| Christine | Farmer |

As you may have seen in this earlier post on the dolls house window drawing, I’ve been working on the ideas for a new set of pen and ink drawings for some time now. I’m now at the stage where the first composition I have in mind for this project has been sketched out in pencil, and I’m beginning to ink things in. The essential thing for me at this point is to get the values right – since the appearance of everything will depend on contrast with it’s neighbour. The main issue is that with this drawing technique everything takes so long, and it is so intense a process, the fear is that I will put too much ink on and destroy everything so far. Unlike working with paint, there is no real way to remove the ink, or to lighten anything once it is inked. As time goes on, I will see whether these clouds through the window are ‘right’ or whether they’re not.

Here is a small section of the window, so that you can see some of the process (click on the images for a closer look):

I thought I’d also include a couple of shots of the studio. As you can see, I like to work in quite low lighting conditions, even closing the blinds during the day at times. I also love to ink by night. I think it is the combination of the quiet and lack of distraction, with the tiny pool of light which concentrates my mind onto the small worlds I am creating.

In the shot on the left you can also see some of the photographs I’m working from. These include those I took on Clee Hill the other week, as well as ones taken in my house, and skies from the decking outside my studio, which has proven to be a great place to photograph clouds!

All images and text ©Christine Farmer Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

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Someone today described my earlier work ‘A House in Cradley‘ as an “inside-out house”, and this could easily describe the idea I have for my new drawings. I thought I’d share a little of the work in progress on this one. I don’t tend to do too many preliminary sketches, and jot as many ideas down in words as I do in images. Here (below, left) are some of my notes relating to the new project.

Looking back through my diary I see that the idea has been with me for a few months now, in various forms. It’s a project which has had to stay on the back burner while I set up my studio, but it’s nice to have it there simmering away and developing over time. There are pages and pages of these jottings, here are a couple of them:

I’m currently working on the window which will open into the sky on the new drawing (right hand photos). This is one of the sketches for the window: as you can see I’m using a dolls house window as a model here, but I’ll probably also be photographing some of the sash windows in my house, too. Somewhere in there I want to get lots of woodgrain, and perhaps some fingerprints too, but I’m not quite sure how yet.

Given the amount of material I already have in my art diary it’s very likely I’ll be working on variations of this drawing for a considerable time, and produce many works from it. At the moment my plan is to make the first piece a stipple drawing, but I am considering also sketching in the window in the sky with pen and ink, as well as other ideas. I’m also planning on building some ‘sets’, using dolls house furniture and dolls house windows, the ideas for which you may just be able to make out in the pages from my diary.

To see some of the earlier photographs which will be used in this project, take a look at the chair on Clee Hills post.

All images and text ©Christine Farmer Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

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I’ve recently started on the photography for my new pen and ink drawing projects. Last week I began photographing some of the chairs around my house, and yesterday the clouds were fantastic, so I put one of the dining chairs in the back of the car and took it up the Clee Hills in Shropshire for some location shots. The conditions were clear, and in some of the photographs you can see the Malvern Hills in the distance — click on the thumbnails to see larger images.

I’m really looking forward to getting started on drawing the details of the wood-grain on these chairs, as well as some dramatic, cloudy skies. But first, I need to take more photographs both at home and out on location, so that’s what I’m working on for the time being.

Visit my galleries to see more photography

If you’re a fan of clouds, you might enjoy the Cloud Appreciation Society website.

All images and text ©Christine Farmer Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

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Just a quick post to show some of the pictures I’ve taken of the Arthur’s Stone drawing to date. The drawing can be seen in more detail by clicking on the thumbnails or following the link to Arthur’s Stone on Dorstone Hill, where you will see a little commentary on the work. Please check back later for a more detailed post, or subscribe to my blog here.

This pen and ink drawing is done with the Rotring Rapidograph Pen. Follow this link to read about my stippling technique and the way I create the drawings.

All images and text ©Christine Farmer Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

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As I’ll soon be re-photographing my work for my new online pen and ink drawings gallery, today I’m beginning to touch a few of my drawings up. Just small things that I feel need darkening here and there: some clouds to make heavier, some skies to deepen. So for the first time in a while, out come the pens.

I had a little burst of buying new Rotring Rapidograph pens last year, just to make sure I had some in reserve. So I needed to check what I have, and see what needs cleaning or replacing. Sometimes it seems a nib gets a bit ‘gushy’ (developing a little globule of ink on the end if you pause too long during stippling) and I don’t know what to do other than replace it and keep the ‘gushy’ one in reserve. I also have a couple of nibs that have blocked, and I really need to buy a cleaner unit. In the past I’ve always relied on a lot of shaking and even sucking the end of the pen… but that usually gets you a mouth full of ink if you’re not careful!

Here’s the current collection (above left): ,13 and 0,5 (which I’ve been using most often in the past couple of years), up to 1,0, which I almost never use. Today I ordered some ,25 and ,35 which I used to use more in the past and will be using for the new projects. I’m going to be recording the progress of the new work here in the blog, from first ideas to photography to drawing. So if you would like to keep up to date with my progress, please subscribe and you’ll get regular updates (one email a day on any day that I update the blog)!

So today I’ll be concentrating on sharpening up the detail in this drawing (below), and later in the week I’ll be photographing it ready to upload it into the gallery.

All images and text ©Christine Farmer Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

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Born in Birmingham, I live and work in Stourbridge, England. As an artist, I work primarily in pen and ink, in a realist drawing style, and the themes of my work are memory, remains, and place. My drawings are composed of many thousands of dots of ink or stipples, and other small marks, and can take hundreds of hours to complete.

You can view a selection of my drawings in the galleries section, or read more about me and the way I work in the about the artist section, which covers the stippling technique. You can also keep up to date with what I’m working on in my art blog, which you can subscribe to by clicking on the “Subscribe” button on the navigation on the right, or via the subscribe page. Please visit the contact page to get in touch.

All images and text ©Christine Farmer Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

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