Sketch Journals Part I

The students have been keeping sketch journals as we travel. We practiced drawing a little bit before we left Hiram, but most of the group hadn't ever attempted to sketch before. At the half-way point in our trip, I'd like to share some of their great work. I'll post the first half tonight, and the rest tomorrow.


Rachel's pages looking up at Glastonbury Tor. Rachel is one of the few students who has braved color, so she was able to capture the variety of foliage colors that framed the crown of the hill. The second drawing was done at Prior Park. The ground was carpeted with wild garlic underneath the canopy of mature trees. Rachel found a particularly mossy trunk protruding from the side of the path and I think the sketch shows the variety of textures in the shady green woods nicely.

Andrew's drawing of the tower on Glastonbury Tor. Many students climbed to the top of the Tor and drew the view, but Andrew and a few others stayed below first to draw the tower from the bottom of the hill - a rather tricky view to sketch but it came out fantastic!

Caitlin - this time the view from the Tor. I love how this quick little sketch encapsulates what we saw; the patchwork of roads and fields, hedgerows and canals spread out for easily ten or fifteen miles. It is one thing to ride in a bus or a train and see the fields go by, but quite another to see the pattern of settlement spread out around you. Despite a stiff breeze, we sat up on the hill for nearly an hour watching the world go on below us.

Catherin's drawings from Prior Park. She has brilliantly altered her sketchbook to make fold-out 3 page spreads, which you can just see in the edge of this picture. It has made a nice place for her to past in maps and brocures, as well as larger pictures. She posted some other drawings from Prior Park earlier, but this one of the Palladian bridge is great also.

Lisa was interested in the chimney pots in Bath but the perspective was kind of tricky. She stuck with it and came up with a rather nice result (I believe this is her second attempt). The second page is a garden gazebo at Kelmscott Manor. The octagonal shape is quite difficult to draw and I think she managed rather well!

Phil and some of the others have been getting more and more creative with found objects and collage in their books (more of those tomorrow). This is one of the first drawings we asked the students to tackle - try to capture the geometry and ideosyncracy of an intersection somewhere in the old winding streets of Bath. Phil did a great job capturing the busy and complex geometry of the buildings, streets and sidewalks.

May first is May Day here, and the people of Oxford celebrate with an all-night party followed by a dawn chorus from the local boy's choir, who sing from the top of a tower at Magdalen College. While we were all standing sleepily on the street below, the clearly excited boys started to peep through the tower openings to see the large crowd. While they were too far away to really capture them in a photograph, Cassie managed to record the moment in this sketch!

Gwen has been assembling a great collection of sketches, feathers, flowers, quotations and other found objects. This page from Glastonbury not only has a wonderful sketch of the tower on the Tor, but the text itself evokes the patterns of the land and the steepness of the hill.

Bryn's drawing on the left, from Stourhead. I came upon her on the side of the path sitting on a tree stump working on this drawing. On the right is the view from the Tor again. Bryn worked on a nice experiment with how to combine color and texture to show the variety in the landscape. Also, I love the real exuberance in these drawings - they make me feel like she was smiling as she drew them.

Nickolas's drawing of Bath Abbey from one of the early days of our trip. He's one of the only people brave enough to try drawing in pen - and the result is pretty great.

More drawings tomorrow...