The Snowball Drawing

No, not a drawing of a snowball, but a drawing that has snowballed...

This sketch, drawn on my way to Nottingham last week, was posted not only here, in my Picture Gallery, but also on Flickr, where it was seen by Rick Tulka. Remember Rick, the caricaturist I looked up when I was in Paris?

Rick mentioned, in passing, that he could probably do a caricature from my drawing. I said I'd love to see it, so he did:

I really like the slightly twisted, sinister edge he's lent it, and I love his free mark-making in the bottom half.

Rick posted his version on Flickr, where the idea caught the imagination of several other artists. I came home from a day in Bakewell to discover different versions of my drawing posted all over Flickr!

Jerry Waese, in Toronto, is someone whose oil-pastel-&-ink sketch work I've been drooling over for many months now, so I was deeply flattered that he was the next to have a go.

Dona Minucia then did 3 versions, in ink: one based on my original, then two more using Rick and Jerry's as starting points. Another interesting idea...

Here is one by Paula K, with a wonderfully playful and delicate line:

And more oil pastels, but very different again, by Mariah O'Neill, who has added a real sense of directional light. I love Maria's colour palette too:

Just when I thought things were drawing to a close (no pun intended!) this one came in, by Norman Mallory, working in Los Angeles. His version is in ink, applied with a brush, which makes for some very satisfying marks, and fabulous contrasts in line weight:

Then an even more recent addition arrived: this wonderfully bold, mixed-media version by Abby Wright (don't you just love that rich blue?):

Just before packing up last night, I discovered yet another, by Paul Bowden, again, a totally fresh take of it. I really like this one:

What a fun game you started Rick - I wonder if there are any more to come?

POSTSCRIPT: Since I posted this, more versions have already been created, so Paul Bowden has set up a Flickr gallery to display them. If you fancy having a go for a bit of fun, post your pic in Flickr, then put a link as a comment on my original page, so Paul can pick it up and pop it in the gallery.