Blog written by: Fabian Musto | Written on: Tuesday 30th November 2021
Drawn from: Wednesday 13th October to Monday 29th November 2021
Artist: Fabian Musto | Inspiration: Minty Salisbury and Dan Hogman | "The City Of Hereford"
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On Thursday 7th October, I completed my take on the "Celebrating Hereford 1621-2021" project, and I wrote a blog about my work prior to the day where I began working on my first drawing for the Affordable Arts Fair project, though I began work a week early before the project was announced.
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1. Hereford Cathedral (Wednesday 13th October to Wednesday 24th November 2021)
13th October: This was the deadline for submissions in the Celebrating Hereford project, although I completed the project a day earlier. I was introduced to the project, and after hearing the concept, I knew what to make for the project; a series of pencil architectural drawings of landmarks in Hereford. The first one that went in my mind was Hereford Cathedral, and I brought in my "Hereford Through Time" book from 2013 by Derek Foxton for reference (I also used this for reference in my Celebrating Hereford project). I worked in my A3 sketchbook for the drawing, and the picture to the right shows how quick I drew the cathedral two hours after I was introduced to the project (picture taken: Wednesday 13th October, 13:00 / 1:00pm).
I finished fine lining some of the Staedtler pencil marks at the end of the day.
14th October: The picture to the right (picture taken: 13th Oct 15:37 / 3:37pm) shows what the drawing looked like when I began working on it on Thursday. The faint drawing seen behind the cathedral is the Old House, Hereford, drawing I drew from 22nd to 28th September 2021. I brought back the pointillism technique from that drawing to the Hereford Cathedral drawing, which is evident in the foreground as seen in the picture to the right. Whilst drawing and fine lining the Hereford Cathedral structure, I realised that I fine lined the exterior of the cathedral so quickly, that I decided to work on the background. Like the pointillism foreground (represents grass), I used my brush fine liner from my tool box to draw curved strokes. This process took around an hour to work on.
Unfortunately, as seen to the right (picture taken: Sun 17th Oct 22:09 / 10:09pm), my fine liner brush from my toolbox ran out after thirteen months of use. I was on a standstill for some time due to this problem, but it is clear to see that I finished the fine lining process of the exterior of the structure. The next task was to infill the cathedral with fine liners, but rather than using 0.5 m fine liners to outline the structure, I used 0.05 m fine liners that follows the direction of the building (the process can be seen on the crenellations on top of the western entrance to the cathedral). At this point, I was amazed by how fast I worked on the cathedral drawing, which shows I was eager to complete it as fast as I could. Despite this, the next week would see me take a break from working on the fine lines of the drawing.
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20th October: I began to work on the project proposal and artist research presentations, and the end of Autumn term marked the start of the AAF (Affordable Arts Fair) project. In my two artist research sheets, I mention two artists that have inspired me to draw in an experimental style, and they are Dan Hogman and Minty Salisbury. These pictures were created on Microsoft PowerPoint 2019.
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21st October: On Thursday, I returned to work on my Hereford Cathedral drawing, although I still felt tired from the hard work I added to the drawing last week! As seen here, I completed the infill of the west front, which shows my complex technique of repeating horizontal lines with my 0.05 m fine liner. Note the diagonal pattern lines inside the west porch at the west front, which was created as a test of adding shadows to my work with fine liners. I also added windows to the bottom-right of the building, and that is the cloisters are. I added windows on the right face of the bell tower, though I drew them without sketching them with my Staedtler pencil! When the college day ended at 14:30 / 2:30pm, the first half term began, and I took a break from working on my cathedral building until the start of the second Autumn term (picture taken: Monday 1st Nov, 11:40am).
4th November: This was the start of the second Autumn term at Arts College, but by this point, I began work on my second drawing for the project (All Saints church). Despite this, I continued to add more 0.05 m fine lines inside several sections of the cathedral building. Note the clouds have been infilled with something other than a brush fine liner; I used a black fine point sharpie to infill the clouds and the unfinished areas of the drawing instead. The problem after was the sharpie ran out when I nearly finished infilling the background, since I also used it a lot during the past fourteen months! At the end of Thursday 4th November, the drawing looked like this (picture taken: 4th Nov, 14:30 / 2:30pm). The result looked good at this point.
