...Good or Evil - You decide...

...a nice quiet evening in watching Netflix, or a trip down to the 

Downham Market's  West Norfolk Deaf Association 
co-creating the dual forces of Good and/or   Evil?  

  Hmmm... 

I reckon a quiet night out at No 8 The Old Bookshop sounds good.

So - the idea is that I split the audience into two halves, 
one half creating the good character, the other side 
(left or right) creating the bad/evil character. 

Sounds easy. Sounds civilised. Very easy if you're just 
shouting out ideas - not so easy if your the one holding the 
marker - drawing (as suggested by Clare) cross thread 
lace up knee boots. 

 - 'With a great marker comes great responsibility!' -

In my experience 'good' tends to go first, but not exclusively, since 
'bad' cannot help but join in. And vice versa when it is 'bad's' turn 
to create. So all in all it tends to get rather lively, which is good. 

Anyway - back to the beginning. We were a small - but strong - 
group. I'd brought along some calendars and cards so thought I'd talk 
a little about the pen & ink work I also do, such as the local 
landmarks I'd drawn for various calendars.

The nature of this work requires a slow, deliberate, patient 
approach. Constant referencing and cross referencing. While I would not 
be looking for photographic accuracy, I would be counting the roof tiles and 
paving stones to get it right. Where ever possible I would set up an 
easel opposite the subject and draw from life - at least to establish 
the composition and preliminary drawing.

Once the framework of the drawing is in place, I continue 
working with ink and watercolour in the studio from photo reference. 
With Toppings Booksellers in Ely there's no room to set up an easel 
outside so I worked entirely from photographs from all angles. 

If ever I am unsure about an architectural detail, I won't guess it
- I'll drive to the location and clarify the detail in question with 
additional sketches or more photographs. 

 

And here are the cats.  
They only sleep a lot when you don't want to draw them. 
So again - photographs every time.

All of the above work - solitary, slow, painstaking, deliberate.

   'Design A Superhero or Supervillain'?   

Lots of people - plenty of shouting and laughing.
Coffee, tea, biscuits.

And a quick black marker!

On this occasion I suggested to the group that we design each 
character simultaneously. Previously the 'evil' designers would 
already know the Superhero/heroines appearance 
prior to designing their own. 

Creating both characters together seemed to lead to a bizarre symbiosis...

As you can see by my expression 
- it's a serious business creating  super heroes and villains.

Occasionally when I've carried out a   'Design A Superhero'   demo
I've had to improvise owing to a shortage of suggestions. 

It fair to say tonight I had to struggle to keep up!

And yes - there were times when I had to ask for a suggestion to be 
clarified, since I surely cannot have heard it right the first time?!?

Ok - getting close now. And designing the characters neck 
and neck certainly is interesting. I'm sure they would have 
turned out differently had we created one after the other...

It seemed that after all the tea and coffee, yelling and laughing, 
and scribbling - that    Patsy and Spike not only were not exclusively 
good or evil, but  they each seemed to have similarities in 
design, and just might be involved romantically... 

Ok, we went over time and still no time for colour!

A big thank you to Sarah, Jo and Clare on the GOOD side, 
and an even bigger thank you to They Who Shall Be Named 
 Sue, Ruth and Margaret on the EVIL side.

Patsy and Spike will return!

after all...

   ...We Need Downham's Avengers!   

 
TO BE CONTINUED!