Gardens Project 10: “One apple behind another, some distance apart.”

Gardens Project 10:

One apple behind another, some distance apart

mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhill Road

Large Garden Landscape (work in progress) mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhill Road

I saw a bird in the garden this morning, it wasn’t moving. When I went out to see if there was something wrong I saw that it was one apple behind another. Some distance apart. “

I’ve spent a good deal of time mistaking things for something else. In essence I made a career of it. I often see birds that aren’t birds, rabbits that are frozen into instants waiting to be caught by a passing glance. I once saw angels stirring their wings on the facade of the Sagrada Familia and shifted my feet to see them turn to plastic bags.

This morning the silhouette of a deer in the distance resolved into a woman walking a small dog, and a large stone used to stop joyriders. Is it true that the closer you get to things the more difficult it is to name them?”

Distances in the garden arranged like a victorian toy theatre, the flats guarding the succeeding views as you wind towards the fence. Out of the side of your eyes birds flit between branches punctuating your progress with commas.”

small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhill Road

Small Garden Landscape – Version One small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhioll Road

Reification or Gestalt Figure-Ground? Is the illusion created by the action of recognising an implied form or by the failure to distinguish a form from it’s surroundings?”

This morning (another morning) a bird flitting through the trees next to me landed on a branch and became a curled dead leaf waiting to fall.”

This morning (another morning) a pigeon turned into the leaves of a bramble by my feet.”

small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhioll Road

Small Garden Landscape – Version Two small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhioll Road

These notes were made over the last month as I try to articulate the things that are driving the Gardens Project. I’ll post a more in depth look at that that I’m working on at the moment.

As well as spending more than 200 hours working on the terrain for the first chapter of the Project (It’s not complicated I’m just not very good at remembering how to use 3ds Max so I’m relearning) I’ve been painting again.

5 small paintings of mushrooms picked off the lawn, and some poppy heads

Dried Poppies from the garden

Dried Poppies from the garden

And I’ve just started a still life of the bathroom window sill.

bathroom window sill

bathroom window sill – work in progress

I’ve also got two more months of drawing every day

The finished gallery from September can be seen here

and October through this link

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

I also completed the drawings that illustrate the beginning of this post, and made some small paintings of holly leaves that I’m not sure about yet.

One apple behind another

Large Holly Leaf

One apple behind another

Holly leaves

and made a maquette of oak leaves as part of the gardens project introductory scene.

oak leaf maquette

oak leaf maquette

Gardens Project 9: Continually frustrated by my old brain.

Garden’s Project 9:

Continually frustrated by my old brain.

I finished the July drawings, one day left handed and the next right handed, and by the end the left hand ones have a delicacy that matches the right. The difficulty with ‘wrong’ handed drawing is the lack of muscle memory and/or development (strength) in the hand.

pair of drawings left handed and right handed

pair of drawings left handed and right handed

The example above from the end of the month shows that it’s hard to tell the difference.

For the first six days of August I continued with the left hand right hand to finish the sketchbook, then I started a new one doing double page spreads for each drawing, mostly right handed.

End of August drawing of kitchen

Kitchen Window, 30th August

I’m still sitting in the kitchen drawing from the same seat.

The finished July Gallery is here

The August Gallery is here

I’m carrying on through September and beyond. The drawings are posted daily to Instagram and Twitter, there are links in the side menu.

3d model of areaa around Glover Street

3d model of areaa around Glover Street

The last two months have been incredibly frustrating for the Gardens Project. I decided I needed to change the layout and the way the ‘news’ was encountered and had to relearn modelling for terrain to do it. Since then it’s been stop start, rebuilding and rejecting and I’m close to 200 hours into modelling chapter 1.

This post is only here because I need to put something up.

Garden’s Project 8: Not really the Gardens Project most of the time.

Garden’s Project 8:

Not really the Gardens Project most of the time.

I’ve been meandering through the swamp since early June when I last posted, stopping and starting, changing tack and changing back, generally not having the slightest idea what I’m doing. At time like this the discipline overtakes and “doing” becomes the purpose in itself, mostly for the worse.

So I’ve kept drawing, I’m halfway through July in my sketchbook and for this month I’m working one day left handed and the next day drawing the same thing right handed.

Gardens Project 8

First pair of drawings, 30/06/21 and 01/07/21

This is the first pair of drawings for July 21, I’ll put them together as agallery at the end of the month. The key is to spend about the same amount of time drawing each page and see what happens. Drawing left handed is still hard, especially in terms of connecting with the paper – I don’t seem to be able to exert the same pressure on the page as I can with my right hand, something I obviously didn’t notice on the iPad through to May.

Onwards and upwards.

VR project wise I’ve been stymied by having to relearn modelling and upgrading my equipment. I’ve got so much data now that it took two days to back up between computers and externalhard drives. I also fitted a new SSD to my big computer and got a new laptop to use with a new Quest 2 that I’m just getting to grips with.

I think chapter one of the gardens project is pretty much outlined now, the direction is there, but the finish on all the environments is not what I want yet and the dome with floating news doesn’t give the impression I want. So I’m developing another way to navigate the space with objects that you move out of the way to progress. This will give me a better way to look at the passage of time as well I think. I also want the environment to be a lot more black and white and possibly drawn.

More to come.

I got a message about a post from 2016 regarding “Photosynth” a now defunct software, I updated the post in response and it’s here Garden in Balby – Photosynth with a link to an article that discusses the software and what happened to it.