Pretty Dandy Flea

I helped out at the Pretty Dandy Flea today. It stayed busy from the off with lots of quality vintage, design and food stalls, great music too and a really good atmosphere for shopping and browsing.

In between voluntary duties I had some time to do some drawings. I was going to try and get the whole space in but as I was looking I realised that it was the people moving around the space that made it what it was so I drew them instead. With my new range of coloured pens, I had quite and energetic response and feel that these could work well in an animated format:

Drawing Movement

I attended a workshop at the Surface Gallery last weekend, it was part of the Big Draw and titled Line in Motion - it was just my cup of tea! We were watching a rehearsal to the performance Gymnast by Bodies in Flight (this is on show again in February in Hinkley and I would definitely recommend a visit!) I'm going to use these sketches as inspiration for my next project and taking into consideration some of the wire line work I was doing in my last so watch this space for the developments!

handstands and leg stretches

swinging around the pomell horse

This was the whole rehersal worked into the page. The colour is the sound of the choir and all the lines the moving people!

Candy Floss, Ferries Wheels and, err, Mushy Peas with Mint Sauce?!

Yes, it's that time of year again, Nottingham Goose Fair! It's a great place to visit for studies of people, colour and movement so I went down yesterday to do some drawings as it started hitting dusk. 

Here are my efforts; and on the note of mushy peas...I think it's just an East Midlands/Yorkshire thing (so if you've never tried it - give it a go!), but the addition of that vinegary mint sauce is just divine! 

Goose Fair Landscape

Merry-go-round

drawing in amongst the crowds 

High swing

Swing Higher!? 

Dodgems

If I wasn't going away this weekend I would have gone back armed with a black sketchpad, electric pencil sharpener, pastels, chalks and inks. I feel this would have given a much better capture of the light, but in terms of movement, I think it's getting there.

I decided to go back through the fair on the way home from uni today. I wanted to do at least one detailed drawing, so chose this candy floss stall on Gregory Boulevard:

I wanted to capture the crowds of people visiting/not visiting/just walking past. The lady running the stall asked to see it when it was finished. I showed her, she said she wanted a copy (?!) and gave me this: 

So all in all, not bad for my first week back to uni!

William Kentridge

I discovered the work of William Kentridge during research for my print project last year. I really like his use of texture, line, movement and layering. 

Here are some drawings from his exhibition Other Faces in New York, 2011:

Two Williams and the Flying Papers,  2010

Nose 3 2006/2009 (with Tatlin's Tower!)

Moving Through Light: Photo experiments by Harold Edgerton

These vintage strobe light photographs are a beautiful anatomy of motion:

Back Dive, 1954

Tennis Player, 1938

Baton, 1953

The Golfer, 1960

Basket Ball Player

Swirls and Eddies of a Tennis Stroke (1939)

Moving Skipping Rope, 1952

Martels and Mignon Act

Also take a look at the Edgerton Digital Collections. This is a great resource for more images, videos and techniques.