Drawing for a change

After the two church drawings, I seem to have got a bit side-tracked by architectural illustrations. In June I completed another church drawing, of Lyndhurst Cemetary Chapel from a family member's photograph.

It's weirdly liberating not having to design, cut, plan, print, wait for the prints to dry, cut again, print, etc until it's done. However, the level of concentrated activity involved in sitting in the same place for hours in the same position probably isn't really very healthy. You win some, you lose some.. anyway, it's still good to hone other skills, and it's gratifying seeing a drawing come together when the colour starts to go on over the initial graphite pencil outline. I'm still working primarily with the Derwent Graphitint water-soluble pencils but using watercolour alongside for extra colour or broader washes.

I was also working on a very complicated bit of brickwork - the Society of Staffordshire Artists might be having an exhibition at the old Spode pottery at some point. They have the base of a bottle kiln on site, sadly the only thing that remains of the old era of firing ceramics on the site. It took quite a while in between other things, but I finally got it finished. Just waiting to find out when the show will be now!

In July, something a little different. I took part in a postcard exhibition at Great Bear Gallery in Tunstall, the most northerly town of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent, and I took the opportunity to have a proper go at Gel Plate printing. Using some of my old A6 size bottle kiln lino blocks, most of which only contain remnants of the original design, I had fun using them to press onto the plate, gradually building up a collection of all sorts before deciding on 10 that would go to the show. Here is the little line of them, I love how they're pegged up:

I heard about a new venture in Tunstall, a community cafe and arts venue, and asked if I could maybe have some work there. The town tends to get bypassed due to the road system, and tends not to be on the radar of people who don't actually live there. But the people are proud of their town, and want to see it thrive again. There is a desire to 'buy' Tunstall - to have art work that represents their town, and I've been trying to add to the gradual swell of representation.

So far I've only completed two drawings, a third is under way. I'm probably going to vary styles a bit though. It's finding what style of art people want - just drawing something won't necessarily be to everyone's taste. At a recent Urban Sketchers meeting in Fenton (sort of middle to south town, leading to Longton), I produced this after spending a lot of time on fiddly brickwork. Artist cuts loose (a bit):

I really enjoyed this, being less precious and just trying to capture the feel rather than the slavish detail. I'm wondering about approaching some of the Tunstall sites in a similar way. Speaking of which, these are the two that I have completed so far:

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I've had cards and A4 prints done from them and am waiting to see how they do.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a very complicated one of Tunstall Library which is at a crazy angle - if I finish it, it will appear in a future blog and on the 'Drawn' page on my site!

My linocut of the kiln at the Etruria Industrial Museum is traced onto the lino and waiting for a gap - hopefully after the library is safely on paper. Watch this space!