reminded me of a drawing which happened long time ago…

That drawing “happened”. One of my daughters (don’t remember now which one of them) made a little doodle with watercolours on  the back of one of my rejected prints. A charming toddler’s doodle. The ease, the precision, the confidence of naivety.

And, as usual, I saw a face in it. To make it more even more obvious I very lightly touched the drawing to add eyes, nose, lips.

I wish things “happened” more often.

…And then I go on to see what more that Someone-who-”liked”-me has to show, and he has this:

Everything is connected. Things do happen. And I imagine that I know and notice. And that should be enough.

May. I am off to a Scottish castle for a week on a new portrait commission assignment. One of those things which I never anticipated ever doing in my life. Still, one never knows…

Portrait of an Artist. Collage

I have the ability to grasp the likeness. I guess, it is like a musical ear. One can be taught to draw people, as well as play music. Beyond the skill it’s down to some undefinable magic which makes the whole difference.

What makes a portrait so appealing? Is it a thirst to know more about human kind? How people’s inner-selves correspond to their looks? Or the geography of the human face and the diversity of it? The ethnography. The sociology. The history. One comes to realise how much information can be drawn from an appearance, and therefore through a portrait.

I remember reading some literary critic writing on A.S.Pushkin. What struck me most in that article was that Pushkin’s works were very informatively dense. Every word counted. Interesting. Information is the key to a successful art(or any other)work. Information is God. Isn’t the Art itself information? Or everything is?..

A portrait is a good piece of art, if it manages to covey as much information as possible about the sitter. Even better, if it does it without being too literal. The information readable on the level of emotions rather than brain. How does one achieve it?

[ted id=1085]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu_PQBmk-6c&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]
This is what TED says about him:

Flat pages can’t contain Rives’ storytelling, even when paper is his medium. The pop-up books he creates for children unfold with surprise: The Christmas Pop-Up Present expands to reveal moving parts, hidden areas and miniature booklets inside. On stage, his poems burst in many directions, too, exposing multiple layers and unexpected treats: childhood memories, grown-up humor, notions of love and lust, of what is lost forever and of what’s still out there waiting to unfold.

On his Bravo special, Ironic Iconic America, he and costar Bar Rafaeli tour the United States looking for wonderfulness, on “A Roller Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture.”

And this is what he says about himself:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74emJJTw_s8&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]

And here is something tender and childish, pure and innocent, fluttery and bunny-full…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZsmneEtdWU&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]

And just this one more here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9hH7qbcZM4&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]

This looks like a door to his web-life, and it leads in many various directions… Take a look at one corner of it: 

And here is another poem:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYyN_6GmzWI&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]