A small oil done at the Liver Sketching Club, using a limited palette of white, venetian red, yellow ochre and utramarine blue.

Two "quickies2 from a drawing session,each no more than 45 seconds. Drawing quickly is a wonderful exercise for seeing the whole pose and getting it down quickly.

A quick drawing of a male model, probably no more than 90 seconds

A new model at the Liver Sketching Club. I arrived late so, having only 90 minutes I decided to use just 3 colours venetian red, french ultramarine and white and go for tonal values.

These two sketch drawings were to illustrate how perspective affects the human body. The lines through the hips, nipples and shoulders show howthey would all reach a vanishing point if carried on. It also emphasises yesterdays idea that the body is a solid rectangle in its simplest form, and obeys the laws of perspective like any other solid body. (Of course you don't have to draw it like that, if you don't want to!)

I run life drawing classes in a hall near where I live, and part of the teaching involves doing small quick drawings to illustrate certain points. Two here show how I was demonstrating to a student how light & shade can be used to give solidity to a form. If we think of the body as a series of solid shapes, we can see that the planes facing the light source will be brightly lit, while the planes that face away will be in shadow. For instance in drawing 1 only the top is lit while most of the back, from where this student was, is in shadow. In drawing 2 the light was on her front, so the sides of the body,legs, arms etc are in shadow.

A drawing of Arthur, one of the models at the Liver Sketching Club. Done in sanguine, it took about 3 hours (including tea breaks).

This is a painting of some random objects that were lying about on a shelf. I had just changed a dud light bulb, the mask is a souvenir from Venice and the toy ambulance is one I used to play with when I was a kid. It must be one of the oldest things that I still have that is mine, now I think about it.

Model posing in the studio. Her hair was being blown by a fan heater, but it looks as though she is sitting out in the open by the sea!

A portrait ofShell,nearly done, just needs a few tweaks.

Heard today that this painting has got a prize in the local art exhibition.

my model, having a rest.

I decided I would set myself a difficult task with this nude, so set up at her head to give some extreme foreshortening. Quite pleased with the result.

Another sunset, this time mirrored in the perfectly still water of the marine lake at West Kirby.

We had our first (of many, I hope), Art Fairs in West Kirby on Monday and one of the pics I sold was this small nude. I worked on this for months trying to get it right and in the end, let it go a little bit too cheaply I think. But the new owner loves it so she got herself a bargain.