Life Drawing: Richard Attenborough Centre

A few life drawings from Autumn class at Leicester University, Richard Attenborough Centre with Diane E. Hall.

Tate Britain Drawings

A couple of sculpture drawings made at a recent visit to Tate Britain.

V&A drawings

After delivering some (now rejected) paintings to the Mall Galleries in London, I visited the V&A (still free!) and did some drawing in the sculpture and cast galleries. Click on images for larger versions.

Life Drawing: Leicester Week 1

Life drawing in sanguine conte on toned paper, highlighted with white chalk. From life class at the Richard Attenborough Centre at Leicester University.

(c) Mike Todd 2009

Fragments: Life Drawing Workshop August 2009

Two drawings completed at a life drawing workshop run by Diane Hall at the Richard Attenborough Centre, Leicester University.

Channel 4: Life Class

Channel 4 are showing a daily life drawing program this week, where viewers are encouraged to draw the live model. Below are my drawings for the week. Most of these had additional drawing time by watching on 4OD so I could pause as required. My best drawing was the quickest (Day 5) - always the way. See others drawings on flickr here

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

FreshAir 09 Sculpture Exhibition

The drawings below were drawn outdoors at FreshAir 09, a biennial sculpture exhibition set in a beautiful private garden in the Cotswolds. The exhibition is on until 5th July.

Graphite pencil drawing of sculpture by Carol Peace

Drawing of 'Allies' sculpture by Carol Peace

Drawing of sculpture by Giles Penny (tinted charcoal pencil)

Works on paper exhibition: St. Peter's Church, Malvern

I've posted a few photographs from an exhibition of my work at St. Peter's Church, Cowleigh, Malvern on the 6th June 2009. These were taken on my iPhone, so apologies for the quality. The church is a lovely place, and needs to be used more by the local community if it is to survive. Let me know if you could make use of this space and I'll forward details to the St. Peter's Action Group.

Malvern Sketches

The two drawings below were sketched outdoors in Great Malvern, Worcestershire.

The first is a drawing of the Malvern War Memorial located in the gardens outside the Great Malvern public library. This features a winged figure, representing youth and holding up a flaming torch. This was sculpted by Richard Reginald Goulden (1877-1932) and was unveiled in 1923. Goulden served in the First World War on the front line in France. He was born in Dover, educated at Dover College, and went to the Dover School of Art where he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. He was principally a portrait sculptor but did produce some memorable public memorials, including several war memorials.

Winged Figure, Great Malvern War Memorial, Graphite on paper, © Mike Todd 2009

The second drawing is of an old part of the Abbey Hotel, and was drawn from the hotel gardens. To the front right is the building that now houses the Malvern Museum, and behind is the impressive tower of Great Malvern Priory.

Abbey Hotel, Great Malvern. Graphite on paper, © Mike Todd (2009).

Walsall Art Gallery drawings

The following sketchbook drawings were made of portrait sculptures in the Walsall Art Gallery collection. This is an excellent new gallery, and good for sketching (free admission, friendly staff, folding chairs available).

T.S. Eliot (bronze) by Sir Jacob Epstein. Graphite drawing (c) Mike Todd 2009.

The Martinique (bronze) by Sally Ryan. Graphite drawing (c) Mike Todd 2009.

Nathaniel (bronze) by Sally Ryan. Tinted charcoal pencil drawing (c) Mike Todd 2009.

Sally Ryan (bronze) by Sir Jacob Epstein (Graphite drawing (c) Mike Todd 2009)

Portrait painting palette

Portrait painting palette from Daniel Greene MA. Tones are premixed to save time when painting a live model. Click on image for larger version. (Note his palette is very large!). I would recommend his instructional video/dvd (http://tinyurl.com/ar3mpb).

New purchase

New purchase: "Pomegranates" by Brian Gorst. See Brian's new website here.

"Pomegranates", Oil on canvas board, Brian Gorst 2009

New painting: Juno

"Juno", oil on canvas, Mike Todd 2009

New painting from Brian Gorst's portrait painting class at Malvern Hills College. I have transformed the model (Adrian) into a portrait of the goddess Juno. This was inspired by Adrian's 'regal' pose, and the peacock feathers in the background (which have been significantly altered). Most of the background is made up, and objects relate to various Junian symbols and stories. 

Juno is a roman goddess of marriage, and often referred to as Queen Juno. The bird relates to Aesop's fable in which a peacock places a petition before Juno desiring to have the voice of a nightingale in addition to his other attractions; but Juno refuses his request. When he persists, and points out that he was her favourite bird, she says: 

Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything 

The portrait is therefore something of an allegory of marriage and contentment. 

On the other hand there is a slight air of malice in the image and Juno (and certainly her Greek counterpart Hera) was known for her jealousy and somewhat robust defence of her marriage.  

Drawings from Rome

A post of some of the drawings I made in galleries in Rome. Click for larger images.