Big Draw, Big Make.

Today I went along to the Big Draw, Big Make at the V&A, the launch event for The Big Draw 2012. There were free talks, demonstrations and workshops happening throughout the museum.

In the John Madejski Garden there was a collective picture being produced with space to add your own self-portrait...

There was also a chance to try out drawing digitally using New Art Academy on the Nintendo 3DS. There was a large collection of toys and models to draw, and I decided to paint a picture of this dinosaur and received a print out of my work afterwards...

I also attended a talk by Gerald Scarfe, called 50 Years of Being Rude, where he discussed his varied career, including his political cartoons, theatrical set and costume designs, and art direction and animation for Disney's Hercules and Pink Floyd's The Wall. In the spirit of the day, I did a quick sketch of Scarfe while he was talking...

When I was queuing up for the Gerald Scarfe talk, I bumped into Karrie Fransman and she was telling me about a sewing workshop that she had been to earlier in the day. After the talk we were walking through the museum and turned into the room with the Design A Tapestry workshop, and (after some persuading from Karrie) I decided to give it a go, while she carried on with her work from before.

The idea was to draw from the tapestries hanging on the walls, and then to transfer your image onto a sheet of fabric using carbon paper and then to have a go at sewing your design. Despite my initial hesitation, it was actually very relaxing, and we were able to sit and chat while we attempted to produce our embroidered masterpieces. I drew this duck and managed to do a bit of sewing before the end of the day. I'm quite pleased with the bit on his neck...

It was a fun day and I got to try out some new techniques.