What am I trying to achieve?
This was a sketch made in gouache in the moment – in a 3 minute music track – then later repainted over 20 minutes. Somehow this has something of what I am trying to capture in the blockiness and opacity of the medium.
Here are other 3-5 minute painted sketches, mostly done standing over a horizontal surface, with fairly stiff paint and broad flat brush.
credit to https://drawingisfree.org/Monday-Live-Portrait-Sessions
I will not look away
To spare myself pain
Of witnessing grief
For the slain, slaughtered.
These were not warriors
Killed in combat,
But children, fenced in,
Shelled from afar,
Sighted by snipers,
Snares for rescuers.
Do not look away.
These sketches of Palestinian civilians mourning their children are to amplify the message of journalists working in Gaza.
These drawings are derived from images taken by Mahmoud Bassam, verified photographer in Gaza, published on Instagram.
In scrolling, I see new reports are coming out right now that the assault on the city of Rafah, that had been threatened to start in two weeks, is happening now. Rafah is the so called safe area designated by the occupying power, refuge for more than a million displaced people from the north of Gaza. No time has been given for the civilians to flee, and there was in any case nowhere left for them to go. They were already exhausted, starved and harried by the occupying army. I fear deaths may rise exponentially, from tens to hundreds of thousands in a very short time.
The following infographic comes from Euromedmonitor.
If you live in a democracy, and if you still believe in the rule of law, now is the time to be heard. Please do not look away.
“You need only ask yourself…where was I when genocidal acts were being committed in Gaza against the Palestinian people?”
When, in the Al Awda Hospital, the surgical case list whiteboard became useless because of the overwhelming number of people arriving severely injured by munitions and needing treatment, instead, these words were written:
“Whoever stays
Until the end
Will tell the story
We did what we could
*remember us*
The case was presented by South Africa at the International Court of Justice for an end to “The first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time”
“Some might say that the very reputation of international law, its ability and willingness to bind and to protect all people equally, hangs in the balance.”, (Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC).
I was chatting with a friend some months ago, during which, with permission, I attempted to draw her. Last weekend, I tried this again in paint from a photo taken at the time. I had in mind my visit to the German Impressionist exhibition last week, but there is not much of that style here. Also, unfortunately, while her face has all the right bits in place, taken together they do not turn into a likeness.
Back in November I posted two drawings of my new born granddaughter I had made from photos. She was pretty much asleep all the time back then.
What a difference eight months makes. Here are recent sketches, first, from yesterday, and some others a month or so ago. These are pretty rough. She is now crawling. An endlessly curious self entertainer, she is a great model, but does not stay still. I am learning both how to draw a baby and how to capture her likeness quickly.
She is already inquisitive about the relationship between images and real palpable things. She is curious what I am doing with my pencil, which clearly relates to her in some way. I don’t think it will be long before she wants to start her own mark-making.
First sketches (with more hair) are yesterday, and then are the older attempts.
These are the older pictures from before she was crawling. Still moving non-stop.
On the Trans Pride march in Brighton last weekend, I carried a bag of art equipment and had drawings planned in my mind. However, my 18 year old offspring did not allow me to drop out of the crowd, find a vantage point and sketch. I have had to make do with memory and photos as references. This is my first sketch. More to come.
This sequence from the life drawing sessions was rapidly constructed in pencil then outlined with highlights and dark tattoos in conte crayon before being painted in gouache. As planned, I finished the pieces at home to add in background. In this set, the finished pieces are shown first and the session sketches after.
kestrelart 