From time to time a bunch of my crafty friends get together for a Craft/Quilt Day. It’s as much about having a girly get-together (away from the kids) as it is about being creative, and there is always a little hilarity among the general nattering. Fellow bloggers included Margaret, Beky and Karen.

On Saturday I played host. There was some sewing of dresses, dog coats and quilts, some stamping papercraft, and some crochet. Though many WIPs called, I used the afternoon for more portraiture practise.

My warm up sketch was not so great, but I was pretty pleased with these three portraits:

(The paper is blue in the second one, not white in bluish light.)

I’d planned to do some really quick sketches while people worked, then get them to pose for me, but I found that it took longer to draw someone when they were doing something because they’d shift position and I’d have to wait until they returned to where they were or work out how to compensate. So the sketches took longer – but why interrupt anyone when the drawings were coming out better than I expected anyway?

The classes proved most valuable in that I could fall back on methods and mediums that I was familiar with and concentrate on the new challenge of sketching friends. What I found most reassuring was that my friends didn’t seem to mind being drawn. I was able to spare enough attention to chat a little at the same time – which will be good if it’s just me and the subject in the future.

I’m hoping to start arranging with friends to do sittings next year, and start working in oils. I haven’t yet worked out whether I’ll keep going to life drawing classes as well, either for portraiture practise or to return to drawing figures. I’ll see what my teacher recommends.