York Trip

I enjoyed the trip to York, especially as observational drawing is something I enjoy but haven't done much of this year. I think I'm going try and do a load more over summer because it's something that I think I could get quite good at if I practiced.

   
I started out just doing quite straight forward drawings of things to warm up and although I think these two examples are fairly boring conceptually, I think they're quite good drawings and I think to get into the swing of things it's good to start out just drawing without thinking too much.

When I draw observationally I definitely make pictures in a different way to when I'm responding to a brief. They tend to be sketchier and more delicate in a way, with a wobblier line quality. I quite like having this contrast and the effect is something that I don't think I can achieve with as much conviction in some of my more developed work. The spontaneity with which observational drawings are created provides a different atmosphere.  

    

  

I think these might be my favourite drawings of the day. The sofa drawing looks like a really odd environment, despite being drawn exactly as it existed in real life. I think that's actually what made we want to draw it. I quite like the fact that a drawing can become interesting purely because the situation that was drawn is unfamiliar to the viewer. The case is similar for the 'flying cowboys' drawing, which is a rubbing taken from the cover of an old book that was in the train museum called 'Flying Cowboys'. Without that information however, the drawing becomes very authentically strange. This is another aspect of observational drawing in general which I am fond of. You can generate images which you could never have thought up yourself and which could form the basis for projects which in fact having nothing to do with what you originally drew.