I have allways been too lazy to do any serious drawings.
But on a visit to Kelmscot Manor, home of the Arts and Craft designer Willam Morris,
I saw a number of woodcuts of drawings by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) in the loft. While they were centuries old,
they were originals, from wood blocks that had been in in good condition. I was impressed with the penmanship engraving skill,
the artist's sense of humour, the superb use of light and dark as well as forced perspective that D$#252rer used in making these wonderfull images, -with nothing more than lines. I dug out my old drawing and drafting pens, cleaned them up and refilled with black ink. I tried copying some of his work, from images taken from the internet, but they were too pixilated to show the actual linework, Book images were very small, but I had a try. The first complete work, I call 'The Angry Lion' and is a miss-mash of parts of Düurer's The Seven Headed Beast , The Four Horsemen and other works.
Done at the time of the Parlament expenses scandal, it reflects just that, with boar's snout's in the trough and an angy
'lion' looking on. Gordon Browns angry face was going to be in the sun, (faint lines )
but I decided not to do that in the end. Perhaps this should be called "The Angry Tax-payer"
As one of very few people attempting to do similar work as Dürer, I can say he is the unchallenged master.
Seeing the originals at Kelmscott, however was the best inspiration. Books showing the engravings at original sizes were a surprise, I had not expected them to be so tiny! There was no way I could match that. No computer drawing or sketching program can match the power and control of a simple steel ink pen though, so I made a few more drawings. Not all were successfull but here are web-copies of the best so far.
Here are a few more of Dürers monsters re-drawn and adapted in some way.
This web-page is to illustrate some of my recent drawings.
The Angry Tax-payer