Fallen

Fallen, originally uploaded by Donna Nicholson-Arnott.

Via Flickr:
Props in use at atyn last week; I thought the model really worked those wings, channelling fallen angel in every pose.

yellow hair

yellow hair, originally uploaded by Donna Nicholson-Arnott.

Via Flickr:
Toying with a watermark for the shop. Don't really like it.

It's funny, I find myself aiming for something different from before when drawing. I need to think about what I'm doing.

my heart's witnesses hide

I slowly continue to make these. I should probably get a move on and make more, but there's something so meditative about the process. It's tense making the initial drawing onto the prepared balsa; balsa is soft so there's an impression of the drawing on the wood as well as the graphite drawing, and errors are not really correctable in situ. I have sanded back one awful drawing when I got home once, and re-inked it for next time. But I'd rather just get it right and move on to new bit most of the time. I add all the colour and details when I'm back in the studio. This one ended up with some words because there was space at the top compositionally, and I had some bits of Browning on my desk from fiddling with the clownery, and they were catching my eye. I inked it's edges black, because I was short of white, and wondered what it would look like darker.

This one is for sale in the new Far Dot Shop.

Wear the Mask

Someone pointed me in the direction of the RedBubble site, and it seems pretty attractive with all that affordable printing of my stuff without me having to organize it. I'll need to obtain some pennies soon though to do the old quality control check and perhaps some photography...

Wear the Mask was a drawing from an All the Young Nudes night. The model wore a welding mask; props are de rigueur some nights. It's never dull to draw at the Flying Duck!

football on her shoulder

football on her shoulder, originally uploaded by Donna Nicholson-Arnott.

Spent a lovely day setting up interestingly placed drawing shots. The etsy success emails advise getting the best photographs you can of your stuff, so I've really tried. Time will tell if this helps sales...

Jerwood

It was June. June is about the Jerwood Drawing Prize submission. In some ways, all my drawing endeavour centres itself around this point. Every year, every June now is about the Jerwood. The first time I submitted something was in 2004, the year I graduated. I put in a life drawing, and was rejected. I didn't submit again until 2007, when my little drawing called Trio made it to the finals. Every year since, but no more finals.

It had been a crazy eight months, November to May this time, so I'm pleasantly surprised I had anything to submit to the Jerwood this year. Neither made it to the finals. They're still two of the drawings I've been most happy with recently. Hey ho.

The drawing at the top is an extension of some of my recent collage work, with collage worked on top of collage. I went out especially to buy the shade of yellow ink for the hat. It seemed to me there were many different narratives that could be placed upon that hat in this image.

I had been stuck in a corner near the end of an All the Young Nudes night, so some of the other drawers got into the second drawing. Again I was toying with exclusion in this one. And the blanket was magenta pink, not red like it is here.

kneeling

kneeling, originally uploaded by Donna Nicholson-Arnott.

I'm thinking of making this blog about drawing, and things connected to drawing. It's very much under construction at the moment, and I'm newish to blogging. I'm on flickr.

I've been making some life drawing recently at the Flying Duck's club night All the Young Nudes. It's been great to pop along for two hours, drink some peppermint tea, and draw.

This drawing is one of two that were included in an All the Young Nudes group exhibition, as part of the Space Made Live event hosted by Small Media Large, The Arthouse, 752-6 Argyle Street, Glasgow, on the 12th and 13th June 2010.