This needs to be quick – as the game is on soon. It’s the rugby world cup, and Wales start their campaign in a bit. I love Rugby Union, so after a weekend where I could overdose on matches, I wanted to celebrate the speed the strength, and the bloody-mindedness of the game.
fig.1: Rugby 1
Also, with it being in Japan I, got to try out a brush pen I’ve had lying around for a while (typically these pens are associated with Manga), which it turns out gives a lovely flowing line which suggests movement really well. Though it took me a while to loosen up, and not try to do too much – often the case when trying out a new technique. Rugby Union is fascinating to illustrate because the players are sculptural – both beautiful and grotesque, and the game wraps moments of explosive action around strategic attrition. These drawings manipulate the amazing perspectives of the human body that Rugby displays - no-one makes these shapes naturally! The addition of colour suggests the energy of the game - whether in running free, committing to a tackle, or pushing, what seems like endlessly, in a scrum. I hope the lines also show the humanity of the players, who can easily be mistaken for icons, or avatars.
fig.2: Rugby 2
One of the surprising things about me, if you know me, is that I’m a passionate rugby fan, and in particular Wales (long story – but it’s a thing now). It’s surprising cos’ I really don’t look like someone who’s into sports – never-mind who plays it – which I don’t generally. But for a few months in sixth form I did. I was rubbish – no, really. I’m 5’ 11” on a good day, back then I was skinny, I am really short sighted, didn’t have contact lenses, and I played second row… (*ahem, this pause is for rugby fans to finish laughing, for those not familiar – a normal second row is seventeen feet high and built like a brick shit house… okay, slight exaggeration, but you get the point… competing against them was fun).
fig.3: Rugby 3
The thing is though – I played. The team found a space for me, which they probably regretted, but no one ever told me to stop. I like the poetry of the movement in rugby – going back to go forward, the side-steps, the loops and the scissors of the Backs; I love the strategy, the power and the stubbornness of the Forwards; I even appreciate the machiavellian antics of the Scrum Half or the Hooker. Rugby, in its essence, is a game that needs difference – it needs people of different heights, weight, speed and temperaments to come together to make a team. True, the professional era has maybe insisted that all these things are more athletic than ever before, but that difference can still be seen – y’know, if you squint, and turn your head just so.
Anyway – over the next month or so I will be obsessed with the games, the players, the weather in Japan; I will more nervous, frustrated, euphoric, and probably despairing than is good for me, so I thought I’d try to draw that…