Dave Cropley

Life Drawing 23-02-12

dmcropley — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:38:05 +0000

Back at Life Drawing… been a while

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Opening of New Visions Exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery

dmcropley — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:33:27 +0000

Thought I’d post a couple of snaps from the Private View of the New Visions Exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery where I’m exhibiting three of my etchings. The event was opened by the Lord Mayor of Bristol and featured 40+ new and existing artists.

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It was a good turn out for a Friday evening and a great buzz about the place – I do like the GBG. I was a little disappointed that my pieces weren’t hung together as they work as a triptych, but small matter – at least I have work on show to the general public, and that’s what counts! :D

Three Pencil Drawing Portraits from last Millenium

dmcropley — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:06:17 +0000

I took a trip home and down memory lane over christmas. It hadn’t quite dawned on me just how much stuff I’ve made over the years, but looking back through everything it was plainly obvious that still life and figure drawing is what fascinated me before I got into animation. I thought it would be nice to share these three drawings and what they mean to me.

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Here’s a quick breakdown of each of the pics. (N.B. the originals of the 1st two are very small, drawn in a tiny little A6 sketchbook, the third is only slightly larger. I’ve blown them up a bit here.)

1) I drew this quick sketch in 1995 when I was 18 years old and at Art College in Lincoln. I just remember flicking through a TV a guide and picking a random girl to draw. End of story. I’ve always thought of these drawings as a sort of triptych, there’s no real rhyme or reason, just a kind of reference of honing my technique with a 0.5mm propelling pencil. But they stick in my mind.

2) Christy Turlington looking foxy (that’s what I thought at the time…!) By now I was 21, it was 1998 and I was living in Wales doing my 3rd year animation degree at GCADT. It was this drawing that cemented my belief that copying from photographs is a waste of time. Something I still strongly believe. This again was finding a random picture of a pretty girl to draw. I remember being frustrated by the lack of detail in the photo and having to do everything kind of soft-focus. One of those pics that sticks with me though.

3) Swirly Madness. This is one of the last drawings I ever made from a found photo in early 1999. I’ve no idea who the person is, but the the thought process was to find a picture and do a similar drawing to the Christy Turlington one, but try and add something original to it of my own design. I remember sitting in my cold, damp, welsh kitchen for a couple of evenings and making this whilst watching the telly. I still really like the hallucinogenic, surrealist feel of it… but I never followed it up after some bright spark commented “it’s nice, but you could have just bunged a photoshop filter over the photo and got the same effect…”

Wise Words.

Entries to New Visions Exhibition at The Grant Bradley Gallery

dmcropley — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:02:17 +0000

Three entries into the New Visions exhibiton at the Grant Bradley Gallery. Check. Didn’t manage to get the prints framed before the Xmas full stop, so my own personal stash has gone in to the exhibition and my walls are looking pretty bare… but artwork in. Job done.

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Stokes Croft Gerald Scarfe Graf

dmcropley — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:04:36 +0000

Was mooching about down Stokes Croft last weekend and chanced upon this cool piece of Graf just off the back of nine tree hill. I’m a big fan of Pink Floyd – The Wall and this looks just like one of Gerlad Scarfe’s crazy illustrations… Love it.

Good News and Classic Life Drawing

dmcropley — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:07:14 +0000

Had some good news today – 3 of my etchings have been accepted into the New Visions exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery opening on Sat Jan 7th 2012 through to the end of the month. This is the first time original DMCropley artwork has gone on sale to the public – hoping for the best! :D
Now that Life Class is over until January next year its time to dig back through the archives and post up classic images from years past. Enjoy…

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Life Drawing 01-12-11

dmcropley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:18:51 +0000

Last session of term tonight, 1 hour of warm ups then 45 mins of etching goodness. New term starts again on Jan 19th. In the mean time I’m gonna start digging back through the archives and posting choice nuggets of scribbly goodness. I’ve got a good set of plates ready to go to print but no time to do the work… lets see if we can get that changed :D

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Click thumbs for full size images :D

Life Drawing 24-11-11

dmcropley — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:41:19 +0000

Morning! It took ages to get my mojo working tonight, but got there in the end. Silly work, getting in the way of drawing… :D

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Life Drawing 17-11-11

dmcropley — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:51:03 +0000

Its been two weeks since the last life class and I haven’t had a chance to scan any old work, so I’m feeling a bit rusty and this place is starting to collect tumbleweed… but I’m back with a new selection of pics from tonight’s class :D
15 minute poses all night tonight so just a few images. Had fun doing a quick portrait for the last pose which was nice. I tend not to do this sort of thing very often as its a bit too close to my comfort zone and I like to keep it a bit more challenging with the line work

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Life Drawing 03-11-11

dmcropley — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:05:38 +0000

Back again after the half term for another life drawing extravaganza!

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