Sketching Musicians from Texas

I haven't shown you any sketches of musicians for quite a while, have I? Well, I thought I'd put that right, by sharing you some of the sketches I did the other weekend.

We had a very musical few days. It started on the Thursday evening: a band called Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs was visiting my little part of Sheffield, all the way from Austin, Texas. The bass player's brother, Ash Gray, lives round the corner to us and often plays at Café#9. So, of course, they did a joint gig at the café. Wild Bill was a pretty colourful character and great for sketching. I tackled him in my Inktense pencils on a tinted Strathmore sketchbooks, with a little white conte for highlights.

On the following Saturday afternoon, a friend of ours had arranged a musical party in his back garden.

Various musicians from the café played, while the rest of us all sat on the grass in the sunshine. Lovely. While they were here, Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs did a performance, as did Ash. I did my best to capture the flavour of the occasion.

At the end of the afternoon, everyone thanked our host and went home, but only for about an hour... At 7pm there was another music party, at another person's house. Remember a while back, I painted at a similar gig in the Secret House? Yep - same place.

I didn't sketch this time: I needed my hand to hold a series of rather gorgeous gin and tonics. What was slightly surreal was that Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs were playing again, so we got to listen to them 3 times in 3 days! It didn't matter - they were great. As was one of our favourite bands who were there, the totally fabulous Goat Ropers Rodeo Band. The paintings above and below are of them, sketched on a couple of previous occasions.

What a wonderfully sociable, crazily musical time!

Painting Musicians in the Secret House

I went to a great music event the other night. It was arranged by my friends at the music café but, instead of being held in the café, it took place at a 'secret location'...

When we got there, it turned out to be an extraordinary place. A regular house from the outside, in a very normal street, but inside, it had been gutted and entirely reworked. It was owned by an architect, who had designed the striking, ultra-modern space. Stepping through the door was like stepping into a tardis, because the interior was entirely open-plan and on 3 levels, joined by a spiral staircase.

The music was at the bottom, in the basement, but the house was on a steep hill so that, at the back, the basement was at ground level. Because it was completely open-plan, it was the perfect place for a performance. I got a seat at the very front, because I had been invited to do some painting. Some people watched from upstairs, where you could look down on the music:

I took a concertina and, working from the top down, painted each musician as they appeared. There were 4 acts, all fantastic. There is so much musical talent in Sheffield and I feel very honoured to know some fabulous musicians.

Rhiannon was first up. She sometimes works in the café, but she is also a great singer / songwriter. This time, she sung with her guitar, although I have seen her play other instruments too.  

Tom came all the way from Scarborough to play for us. Again, not just a great musician, but also performing his own material.

Then there was the wonderful Liam Walker, with the voice of an angel. I absolutely love his songs. I've listened to him a couple of times before and have a CD of his work, which I play all the time. It's the one they recorded at the café. I painted on that occasion too, and we used one of my paintings for the CD cover.

I really like the way the designer took a detail from the painting, to enlarge for the interior of the CD case:

The final act at last week's gig was Bruno Merz: the painting at the top of the post. I've seen him before at the café too. Great stuff. There were quite a few people on 'stage' and some of them were eclipsed, so I didn't quite get them all unfortunately. Here are a couple more of the band which I did manage to capture:

It was a very special evening and a lovely way to celebrate how wonderful music can be for bringing people together. One of my friends took this rather nice photo of me in action, while Bruno and his band were playing:

Here's what my concertina looked like when I was done:

Painting Live Music

We are so lucky to have the excellent Cafe#9 just 5 minutes walk away from our house. It's only small but it has such a lovely atmosphere. Very bohemian, very relaxed, very friendly.

Any regular readers will know though, that what makes it even more perfect, is the music. I have been spending more and more evenings there, sketching the performances, and recently was invited to take part in a couple of recording sessions.

This was of course, rather exciting. Jonny, the owner of the café, thought it would be fun to record albums for up and coming bands he is impressed with. Having watched me paint and draw my way through so many gigs, he commissioned me to sit in on the recording sessions with my sketchbook.

The idea was for me to just do what I normally do, but the extra challenge was for me to create a piece of artwork which could be used as an album cover. I might once have found this a little daunting but, having sketched so many events during my residency, knowing with each that the results would need to work, being part of a larger piece of artwork, I felt pretty brave about the idea.

All these sketches are from those sessions. The first session was with singer / songwriter Liam Walker, with session musicians making up the band. The second one was recording Gregory S. Davies, painted above. He was also performing with the local session musicians: the person below on the piano, Finn, is also on a guitar at the top, the glockenspiel at the bottom and playing the red double-base. Talented fella!

We haven't actually had any finished CDs out the other end yet. The illustrations are with the designer. I'll show you when they're done.

