..back to nature...

Having pretty much drawn Downham's High St view Clock Tower entirely from my photo ref on the trusty mac - what a change to get out of the studio, dust off my easel and set it up opposite Downham's King's Walk!

We're not so many weeks away from the longest day of the year, and I still don't feel that it's warm enough to draw from life outside, which I find far more informative than working solely from photographs which cannot always tell the whole story. I often revisit a site to get more reference if I find there are gaps in my information. That's OK if your four or five miles from your subject, but if you need to nip into Lynn or Ely it's not so practical.

Rough sketch layout of Downham Market's King's Walk Cemetery with one of it twin chapels in view...

I made a point of drawing in a much quicker, looser, and broader fashion with 'King's Walk' and kept the drawing open - erasing elements here and there and moving it all along as I went. This meant the composition changed somewhat as the drawing progressed, but I have a strong energetic drawing as a foundation to work with. 

I'll try and retain as much of that energy as I can while developing the drawing, but I'm bound to lose some of it as my controlled inking style takes over. We'll see how it goes...



Andy.

...one coin - two heads...

Well, that was lucky! Having completed the Clock Tower Central drawing I now have a very strong cover to the Downham Market version of my Downham Market & Ely 2015 Calendar, or Ely & Downham Market 2015 Calendar depending on your geography. 

Two preliminary designs for the 2015 calendar covers...

Andy.

..."One of the finest pen & ink drawings in the world"...

... to - undeservedly - paraphrase Alexander McCall Smith in his famous reference to the one and only 'Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely'...


When I decided to make the 2015 calendar - or for that matter that there might be a 2015 calendar - a Downham Market and Ely calendar, apart from the obvious wealth of material from Ely Cathedral (which could arguably fill a calendar at the rate of at least a picture a week...), my first thoughts were of drawing the irrepressible Topping & Company Booksellers in Ely. 

Coincidentally, it was June 21st, the Summer Solstice of 2003 when we brought Cara, Laz and Emily in full Harry Potter attire to a wonderful Toppings book launch at midnight, for the release of the fifth J K Rowling novel - 'Harry Potter and the The Order of the Phoenix'. While children up and down the queue could be seen and heard waving wands and invoking one Potteresque spell after another, we 'adults' were offered that most marvelous of elixirs - wine by the glass! Oh happy night and day!

When we finally crossed from the pavement over the threshold into the bookshop proper, we may as well have have been stepping into Dumbledore's sanctum sanctorum itself, steeped as it were in subdued lighting and appropriately dressed shop staff. I'm sure I could hear the classical strains of 'Hedwig's Theme' seeping through bookcase upon bookcase.

Is there any doubt that Toppings & Company Booksellers of Ely could be anything other - day or night, book launch or no book launch, glass of wine or no glass of wine - could be anything other than a truly magical destination?

Pen & Ink illustration of Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely.

Up from Bath University for a reading week last year, Cara and I attended the Toppings evening at Ely Cathedral featuring comic writer and novelist Neil Gaiman. In the incomparable - and Hogwarts like - setting of Ely Cathedral, Neil regaled us with stories and anecdotes and read from 'Fortunately the Milk and 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane', before heading into the night signing myriad copies of his latest novel.

Despite a brief and amusing question and answer session, Neil never did tell us what Watchmen's Alan Moore hides in his beard...

Andy.

...nature meets architecture...

Commencing the selection of possible subjects to draw for next year's forthcoming Ely & Downham Market 2015 Calendar - opening my reference file of photos I'd taken on numerous visits to Ely seemed a good place to start.

Start being the operative word. It turned out that I had a plethora of Ely images from historical architecture, waterways, narrowboats, sculpture, fauna and flora. 

I also had a huge selection of photos taken at the previous year's Eel Day celebrations. Ely being the multi faceted place that it is offered an almost inexhaustible mine of fabulous and inspiring subjects to draw and paint.

Having already drawn, well - part of Ely Cathedral, and recently completed a drawing of Cromwell's House that I began several years ago, I started the new project with the Remembrance Arch...

Ely's wonderful Remembrance Arch opposite the market Square.

