Richard Bell's Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

Ruby Sue

Saturday, 13th January, 2007
RubyRubyUSUALLY, WHEN I DRAW A BABY, it's the first time they've been drawn, not in the case of my 4½ month old great niece Ruby Sue; she's already been drawn by her dad, Damian; holding her in one arm, he drew her in pencil in a small sketchbook with his free hand. Sounds quite tricky.

I can't help feeling that Ruby will be creative; for one thing both her parents are - Damian is an architect, Ali works in textile and graphic design - and, as you can guess from these sketches, she is forever looking around, swivelling her head 'like an owl', says Damian. She can now follow the movement of their Siamese cats across the room.


RubyRubyIt's not just the movement that makes her difficult for me to draw; I usually draw the head too small compared with the features and have to add extra lines to correct the proportions.

sketchbookI've switched to working most of the time with an A4 sketchbook and the larger page is useful for a subject like Ruby Sue. You can have several drawings going at once on the same page and if she happens to come back to one pose you can go back and add a bit to that drawing.