Sketching Live Music in Cafe#9

On Friday night, John and I went to a wonderfully intimate evening of music at Cafe#9 in Sheffield. You can just spot us at the back. The photo was taken through the goldfish tank above the piano, hence the ghostly floating fish: 

I was with friends, so I didn't spent the whole evening sketching, but I couldn't resist whipping my book out for a quick spurt, when the totally brilliant Goat Roper Rodeo Band did their set. They describe their music as 'cosmic country blues' - great harmonies but also very lively stuff, which made them very tricky to draw, as they were jumping around most of the time. 

I used watercolour and white chalk in a Strathmore tinted sketchbook, to try and capture the flavour and movement:

Cafe#9 is a favourite place of ours, both for just hanging out and for its music nights. Because the place can only take about 25 people, there is a unique atmosphere. It's like the artists are performing in your sitting room. 

In fact, there is an occasional event there called Gig in Me Lounge, which originally started with a bunch of friends playing for each other in their lounge but, in recent times, they have progressed to using Cafe#9. These two sketches were done for the last Gig in Me Lounge evening.

Whoever is playing at the cafe, the music is always really good and there is always the same relaxed, informal atmosphere. We are so lucky to have it just round the corner. I only have to walk 5 minutes to get there - the poor Goat Roper Rodeo Band had to drive all the way from Wales to play for me!

Step-by-Step-by-Stagger...

I'm finishing off the work on the first stage of my sketching people book. The two 'drawing people on the train' presentation spreads are all done. 

I have been working on the spread 'using colour first, line later'. One of the things that has been quite tricky is that I've had to do a step-by-step set of images. My publisher felt it was useful for the reader to see one of my sketches built up in stages. Trouble is, the very nature of them is that they are quick and instinctive.

I tried to sketch John in the garden, but it was a nightmare. After each paint mark, I needed to go upstairs and scan my sketchbook, before coming back down to John for brush-mark two, then back up to the scanner again, and so on. Because of the palava, I felt under terrible pressure to get each mark right. Well, there's no better guarantee of failure than that. 

So I gave it up and decided to create a mock-up, repainting an existing sketch. The guitar-player at the top was done a few years ago, but it's a good example of the technique. I created a print-out to trace on the lightbox in paint.

I scanned it in 5 stages. The line-work was the hardest. Trying to draw as if you are drawing quickly and intuitively, when actually you are copying, is a bit like trying to forge a signature (I don't make a habit of that, honest). 

It didn't turn out quite the same as the original, but near enough and it does the job. Phew.

Drawing Live Music - Ireby Festival 2014

I absolutely love drawing live music. There something special about twinning the two activities. I generally bob about while I am drawing and, the more into it and mobile I am, the more alive the drawings become. I find this kind of sketching makes me feel at one with the music, in the same way that dancing does. It's pretty intense, but great fun!

John and I have friends up in the north of Cumbria and every year at this time, we pack our warm jumpers and my sketching kit and drive up to stay the weekend and go to the lovely Ireby Music Festival with our friends.

The whole thing takes place in the tiny village of Ireby. They use the village hall, the church and the tiny (and very old) chapel in the middle of a field, but they also create a main stage inside a big marque on the hill above the village, overlooking some pretty dramatic scenery (although this year we could mostly see rain and cloud).

I hate not being close enough to make out the detail, so I often go up to the front and sit on the floor right by the stage. Luckily Ireby is the sort of place you can do that. I often get to share my spot with young children, which is fun, because they are of course very interested in what I'm up to.

While I was working on these three of 'Stark', a little boy kept telling me the bits I had missed. He had to lean in and shout into my ear every time, so I could hear him above the music ('Aren't you going to put the star on?'... 'Don't forget his tatoo'... 'What about his earpiece?'...). Very cute, if a bit distracting.

To do these, I had to kneel in a narrow gap at the feet of the front row of the audience (fortunately I had my little camper's mat for my knees). 

I was okay for a while, but by the time the next set got underway, I discovered I had lost all feeling in my feet and of course my legs were locked into position.  Somebody took pity on me and found me a seat on the front row, although standing up to manoeuvre myself into it was interesting!

The Hut People were slightly bonkers. One played percussion from around the world, while the other played the accordion and demonstrated French Canadian foot percussion - a cross between very fast tap dancing and Irish dancing, complete with the high-kicks.

On Friday night and Saturday night everyone packs into the marque. I was on the floor at the front once again for The Bills, the final act of the festival. They were fabulous: a fusion of all sorts. I had a wonderful time, scribbling away and jiggling around like a thing possessed, but had to give up drawing at the end and join the boppers, before I got trampled. To be honest, I am just as happy jumping about, so that was the perfect end. 

If you would like to see the rest of the drawings I did at the festival, as well as other sketches of music events, check out my new Live Music Sketchbook on the website.