Illustration course part 4

Day 2, and I was going around the college making drawings and collecting ideas for a piece based around the course itself. As it was the Easter holiday, the college was pretty deserted, so I wandered around the empty rooms and hallways making quick sketches of interesting shapes and angles I discovered...

I also found this stained-glass window in one of the stairwells, which was a bit spooky-looking (and reminded me of the haunted painting from the film Ghostbusters 2). I also liked how it was in complete contrast with it's surroundings, so I made a quick record of it using crayons to try to capture the colours...

Next I decided on a slight change of tact, and had a wander around some of the studio spaces upstairs. Again these were completely deserted, but students had left all their work out in the process of putting together an exhibition. Walking around I discovered a mirror that someone had left placed on an easel. I decided to do a self portrait of myself in the studio...

...I was really pleased with how this came out. I went straight in with a blue roller ball pen, rather than making any pencil sketches first. Another thing that differed from my normal drawing style was the fact that I was standing up resting my sketchbook in my arm, rather than sat at a flat surface. I really like the spontaneity and expressiveness that this gives to the line work. It also made me see that although perhaps technically some of the drawing isn't "correct", it definitely captures a moment and has a definite feel to the drawing.

Getting back to the class before we reviewed the work we'd done that morning, I felt boosted by this new style to my drawing and as we were still waiting for a few people to come back, I used the time to make quick 3-minute sketches of some of my classmates while they were drawing. Taking what I'd discovered from drawing my self-portrait, I worked straight in with a black roller ball pen, and sat with my sketchbook resting in my hand...

I was really finding drawing straight in pen to be a liberating experience in terms of my line work, and being bolder with my drawing. When I made mistakes, rather than reaching for the rubber, I just reworked the image to get the shape or angle, and felt that my work was better for that. After lunch, I decided to carry on exploring this approach and drew the rest of my classmates as they went around the college drawing...

I want to work all these elements into some kind of finished piece. I discussed my ideas with our teacher during the course, and have a few ideas that I am going to work on developing further.