Level 5 and 6 Summer Sketchbook Mega Crit

Today we had a Mega Crit with levels 5 and 6. I was really surprised by the high level of work, which personally inspired me rather than intimidating me. When I arrived on the course I was worried about the fact that my work seemed so different from the work of other course mates in addition to the fact that I struggle to draw from my imagination. However, seeing the vast diversity of the different work has really reassured me that this is a course, which allows you to work however you want and I'm not at a disadvantage because I do things differently.

Of all the summer sketchbooks I saw, this was definitely my favourite page. I love the fact that it is so detailed yet so simple refined and not at all over worked. The artist has also added such a strong sense of character to it. I wonder how the artist caught the people in so much detail. This seems too difficult to do from direct observation, unless they drew the scene roughly in pencil before refining it in pen. Or did they just draw directly from a photograph? I also love the use of materials and particularly how the simple strokes of gouache wash out the pen, giving it a softness. I also love the fact that they have only used black for the line drawing, then a softer colour for tone. I think that this is something which works really well and that I would like to bring into my own sketching. I have a really bad habit of getting carried away and starting to shade before I have even laid down the bare bones of my image. This is a really good way of overworking and wrecking a piece.

This is another bit of work which I liked and I think that the fact that it was very far from my own work perhaps made me appreciate it more. I spent at least 10 minutes slowly flicking through this sketchbook admiring every page. I just love the dreamy magical feel of this whole body of work, which I think is down to the creative use of media. I can't work out exactly how the student crated it. I am assuming that they used quink and some kind of resist, maybe masking fluid? But then I still can't work out how they managed to get the ink to separate so well, unless they used lots of separate inks. It is so simple yet effective and it makes me want to go away and play around with ink.