Thursday 13 March 2014

My Studio


Welcome to the studio, it never looks this clean but I thought id take the opportunity to clean it, usually its an insult to pigs its so dirty. Its not quite a room but part of our (myself and my girlfriends), apartment in Cork city centre. This windowed area sticks out from the building, almost like a windowed balcony, which over the past 2 years it has been a great spot to work. From this window I sometimes take a quick break having a coffee, watching people pass by, talking to themselves like crazy people or wondering around drunk (lots of winos in the area). I used to use the windows to do gesture drawings of people passing by, but these days my sketching is onto to different things.


I have my studio split between the two desks, one is my trad art side and the other my digital world. Its nice to have them a bit separated like this, so sometimes I can just turn my back on the computer, which can be a distraction. On the digital side there is the usual sound  scanner, printer, my trusty old wacom tablet tucked in beside the desktop there. Its still in great nick after owning it for about 8 -10 years, a credit to Wacom as a make. I have lots and lots of books, in two little cupboards as well as a large shelves off to the side, not shown here, they are filled with reference material, books on; archaeology, history, maps, travel books, art, mythology and folklore as well as Irish language books/Leabhair Gaelainn.


On the trad side I have another desk with little baskets for lots of brushes and another one for lots of pens, my half pan watercolour paints, as well as the usual drawing desk and adjustable desk lamp. I never stick my art pieces directly on my drawing table, only stick them to a plank of wood, or most often, an old animation disk I have, shown here. This handy disk allows me to carry it around to wherever I want,  like if Im stuck on a piece of the body or pose and I walk over with the disk to draw it in the mirror or keep it on my lap if I feel like it. Also I hate drawing in just one angle, never understand how people do that, and so Im constantly moving the art piece in circles to get the right angle for the pen stroke. Not so important in paintings though but the studio is nice for having lots of natural light for colour.

Just under the drawing table are the 6-7 books I have on the go at one time, dont read them all continiously, generally do that with about 2 or 3, the rest I pick up once every few weeks, sometimes months, to read a chapter. I have 2 big boxes under the drawing desk, filled with art tools I never get around to using, various stuff I have collected over the years, some I have tried once and always planned to return, alot I never got to use, never enough hours in the day and all that. 

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