From the moment I did the 360 degree study exercise, I knew what I want to draw for this assignment. I would take that idea and expand on it, I would produce one drawing that contained all 360 degrees. My initial thought was I would work on an A1 sheet, spend 3 or 4 hours and produce a nice conventional drawing. That was the plan until I attended an online zoom crit. One of the people showing their work had a piece that sparked an idea. They were working on a roll of paper. Boom! I could make an image as wide as I liked, I wouldn’t be constrained by the size of the paper. To the internet I went and purchased a roll of nice quality cartridge paper. Now, I’m not saying I didn’t read the product description, but when my delivery arrived, I was presented with a hurdle to overcome. What I thought would be about the width of A3 turned out to be A1 in width. How on earth would I manage to work that big in my tiny studio? Simply put, I couldn’t. I would have to cut the roll down. So wood saw in hand, I adjured to the garden and proceeded to cut the roll in half. So, now I had a more manageable roll of paper, I would need to be a bit creative setting up a work space.
My drawing desk has an A2 slope which for most projects is more than sufficient, but for this piece I would need more room. I solved the problem by buying a large MDF board from the hardware store and clamping it to the slope. The next challenge was how to secure the paper to the board. I would need the ability to keep unrolling new clean paper as I progressed through the drawing. I solved the problem with the help of some scrap wood, an old rolling pin, and some hot glue.
With all of the reference drawings I’d done for previous exercises and some photographs I’d taken I set to work. The idea of drawing a 360 degree image presents some challenges compositionally. The vista I was about to draw has two main focal points. You have the Locke tower to the west and then you have Emley Moor transmitting station to the east.
I did some very quick sketches to work out how I would compose the landscape. I came to the conclusion that the view east was the more interesting, it was framed nicely by trees and offered the opportunity to demonstrate the distances involved. The tower if rendered in the main body of the image would undoubtably pull focus from the view. So I decided it would get sliced down the middle and be used to book end the image.
When it came to a choice of material, I wanted something I knew I could control. This after all was going to be a long slog, I didn’t want to get half way round only to ruin the work by lack of technical skill. I settled on pencil, the humble HB pencil. I thought it a nice idea to produce the entire image with just one pencil, a single piece of graphite. Could I push this tool we’ve all used since infancy, to produce the range of marks and tones I would require?
So for the next month or so I worked my way around the image from left to right and back around again. Only ever seeing the section I was currently working on, I tried to avoid going back to check the ‘finished’ sections. I thought it would be interesting see if anything changed in my approach and mark making over the many, many hours this would take to complete. Once I got almost to the end I came to a conclusion, I would need to see the think all together to finish. So with some clamps and more than a little foul language I managed to get it sett up in the kitchen.
I took this opportunity to add some finishing touches and try and balance out some of the tones.
I then begin to start thinking about how to present this monstrosity. Obviously because of the digital nature of things at the moment I would need to photograph it. Which in turn would require some photoshopping, there is simply no way with the limited equipment and space I have to be able to take a single image. This proved to be more of a challenge than I’d hoped. Photographing something this larger, with limited lighting and limited space proved extremely difficult. In the end some serious channeling of Heath Robinson was required, as you can see.
But after all that, is a flat image the best way to view this work? I’m not so sure. If I had more time and wasn’t in lockdown I think some kind of halo, hung from the ceiling that you entered might be an interesting idea. Or may be some kind of VR platform might show it off best. But time isn’t on my side and I will have to pursue this in the future.
For now I can only reflect on the image I have created. First and fore most this piece doesn't come across at all well digitally. Not being able to see it's sheer scale, robs it of a lot of it's impact. In the flesh I find this image to be mostly satisfying, I’ve created interesting believable textures with abstract mark making. I think it demonstrates some determined focus on choosing the right marks, to create the desired effects. It fills me with pride, I set myself a crazy challenge and saw it through to completion. But as is always the way you can never be 100% happy with anything you create. There are areas where I can see a weary mind at work, bad decisions that spoil the illusion. Especially in the undergrowth under the trees, they are less distinct than I’d have liked.
So I’ve finally got to the end of this Part and look forward to a break from drawing nature. I look forward to taking on the challenge of the human figure in the next section.
Happy Scribbling
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