Sketchbooks 1972-82
In this decade I filled about half a dozen sketchbooks, each a little smaller format than A4, at the Queen’s Rd liferoom. In some I used mostly an Osmoroid fountain sketch pen, sometimes bleeding ink from the lines with a moistened sable brush, but after I trod on it and smashed it and could not find a replacement I liked, I drew mostly in graphite or Wolfe’s Carbon Pencils. I only usually drew in my sketch book as a last resort, e.g. when I could not get a good angle on the model that would make a composition, or the pose was too short for me to disturb the other students by moving my easel around, or the pose was boring or I couldn’t get close enough to see well, or more often when I thought the other students drawing made a more interesting subject than the model. I usually stood with the sketch book held in my left hand and sometimes squeezed between others where there was no space for an easel. All this means that I was usually a little irritated when drawing in my sketch books.