The Lakes of Cumbria

April 2010

Earlier this year myself and my girlfriend camped up in the Lake district of England, at that time there was snow on the mountain tops, blue skies and just enough of a coming summer to keep us warm. I hadn't been there since I was a child and it was the first time I could truly appreciate the beauty there.
The photo to the right is Derwent Water in early April.


We both said we should go back in the Autumn to experience the change in colour, and explore more lakes in the area.

Buttermere

There was a chill in the air different to the one before, which was on it's way out. This time the air was biting at every available piece of skin on show. The blue reflected on the water less warm than earlier and where snow once lay on top, sharp jagged rocks cut into the heavens.

Cave at Rydal

We managed to get out to less tourist type places, and experienced the quiet beauty of Buttermere, where we saw small numbers of people, mostly locals racing dogs across the hills for two- three hours.

Rydal was even less populated. Being a small lake it didn't seem like much at first, peaceful and tranquil, only to reveal an incredible cave like the gaping mouth of a dragon slain years ago.

Aira Force

Amongst other wonders, the more known Aira Force near Ullswater for example was spectacular, the light at times hitting the water and creating the rainbow it is known for.

We also travelled up to the landmark recognised on the front of the Derwent water colour pencils tin, Ashness bridge. Small it may be, but it holds a hypnotizing power, with the stream of water leading all the way down to the lake in the distance.

Ashness bridge

We were a little early to witness the dramatic change of colour we were expecting, but what we witnessed was as before, nothing short of wonderful. I hope to go again next year, perhaps we'll be mad enough to go when it is covered in snow.

Super-professional nude models

These two characters are some of my flat mates who agreed to be my life drawing nudes. They were extremely relaxed for the whole time and never once moved!
The eye drops were on the side of the bed and is a separate drawing, although on here it looks huge next to Butter and Mushroom. Practice practice practice.

It's worth mentioning that I came across 'Future boy Conan' the other day and now have the whole series. A fantastic animation and story. If you love his other films as I do, it's a must see.

More life drawing

Yet more life drawing. I found it harder this time for some reason, due to some crazy days recently and tiredness I guess I found it interesting how the guy running the life drawing this time was asking people to do 'blind drawing', which is also mentioned in the book - drawing but not looking at the paper.

Another interesting thing I've found recently is that my memory has increased dramatically. I've been learning Mandarin for the past year, and only since drawing have I started remembering whole sentences and hard words, could this be linked? Possible!

Another drawing

Hello! Here's another quick upside down drawing. This time it's Pablo Picasso's 'Child with Dove'. Again, I have messed up the sizes of things and she's ended up a little squashed, still not to bad though.

Squashed drawings

Well, moving along into the next chapter, the book asks for us to draw Pablo Picasso's 'Portrait of Igor Stravinsky' upside down. Not labelling what we see and limiting ourselves, but rather seeing lines and shapes, in the hope that the Right side of the brain takes control over the Left, allowing for more creativity.

The result was not bad, but not right either. It started fine, but somewhere along the way I made parts bigger, making other areas squashed. Parts of it, like other students drawings mentioned in the book, were great. The cross over of the legs for example came out well I think. The head though, well what can I say, it looks as if Igor hasn't eaten in months! I believe I drew in the wrong order, and having re-read the instructions If I had drawn line, adjacent line, and so on, it would have turned out less squashed.