Pens, pencils and a sharpener - the staple of all art supplies. That’s what you start out using when you first try and draw and it’s these simple media that often get overlooked when something fancier comes along. For me my media choices have varied hugely throughout my life.
When I first started studying art “properly” at GCSE it was all about the paint. Our art teacher spent many a lesson teaching us how to use watercolours and my sketchbook was soon filled with paintings as well as the must have pencil drawings. Then we got what we’d all been waiting for - permission to use the oil paints in the corner of the art room which we’d been eyeing up for the past couple of years. I hated it. Me and oil paint do not get on. Looking back now it’s probably because I absolutely refused to “water it down” with white spirit or other paint thinners. “That’s not what artists do and it’s certainly not what I do” was definitely a mantra I went by. What did that mean for me? Well, the paint was gloopy and it took about three weeks to dry. Not ideal when you’re working at an obligatory three sketchbook pages a week and “my paint’s still wet” isn’t really a valid excuse. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely loved GCSE and A-Level art but the media choices weren’t what was making me love it. Throughout the four years of art at school I tried photography, ceramics, printmaking, pencil drawing, painting, pen and ink, sculpture (we won’t think too much about that one) and mosaics. The only media I looked forward to using were the pencils, printmaking and pen and ink which is almost the exact media I work in now. Funny how it works out isn’t it. I am glad I tried so many different media. It definitely prepared me for university (I was accepted on all the courses I applied to without a foundation year) and who knows, maybe I could have found a hidden love for ceramics which would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
By the time university came around I’d decided I’d had enough of paint and wanted to study illustration - a clean and crisp discipline well removed from any hint of large scale canvases and oil painting. Before I’d even started university my media choices had completely changed. We were sent a pre course list of art supplies which we would need so Mum and I scurried off to Hobbycraft to see what we could find. This bizarre list included everything from acrylic paint, oil pastels and paint brushes (not too bad) to some two inch household paintbrushes, a car sponge and some candles (just what had I gotten myself into?) Safe to say the car sponge and paintbrushes were used, the candles not so much. Upon arrival at university we were also gifted a bag full of art goodies which included more oil pastels, pencils and a new sketchbook which was very exciting - university meant landscape sketchbooks whereas school had been portrait books. Somehow I think the change in orientation also helped the change in the direction of my artwork. I wasn’t working in a way which encouraged me to try and recreate my A-Level work I was working in a new and fresh way with new media to boot.
My first year at university was a whirl wind of media choices and experimenting. I tried almost every way of working I heard about but they didn’t all work and they certainly didn’t all get good feedback. Sharpies? maybe not, digital drawing? definitely not, watercolour? promising, but there wasn’t anything unique about it. I even did some drawings with boot polish just to see how it turned out. Second year soon rolled around and the media choices started all over again. I tried my hand at collage, black brush pens and fabric patterns which were all promising and slowly but surely throughout the beginning of second year my work was improving. Then I started my last module of the year and I began a project which, looking back now, started a process which has led me to where I am now. I did printmaking again. I started a project in collaboration with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History called “Bringing the Oldest Multicellular Organisms to Life” and I was trying to imagine how some of the oldest fossilised organisms would have looked when they were alive. What better way to draw a relief fossil than with some relief printmaking? I thoroughly loved the process of taking drawn pencil studies and turning them into prints. I spent most of my time in the print room and came out with a collection of twelve etching prints showing a wide range of fossils. At the end of the module I got my highest mark so far on the course and it really goes to show how enjoying your media can make such a difference in the outcome of your work.
I went into third year of University a little unsure about whether printmaking was “it” for me. I knew I wanted to specialise in the children’s market on my course and couldn’t really see how those two fit together. I went through the initial experimentation again which seemed to be inevitable at this point and started the year doing ink drawings before moving on to coloured pencils for a children’s book in the first half of my final project. Let’s just say the coloured pencils weren’t doing anything for my work and I went into my last ever university module with the knowledge that if I carried on working like that, I might not get the first I had been working so hard for. A rethink was in order and one of my tutors casually mentioned stamps in a tutorial. That piqued my interest and I came back from the shops a little while later with a selection of foam, foam board and glue and set about making myself some simple stamps. It was so freeing and quick and really allowed me to layer my illustrations. I started with a block base colour and then used brush pens on top. I finally had movement in my work (a seemingly unobtainable notion which I’d been trying to achieve since first year) and my drawings had real life to them. I loved it, my tutors loved it and when it was suggested I take it one step further into screen printing I could’t have been more excited. This way of working lent itself brilliantly to screen printing and although I hadn’t screen printed since a taster session in first year, I booked myself onto another taster session and went from there. I produced some of my best work of my degree in this module and the children’s book I made was Highly Commended in the Pan Macmillan prize that same year (2019).
Leaving university was a step into the unknown. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the screenprinting as I had no access to all those materials. I’d bought myself a printing press at the end of my first year and so I dabbled with relief printing again as well as continuing with the stamp making. I revamped my portfolio to include more stamped illustrations and really developed this way of working. Then Covid happened and we were plunged into lockdown and uncertainty. A constant for me was drawing and I endeavoured to draw as much as I could during this time. I was at home with not much to do - why not use that time to draw, develop my work and see where it would take me. At this point I’d grown to love Tombow brush pens and was using them as much as I could. As with anything it takes time and practice to get to know the media and learn about it’s different applications. I took to drawing along to online lectures and these brush pens were brilliant for fast drawings. I then got some coloured pencils and, mindful of how I used them poorly in my third year, applied them sparingly on top of the pens. My observational drawings improved so much over the course of the summer and I’d added a new media to my list of go to art supplies. I also discovered the Goodship Illustration on Instagram and absolutely loved their Friday drawing sessions. Again, it made me create work quickly and not worry too much about what it looked like. We drew underneath a box, with our non dominant hand and with sticks and when you’re drawing like that you definitely can’t be too precious about your work.
I found an absolute gem in the Henley School of Art in Autumn 2020. They are a small studio based in Henley-on-Thames and in normal times run courses and life drawings and are just generally awesome. Covid meant that they had to take their studio online which is where I heard about them. My university tutor Emma Carlisle advertised their animal life drawing sessions on instagram and I signed up immediately. There is nothing more exciting to me than live animal drawings. The first week was marine life, birds of prey the next and I found myself reaching for the pens and pencils more and more. There wasn’t time to cut out stamps and then draw on top so my work was a lot “looser” and oh, the movement had returned to my work! I am constantly amazed at how much I have gained and continue to gain from these drawing session. Strictly timed exercises, longer drawings and an absolutely brilliant community gave me a great space to develop my work and has restarted my love of sketchbooks.
Looking forward to 2021 I am so excited for all the animal drawing sessions I’ve booked with Henley and I think I’m going to get back into printmaking. My press is waiting for me, I’ve just got to come up with some designs. I’m finally at a point where I feel I could make some great prints inspired by all the work I’ve been doing. I’m also keen to mix my media. Can printmaking and stampmaking go together? Can I use my brush pens on my prints? Of course I can! there are no rules, I can do whatever I like. If it goes wrong it goes wrong and then I’ll add it to the growing list of media I’ve tried, but what if it goes right? There is so much wonderful media out there and I am truly lucky to have been able to try out so many but when it comes down to it, what do I take with me on a drawing day out? Pens, pencils and a sharpener.