This is a self portrait I did long ago, when I was at school. It was not entirely a successful likeness, especially with the Rossetti like lips. However I was, and still am pleased with the quality of the shading, and the work on the eyes, despite the enormous size of them. I was a bag of bones in those days, so I expect all I could see was my elongated skull, big hair, eyebrows, and eyes, so hence the emphasis on all four aspects:) I also expect that the the drawing was not helped by the fact that I drew it on my lap, and not vertically on an easel, this accounts for the stretched proportions. However, not a bad first attempt.
I was not very confident in drawing people, and felt to embarrassed to ask anyone to sit for me, just in case the result was rubbish. However, when Dad came home on a Sunday afternoon I could guarantee that he would lie back in his chair to get some sleep. He worked in the Post Office in those days, and would get up at 5 am in the morning and not get home until late, work 7 days a week, and on weekends go out singing in pubs and clubs, so no wonder he was so exhausted! Again, I did capture a likeness with this one, so much so I was offered a place at Weston College's foundation course on the strength of this picture. The lecturer saw my Dad come in to pick me up from my interview, and recognised him immediately from my drawing. I turned them down, because they thought I was good, and chose Filton College instead, because they were not so impressed, but thankfully impressed enough to give me a place. My Dad thought I was mad, but I figured that I would improve more in an environment where the tutors thought I had a long way to go, rather in one where they thought I had already arrived! Although I was very sensitive to criticism, I still knew I needed it to progress as an artist.
You learn early on in art that drawing hands can be one of the most difficult things to draw. So as I had a couple of hands to hand, I thought I would give it ago in pencil, and then in pencil crayon. I was pleased with the results!
Here is a pencil drawing of my legs. I thought that it gave me a challenge in perspective, and I coped with it not too badly. I was so absent minded in those days I used to wear my keys on those key rings that you could attach to your belt, which can be seen on the bottom left of the picture. Not very cool! I remember walking around Swindon shopping centre many years after this drawing, with some shop keys attached to my belt. There were too many to put neatly into my pocket, so I let them jangle around as I walked. It was not long until a group of blokes who were progressively getting drunk, heard me walking beside them. They shouted out accusingly, "Do you work in a prison?", "Are you a prison guard?" It did not take me long after that incident to no longer wear the key belt attachment combo!
We had a skull brought down from the biology lab to draw. The result is very graphic looking, but in my opinion that is not a bad thing!
These drawings remind me of a time me and a friend Andy Salter 'borrowed' a skeleton from the biology labs at school. We had a school nurse whose answer to any ailment, whether it be a bruised knee, or a severed head was an aspirin. We took the skeleton, put my coat on it, left it outside on a chair in the waiting area with a sign around it's neck saying "Give me an aspirin". We then knocked on her door and ran like the clappers. The plan would have been perfect, until we realised I needed to get my coat back. She was not a happy bunny. I think we got a lecture on misappropriation of expensive school property etc. It was funny though:)
