November Blues, Chucky in Ink

The November blues are kicking in in a big way, I really hate the month. So when deciding what so sketch this week I decided to take the blues literally. This is a wee doll that belonged to my fabulous late aunt (her of the fairy stories and the frivolous Christmas knickers!) The 20th of November was her birthday and so she’s been in my thoughts a lot this week. Her doll is a ''pearly queen'', in the traditional black clothing decorated with pearl buttons. The pearlies go back to the 19th century London Cockney traders who to attract attention while collecting money for their charity work would decorate their clothing with pearl buttons that they found. 

Here you can see her, not sure how old she is but I know it was a present from my mum. Not a child's doll but my aunt collected dolls so she must be at least 40 years old, she is made of felt and fully jointed. Yes, you’re right, my sketch does make her look like “Chucky” the yucky horror film doll but that is the challenge when drawing with biro, you make a mark and you can’t get rid of it! All part of the fun of sketching! 

At art school you didn’t use rubbers (erasers),  every line was put down and stayed put and you really can learn a lot that way. Working this way stops timid ''hairy'' lines, you have to think about the marks and setting them with confidence and deliberately. Starting off with the doll, I did put one or two pencil lines down first but quickly moved on to biro. 

At the doll's feet you can see a circular Christmas bauble with my distorted reflection within. Firstly, trying to draw circles freehand is a fabulous exercise which helps to teach control and flexibility in your wrist (think about the circular movement) leading to more confident and loose mark making. Secondly, sketching distortion is a fun way to train your powers of observation; when sketching you often draw what you know is there rather than what you see, a shiny Christmas bauble contorts image and proportions so you really do have to move into observation mode. Give it the go, similarly magnifying mirrors or reflective surfaces like shiny cans can be equally fascinating. 

At the beginning of my post I mentioned my aunt and the Christmas knickers, I have posted about her (and them) before but just to refresh our memories. My aunt was a big Christmas fan and she always bought me extremely frilly, frothy, teeny-tiny knickers for Christmas from about the age of 15, wrapped in hundreds of layers of tissue paper. All of the colours of the rainbow, outrageously lacy, satiny, ruched, ribbony and a complete contrast to the no nonsense knickers mum would buy, every year a Christmas highlight. Sadly, I would no longer get one thigh in them but the sight of a pair of Brazilians brings back sweet memories of my aunt and those Christmas knickers.