Gestural drawing

For my C&G course we have been asked to explore gestural marks and drawings using Da Vinci's "Deluge" as inspiration. To be honest I have enjoyed this far more than I thought I would when I first read through the module, at first I was a disappointed to not be making felt of some sort but I found the quick, uninhibited way of making marks on paper quite liberating (in the end).

This is da Vinci's Deluge that I was instructed to use as a reference.

I have always found working from another artist's work somewhat daunting, trying to reproduce someone else's work usually results in disappointment that what I have produced is inferior in some way. I much prefer to take inspiration from other's work and interpret it in my own way.

So I sat in front of "the Deluge" pondering how to approach it, making a few scribbles and doodles that loosely represented parts of the great work. Then I tried making a charcoal drawing. It wasn't working.

It was time to go back to basics, I felt I needed to look at some real-life clouds instead of da Vinci's interpretation and lucky for me I was in the "land of the long white cloud", and we found ourselves driving towards gathering thunderclouds the next day so I took lots of photos and produced a couple of sketches.

Feeling more confident about cloud shapes and how light and shade create the illusion of lines and shape I took another look at the Deluge and produced this piece surprisingly quickly; less than an hour ignoring the time it took to dry after the wash. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.