24th November: Twenty days after finishing two of my drawings for the project, I looked back on the Hereford Cathedral drawing and realised it was unfinished! Thankfully, the only unfinished sections of the drawing were the lower parts of the cathedral structure, so I infilled them during the last few hours of Wednesday 24th November.
30th November: The cathedral drawing was scanned on Thursday 25th November, and I edited it on Microsoft PowerPoint 2019 to set the image to black and white (due to the black sharpie having a blue tint when it began to run out). I later went on Inpaint to finalise the drawing (Inpaint is a graphics software I have used since 2016 to remove unwanted objects. I purchased a copy of it during mid 2021).
Comparison of Hereford Cathedral (late 19th century) to Hereford Cathedral (drawn 2021)
(the photograph to the left is from "Hereford Through Time" by Derek Foxton, and shows the south-west view of the cathedral building as it looked from the late 1780s to 1902).
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2. The Old Post Office (Wednesday 3rd November to Wednesday 24th November 2021)
3rd November: The start of the second Autumn term saw me and the other students return to work on the Affordable Arts Fair project, and I decided to begin work on my third drawing after the unfinished Hereford Cathedral and All Saints church drawings. This might be the most unknown building to first-time viewers, and this is the old post office on Broad Street by E. G. Rivers of 1880-81. This housed the post office until 2006, and housed a Pizza Express restaurant during the 2010s. The building has a detailed façade but a simple exterior shape, which gives the impression to some that I could have completed drawing this on the same day; that proved to be wrong! I began to experiment more on this drawing than the cathedral.
The pictures seen above and to the right (pictures taken: 1, Wednesday Nov 3, 10:49am; 2, Nov 3, 14:56 / 2:56pm) shows how much I drew on that day, and if one looks close enough, faint horizontal and vertical lines can be seen which shows how much I wanted the drawing to look accurate. At the end of the day, I was left with the appearance of the windows on the left side of the building, which I felt happy with. I chose to work on the right side of the building in the future, since the following day (Thursday 4th November) saw me work on the cathedral drawing.
A week later on Wednesday 10th November, I continued to work on the old post office/Pizza Express drawing.
10th November: This week saw me add a lot to this drawing, including the addition of the Georgian brick building to the right (the doorway can be partially seen to the extreme-right of the drawing). I experimented with adding decorations in the middle of the two structures, although I realised I added them in the wrong sections of the building. It was too late to fix this error, but they still look fine to me. Anyways, one of the last features I added to this drawing were the coat of arms on top of the structure to the right, and the year the post office opened in the building (1882) on top of the left structure. I added a grid pattern pavement in the foreground that closely resembles the pavement in my Old House, Hereford, drawing from late September 2021.
24th November: Like the Hereford Cathedral drawing, I left the old post office drawing unfinished for two weeks. I infilled the pavement in the foreground with two greyscale markers by Faber-Castell, which I bought from Roundabout Stationery in Leominster. I chose to infill the steps and roof with those markers, and the result of that turned out well. Before I completed the drawing, I infilled the door and doorway in the Georgian building next door.
TRIVIA: If one looks closely in the pavement, there are four blocks coloured darker than the grey blocks that read (LOKI), written as a tribute to my first (of five, now three cats) that tragically passed away on Sunday 21st November 2021. Situated in bottom-centre.
30th November: The picture shows the finalised scanned image, which I edited on Microsoft PowerPoint (setting it to greyscale) and Inpaint (removing unwanted objects).
Comparison of Pizza Express (May 2019) to No. 20 Broad Street (drawn 2021)
(the photograph to the left is from Google Maps, May 2019 street view. It shows Pizza Express premises at the time, which closed in Hereford and other settlements in September 2020).
