Sophie Ploeg

Is it ok to re-visit some drawings? Here is a series of drawings I did over the past year or so. Most are still available for sale, so let me know if any of them appeal. Prices vary between £100-£600. Most feature fabrics and drapery, of course, except the self portrait and the study of Rembrandt. All are graphite pencil on white paper. Hope you like them. :)    

Here is a small study I did yesterday as I am waiting for new canvas to arrive. I painted it on a gesso primed panel and the gesso is so absorbent it is as if the paint dries the instant you put it on the board. Very strange but fun to do something different. I much prefer non-absorbing oil primed canvas or panels where the paint slides over the surface as if on glass. 24x30cm, panel, Study

A few recent news items.... * UK art magazine Artists & Illustrators Magazine decided to publish my article on how to paint fabrics (which was published in the magazine last year) online in a 4-part series.  See here for part one and come back tomorrow for the next instalment: http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/how-to/Acrylic/913/how-to-paint-fabric-part-one-inspiration * A recent sketch of a Rembrandt Self Portrait in my sketchbook:

at the V&A Museum, Marcus Gheeraerts, portrait of Margaret Laton, 1620 During the hottest weekend of the year so far I searched through London looking for Jacobean portraits (my research is getting more and more focussed on this period) Despite the weather (grateful for air-conditioned museums!!) I have spent a good few days sketching and studying some of the greatest Jacobean portraits London can offer. The greats of Gheeraerts, Peake, Larkin and many 'unknown artists' were my eye candy amongst the crowds of  tourists. I sketched, to the curiosity of many tourists ('ooh you are an artist!' or 'can I take your picture?') in front of these ruffed ladies of court. A lot of these ladies have been identified as wives and daughters of courtiers, dukes and counts. Many of them had their own circle of power and influence. Many other portraits, however, show unknown people. Faces of, no doubt, rich and fairly powerful people, but not so powerful as to have be...

  Anne of Denmark by unknown Artist, c 1628-1644 Last weekend I paid a visit to Montactute House in Somerset, an amazing Elizabethan country house, built in 1598-1601 and the oldest property taken up by the National Trust in 1927. Since 1975 the National Portrait Gallery has a permanent exhibition of Tudor portraits on display in and around the brilliantly kept 'Long Gallery' on the second floor.

A bit of sketching in a reading break... charcoal, 35x30cm

Reading..... this should keep me busy for a while....   visiting and studying.... at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire Sketching..... sketching after Holbein 

A Study in graphite, 27x27cm

In between paintings I sketch a bit, nothing spectacular but good practice and trying to try out ideas for a self portrait.

I am busy working on a great commission of three sisters. To explore their faces I sometimes make some sketches - in different positions/angles than the final painting. These sketches are not worked out into great detail, but enough to have given me real good study of proportions, shapes and values. Here’s one: graphite, @20x25cm