Time is everything lately. With the day-job workload, re-working my first novel, and the imminent moving house, it’s tough to find quality time to sit and draw. But keeping up the practice is essential. draw365 was the answer. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Started by Regina Agu, draw365 encourages the creation of at least one drawing, ever single day. That’s a tough call for those of us hardly finding the time to do anything other than work these days. But that is partly the beauty of the idea.

Any drawing is good. Whether it be a multi-hour piece or a simple scribble, putting marks on paper to represent something is a worthy exercise and, simply, you cannot improve without actually doing it.

Limited time and limited life

One of the strongest periods of my illustrative development came when I worked as an editorial artist for a daily newspaper. During the original Gulf War, I had the daily task of meeting the 12 noon deadline by supplying the appropriate diagrams, maps, illustrations for that day’s news. It taught m to work and think fast and to meet a very tight deadline at all cost.

draw365, to me, reminds me of that exciting time. I spend between 15 and 45 minutes on average on a draw365 drawing. Much less than I would like, I’ll admit, but that is about the limit of what I can slot into my day around the essentials.

Yet that time is enough. I have some specific aims of look and style I want to achieve when working in materials such as charcoal and compressed charcoal. The brief time commitment of the daily draw365 enables me to experiment and explore in a way I had not considered before. It loosens the inhibitions to try a new technique, a new style, because the time investment makes potential failure that much less painful: if I waste 45 minutes of my day, it really does not matter!

Just over a month

Each day I feel as if I am homing-in on my target. As I look back on the past month of drawings I see progress – progress based on my own, personal measure of whether a piece is successful or not (generally a set of parameters of what I want to achieve with each individual drawing). Sure there are some clangers in there, but the dead ends are as valuable as the triumphs.

draw365 is exciting and motivating. And using it for exploration and experimentation brings an extra level of value to me, making the time and effort that much more worthwhile.

My most recent draw365 creations can be seen in the sidebar of this blog’s home page, on my draw365 posterous blog, and on my flickr. Plenty more draw365 artists on twitter and flickr.

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Pet portraits are not overly challenging and very rewarding creations. When I did them years ago there were few artists working specifically on pets. So trying to inject more creativity into day to day life in 2009, I made the straightforward decision to start with what I already knew. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

I should have done my research first…

Now, the world is awash with pet portrait artists. Far too many are, sadly, awful. But there are some who are excellent, who can deliver character and a clear likeness, and push their work beyond simply duplicating a photograph. What has also become clear is that I cannot compete with these folks on pricing.

Pet portraits are heavily labour-intensive, particularly to get the quality I strive for. To bring my pricing to compete with most of the good, established artists around, I simply could not survive. Add to that I would need to be chained to a drawing board for 8-10 hours every day, plus the tasks of promoting, order processing/shipping, etc. I’m not sure how some of these artists are able to offer the pricing they do.

There is also the problem of growth: there isn’t any. There’s a maximum level of productivity for one person creating art. And with a saturated market, there’s very little opportunity to increase pricing over time. and poor opportunities to create additional works.

The more I looked into this aspect of the art business, the more I realised what a nightmare it could become.

I will still produce pet portraits here and there as commissions, of course, but will not be actively promoting them as a specific service.

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I was delighted in October to have my work accepted by the SGFA (Society of Graphic Fine Art), and Saturday was my first experience of one of their “Drawing days”. A group of members agree to meet at a location to chat and draw. The British Museum is a common target for these meets, offering such variety of subjects. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

This trip was specifically focused on the print room and an exhibition titled Revolution on paper: Mexican prints 1910–1960, but a meetup was also a big focus and my chance to learn more about other members of the society. Watch a video about the exhibition produced by the British Museum.

I learned a great deal wandering around the print exhibition with some people who understood much more about some of the print processes than I – plus a little help from Wikipedia here and there. Seeing the visual strength of some of the lithographs and lincuts, and the subtle tones of drypoint, I’m sure a printing press is in my future! (It is times like this I feel the gaping holes in my knowledge and experience having not attended art college.)

With so much to see and new people to chat to – many of whom wanted to natter with “the new boy”, I only managed one, brief sketch before having to head home.

