As part of our research for “Dwell”, we have been finding out about our families. Some of the group have made family trees going back several generations. Others know less about their ancestors. I wanted to give everyone a chance to find characters from their family history. Everyone was asked to bring in an old photo of a relative that they could use to work with. We used a variety of media to make drawings of this photograph: charcoal, pen and wash and collage. We had to make a copy of the image so that we wouldn’t get the original image dirty while we worked. Charcoal can be a bit messy and we also wanted to make sure that we didn’t cut up an irreplaceable family photo by accident.

It was interesting to talk about the difference between digital photos which allow multiple copies and photographic prints from family archives where the negative might be misplaced or lost. Today was all about experimenting with the different types of media and when drawing, trying to record light and shade within the image as well as outlines. I wanted to use traditional drawing techniques as I think that the class needs to experiment beyond my own specialisms. We also talked about composition and cropping and how to place the image within the drawing page.

Composition was especially important when placing the cutout images onto wallpaper backgrounds. The colour palette for decorative work in crayon was limited so that everyone concentrated on layout and pattern rather than colouring in. The first images were very small so we worked on big sheets of wax paper with charcoal to free us up. We were so engrossed that when the bell went for breaktime nobody wanted to stop. “Awww!” they said, “We didn’t hear any bell.” They had to be persuaded to go outside and play on a bright sunny day. That makes me very happy. As does the work. I only got glimpses today but everyone will be scanning in their work and sending it to me over Easter. What a treat.