Trick Photography!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Remember the Urban Sketchers book project I am working on? Well, over the holidays, while there's not been too much else going on, I have been taking a few photos for it...

I'm chuffed to bits that I get my very own 'profile' page, outlining the background to my work. Gabi has asked for photographs and descriptions of the kit I use, which is a great idea.

I laid everything out on my desk (which I scoured clean especially), then balanced above it all on a stool to take these pics. There's the basic train-sketching kit above, and then this chunkier set of stuff for the sketchcrawls and other outdoor sketching sessions:

I also need to provide a photo of myself, sketching in Sheffield, along with the sketch I'm working on in the photo. Exhibitionist that I am, this presents no problem, but trouble is, there's not usually anyone there taking photos, is there? The sketchcrawl one of me sketching Sheffield Town Hall is perfect, except we are using the Town Hall sketch elsewhere in the book.

So, don't tell anyone, but we've decided to be sneaky... Gabi says I can cheat, by posing for a sketch I have previously drawn. Great idea, except for the thick snow we've had everywhere, which is something of a give-away!

I really love this sketch of the back of the house, which is also typical Sheffield architecture, and it seems especially apt, as it shows my studio window. So, as soon as the snow melted this week, I press-ganged John into being Official Photographer, and I posed in a likely position out in the back garden:

I should really have been much further back, away from the house, but it needed to be tight against the wall, so you couldn't see all the dead ex-greenery and withered stumps of things in pots!

At least by taking the photo specially, I could make sure I was demonstrating the painting gear in the sketch-kit photo.