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The sombre sentinel of the Leyland Cypress is
still the signature tree of local gardens.This is the best view
I can find to draw on this tail-end of a grey afternoon from Barbara's
mum's front room. I draw it in waterproof fibre tip pen (my Christmas
gift; a Staedtler mars professional) but by the time I get to adding
the watercolour, the light is fading and I'm working partly by guesswork
when mixing the colours. Good job I know the layout of my watercolour
box.
By now the guests are arriving for the annual gathering and I turn
my attention to them. |
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Izzy's World
'Are you drawing a princess?' I ask Izzy, who
is lying on the floor near me. She looks up and smiles at me indulgently,
as if I'm being flippant.
I should have realised that this sensitive drawing is of her mum.
I like the earrings and, this evening, I think she's caught that
tipsy demeanour beautifully. She draws her dad and her older brother,
George, in chunkier fashion. The male side of her family are shown
in profile wearing big hats and dressed in green to match the garden
hedge (her mum, in stance and colour, seems to echo the house).
In contrast to her mum, mincing along on mouselike feet, her dad
is goose-stepping purposefully in sturdy boots towards the house.
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In Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards
discusses the way children use symbols in drawing and asks her
students to recall the house that they habitually drew as young children.
Izzy is five and her symbolic house is recognisable as her own because
it includes the driveways, front and side, that they had resurfaced last
summer. Just as her mum's rooflike hairstyle echoes the house, her dad's
boots seem to echo the driveways. Her brother George is not only the furthest
from the house but he's also the only figure to be drawn entirely in green
to match the hedge.
Izzy is the only character with her face shaded in blue. My version of
Izzy's mum and dad can be seen on the right hand page of my sketchbook
(above, top).
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Richard's Pen
While I'm out helping myself to the buffet, Barbara overhears Izzy saying;
'I'm trying hard not to be scared of Great Uncle Richard because he might
let me use one of his special pens.'
Izzy will eventually realise that, even though it's Christmas, not all
men with grizzled beards are so generous: letting a child loose with one
of my favourite pens is rather like expecting a violin virtuoso to let
the kiddies have a play with his beloved Stradivarius.
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk |
