Brillustration and Ashton Gate do book week

Dammit I've been itching to tell you about this for ages, but time has been against me (so many cartoon lemurs to draw!) and photos have been like hens teeth (massive thankyou to everyone that had the presence of mind to take a camera and let me use your photos!) .  A couple of weeks back I organised for a bunch of my Brillustration chums and me to descend on Ashton Gate Primary School in Bristol to help them celebrate book week.  

I've posted about it at length on the Brillustration site (and will do again as more pics come in) so I won't  go on about it too much here, but suffice to say there was a bit of this...

 ...a bit of this (I'm nothing if not a paper nerd...I also have thumbs to be proud of)..

a fair bit of this..

And a lot of this!

 It was mad week, but an incredibly enjoyable one.  The good folks at Ashton Gate are probably getting bored of me telling them how great they are, but I'll say it again...you're ace!  Of course I should also gently remind the kids not to get too good with the drawing...some of us have a living to make you know.....

Opening Night

On Friday night I went to the opening night of King Lear at the Tobacco Factory Theatre which was ace.  It was great seeing all my favourite bits from rehearsals played out in front of a packed house, and also seeing some of the subtle nuances I may have missed whilst trying to get people's noses right...

I also got a copy of the program pressed into my mits, which was great because it was the first time I'd seen the artwork I did for the centrespread, well, in the centrespread.  Artwork always looks better when it's shiny!  Luckily I think most of the cast like it (leastways no-one has seemed mortally offended by any bad likenesses.

And that dear friends is it for my Lear mission, at least with regards to sketching it, which is a little sad, as it's probably been one of the happiest drawing experiences I've ever had...and I'd like to say a massive thankyou to all the cast and crew for being so nice to me and letting me sit in in the first place.

Where next?  Well, I hope to sketch some of the rehearsals for their next production, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which start in a couple of weeks, although I've got a fair few cartoon animals to draw over the coming months.  I also hope to figure out a decent way to exhibit some of my King Lear work..whether that'll just be the sketches or some extra work inspired by them I'm not sure...I'll keep you posted!  One thing is for sure though is that I am now well and truly hooked on this kind of sketching, so I'll be lloking to do more one way or another..

Dress rehearsals!

Saw the cast in their costumes for the first time on Monday.  They looked amazing, but it did make me chuckle to start off with - having seen everyone rehearsing in the civvies for most of the month it felt a little like seeing all your workmates in fancy dress (hold that image if you work in an office).

The last couple of days have been 'tech rehearsals', so there's been (mercifully for me) a bit of hanging round whilst lights, sound, angle of approach for a quick dispatching, etc are got right.  But there's still a lot of movement on stage, so I just get down what I can before they move on.   I would also like to say in my defence that it was dark where I was sat...

This one below I'm particularly pleased with - I've been trying and failing to draw Jack Whitam (Edmund) for ages, and this is the only time I think I've come even close.  There are a few other members of cast and crew who, through no fault of theirs, I can't draw for toffee.  You may know who you are, in which case sorry, and I will try to remedy the situation asap!

Today's scenes were all of the 'blimey it's all going off' variety.  Whilst they've stopped a long way short of having to issue a 'first two rows will get wet' warning, and it's all tastefully done,  I'd recommend perhaps just having a light salad as your meal before the play.  Needless to say it makes for cracking  theatre, but poor old Gloucester!

Behind the scenes

Alas my friends, the end is near, and so I face etc etc etc.  Opening night is but a couple of nights away, and now that we're into final dress rehearsals I need to leave everyone to it (nothing like the sound of someone dropping their pencil case to put you off your eye gouging scene).  There is no downside to this though - i've loved every second of it, and it's been important to me to milk every second of my remaining time here for all it's worth.

Subsequently I have drawn LIKE A FIEND.  All the pictures you see today and on tomorrow's post were drawn today and yesterday (and you can double what you see if you factor in the really crap ones I've left out!)

