Part 1
Everything has conspired to make it difficult to complete this assignment, from Christmas visitors to broken cars with a few more in between. My choice is to extend my deadline and hope for better weather or do an incorrect version of the assignment and return to it when the weather is more suitable for reportage. The brief says "They want to see people at a destination, engaging with activities or enjoying themselves taking in the views." I like to draw people doing things so theoretically I have a wide choice of activities to choose from, but in January round here most people are indoors, not hanging around in the cold.
I have previously drawn many of the people and places that feature in my submission, from life, in past sketchbooks
but I to start used the internet to assemble the images that I wanted. It's not the same as reportage but its a preparatory study and I will do it again, properly.
I looked at what is important to the town and started by focussing on the moor which the canal runs through. It's a pretty spot if not quite a tourist destination. It is overlooked by what is now known as the KD Tower, previously the headquarters of Kodak in the UK. One source suspects that it is the tallest building in the home counties and it is a very recognisable symbol of the town. I did some preliminary sketches.
(I need to stop making roughs in pencil, its very responsive but it doesn't scan very well.)
Then a more considered large drawing. Watercolour, and ink/promarker.
I liked the outlined people in Exercise 2 there's an element of insert yourself in this outline, this could be you. However, they don't work as well here so I gave them more substance by colouring them in. I also made the sky blue to push the tower forward and used coloured pencil to add definition.
The running lady is ok but the rest of it is a bit forced and static. I don't think that I work as well in a large format although I had used it to make it easier to add the details . I reverted to a more comfortable A4ish size and did an ink drawing.
This is a bit like a colouring book, but I have had this sort of format work for me in the past.
This time I used flat areas of watercolour to intentionally make it look like something out of a comic book, there is something about a new town which always feels a bit like a cartoon. I'm not very pleased with it, it was a fun exercise to do, but colouring in never works, its a bit simplistic and I would like more real world details.
I returned to the photos that I took when I was covering the Halloween celebrations. They show details of the old town which is very picturesque. I feel more honest using my own photos as reference.
From this I drew the Old Town Hall with a fineliner. This is a less considered drawing and I think that it is much better for that although the man in the foreground doesn't look like he is enjoying himself. To liven him up a bit I added some watercolour.
He doesn't look quite as grumpy and this does look a bit more like reportage. I'm trying to channel Lucinda Rogers here but I've used too much colour.
Finally I metaphorically went to the ski slope which has proper real snow, people travel from far and wide to get real snow so it probably is the nearest thing to a tourist attraction that we have. My broken car stopped me from going in person ( there is a great bar where you can sit in the warm and draw the slopes)
I started with an ink drawing.
To try to mimic true reportage I watched a video on repeat and drew the moving skiers.
I've always liked working on a medium toned ground and influenced by Pat Southern-Pearce I did a pale blue ground then drew over it with white conte crayon.
The conte crayon has a nice snowy feel but I'm not sure about the blue people they make the piece feel cold but they look rather static.
Overall this has been a poor attempt to recreate reportage although it makes it clear to me that, for me, carefully worked pictures are no substitute for proper on the job drawings so it has been a useful exercise. I think that if I can't draw from life I do my next best job by drawing from my own photos, which is reassuring as there are many situations when drawing is impractical but I want to capture the scene for future reinterpretation. I feel that I am more able to edit my own photos, drawing what I experienced by being there, I wonder if this shows to other people who don't know where my reference came from? Maybe its just that I had many photos to work from and I chose the one that felt right so I didn't need to edit it too much I just drew in the same way I would if I was drawing live.
Part 2
Too little, too late, but I have a working car and a free weekend so I went into the old town and parked up to draw from the relative warmth of the car.
This is a little further down from my drawing from the Halloween photo. There weren't that many people out, a few passers-by, a few shoppers and lots of smokers. It's drawn with a fineliner on Strathmore grey paper, then I added a little coloured pencil. When I got home used more coloured pencil and thickened some of the dark lines.
It's not a particularly exciting image of the town. Given more time I could have done more drawings but the scene wasn't fundamentally very exciting and however many times I drew it if I was being true to what I saw it would still be unexciting. This is an aspect of reportage that I hadn't considered, the reportage artist is like a photographer they need a subject that warrants attention. I'm sure that there were activities in the area that would make interesting drawings but they weren't happening where I was today.
It is a bit more interesting if I crop it to the foreground where the action is.
There is a cafe which overlooks the marina and I thought that would make a good drawing but there were no free tables near the window so I drew the people in the cafe.
This is a more representative view of Hemel today, people sitting in the warm drinking tea, but it wouldn't interest a tourist board.
I found a parking space overlooking the Water Gardens where there were a group of birdwatchers.
Most of my sketchbook was taken up with drawing the people, I added the watercolour at home. The finished image is unexciting.
Further along in the Water Gardens is a new playground.
It's a bit more graphic but it could be a playground anywhere in the country even though it has the Kodak Tower behind it.
I went to investigate the cafe in Debenhams which has a view over the famous magic roundabout but they were having some sort of security alert and we all had to leave so I went to a cafe across the way. I'm told by people who like to shop that Hemel has a good shopping centre so this is a minor tourist attraction.
When I got home I redrew the picture on denim paper from the paper trail
The shop fronts look like they are shuttered because of the horizontal lines and I should have added more people shopping not just crossing the bridge. also the distant trees (two poplars) are distracting.
A bit better, I wonder if I should make more of the sky?
but I think that was too much yellow.
I've now sort of followed the brief although I don't feel that the images that I have produced are interesting or original enough to please the tourist board. That's down to my lack of imagination, I needed to select more engaging activities which are less obvious. Also, although I am fascinated by the possibilities of reportage drawing I haven't yet got the skills to pull it off, more practice is needed.
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