Week 3: NEVER STOP DRAWING

10/10/16 - 14/10/16

This week was a bit of a rollercoaster, unfortunately I had to miss both days with taught sessions because my Granddad came into hospital late last week and once I'd gone back to visit him, I just couldn't bring myself to leave. I stayed at home until late Wednesday night and made it in for the Lecture on Thursday. I don't like that I had to miss these sessions, but being in the hospital with him was just so much more important to me and even when we weren't in the hospital, I just didn't want to leave my Mum - because Granddad is in hospital, we've had to move my Grandma into a care home and there's just so much going on my brain can't take it - being at home just seemed better. I did however, manage to get some drawing done. Giving myself an opportunity to spend longer on each drawing and really stripping it back, so that I'm just using ink. Getting used to one media and just becoming great when using it. I've always loved working with Quink ink, so this seemed like good place to start. I've been struggling with colour, so why not just strip it back completely - black and white, with some tonal variation, created by the magical powers of Quink.

I wasn't in  the mood to work quickly, so I just took things slow. Trying to concentrate but using drawing more as a relaxation technique - trying to take myself back to Thailand, before any of the trouble started. I soon realised that I was going to need more that just Quink so I brought my fineliners into it as well for the more detailed sections. 

^ 2 hours ^

^ 3-4 hours ^

^ 1 hour ^

Then, I soon got bored of just Quink and spent all day on this piece: 

Trying to capture as much from the image as I could, I used collage, gouache and metallic paints to try and recreate this busy, layered look that Thai lifestyle seems to have. I just don't know if it's too much? I think I prefer just the ink, but this one was so fun to work on (even if it did take me a good 5/6 hours to complete) it's so unlike anything I'd normally do and considering my circumstances this week, I'd say that was a good step forward with the project!