Anyway, today's pictures are of the lovely ladies of the costume dept (loosely termed 'department' as I think members of stage management were mucking in too).  

Step out of the auditorium and you're straight into the bar area, which for the last couple of days has been a hive of activity whilst everyone adjusts costumes, sorts hairstyles and occasionally gets deafened by the sound of trumpets and hunting hounds*.

These pictures are slightly misleading as there tended to be at least 3 people round the table at anyone time.

I should mention too that the costumes look chuffing amazing

When it's not full of costumes and people working hard on them (and even when it is) this is the area where the cast hang out when having breaks/waiting to be called..I'm including this picture cos I'm chuffed with it!

* if you play the sound effects super loud in the bar it sounds like distant clamour to the audience in the theatre!

When two scribes go to war..

..sorry folks, no war here, I just couldn't resist the pun.  This here was one of my favourite pictures of the week despite being the of back of someone's head.  This on is of Danann McAleer, who I feel a certain kinship with as amongst other roles he plays the court scribe. You can see what he looks like(ish) from a better angle in my Jan 17th post!

Phew!

It's been a roller coaster this week. Yesterday was full on - a run through of the first half of the play, in the actual theatre for the first time.  I had to regularly remind myself to draw as I got pretty caught up in it, and when I did draw the results were iffy, as I didn't know where to look or what to draw first ( my sketches have gone to work with Mel in the car - I'll let you know if any of them were any cop!).  So I had a great time but was slightly worried about mojo loss!

But today my pen was on fire!  Here are some of the sketches I did once I'd put it out....

A few pics of Trevor Cooper as poor old Gloucester...

A quick apology to those of you who don't like sepia tones...I used brown ink in honour of the Tobacco factory's subdued lighting!  My plans to go 'full colour' have been on hold due to the speed of everything, but I'll keep you posted..

 Iain MacDonald manning the script table...

Production designer Harriet de Winton.  I've said it before and doubtless will again - it's not the best likeness (it was dark, she was on the other side of the room..), but I like the drawing..

There are lots more pictures from today, but I am knackered....also sadly this is going to be my last sketching trip for the week (hopefully I'll get a last session or two in before opening, but I can't assume..), so I thought I'd keep a few back  for the rest of the week...

One I missed

I've been going through all the sketches I've done since starting this project (mainly so I have them all in one place again - they got a bit scattered when I used them as reference for the spread I'm doing for the programme), and found a few that I overlooked.  This one, as you may be able to figure is from the first week; the readthoughs...

My favourite pictures from today

Generally speaking not my best day drawing wise today - but hopefully got a couple of things out of it worth the showing!

This first one is of Paul Brendan as Oswald, during a brief pause in rehearsing the scene in  which he gets called a cullionly barber-monger and suchlike.  Not necessarily the best likeness, but I think it captures the spirit of the moment (a line fluffing or possible sword dropping if I recall...), and it's a nice reminder for me of my probably my favourite scene in the play thus far.....I've seen it a good few times now but it always makes me laugh.

The next is Dudley Sutton, but not such a funny moment - this is from the scene where the Fool give's Lear a dressing down..

And finally my favourite of the day.  I found this on the ground as I was leaving the rehearsal rooms...we had another artist sitting in today, and I believe this is his work.  Nice work young man!

When you're tired from a day's swordfighting, poisoning and double dealing...

..why not relax with some pictures of cartoon dogs.  This little chap was from a grammar book I did for Cambridge University Press last year.

A little taster....

Hello again!  Here's a little peak at something I'm working on for the Lear programme - it's just an experiment, and in terms of actually looking like who it's meant to be it's not entirely successful, but there's something I quite like about it.  So there.

....FIGHT!

These are some of the waviest lines I've drawn yet, drawn during Edgar (Chris Staines) and Edmund (Jack Whitam)'s first fight rehearsal last Friday.  John Sandeman was doing the fight training,which was no mean feat being as he had his foot in plaster.  Now I'm not an officionado of fight choreography, but the fights looked cool to me, and I think they will look amazing in the round.