Who are these people?

The members were a selection of artists and illustrators very much as I expected, and much like those I have worked with in various art and design studios in the past. I did not get to converse with everyone, but they were all a pleasant bunch to spend some time with and I did appreciate the chance to discuss “art stuff” in place of technology for a change.

The next drawing day, in 2010, will be a visit to the Imperial War Museum, which relates to the theme of next year’s SGFA exhibition in the Spring. It also relates to the second TableRappers novel now in planning (but no more on that just yet!). I haven’t been there since I was a teenager. I suspect I’ll have more than one drawing after that visit.

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I have an everlasting fascination with the way our minds recognise patterns, even in chaos. Without this we would not have art, writing, or see Jesus in pieces of toast. We strive to see order in chaos and our minds form recognisable shapes even in the most abstract patterns. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

This first piece of art is something of a pilot – a proof of concept, if you will. It consists of 486 unique, abstract symbols, each drawn by hand using a hand-made bamboo pen and permanent ink, onto a sheet of A2 paper. The piece was created over several days, with only a few icons being drawn at each session.

What do they mean?

Each icon is an entirely random doodle, conceived at the moment of completing the previous one. There are repeating shapes and elements, some of which are deliberate, but others evolved and appeared as the work progressed and the need to find new shapes and patterns became an increasing challenge.

If you look at the piece for more than a second or two, you will begin to recognise some of the icons elements. In fact, your mind will crave that recognition, searching for shapes that resemble familiar objects or ideas with which you associate. But they are just random shapes, lines, dots on a sheet of paper.

That is what this and the subsequent pieces are all about.

But there’s another layer to this

My initial plan was to hammer out this first piece, work at it until it was complete. But after a few rows I realised I was beginning to repeat certain shapes, or at least had to fight the urge to do so.

In a flip-side to you looking at the icons searching for meaning, I found myself instinctively basing icons on the everyday thoughts skipping through my head. My mind was trying to inject meaning into what should be just random icons. Fascinating.

Hence my decision to draw them in brief bursts of 20-30. I avoided struggling with repetition and my mind did not drop into a daydreaming state to influence the icons. Still, some repeating elements only appear part way down the page, while others disappear after several rows.

…and another

I can almost tell each drawing session by the style of the icons. Though unencumbered by influences from stray thoughts, I could not avoid influence from my overall state of mind. Sometimes passive, sometimes stressed, sometimes frustrated, you get the picture.

Icons in each session seem to reflect that, on a very subtle level of course. When tense or frustrated, for example, I would take less care in loading the pen nib correctly with ink (one loading lasts but one icon), so lines tend to be thicker and flow into other lines due to the amount of ink being placed. Other, early morning icons tend to have a less certain hand with shapes that do not quite close or that break over the defined boundary.

What’s next?

I have a string of ideas along similar lines. From much larger pieces (same size icons), to sheets with just one icon, to sheets that do reflect actual ideas and object, to icons that are based on stories, books, songs.

So far this first piece has taken me on a very unexpected journey. What was to be simply a grid of random little shapes, became a surprisingly expressive process. I’m sure there are more surprises to come.

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This is the latest drawing: pencil on Bristol Boad, around A4 in size.

I’ve been experimenting with different papers recently. This and the previous drawing ( a very cute Miniature Schnauzer ) were created on Bristol Board – a very hardy, white paper that despite its smooth, hot pressed surface, accepts pencil very well (if a little challenging creating rich, even-toned blacks).

For Bella the Bloodhound (based on an original photo by Superfantastic [flickr] ) I used Canson 110lb Bristol Board and found the surface far more predictable and durable than the 115lb Winsor and Newton Bristol Board I used previously. I’m sticking with Canson from now on, it’s a terrific drawing stock.

Using Bristol Board solved one of my key frustrations with a great many pencil drawings (mine included, sometimes): lack of contrast. Not only are the whites very white, but the blacks can be very deep withought risking gouging or tearing the paper surface. Proper erasing technique tends not to damage the surface allowing the erased part to be re-drawn without any noticable difference in texture – something one can rarely achieve on standard cartridge paper when drawing in this detailed style. For example, the background in the above drawing was much more extensive and darker, then erased back near to what you see now, with some additional tonal adjustments added after erasing.

