Life Drawing: reconnecting with creative expression

It has struck me recently how many creative and talented colleagues and friends I have and I wanted to showcase some of their creations and stories for you. I have known Simon Rowell for many years but in his non-artistic life so it was a delight for me to discover this side of him as well. Simon has an absolute talent for Life Drawing – and for writing too: I sent him some questions and he wrote his own story! I hope you will enjoy his journey as much as I did.

I loved creating even as a young boy.  I remember copying images using pencils as a child.  At school prior to “Fifth Form” as it was then, I faced a dilemma – continue with 5th and 6th form art as an elective or take on more traditional academic subjects.  I was so worried that I wasn’t good enough to be in the art class that I submitted examples of my work in earnest to my teacher.  In hindsight, I think he was just desperate to have as many in his class as he could muster! 

As I passed through my 6th form art, and the academic classes split out into more and more granularity, I opted to take the more academic path, perceived by me and others as the road to a more prosperous future.   

As the mundane of life took hold of me, I lost my connection to creative expression, reconnecting with it sporadically, sometimes in times of emotional turbulence.  This sometimes resulted in self-portraits.   

I don’t find self-portraits a difficult process.  I am happy to attempt to lay down what I see.  I do strive to capture a good likeness, but it at the same time it does not bother me too much – after all does a mirror really capture what my mind sees looking back at me?  I usually see some element of the work that reflects me – a look in the eye, a jaw line or nose, and that is enough for me.  Below is a series of self-portraits in various media. 

I love it when I capture a good likeness when I am creating a portrait.  After all, I think that is the point of a portrait.  However, capturing a real true likeness is so hard, and sometimes a glance or look or profile – a tiny aspect of a work that hits the mark – is enough.  One of my favourite works of all time is the first water colour painting I attempted, which was a painting from a photograph of my partner’s late grandmother Beryl.  Many of her family have said to me that the eyes I portrayed were so recognisably Beryl’s. 

Another favourite of mine, where I feel I really ca[captured not only the outward visual appearance but the “gist” of the man, is this portrait of my Canadian best friend, Will Cook. 

During my younger years I was definitely interested in portraiture, as I had not been exposed to life drawing of figures.  Some of my earlier works, copied from photos or other works are below. 

My first real life drawing experience came during lockdown when my partner bought me for my lock-downed birthday a Zoom online life drawing session from @missmuselifedrawing in Melbourne.  I loved it and tapped into that creative side and poured out charcoal drawings that were expressive and free.  I loved it and that was the start of a weekly lockdown ritual that created a tonne of work that is sitting in folders under beds. 

I started with heavy black charcoal and gradually tried different shades of charcoal, and then experimented with oil pastel crayons.  Some of my favourite pieces are from that era when I had literally 60 seconds to capture a body form and light – the bright colours seemed to do much of the work for me. 

Zoom classes were all I knew of life drawing until I went on holiday to Waiheke Island and noticed an in-person life drawing class that coincided with our trip there.  Not only that but a sculptor whose work I adore was going to be there @olivierduhamel.  That was my first in real life life drawing class and I was not really enamoured with my results that night.  I think it was the pressure of being amongst real artists in person that freaked me out. 

I have started to experiment with watercolour. However, I have always preferred acrylic, because firstly you could simply paint over any mistakes within a few minutes, and secondly, you didn’t have to wait weeks for it to dry properly, and lastly, I knew nothing about watercolours and how to use them.  A good friend who is an amazing artist @mattmurphy lent me a video on watercolour portraiture and I went from there. It certainly helped highlight the potential issues, but there is no replacement for hours on the brush trying things out.  The video also taught me basic face geometry which has seen me in good stead since. 

My natural tendency is to strive for accurate representation, which leads me to over work a piece into too much detail.  I am forever striving to learn to stop.  To let go of that stretch for accuracy.  The warm up phase of online life drawing classes, where 30 second or 60 second or minute poses are the norm, has taught me to condense , to express, and to let go.  So many times the simple pieces, on reflection against the body of work from a two hour session, are the best. 

Recently, I undertook a free online art course by Nick Wilton which I found was great for expanding thinking.  He taught concepts around tone, contrast and composition that I still use.  What is the loud conversation, what is the quiet conversation, where are your eyes drawn with the contrast between those conversations?  From there I dabbled with some abstract works. 

Also quite recently, I bought some felt tip pens to play with, which resulted in a different style.  I am not sure it is something I will continue with, but it was interesting to dabble with new media. 

If I am not attending a class and I want to draw an image, I will usually do a self-portrait or use an image I have on a phone of someone I know. Images of people I know become frustrating due to my inherent desire to make an accurate representation, and it is so hard to capture a true good likeness.  I quite like this one of my Dad. 

An unexpected bonus from life drawing is a feeling of connection with other artists and muses.  Seeing them on Zoom and seeing their works is unexpectedly rewarding.   

My partner framed my first online drawing, as it was a stand out for her and she “accidentally” spilled red wine on it in what I describe as a fit of jealous artistic rage. 

I have also framed a nude of a fabulous ballerina @laetitia_chanel_model that I drew in a short pose in a @missmusedraws Zoom session..     

Recently, a friend purchased two original images of a Tarantino themed Zoom session that was so cool, put on by my new online friend @jl_syndikas_art. 

All of my art can be found on Instgram at @srowellnz.  I like to post everything, almost as a record of my artistic journey.  I do not curate the works I post to those that I like best  it is more like a diary of sorts.  I hope you find something there that makes you stop and take another look.