Day Two: Comares

We visited the village of Comares today and travelled along a winding dirt track to get there. As we drove along we stumbled across this ruin of a farmhouse: 

It was the perfect spot for a mark-making explore!

I used some of the ideas from the trip last year...taking the colours that were around (and that I'd seen the day before) and translated those into the darker interiors of the ruin. So considering composition I looked at this crumbling roof:

and explored colour, line and texture:

Here is another abstracted pattern taking in the shape and colour of the prickly pears and weed like flowers growing amidst the ruin, it's looking a little angie lewin!:

Then we travelled on to the village. Stopping for lunch at this beautiful hillside, just look at that blue!:

There was plenty to photograph and compose along the way:

I have found that my photographs have improved since going on these drawing trips. They have enabled my eyes to see better, select better and 'draw' better with the camera....

We then stopped and spent some time drawing the rooftops. I continued exploring line:

But felt this one to work better, the suggestion of shape over specified line makes it a much stronger image and exploration:

I explored colour a bit more:

 And different media when we got back to the house, here is a mixed composition of conte crayon, pen and watercolour:

In tutorial we explored ideas behind creating form. Can you find shapes and 3D forms in your drawings? Is this almost a reverse type of layering? Abstracting shapes and forms to inform further alterations, through scale, stitch and other media? This really got me thinking about what I want to develop over this next year...

Day Five: Old Rum Distillery and Maro

Day 5 already? It's all going so quickly!! We were taken to another great venue this morning - a crumbling old rum distillery! It was such an interesting space. I became slightly overwhelmed and panicked I think, trying to record everything rather than pacing and taking my time.

 This first drawing grew from one page into two, there was so much to record and I didn't just want to stay in this one spot. I feel this unresolved and panic abandonded....

 The whole space was incredible though, just look at this photo!!!

I decided to wander around the space a bit more and record some quick drawings of shape

I started abstracting shape from all over the building, all the rust and crumbling holes, each of these had their own shapes and dimensions to play with.

 I worked with all the shapes and recordings that were around me, overlapping on site and playing with minimal colour combinations that I have most enjoyed since yesterday.

 Trying to record another composition, but the pen this time is too vivid for this sensitive building

 

The pattern overlayed on the top is taken from this discarded pellet shot board. I was playing with the light effect ideas from yesterday but in situ with what I could find.

Inside the building the negative space was really interesting

Again I took lots of photos and will be using these as reference for future ideas and projects

After the Distillery we head to Maro for lunch, another drawing spot and el playa! Lunch was Calemares and I left some which I wish I had drawn :( Waiting for it to arrive though and there was a small gap in the wall with exposed piping, I liked the shape so scribbled again

After lunch we had a shady spot to draw from with a multiple of choice: landscape, colour study, shadow shape or ruin. I opted for the colour study to begin with as I'd felt cheated in my attempts earlier on in the day

I chose to backdrop with the colour then draw over the top with the industrial lines of the cabling and the lampost, I quite like the effect... Afterwards I was looking around for a different kind of subject. I saw these railings casting a shadow and so drew that but on their own (and with bad colour choice: purple and pink) they didn't seem to work. I then looked around for other shapes to compliment and took the steps that were coming down from a church (green) then the zig zag of another set of steps (yellow, alternating) plus the horizon line (grey)

I stuck with the horizon line and drew this in an alternating fashion from different viewpoints over the top of one another. I like the abstract linkage and feel there is lots that could be developed here.

 Then as a total constrast I took to recording the birds that were flying in and out of a window in the ruin of the mill. They were so talkative and I followed them flying. More studies like this are definately on my agenda! I like the monocle wearing birds on the left - real character and lots of open development for this...hmmm?

 

 this was my set up at the ruin!

 We went down to the beach after this and I had intended on drawing this beautiful rock formation that was down there, but I swam up to it instead, which was actually just what I needed!!

As we head back from Maro we stopped off for Tapas in Benamargosa. I had spicy snails and a russian salad! There was whitebait on the menu too, yum yum! With a bullfight playing on the TV we stopped for a short while so I had a quick sketch of our scene before we head off.

Then we went back to Cutar and found that England v Italy was playing on the TV in the local bar! I wasn't interested in watching the game but thought it a great opportunity to draw some people! So I went along to draw the crowd, whilst they all watched.

I used bold expressive pens for this drawing

And I'm really pleased with the minimal line and colour in this one