Breezy Birchington-On-Sea

 On  Friday 15 March after a very busy week at work for Ian   he took the day off and we went to Birchington-on Sea  for the day  with fishy lunch at  the 'Minnis Bay' .   It was very windy and wondered  whether we'd be able to walk  along the 'Viking Coastal Trail'  but as the tide was out ,  we were safe . 

 Evidence of  effects of high winds -  stones  and shells from the beach  thrown onto the raised pathway

 None of the usual banks of seaweed  but bare white chalk  revealed. 

Not many people around, a few dog walkers and  someone digging for bait

A Turneresqe sky

Selfie! 

After lunch a walk  towards Reculver  with   views of my beloved breakwaters, source of so much inspiration (  and my prize winning quilt!) 

This lady  was  doing a photo shoot  of 3 very well behaved dogs - anything for treats! 

 A collection of items  provided inspiration for drawings.

Large Scale Sketchbook Week 5 : working with drawings

 Week 5 of Large Scale Sketchbook  and because I'd missed 2 sessions, I was first to have Tony's input into how I might use the 'data' collected in the Cast Courts  to  work with in the sketchbook. Some very interesting ideas  which I  tried to record quickly in my notebook before I forgot it all! Way too much for 1 weeks  work.

1. When I  looked through my photos alongside my drawings, I was struck by how the shapes in the helmet etc echoed  and interacted with those of the architecture. I also liked the details of sculptures in the background, how they play with your sense of scale and space   and the strange juxtaposition

 2. Looking  at tone, the contrast of the rough, dark,  backs with the finer, lighter,  details of the fronts of the busts . Homework:  add  tonal values in ink to the original drawings , to photocopy next time. 

3. I'd taken lots of photos circling around the subject  from different viewpoints ( and different interactions with the background). We talked about how I might combine all these images together to make  a sort of 3 D version. It would probably work better as a separate 'artists book' ( perhaps star shape)  but  if I wanted to work with it in the sketchbook itself, perhaps I could use a concertina structure using a couple of pages?  I had printed out thumbnail  'contact prints'  so cut out the relevant ones and stuck them in my notebook to remind myself of what to print out for next week. Perhaps tracing of the shapes and overlaying them would work..... 

So many possibilities, I started  as most people did   combining  photocopies of drawings and photos,  cutting out shapes, adding  extra drawing to make linkages between different elements.

  Already looking interesting looking at repetition of shapes  and lines 

This started  with cutting out the bust from a photo then extending the lines  with graphite

Then I cut through the pages  and the applied fairly strong  ink wash 

Applying more ink to the back, the layers are beginning to look interesting  and starting to lose sense of what you're looking at 

My favourite double page spread - I like the shapes that are developing around the figures, the contrast between the white space and the complexity. 

The list of things to do before the next class is growing.  Besides  adding  darker tones to my original drawings  and printing off more photos,   I was thinking back to some of the  lessons I learnt from the collage course: making rubbings of layered collage   and combining cutouts and tracings. Must add tracing paper and masking tape to my list.