Ordeal by OHP

Wednesday, 23rd March 2005
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

'I thought I'd finish,' I say to my audience at the AGM of the WRENS, the Wrenthorpe Environmental Group, 'by drawing a portrait. Would someone like to volunteer?'

Silence.

'How about Denise?' suggests someone, 'as she's retiring from the committee.'

I draw the portrait sketch with a Staedtler Lumocolor permanent marker directly on a sheet of acetate on the overhead projector. Of course I can't see the progress of the drawing on the wall behind me, nor can I see the drawing itself very well as I'm standing and looking down into a bright light in a dim room. Barbara, who's in the audience, says that it was fascinating to see the pen moving about the screen and the drawing appearing, line by line.

I can't show you the result, as Denise was sufficiently pleased with the likeness to ask if she could keep it, but here are some of the audience that I sketched for practice during the business part of the meeting:

I'm not used to drawing in marker pen on a plastic surface but I like the bold inky line it gives.

I practiced with a sheet this lunchtime by drawing birds at the bird table (see previous page) but it didn't prove as easy during my talk because of the angle I had to draw from. I'd intended to illustrate my talk with picture maps of the travels I've made while I've been drawing my Sushi Sketchbooks but they turned out as the most rudimentary of sketchmaps.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk