In a recent life drawing session at Hush life drawing in Clitheroe I tried something a bit different to my usual pencil sketches. In preparation for this session I made a rudimentary accordion sketchbook using mixed media paper. I then collaged the paper using pages from a vintage nurses dictionary. To help with drawing onto the collage I then covered the paper with a thin layer of gesso, pushing the collage further into the background and providing a bit of tooth for my watercolour pencil to adhere to.

I really enjoyed using watercolour pencil over the top of my collage, it’s not a medium I use very often but I like how quick and easy it was to add vibrant colours to my work. The speed of this medium is great for life drawing allowing me to add colour to even the short 5 minute poses.

Using the nurses dictionary pages as collage material added an interesting and surreal element to the drawings, I particularly like the un-contextualised medical illustrations that peek through at closer inspection. Using somewhat relevant collage material adds a narrative to the images that the drawings alone would fail to achieve.