And so a new term begins. After the hubbub of Christmas - exhilarating if exhausting - it's quite nice to get back into the routine of a working week. All my new art materials are meticulously lined up, ready for use: a tempting array of inks, smokey gouache paints, and unctuous lotions/potions (masking fluid, Liquin, olive oil soap). Whilst I'm carrying on with oil painting this term, I'm also taking up classes in watercolour (twee, but useful for illustration and great for learning techniques) and life-drawing. It's worth trying out different disciplines I think, seeing as I have this year to experiment.
My creativity has gone in a distinctly 'Blue Peter' direction of late. I've started collating a scrapbook from magazine and newspaper clippings - something to refer back to for inspiration and colour schemes when I come to paint, draw, or print. There's something deeply soothing about the menial task of cutting and pasting. Takes me back to the bygone, carefree days of childhood (you can tell it's the dawn of my 23rd birthday...Gulp).
On a different note, I went to the Hunterian Museum with my sketchbook today (on the recommendation of my drawing teacher, George). Located in the Royal College of Surgeons, this small museum houses hundreds of gruesome jars and slides, collected in the name of medical science: everything from preserved monkey heads to malign tumours and human foetuses. Dark. I turned my attention to an enormous rat in formaldehyde (dissected to reveal its stomach and intestines), and a jaw bone. Not the most conventional subjects, but interesting/atmospheric to say the least.
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