I had a great time drawing the model Gil in a recent life drawing session at Whalley Life drawing group. In this session I enjoyed exploring different mediums including collage, graphite pencil, soft pastels, charcoal and conte crayons.

I had pre- prepared a collaged background made from hand painted papers for the session in my sketchbook. When I got to the session I found that my materials were struggling to make marks on the collaged surface so I improvised. I drew out the quick 5 minute poses on sugar paper then cut them out and collaged them onto my pre prepared page. I really liked how this looked.

When I got home from the session I cut up two more of my drawings and made another composition. I enjoyed this so much that I am going to continue with this practice in the future- utilising more of my life drawings by turning them into mixed compositions in my sketchbook.

I am enjoying getting used to regularly engaging in a sketchbook practice. This is something I struggled to do in the past, but by embracing this recently I have found that it helps me to create work without worrying about “performing” or perfection. It allows me to make mistakes and experiment, to create my own “voice” and style in my work and to make a recording of my ideas to comeback to in the future.