I’ve been thinking about how artwork develops from my original sketches.
I always carry a sketchbook and have dozens and dozens stuffed into cupboards with thousands of sketches done over the years and most stay locked away. But occasionally I find something that inspires me to use some of them as the basis for new work, usually some form of printmaking. About 3 years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Pakistan for a month as a resident artist at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio near Rawalpindi. On a crazy car journey from Rawalpindi to Lahore on my birthday in the worst storm I’ve ever seen, I sat in the back of the car and scribbled with my Daler Rowney pastels into a Khadi handmade paper sketchbook, capturing speedy impressions of the ever-changing atmospheric landscape as we drove. When I came back I edited the drawings into a video (below).
I also took the sketches into the studio at Swansea Print Workshop and started to work on small full-colour monotypes; if you want to find out more about my technique, please click here.
I have put my series of drawings of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder. If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.
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You really did ‘blow on a spark’ (nice idea!). I especially like the movement of the bottom print.
😀 thank you
Love it! I was drawing in a little sketchbook of my own the other day and it felt like something that I should develop further and in a larger format. A lyric in the song I was listening to said “Blow on a spark” and it seemed so fitting. These little ideas are sparks waiting to be kindled into something more. I greatly enjoy your blog.
Thank you so much. I love your analogy about a sketchbook full of little sparks, 😀
Sketchbooks are so wonderful. It’s good to be often drawing, to be able to draw wherever you find yourself! Wonderful impressions of your travels.
Thanks Aletha, these sketches are my first real attempt at landscape