Needless to say I really want to have a go.

Note the use of wooden samurai sword as second crutch

A bit of colour...

Now this throws Friday's scribbles right out of chronological order, but I owe those of you who are following my escapades a bit of relief from endless black and white, so here's some stuff I did around lunchtime!

Yep, I dusted my pastel set off for the first time in about 10 years - the results weren't too bad (hopefully), although working with big lumps of chalk can be a bit approximate - it's very hard to get the noses right!  Here we have Julia Hills as Goneril, Piers Wehner as Curan, and Chris Bianchi as Cornwall.  Next week one of my big missions is to do more colour work (that and to win this radio competition that has been bugging me all week)- we'll see how it goes!

A large part of the rest of Friday revolved around Edgar (son of Gloucester) and Edmund (bastard son of Gloucester).  Which one of the brothers is better, Edmund or Edgar..?  There's only one way to settle it....

John and Dud

I looked out the window and you know who it was...

Wow, what a busy day that was!  To be honest I've got so much work to sift through from today (not all of it good..) that I think Ill spark out if I try to post it all tonight.  In the meantime here's one of my favourite pictures from the day to tide you over.  John Shrapnel and Dudley Sutton.....quite a double act.

Downtime

Wavey line time!

As I mentioned, we're definitely up and about now, and I have to work quickly if I'm to capture anything.  

It's hard admitting to yourself that you're very rarely going to get the nose right under these circumstances, but for every botched nostril I feel I've learnt something else.

The picture above makes me chuckle, and is a good example of what can happen when you're cramming as many pictures on to a page as you can.  I started off drawing Simon Armstrong reclining whilst a scene was being talked through, then next thing I was drawing John Shrapnel raging against it all as Lear.  The juxtaposition kind of makes it look like he's not quite getting his point across!

But I also like it as it (accidentally) sums up the rehearsals for me thus far - there's lots of waiting, lots of discussion, then all of a sudden there's a storm in the room and then it's a tea break. Fantastic!

The perils of this sketching lark...

I'm now into my second week, and proper annoyed as I've missed what promised to be a good day's sketching due to circumstances beyond my control (the dreaded man cold - much better now thanks).

Back in the world of sketching, I am still loving it, but I am now faced with some huge obstacles.

Firstly, the actors will not stand still!   As soon as I think I've got the nose right they're off ...and no-one wants a page full of noses (except those that are waiting on the long promised World of Noses).   Come on guys, I know you're just doing your job, but a little consideration! :)

Secondly, having said I'll blog the images, I've realised that drawing them all in an A2 sketchpad wasn't the smartest thing I could do.  At this late hour neither scanning or photographing them is going too well, but here're a few images to show I haven't been twiddling my thumbs!

The below is my favourite picture so far:  it is Dudley Sutton (Lear's Fool) checking his lines, with Simon Armstrong (Kent) discussing the scene with Andrew Hilton, the director (off page right!)

Lear Snaps!

Lord knows I'm not that good a photographer, and I know I'm keeping you waiting for my 'What I did last Year' bit (I am aren't I?.....guys?), and more importantly the beast that now has to be 'World of Noses' (sorry Keith), but I have to let you know what I'm up to at the moment, as I'm really excited about it...

  The deservedly acclaimed theatre company Shakespeare At The Tobacco Factory in Bristol are currently rehearsing for their upcoming production of King Lear, and they've very kindly allowed me to sit on on their rehearsals and draw them.  Whilst on one hand I asked to do this as a drawing exercise, I am really hoping that I can do something worth giving back, and that maybe I can exhibit some of it.

The pictures here are from my first two days sketching (done last week) - at the current rate I may well reach the dreamed of pinnacle of my artistic career, which is to fill an A2 sketchbook in a week!  They said it would never happen..

All this sketching is also feeding into a bit of work I'm doing for their programme... more when it (hopefully!) gets the all clear - I'll post any good sketches in the meantime..