Visual Jounral - "Fill it up!" Task

 In an effort to get out into the world with a sketchbook, we visited Cliffe Castle in Keighley and had to fill up a foldy zine (a piece of paper folded into an a6 booklet). The aim of the assignment was to draw speedily, and put down fragments of anything we saw or heard.

Being out of practice with this drawing method, I wasn't too sure what drawing materials I would find useful. I opted for a posca marker, coloured pencils, a charcoal pencil and a black brush pen. I knew that I'd have a small variety of colours and textures with these

 From the offset, I knew I was going to have trouble picking a starting point to draw. The Castle was full of ornately decorated objects, gilded columns and fully painted ceilings. I found myself trying to force out some loose drawings and not worry too much about how the end result looked. However I wasn't satisfied with these drawings and felt they didn't say much about what I was seeing - there was no narrative.

As I love to draw portraits, I was drawn to the various stone busts in the collection. They were great for observing shadows at different angles on the faces. I wanted to sit and draw them for much longer, but I was also aware that this exercise was intended for quick studies.

In an effort to speed up my drawings, I tried to think about silhouettes I was seeing. As so many of the objects were covered in intricate patterns and details, it was often difficult to find a starting point, 

One piece in particular that really drew my attention was this painting:

Not only is it a beautiful portrait of an opera singer, but it also had an interesting backstory. According to the curator of the collection, it was damaged at some point due to some relationship drama. Initially it was thought that the lady depicted, cheated on her husband. However, further investigation showed that he was in fact the cheater, and the painting was damaged during the fall out. I found this information almost more interesting than the painting itself - because all this time later, human behavior is much the same. We still adhere to many of the same social rituals; we still gossip about scandals, fight, love and cheat. 

I didn't have time to sit and draw my own version of this portrait, and I didn't see the benefit of doing so. However I did really enjoy studying some of the details within the piece - so I started to draw some of the folds in the dress. The way other artists depict ruffles or folds in fabric is one of the first things I notice in a lot of artworks.

 

Continuing on the fabric folds.. I decided to use the time to observe some more. These weren't the quick/loose sketches I initially set out to do, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Once I allowed myself to draw what came naturally, I felt that I relaxed about drawing in public a little more. I think that sketchbooking in this way is a skill in itself, and it's definitely something I need to work on. I came away from this exercise feeling like I could do it better next time, but I did also identify a couple of things I want to explore further in my visual journal.