Thursday 11 May 2023

Steps at Robin Hoods Bay

 

 

Robin Hoods Bay is the most delightful coastal village I think I've ever been to. It is set into the Yorkshire cliffs and in the 18th century was reputed to be the busiest smuggling community on the Yorkshire coast. Hiding places, bolt holes and secret passages abound and wandering through the narrow alleyways between the houses it's easy to feel the presence of smugglers passed.

When there a few years ago I took many photographs and this one looking up a pathway of cobbled steps was one of my favourites. To make the centre area around the steps the main focus of the scene I knew I would need to lay in plenty of darks tones, keeping the pathway light but working with ink, that's not so easy. My original plan for this ink work was to produce a vignette-style drawing, but that didn't work out as I'd planned, though I'm not displeased with the result.

For anyone interested, I have a full Work In Progress page on my main web site that shows my progress and my changing thoughts as the drawing progressed. I hope you have a look at it.


7 comments:

  1. Wow - this is amazing. I went over to your link and so enjoyed seeing how you developed this beautiful pen and ink. You done an outstanding job here John. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you very much Debbie, and thank you for looking at my WIP. It serves to remind me that even when a picture doesn't go to plan, it can still be a good result.

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  2. This is outstanding. You have so much patience and dedication. I checked the website WIP, interesting and instructive. You can refill pens, you can find it on youtube. More work than I want to do but .... You are right about using the pens that have little ink for the more vague lines. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

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    1. Thank you very much Jo, and thank you for looking at my WIP. I didn't know about refilling Micron pens but they are so inexpensive that, like you, I don't think I'd want to put in the effort.

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  3. You are so good in pen and ink work! This is amazing!

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    1. What a lovely thing to say, thank you Judy, I really appreciate it.

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  4. Thank you Joan, and thank you for looking at the WIP. I don't know for sure how long this took but I worked in 2-3 hour sessions over the course of 2 weeks, so I'd estimate 30-40 hours. I find this sort of detailed pen work much slower than any other medium I use because of the sheer number of 'marks'.

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