The Craxford Snelling Workshop

Drapery Drawing Spent the morning looking at both previous students work, and well known artists. Such as Bernini and Raphael. tried some brief sketches in the style of what was shown just as a reference. Need to make sure I apply what I research. Started drawing at around 14:30 after setting everything up. Looking at…

Go back to C&G tomorrow, feeling a bit less than 100% but looking forward to working at the same place week in week out. Worked on a pub sign for Ruskin House most of christmas, managed to loose the ‘Ruskin House’ part however so will redo that ASAP. Need to prep the slate but will…

FotG Need to build up feet and carry on working the top. Haven’t even started the face yet. Lots to do. Trying to speed up. Trying to work quickly and see what my mark making looks like, I should probably do this with no reference so as to see my true eye.

Lettering Working on numbers again, carried on drawing what I worked on last night. Finished the drawings at around 11:30 and spent the rest of the morning on spacing and adjusting the ‘6’, ‘9’ & ‘8’ as they were a bit thin compared to the rest. When something jumps out at you, don’t rush to…

Lettering Working on numbers today, I spent the morning on the Ruskin House sign though and then had to leave for a meeting at one. So did very little. Got some good notes (too many for here), need to make up for it tomorrow. Did a little practice of some calligraphy, mostly just getting pen…

Drapery Have found it better to work ‘out’ of the stone, off the edges not into the stone like with normal limestone. This prevents me from plucking under the layers of the slate. Nina gave a brief demo on using riflers and carving the drapery. Should leave it square to gesture the weight and direction…

Drapery Spent the morning sorting out stone, chose to do it in slate (more practice for headstone carving and final year lettering project). Found a piece of Westminster slate and used that. Started by chopping the outline but had to sort out some softening and wood as it was defening on the easel. Ended up…

Ruskin House Only cut a few letters today, very slow (Morgan’s birthday in my defence). Small letters are going well though. FotG Started armature for drapped figure, not sure how to put parts together so am waiting until Monday to start with Nina’s help. Have torso and legs ready and the arms cut to size.

Stiff Leaf Cap Figured out why the top was wonky, I’d forgotten to flatten the top of the stone before I started and the raised lip through off the top measurements. Fixed that right away. The repair hardly worked, as soon as I started working it the edges chipped. Looks more likely I’ll extended the…

Ruskin House Worked on this until 11am, big mistake on the ‘S’ as you can see, due to a blunt chisel and lack of pressure (and concentration!). Apart from fixing this, the larger letters are all finished so time to move into the small inscription underneath. Dreading this. Stiff Leaf Cap Carried on digging around…