This week I visited Hyde Park, I went for around 4 hours. I spent a while wandering around the park to see what different areas there where and finding my own areas of interest. Then I found places to sit and began to sketch on location as well as take some photos to reference back to and make further developments with. I found that I had a big interest in trying to capture animal behaviours and drawing these from the photos I took. Also I really like parts where the plants and man made structures are interacting. These are a selection of the photos I took of locations I drew at as well as ones I used for later developments.
I did a study of a few different squirrels. I was lucky to get close enough to film a few and make sketches of their movements. I tired this in a few different materials, pencil, biro and marker pen.
I really like this Beatrix Potter inspired style of drawing animals. I start with a biro sketch then add watercolour. I hope to capture more animals through out this project to do more in this style. I also took inspiration from the illustrative style of the Lost Words.
I also did some biro and watercolour sketches of areas that particularly caught my eye. I like this area because there was lovely interaction with man made objects such as the sculpture and bench with the plants and bushes. I also liked how the plants where clearly only supposed to be growing in certain areas but had overgrown.
I chose this areas because of the pink leaves on the tree which had a very interesting twisted trunk. This style was heavily inspired by the documentary illustrators that I mentioned previously such as George Butler.
This dynamic marker pen style is something I will develop throughout this project. This is a sketch that I did on location.
Then I did a study of some flowers in a similar style.
I thought my first trip to Hyde Park was a success as I was able to create lots of sketches on locations and from photos I took. I will continue to develop from some of the photos and make at least 1 more trip to doing more observational drawings. I also have a greater understanding of my interests and the theme I was the images from my project to be centred around. I want to capture animal behaviours and the interactions between plants and man made objects as well as some pieces which simply reflect the beauty of nature.
Next week I plan to visit the Bonnington Gardens to do sketches there and take photos for reference. Also I think it will be important for me to come up with a title to help keep my illustrations focused and on theme so I’ll try to figure that out by next week.
Samuel Green Illustration 