Monday 24 February 2020

Bridlington Lifeboat

Five years ago I attempted a drawing of the Flamborough Lifeboat based on a photograph by photographer Paul Berriff, with his kind permission. Paul also gave me permission to use two other photographs, one of the mfv Galatea in a Force Ten gale and a third one which is the subject of this blog post.

It's been quite a while since I last had time for any serious art and when an opportunity presented itself recently I felt I needed something dramatic and challenging to get my teeth into. To add to the 'challenge' I decided to post frequent work-in-progress posts both in my art forum and on Facebook. Confidence in my art has always been a big issue for me and there's no better way to challenge self-belief than show off your work before it's finished.

The subject is of the Bridlington Lifeboat heading out in gale force winds to the aid of a fishing boat. The entire picture has been drawn with a 2B pencil. I used my favourite Rotring Rapid Pro mechanical pencils, one with 0.5mm lead and the other with 0.7mm. I also used a regular 2B pencil for the sea so I could use the flat edge of the lead rather than the point. The paper is Daler Rowney Heavyweight 135lbs A3 size. For anyone interested, the various stages of the drawing can be seen in the Work-In-Progress section of my web site.



9 comments:

  1. John, just when I think I've seen your very best you come up with something unbelievable. And THIS is unbelievable !. Everything about it from the ship to the water couldn't be any better. Congratulations on a wonderful piece of art.

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    1. What a lovely thing to say BJ, thank you very much. I certainly 'connected' with the subject as soon as I first saw the photograph, and I think that helps a lot. Thank you again. ;-)

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  2. Ahoy shipmate. John this is the best graphite work I've seen. Get it in a gallery as soon as you can!! The confidence issue is fairly normal: I think we usually fall short of our expectancy level, but others don't know how we the artist imagined the finished product and therefore don't know what we are aiming for. Go for it, really. I know the paper is A3, but how large is the drawing?

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    1. You're very kind John, thank you. The actual drawing size is about 15" x 10". Thank you for the gallery suggestion but I don't feel pictures like this make 'hangable' art as I pick subjects just for my own pleasure. I might donate it to Bridlington RNLI though to see if they want to do something with it.

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    2. Having slept on it I may just have a look and see what local Galleries are in this area.... nothing to lose in making enquiries, eh?

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  3. Hopefully my comment will go through, John. I bought a new computer and honestly, I don't like change!! lol This drawing is so incredible. Your talent is off the charts.. The best was going to your Work in Progress page and seeing the progress. WHAT A TREAT! I will be visiting the page again … its amazing to see it... AND I agree with John...it belongs hanging in a gallery!

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    1. What a lovely comment Hilda, you're very kind. And thank you so much for visiting not only my blog but also my Work-in-Progress page. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. ;-)

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