Think Big, Draw Bigger

It's been a hectic couple of weeks, but I've finally got a chance to share some photos of the great work students produced at the Thing Big, Draw Bigger workshop I held in March.  I've often thought that if we work in a domestic space (i.e. at home), then our work is destined to be domestic, if not in subject matter, then certainly in scale.  It was lovely, therefore, to open my studio doors wide and let students unleash their larger scale ambitions.  

Day One started with white, white everywhere ... paper covered walls and tables, with drawing materials and small, random objects scattered about.  Mark making, exploring lines, media, colour, texture and energy were the themes of the day ... gradually increasing drawing size from postcard size up to A1.  

Day Two, and the sun was shining.  A3 sketchbooks (opened to use the full A2 spread) were clipped to drawing boards and we headed out to take a line (or two) for a walk.  Back in the studio, these drawings were used as starting points for larger scale, studio based work.

Day Three - lots of discussions had taken place over the previous couple of days on what makes a drawing 'accurate'.  We had explored tactile self portraits (eyes closed, feeling our face with one hand while recording what we felt with our drawing hand), working with emotional marks (spiky and brittle, dramatic and flamboyant), and although I don't believe there is ever a single 'right' answer,  it's great to pose the questions and use drawing to try to find solutions.  In the words of Pablo Picasso: "To draw, you must close your eyes and sing".  By the end of day three, my beloved shedio was full of drawings that sang out loud and clear!  What joy.