Exercise 1 – Drawing on the familiar:

For this exercise, I am to draw a space I am familiar with. I will draw the location, the people, and the activities taking place and use notes to capture my thoughts and feelings.

Of course on the day I chose to do this exercise the temperature was 30C! I took a walk around the Meads area of Eastbourne where I live and went up the hill to draw, the red cross shows where I sat – (the little blue pin with the white house is where I live).

The location I chose to draw from:

My sketches:

Eastbourne Webcam:

An interesting webcam that plays live for 12 hours per day at Eastbourne Beach – Eastbourne Seafront Webcam, shows an interesting example of capturing the day-to-day life with all its comings and goings, busy periods, and quiet spots.

Exercise 2 – Court Drama:

For this exercise, I am to research the work of American reportage illustrator Franklin McMahon (1921–2012), I will focus on his courtroom drama drawings from the 1955’s visual documentation of the trial of two men accused of murdering a black Chicago teenager Emmett Till who was visiting relatives near Money, Mississippi.

I will reflect on how McMahon has approached the task of documenting a courtroom drama, how his approach to drawing ties in with the notion of journalism and truth, what I think he’s managed to capture in these drawings and how has he done it.

It is a criminal offense to take photos in court in the UK but in the US the law is different, the court is closed to cameras unless a judge grants permission for photography, in 1950’s Mississippi court didn’t allow them at all, so court sketch artists were used a lot and are still used now. See below some examples of relatively recent court illustrations including Amy Winehouse and Snoop Dogg.

Reference: https://www.wmagazine.com/gallery/celebrity-courtroom-sketches-tom-brady-taylor-swift

McMahon approaches documenting courtroom drama by capturing the expressions, postures, and interactions of the people in the courtroom. I think it’s interesting how he has sometimes written dialogue from the trial around his sketches. I like the simple medium he uses, including pencil, ink, and wash, this simple choice of medium shows how fast he has to work when sketching… no time for colour! He used a form of continuous line drawing, which is a very fast style which is something that would work well in his profession.

I find it interesting how he depicted everyone’s body language within the court. As this case is primarily about race in a very racist time in 1950s Mississippi, I think it’s interesting to see how the all-white jury sits, the way that they act, and the way that they stare at the black witness like they’ve already made a decision before the trial has even started. It wasn’t much of a surprise to know that the person accused was acquitted due to lack of evidence. I think the faces of the sheriffs all share the same expression of disinterest and smugness like this trial is a waste of time.  

https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/search?filter_text=prfx%3Achh+emmett+till&x=0&y=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_McMahon

Exercise 3 – Drawing on Location:

For this exercise, I will use my sketchbook to produce a series of drawings and notes that documents an event. I will produce a body of work that depicts the event over a period of time. I will choose something that offers the opportunity to explore my particular style of drawing.

Before I begin, I need to reflect on my experience of the ‘Drawing on the familiar’ exercise. I will answer the following questions:

Did your choice of sketchbook, materials, and approach to your drawings work to capture your chosen location?

I think it was ok yet a bit impractical. The sketchbook was A4 size so wasn’t very easy to hide. Where I chose to sit there were many passers-by who took an interest in what I was doing which was a little distracting. I decided to use a pencil only as my chosen medium for convenience and practicality, it helped when I wanted to amend some of the drawings.

How might you amend your approach for this exercise?

I think depending on where I go, I will change my sketchbook from a paper sketchbook to drawing digitally on my iPad, this will help with space per illustration as I can just crop the remaining empty space. Also due to the iPad having a privacy screen as you turn it from an angle this gives a lack of disturbance when drawing outdoors which will make me feel more secure. I think I may try using the continuous line drawing technique that McMahon uses for his quick court sketches as I have used this in the past and it has been very beneficial for drawings that have to be completed fast.

My chosen location:

My sketches:

Evaluation of Drawings:

For exercise 3, I chose to draw from the location: St Andrews School in Eastbourne, luckily it’s a school literally on my doorstep, I am basically next door. I noticed when eating breakfast in the morning that the children were out on the playing field and that a small crowd was forming (I could see this from my flat window), so I thought about using this event for my exercise. The children were playing a football match on a Sunday and they had a lot of onlookers and parents watching the match. I sat on the wall with my iPad and drew the children as they played. I wanted to focus on the movements and postures of the children influenced by McMahon. Some poses are better than others but I wanted to add them all to show my wins and failures. I also enjoyed working digitally as the outcomes were clearer and better (as in more white rather than a blue colour when I took a photo of my sketchbook work!) I will be using the iPad more often in projects where I need the outcomes to be clear. The continuous line drawing was quite a therapeutic technique to use and once I had done one drawing I was excited to do more.