Drawing trips and inky fingers
As a fan of cooking and physical labour I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to discover the joy of printmaking. Rollers, spatulas and squeegees are my new favourite toys.
Over the past months, a couple of drawing trips have provided me with some valuable relief from ‘illustrator’s block’ and I have enjoyed playing around with sketchbook work in the print studios.
In November, we took a group of students to Oban. Despite grand plans to ‘capture the essence of Oban’ in my sketchbook, the majority of my drawings from the trip seemed to be dedicated to old couples in cafes and charming houses on hills (with the odd shell painting for balance). Resigning myself to the fact that I find people more interesting than landscapes, I enjoyed lifting characters from my Oban sketchbook into experiments with monoprinting and screenprinting (see pictures).
December’s drawing trip was to the ever glamorous Gala bingo in Meadowbank. A wild night was had by all as I’m sure this luridly coloured screenprint shows.
My children’s book work continues to simmer along gently and I have found myself considering serious philosophical questions such as ‘how much cleavage can you give a hippo?’ and ‘can a sausage dog and a hedgehog fall in love?’.
And finally, as a Christmas bonus, here is print of a bird. Birds don’t need an explanation.
