ONLINE ART COURSE – ANOTHER SMALL INK PEN DRAWING – GLASS JAR, AND TIGERS WITH CATARACTS

Glass jar drawing

So nice to have my hubby drawing along with me.

This penultimate small ink pen sketch was of a small Mason jar containing water and a paintbrush. I had been looking forward to tackling this one, as I have always been fascinated by the various art techniques of producing a convincing rendering of reflective and shiny surfaces, and also transparency.

In this case I decided to do a more fully rendered drawing rather than Phil’s sketchy style which doesn’t appeal to me so much. Phil certainly knows how to compose his reference photos to make them as challenging as possible! Nothing so simple as placing an object completely front facing… He places objects at interesting angles to challenge our perspective skills!

I did a fairly detailed pencil line drawing to start with, and as usual I did not notice all the errors until I was well on with the inking. I think I’ve got the jar a little bit too squat, but it works OK. When I’d finished the inking, I noticed that I’d messed up on the refraction of the paintbrush in the water and it was hardly displaced at all. I decided to cheat! I got out my Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleedproof White (awesome stuff!) and a very fine paintbrush, and painted out the bottom left of the paintbrush in the picture. When it was dry I went back in with a black marker pen and re-inserted the various hatched shadows etc. In real life it’s a bit more noticeable because the Bleedproof White is absolutely white and opaque, whereas the paper is slightly cream-coloured. Once the inking was back, it blended in better but you would probably be able to spot it in real life. I’m not sure what this white paint is made of, but it works a bit like gouache. I also touched up various other parts of the picture with it, emphasising some of the highlights that had got obscued somewhat by the ink drawing.

Second cataract

I have now got an appointment for the assessment for my second cataract, for this coming Monday afternoon. If my previous experience is anything to go on, I should get the operation pretty soon thereafter. I can’t wait to get it done, and get the six-week recovery and follow-up appointment out of the way so I can get new glasses at last, and really start to feel the benefit of the cataract operations.

Tigers with cataracts

I have been thinking so much about my dad recently – even more than usual – not a day goes by when I don’t think of him at least once, and usually several times during the day! However, this situation brings him even more to the forefront of my mind. For over 30 years he was a consultant ophthalmologist at a local eye hospital, and always carried out cataract extractions with a special cataract knife. Patients would have to be in hospital for several days after this, and the aftercare was also more serious. Things have moved on tremendously since 1987 when he retired, and when he had his own cataracts done when he was in his 80s, he couldn’t sing their praises highly enough. In and out as a day case nowadays, and the operation only takes about a quarter of an hour under local anaesthetic, with very easy aftercare – just an eye shield overnight for 3 weeks, and during this time, two different drops three times a day, and being careful not to touch or rub the eye. Dad never used implants in those days but these days this is a routine procedure and many people do not even need glasses afterwards.

When he retired, his colleagues presented him with a gold-plated cataract knife in a small glass case. I still have this, and it is one of my treasured possessions, one of a number of artefacts that belonged to Dad, most of which had especial meaning to both of us. I have them displayed on top of the book case in my office.

I think of Dad particularly in the context of cataracts, because in the mid-1950s when I was a small child, he was approached by a vet who worked with Chipperfield’s Circus. The circus had two tiger cubs who had been born with congenital cataracts, and the vet did not feel up to the task of dealing with this problem, and asked Dad to do it. There can’t be many eye surgeons who have had this remarkable experience! The tigers were brother and sister, named Rajah and Lily.

We went to the vet’s house to see the tigers, and they were wandering about the sitting room. I distinctly remember their curious gait, so unlike that of a domestic cat – their shoulders moved up and down as they walked! Mum put her white pigskin handbag on the floor beside her chair and one of the tigers bit the corner of it, leaving permanent teeth marks. Forever afterwards people used to see this and ask what had happened, and she would reply nonchalantly, “Oh, it was bitten by a tiger.” Great conversation stopper!!

Here is a photo of Dad performing the operation on one of the tigers.

I was telling one of the nurses about this at the eye clinic when I was having my first cataract done, and she was fascinated, and asked me to bring in some photos when I next attended. I am currently working on a nice A4 poster with pictures of Dad and the tigers, and also editing some of my artwork that I used for a small album I made about Dad for his granddaughter just after he died.

This was an acrylic painting I did of a tiger several years ago, a copy of which I used in the album.

The “Tigers” title page in the album. This was my favourite spread in the book.

This was the spread with the photos of the tigers.

I thought the clinic might like to keep a copy of the poster I am making as it is a fascinating story, and of great interest to anyone working with cataract surgery or their patients!