In September I was fortunate enough to spend a week on the west coast in Wales. The weather, starting to show signs of autumn, with a nip in the air and colours of change, held up. I spent most days walking ( the Pembrokeshire coastal path) and sketching. I love autumn!
Manchester Histories, in partnership with Manchester City Council, commissioned me to document ‘From the Crowd‘ in a series of Reportage of Peterloo 2019 illustrations. You can read more of my reportage work here. This Peterloo 2019 production is a musical theatre piece, co-produced with Walk The Plank and Brighter Sound and involving a large number of volunteers (Laurels). These volunteers then supported members of the public to deliver this impressive collaborative performance. In the words of the production’s Creative Director, Evie Manning (CommonWealth): ” From the crowd is a dialogue between 1819 and 2019. We’ll be remembering those that protested and lost their lives at Peterloo and those whose lives today are affected by different oppressions”
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In a previous blog, I explained some of the approaches I am taking to my mixed media collage works. You can read it here. Recently I’ve been working on two new mixed media collage pieces. They are based on a series of Oldham sketches. It’s proving to be a bit of a challenge to say the least!
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Over the last couple of years I have started to create mixed media collage art. In the last few months I have started to evolve them in a different, less literal direction. This blog post reflects on this new start point.
This blog is about the types of sketches I create and their different functions.
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This last week I took part in the oneweek100people challenge, promoted through the Urban sketchers social media sites. The idea is that you post your people sketches on line each day and try to hit 100 in the week. This is the first year I actually completed the task and it got me thinking about the importance of continued practice, continually learning and honing skills. This is important both to improve my own art but also to be a good teacher. In two weeks time I will be starting my own series of sketchbook sketching day workshops in my studio.
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The final blog of this 3-part series is about the future direction of my collage work. You can read parts 1 and 2 here. . My collage exploration through 2018 has been informed by my illustration and ‘sense of place’ fascination. I am now keen to immerse myself more in the media as a way of loosening myself up . I intend to become more exploratory and intuitive in my approach.
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In this second of 3 blogs reviewing my collage progress in 2018, I am going to discuss collage materials and media. The first blog sharing my works from this year is here. I am not claiming to have developed these techniques off the top of my head. Those interested in collage materials will no doubt of tried and used many of the elements I will discuss. However, all of the work I am presenting on my blogs is my own and the final results represent my own way of seeing and creating. It’s important, once you have an understanding of techniques and your own areas of interest, to follow your own path. There is plenty of opportunity for that with collage!
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Over the last 12 months I have started my journey into collage creation. It has not been without its ups and downs. I am used to drawing from life, using pens, ink and watercolour. However, I also crave texture in my visual work. The materiality of things, their physical form and the feel of their surfaces fascinates me. I am interested in how that materiality is connected with creating a sense of place. In addition, composition and colour are important aspects of my visual studies. Mixed media and collage in particular, are therefore obvious media for my exploration. Moreover, they enable individuality and an opportunity for endless experimentation!
In this series of 3 blogs, I’m going to share some of the inspirations and approaches I’ve taken so far. I will also discuss some of the techniques and media that I’ve started to explore more recently. The aim is that these additional approaches will help support a particular uniqueness and ‘own voice’ to my work.
Over the last few years, I have developed an interest in capturing events and activities through drawing. This so called reportage approach has so many outlets! I have been commissioned to capture reportage: one-off events, weddings and festivals and series of activities to name a few. Telling stories of places and occasions through drawing is my passion! With a background in landscape design, I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to record a garden Masterclass in drawings recently. This blog describes the day. Continue reading
It’s been a while since I blogged on here. No excuses so I’ve decided to get back to it with a post about Persevering with People drawing. In fact capturing people (in my drawings) is something that is often on my mind (perhaps more so than any other element of drawing). This is because capturing busy places and people is a focus of some of my commissioned reportage work, including weddings and other events. My view is that like most aspects of drawing, constant practice is required and maybe this is even more so with people! When I don’t draw people for a while I definitely notice and find it more difficult. The way I capture people, the materials, the type of drawing, the level of detail etc, is also a source of internal debate! Continue reading
Those of you that follow me on my blog and on my social media platforms will realise that I have been developing my collage work for a while, alongside my sketching work (see previous Urban Sketching in Porto blog). However, my trip to Porto is the first time that I have developed my urban collaging pieces out on location. Collage for me is a natural mixed media technique. With a background in landscape design and an interest in the materiality of things, it gives me the opportunity to explore both texture and composition and to present them in a finished piece of art. This blog shares the approach I have taken to develop the sketchbook pieces and explains their possible future development. Continue reading
Last week I was sketching in Porto! I was fortunate enough to get over to Porto in Portugal for the 9th Urban Sketching Symposium. Continue reading
Last weekend I attended a wedding at Tower Bridge where I was commissioned to draw the occasion. You can read more about my drawing at weddings here. Usually, as I am based near Manchester, my weddings are in the North West. Often my clients are very familiar with my work and drawing style and like my reportage approach! Despite that, there is always a degree of nerves, especially ones at such impressive venues as Tower Bridge and Dickens Inn, St Katherine’s Dock!
Since January of this year I’ve been working on a little exhibition of my work called: From Chorlton To The City. The exhibition is at The World Peace Cafe, The Kadampa Meditation Centre, Chorlton. The preview is on Friday 4 th May 5-8 pm. In this second part of a two-part discussion about the work (you can read the first part here), I’ll explain the illustration techniques I’ve used. There are 3 different types of images in the exhibition: Colour-first sketches; Ink-first maps and Collages. Each approach requires specific techniques.