Next up: a hedgehog!

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Having this week purchased additional gear to make the most of drawing and sketching on-site (as opposed to snapping photographs and sketches then working purely in my “studio”), I set out in the glorious sunshine to visit a few locations tagged earlier as “possible places to draw”. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

First it was the roads

I am sure Britain’s drivers were conspiring against me. No matter where I tried to end up, something would spring up to bar my way. Inconsiderate parking, traffic queue, or simply no access to the particular area without a long walk (by long I’m talking a mile or more).

Two near collisions in the car later (people were mad this morning!), the sprinkling threat of rain showers, and the total obliteration of the initial good sunlight, forced me to head home in a stressed huff.

When the roads improved, the weather did not

I tried again later. This time heading to a particular church which now was in the closing stages of a wedding, with the accompanying hoards of cars removing all hope of gaining access. The light then failed once more.

This time, however, I did stop back at Maidenhead bridge for a little – and I have to say desperate – look around. Sadly, I could not “see” the drawings there, either. Perhaps all hope was lost on the day, so I returned home, in a double-huff.

Let it stew

I needed a task that was so straightforward that I could leave the day with having achieved something, anything. I opted for “watching some television”. I succeeded.

Determination (read: bloody-mindedness) kicked-in and I began pondering once more about those places I had visited. The detachment of time and geography allowed my mind to filter out the details and work purely on visual composition, contrast, and the image as a whole. A few spontaneous scribbles later and I had three strong potential compositions of and around Maidenhead bridge.

Too much information

I have this problem in supermarkets where on being sent to forage for a particular item, I fail to spot it in the cacophony of colours, shapes, and words. My brain struggles to filter out the noise to find the one detail I need.

Visiting a location to draw, I think I must have the same problem.

I should explain for the non-initiated: Rarely does a scene make for a good piece of art entirely as it stands. You know the phrase “artistic license”? Our minds work differently when looking at art compared to photography. Somehow, we understand a photograph represents a true capture of the scene. But far more consideration, particuary to composition, must be made in order to draw the same scene with success.

One must move a tree a little – for example – or remove it entirely. Perspective must be distorted, tonal values altered to increase contrast and represent depth. Thought must be applied to the focal points of the drawing, deciding what to leave in and what to leave out. Without these considerations, one might as well just have a photograph.

This is what I have learned today: I cannot simply turn up at a place and immediately “see” the means to render it artistically. I must visit, look, sketch, photograph, then allow all that information to simmer, allowing my mind and memory to let go of the details that are irrelevant to the scene, while enhancing those that matter (to me).

I suppose the devil really is in the details.

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I had forgotten the challenge of rendering short, fluffy cat fur in pencil!

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Listen to this episode right here: Direct Download

MP expenses fracas
The MPs expenses fracas strengthens my resolve to avoid reading newspapers. Freedom of the press is fine until the media begins to deliberately attack and undermine individuals, in place of simply reporting the news. Once again we see the ogre of political motivation behind what should be simply the presentation of information

Persistent Spirit update
Waiting for the final installment of Table Rappers Persistent Spirit? Here’s a quick catch-up and some explanation as to why you are having to wait far longer than I ever anticipated.

A new video project
Could you be seeing me as well as listening in the near future? Possibly as I develop a new video show all around my creative passion for sketching and drawing. Something new, something different, and something I love doing. More info in this episode, and more still as the project develops over the coming weeks.

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Minor technicality is the personal audio podcast journal of Neil Dixon.
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There I was, scribbling away nothing more interesting (to most) than the view directly ahead of me, over the nearby tables and along the street towards Dénia’s port and town. About the same time, someone in the apartment block directly above decided to wash their balcony. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Several waves of tingling-cool water mist drifted down from above, much to our amusement. Some of it collected on my drawing, causing a few ink blobs and smudges. Did I care? Of course I did! But in a very positive way.

I can look at this quick sketch and remember that moment – it is captured, right there in the ink on that paper. The sketch is more than what I saw when looking along the street. It has captured something that would be almost impossible to record in any other visual way.

