I can’t say my return trip went without a hitch. The night before I returned to my hotel room to find a note under the door from the hotel apologizing that there may not be hot water until the repair men come to fix their heater. I’ve never had this experience at a hotel… So the morning rolled around and all I could do was give myself a cat-bath before heading out. I informed a member of the staff that I’d like to check out a little later because I’d be going into the office. Fine. So I get back from the office and my key-card doesn’t work. Then they get that worked out and I check out but they take forever trying to figure out how to print Mark’s old receipt (not your fault, Mark, if you’re reading this!) Finally Chee, Simon and some of the other people I worked with pick me up and we head to lunch. We had tapas at this spanish restaurant—delicious.
After that the trip went pretty smoothly. Changing trains with my luggage sucked but I made it to the airport with time to spare. If you ever go through Heathrow security make sure and use the restroom before you go to your gate because after you’re through the virtual strip search they stick you in a bare room with chairs and a few vending machines. The security search there was pretty intrusive but at least the personnel were courteous—a stark contrast to Chicago O’Hare security screening. I felt like an animal. I had to remove my hat, shoes, hoodie, belt and basically unpack my carry-on bag while a security officer yelled stuff about how cold and dark the holding cells were that they would throw you in if you were caught with anything suspicious.
Anyhow, I made it back just fine.
I thought I might now post some of the sketches I did in my moleskin while I was over there. I wish I’d had more time to draw but I wanted to see as much as I could see with the limited time I had to explore.
The first page
some airport/plane sketching
Stuff from Hyde Corner
Russel Square
Russel Square / Zeus from the British Museum.
A day or two after I returned my life drawing course started up. I thought I’d post some of that as well. A couple of these are from the previous semester. I was afraid I would be terribly rusty but I quickly got zoned in. All are 18×24″ on newsprint (with exception to the big pastel drawing).
This is my favorite model we’ve had so far. She’s rail thin but she always has really awesome poses. (45min. charcoal, pastel)
(Charcoal, pastel, 15min.)
(Charcoal, pastel on Canson 25min.)
(Charcoal, pastel, 15 min.)
(Charcoal, 5 min.)
(1 min. gestures)
(1 min. gestures)