sketch
1
Styling, Drape & Pose
19th of March 2019 This first session was all about looking at the way fabric falls and follows shape. The movement of veils against the contour of the models came alive when the group put on some of the costumes and struck a pose.
M ove m en t
As the session went on, characters began to appear. Here, we have Stevie Nicks re-emerge from the seventies. Behind, a character from long-lost Victorian times was gesturing heavily.
During the last quarter of the session, we were challenged to draw a blind contour drawing of ourselves and people around. This was particularly difficult. We are programmed to follow the movement of the pen while drawing. Intuitively, the eye follows the hand in order to ensure that there are no mistakes. What if mistakes are good? Moving forward, I tried to put my ambition to be precise aside and went in for the blindest drawing I could muster up. Some grotesque characters appeared. I am unsure as to whether one of the figures is one of us or the famous Basquiat!
2 Colour
26th of March 2019 This week we ventured out to Salford Museum and Art Gallery. The task was to spend time in the glorious galleries and capture their colour. I love urban sketching and drawing on location, so I was looking forward to this. The gallery has an intricate ceiling and it is hard to discern whether it is the ornate dĂŠcor or the artwork that is more tempting to draw. I decided to use a mix of watercolours and pastels to really capture the explosion of turqoise, viridian green, ochre, royal blue, and off-white. The most challenging part of the session was capturing the perspective of the complex cornices and ornamentations in the corners of the ceiling.
V
is for the Victorian Gallery.
E is for experimentation.
The best part of these sessions was probably the courage to not know how something is going to turn out. When we surrender control over our work, we end up with interesting and compelling results. Once the pen touches the paper, there is nothing (but scissors) to erase the mark. There is a leap of faith in not resisting that and, instead, going with the flow. Paint is unpredictable - watercolours, especially. Sometimes the blue will bleed into the green and you will discover a new colour that you have never seen before. Sometimes you discover a paint splatter which takes you to another galaxy. Even if you are a cat.