James Yorkston, Bush Hall 7.9.2004

A standing gig this time, and quite a challenge to draw in a jostling crowd of animated folkies. The band were pretty animated too so the drawings are rather wobbly. Changed my mind a few times about where guitars actually went, and hands, and microphones.... I like these though. And the music was superb.

John McCusker Band, RFH 4.4.2003

This was a wonderful concert. Kate Rusby came out and sang a couple of songs, and there was such a variety of instruments to draw that I got really carried away! They are drawn in ink this time, which is great. The pen tip can stay on the paper and when you draw you make an irreversible decision about the mark. You can't change it in any way so it's like a tightrope walk. The tension of pen and ink is a good discipline. I particularly like the drawings of Mike McGoldrick the flautist and Phil Cunningham the piano accordian player. There are lots of dots on the drawings which is my way of trying to cheat, and making a mark you can't really see to plot where a line should go before you make it. It kind of works. Musicians move a lot but they always return to the same position after a while. If you chose your pose you can look at it for a second and try to fix it in your visual memory while you wait for another glimpse of it.

Queen Elizabeth Hall c1995

This is the first drawing I made in the darkness of a concert auditorium. It was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank. My dad is playing double bass (on the left) and I'd gone along to meet him. They were accompanying the opera showcase season, where new singers made their first public performances. They played small pieces from different operas. I liked that fact that you could draw unobserved in the darkness, and that you couldn't really see what the drawing was like, so it took away a lot of that self-conscious editing that happens to a drawing. It's a bit like drawing without looking at the paper, that trusty method which allows you to reconnect with looking properly, instead of drawing what you think should be there. It's not a great drawing but it started a habit. I like drawing musicians playing. They move about, but not too much, and they make interesting shapes. Musical instruments are such interesting things too, and there is a great difficulty in drawing them to look like they are being held and really played.