What really appealed to me, apart from the many architectural features such as the gridlike arrangement of paving stones, the wrought iron railings, the classical design of the arch flanked by regimented brickwork and random stones - was the fabulous contrast of the trees behind the wall striking a beautiful organic counterpoint to the solid ordered arrangement below.

When the drawing had been virtually completed bar the trees, having spent a good deal of time on the drawing - I was in two minds whether to go ahead and draw in the trees, or leave them out entirely - who would know?

I had to remind myself that the main reason I chose to draw the Remembrance Arch was the appearance of the trees above the arch below.

Handwritten script on the stone tablets.

 OK - having left the script on the tablets within the arch till the very last minute - after I'd lettered all the books and posters in shopfront window of the 'Toppings & Company Bookshop' illustration, I felt confident enough to attempt to letter names on the stone tablets within the arch itself.

I hope you're as pleased with the finished artwork as I am.



Andy.

...not quite meeting merry Marvel's mutant master of magnetism!...

...or the return of Blog Master General...

What a surprise when I arrived at Ely Cathedral for my 'photo shoot' with the Ely Weekly News, to see what for all intents and purposes was a veritable army of bright white transits, vans and box wagons occupying the entire green beside the entrance to the cathedral. 

I'm a modest chap, but this was really pushing the narrowboat out. Clearly the Ely Weekly News conducts itself with style and panache - and perhaps in this instance uses an elephant gun where a flyswatter would do.

And me buzzing with just two easels, five pieces of original artwork, and a handful of this years calendars - gulp. 

Pen & Ink illustrations of the titanic Toppings & Company
bookshop and the memorable Ely Remembrance Arch.

All was revealed when photographer Keith appeared amongst the hubbub and explained that preparations were underway for the filming of Macbeth in the Cathedral. As we were joined by various Cathedral personnel, it came to light that filming might indeed take place this afternoon, featuring none other than the X-Men's magnificent Master of Magnetism - the man you love to hate - the Mighty Magneto!

Or back in the real world - the one and only Michael Fassbender!

Aka Lt. Archie Hiscox in Inglorious Basterds, David in Prometheus, and more recently Edwin Epp's in 12 Year's a Slave. In this Macbeth remake, Fassbender appears in the leading role alongside Lady Macbeth played by Marion Cotillard.

Original artwork for the Ely Remembrance Arch and this year's Downham Market & King's Lynn 2014 Calendar featuring the wonderful Victorian facade of the King's Lynn Corn Exchange.

Anyway, back in the other real world I posed, cameras clicked and lights flashed! My digital self was on it's way to the  newspaper office, and subsequently all print and virtual points beyond. 

All I had to do now was return to my studio and get on with the production of the remaining Ely and Downham Market drawings to complete the forthcoming Ely & Downham Market 2015 Calendar.

Five or six more pen & ink drawings and watercolour illustrations? Since I'm planning for a July printing - if not sooner - drawing board, here I come!

Preliminary cover design spotlighting a festive mist-laden Ely Cathedral.
Pen & Ink and Watercolour.

With the sale of the Downham Market 2013 Calendar I raised money for a handful of local charities, and sales of this year's Downham Market & King's Lynn Calendar have raised 50p per sale for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

The forthcoming Ely & Downham Market 2015 Calendar will see money donated evenly toward the reinstatement of it's sails to Denver Windmill, and toward the continual upkeep of Ely Cathedral.

Please help us. By purchasing a calendar which will accompany you through next year with pen & ink and watercolour illustrations of local landmarks and points of interest, you will also support these worthy causes.

Updates and previews of the calendar artwork will be available on my blog and also the AndyScordellisArt facebook page.

As the weather becomes warmer I'll be in Ely and Downham, easel and drawing board in hand producing additional drawings for the calendar, and associated cards and prints.  Please feel free to come over and say 'Hi' and see what I'm up to.

Arch - villain Magneto as he first appeared in 1963
by Jack Kirby and the multi talented Sol Brodsky.

...the return of Blog Master General!...

Well, after I'd been away for so many months, I thought I'd better bring along a colourful half bakers dozen of superheroes and villains to help me on my way.

Apologies for the prolonged absence, and with the production of the Ely/Downham Calendar, and generally catching up with posts for work and projects I missed since my last post and this one - I expect the blog to be cooking on all V12 cylinders!

Andy.