Back to the barbershop to sketch. One of the reasons I love to sketch there is that because I have done it so often I can try out new things. We all tend to revert to our natural way of making art, whether that’s recording every detail or just firing down one squiggly line, and I wanted to see if the familiarity of the scene would calm my urge to draw according to form: that’s what happened yesterday, but not because I wanted to…
When Paddy and I arrived at The Legend Barbershop Ali, the proprietor, was just closing up. It was about a minute to six but he graciously took Paddy (if only he knew how much Paddy looks forward to his hair cut). As we were the only other two in the shop, Ali and I chatted about his marketing strategy: his Instagram page is beautiful and the haircuts make me want to be a man, if only for the chance to have a sharp cut, offset by high cheekbones. Actually, even the full-lipped, plump-cheeked men looked so sharp after they’d been under Ali’s scissors. Even the ginger guy looked cool – in fact the photo of the redhead with the beard and wavy cut was one of my favourite shots. I never draw from photos because by and large photos are the work of the devil from a sketching point of view, but I have a long bus journey ahead of me today and I think I may while away the time with a few sketches from Ali’s Insta page.
So why did I sketch in a different way this time? Simple – Ali was telling my loads of stuff, and I wasn’t going to be rude and continue sketching as he addressed me. That meant that I made very slow progress (as did Paddy’s haircut, but he told me afterwards he didn’t mind at all – he was enjoying the conversation and he is a star of a lad). Suddenly Paddy was almost done, so I had to fire on a bit of colour in jig time. We’re talking five minutes. I lashed on Payne’s grey (the Rembrandt one which I adore). Opera pink (Daniel Smith, again my favourite version of that hot pink) and yellow ochre (they’re all grand) and then a couple of pops for the tinctures, tonics and creams and we were all finished. A very wet sketchbook lay clipped open on the back seat of the car, and was allowed to dry at its leisure.
The next two pics are for no reason other than they are so beautiful and I didn’t think the way I presented them in my last blog piece did them justice…they are Dr Ph Martin’s Radiant Watercolour Inks. Love them.
That’s it for now as the bus is not going to wait for me to post more pics…
Until next time, have a lovely day!
