I’m familiar with the deconstruction process that happens when I embark on a course designed to develop what I believe to be my existing skills and extend them, but it doesn’t make it any less alarming or uncomfortable! It seems to me that two weeks ago I could draw and now I can’t, so I’m going back to some ways of drawing that worked for me while I figure out how to advance. Small and contained, one item at a time for now.

Teapot. As always, I struggle with handles and spouts although this time I reckon that spout isn’t half bad. Pity the handle is on at an angle! It’s a one-cup pot with a kind of animal print pattern. I’ve used Derwent watercolour pencils.

Metal bird sculpture. Heavy and about 10cm end to end. I’ve underestimated the necessary space so its tail is off the page and its feet are a little incomplete. Those toes really do stick up. The medium is 9B pencil just blocked into the shapes of the metal pieces with spaces to suggest its almost fragmented state. Whatever light this bird is in, it’s almost a total silhouette.

10th December. Metal crab.

11th December. Not so still still life. One of my cats sits and stares at the cat flap as though it might suddenly morph into something unexpected. It doesn’t last long so I needed to be quick. I made the shape with masking tape then dabbed ink into the space using a scrunched up piece of towel roll. The masking tape tore the surface of the paper as I pulled it off so when I applied some tone using grey charcoal, that made interesting shapes in itself. Next, I used coloured pencils in three shades of green to bring out the cat’s body. I’ve been watching video tutorials on volume in drawing by Karl Gnass (for which I have fellow student Chris Kilbane [site currently locked] to thank), so the marks are based on his ideas about representations of solidity being volumetric rather than linear. Like those wire frames some sculpters use and that 3D designers have replicated digitally. I thought about adding the flap but I’m currently resisting filling spaces unnecessarily. My cat stares at walls too.