Not every sketch captures something quite as unique as this, of course. But each one contains more than merely some lines on a piece of paper. My mood, my thoughts at the time, for example, affect the speed of pen across paper, which changes the style of the lines and the textures of the tones.

Each sketch captures a brief period of time, broader than the fleeting moment of a photograph. The act of drawing imprints a stronger impression within my memory; it connects me with that unique experience.

Such subtle impressions may only ever be revealed to me, but I really sketch only for myself. If anyone else enjoys them, that’s a bonus!

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We regularly read cases where innocent individuals are, for want of a better word, bullied by Police officers into deleting photographs taken in public spaces. The justification seems to be Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which many are reading as a legal control over what and where you can photograph in public. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Section 44

This section of the terrorism act has been criticised as giving the police all manner of power over public photography, but in fact, from a strictly legal perspective (and is not that what the Police are all about?) it is quite impotent. Here are the guidelines:

The Terrorism Act 2000 does not prohibit people from taking photographs or digital images in an area where an authority under section 44 is in place.  Officers should not prevent people taking photographs unless they are in an area where photography is prevented by other legislation.

In a recent BBC Radio 4 Law in Action program, the picture was clarified by Rupert Grey of media specialist law firm Swan Turton explained that Police may:

stop and search, look at what you have got and that is the limit of authority under that section. What appears to have been happening after that is they have, in some cases, arrested and then de-arrested the photographer. In other cases they have seized their material. In one case they deleted the material – and that is, in itself, a criminal offence.

This is encouraging for the legal rights of a photographer, and if a heavy-handed tactic is experienced, the law appears to be on our side. 

It is, however, a Police Officer’s interpretation of the law at the point of confrontation that is the most troublesome factor, however, and it seems from reports that some officers are either deliberately or ignorantly manipulating those ignorant of the law.

Section 43

This section, on the other hand, offers the Police far broader powers with regard to Terrorism. But it is not all bad. Again, from the Police guidelines:

If officers reasonably suspect that photographs are being taken as part of hostile terrorist reconnaissance, a search under section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000 or an arrest should be considered.  Film and memory cards may be seized as part of the search, but officers do not have legal power to delete images or destroy film.  Although images may be viewed as part of a search, to preserve evidence when cameras or other devices are seized, officers should not normally attempt to examine them.  Cameras and other devices should be left in the state they were found and forwarded to appropriately trained staff for forensic examination.  The person being searched should never be asked or allowed to turn the device on or off because of the danger of evidence being lost or damaged.

There are two very interesting elements to this, particularly that Officers are directed to not normally attempt to examine equipment for fear of damaging evidence, even so far as not turning a device on or off. Section 43 does permit the confiscation of equipment, storage devices such as memory cards in particular, and to be retained for up to 48hrs and for up to 96hrs with the authority of a Chief Inspector.

There is one element of Section 43 that is worthy of note. Section 43 can only be used when there is “reasonable suspicion that the person is a terrorist”, which, though it sounds open to interpretation, is going to tie the Officer up in a mountain of paperwork – hence the far more commonly used Section 44. 

It is not as bad as it looked

There is clearly no legal right for a Police Officer to insist or request that any images are deleted, or that a photographer simply stops recording images. If they want to stop you under Section 44, then they also have no right of confiscation, just the right to examine images taken. Of course, the aggravation of going through the whole process is bad enough, regardless of the outcome, and it seems the incidents that have been reported boil down to a lack of understanding of the real rights of everyone involved.

There’s nothing new here, but with my photography ambitions aiming in a particular direction, this has now become relevant to me. I hope I’ll never need to draw on this knowledge, and I do hope I’ll not be at the wrong end of a Police officer without a clear understanding of my legal rights.

The official guidelines on Stop and Search in relation to terrorism
A lawyer’s point of view on Section 44

A question about sketching

The last burst of panic over these laws recently, specifically over rights regarding photographing the Police, get me thinking about other forms of image capture. Could a drawing, one which holds a recognisable image of Police and public buildings, for example, fall foul of the same laws? I am planning on putting that to the test!

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