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3. Victoria Bridge (Tuesday 16th November to Wednesday 24th November 2021)
16th November: I began to work on my last drawing for the project, since I knew working on two more drawings would make me rush my work without them looking perfect. Instead of using pictures from my books or the internet, I chose to use my photograph of Victoria Bridge from 7th July 2021 as my reference. On Tuesday 16th November, I began to work on the drawing of Victoria Bridge with my Staedtler pencil. In under two hours, I drew the structure well as seen to the right (picture taken: Tues 16th Nov, 11:46am). Like the previous drawings, I drew horizontal and vertical lines to make the perspective of the drawing look accurate to my photograph. The footbridge spans the River Wye, and since its width expands at Hereford, the perspective of the bridge changes in the distance; this was tricky to draw over time.
17th November: On Wednesday, I began to finish the pillar to the right of the drawing. The curved shapes were hard to replicate compared to the left pillar, but I think the result turned out fine; I did improve the top part of the right pillar when I fine lined it a week later. Speaking of which, I began to fine line most of the footbridge on Wednesday, which is evident in the picture seen to the right (picture taken: Wednesday 17th November, 16:03 / 4:03pm). Although it looks like I completed a lot during seven hours, the patterns on the footbridge were not easy to draw. Unfortunately, I made the wrong choice of not sketching the patterns on the right side of the footbridge, and I chose to fine line them first instead. Personally, this is my downside of the project, and I will remember to sketch out everything I draw before fine lining them (hopefully).
18th November: I had a lot of fun working on the footbridge on Thursday, since this was the first time I experimented with my new Faber-Castell greyscale markers. I used several shades of grey markers for the overgrown grass through the patterns on the left side of the footbridge, and I also used them to fill in the background with several trees. The background with the clouds was short-lived, since they looked cheesy to me; like the Hereford Cathedral drawing, I plastered them with my markers. I had trouble thinking of leaving the footbridge to a plain or beige colour, and I chose the latter since it would appear distant from the pole closest to the eye. I also used the same colour marker to infill the two pillars, though I only completed one at the end of the day; note the remains of Hereford Castle in the background (picture taken: Tuesday 23rd November, 11:39am).
24th November: The following week, I chose to complete this drawing, along with the previous two drawings of Hereford Cathedral and the Old Post Office/Pizza Express premises. I chose to add shadows to the extreme-left of the pole closest to the eye, and I removed the clouds in the background so the drawing would look a tad more realistic. At the end of the day, I realised I finished three of my four drawings on the same day! I also infilled the wood above the patterns on the footbridge.
30th November: The drawing was scanned on Thursday 25th November, and five days later, I went on Microsoft PowerPoint to set the scanned image to greyscale. I later on Inpaint to remove unwanted objects, although there weren't too much to remove there. This is one of my favourite drawings of the project, along with the Hereford Cathedral drawing.
Comparison of Victoria Bridge (7th July 2021) to Victoria Bridge (November 2021)
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4. All Saints church (Tuesday 2nd to Monday 29th November 2021)
2nd November: On Tuesday, I began to work on the Affordable Arts Fair project again, and I decided to work on a new drawing of a well-known café and church in Hereford. That is All Saints, and I chose to use my photograph of the building from 18th April 2019 as my main reference. I began working on the drawing at 9:00am, and less than three hours later, I ended up with the result seen in the picture to the right (picture taken: Tuesday 2nd November, 11:56am)! I was mind blown that I could still draw fast like the Hereford Cathedral drawing, and the detail on the south porch (bottom centre-right) impressed me a lot. The only problem is the spire on the bell tower is blocked off, but that's the least of my worries, since I was eager to finish off the drawing as soon as possible. Note the "x=do not include shape" text, which reminds me not to include the shape during fine lining.
25th November: For twenty-three days, my drawing of All Saints church was left alone, since I chose to focus on unfinished or new drawings. I completed my three other drawings on Wednesday 24th November, so on the next day (Thursday 25th November), I chose to work further on my All Saints church drawing. The picture to the right was taken on Tuesday 23rd November at 11:39am, and the picture shows the bottom-centre of the drawing was fine lined, along with the bell tower and spire, but that's as far as I got. Thankfully, I worked more on my All Saints church drawing on Thursday, and at the end of the day, I accomplished my only successful cloud background drawing. I used three Faber-Castell greyscale markers to form a gradient background, which I still find impressive a week later; this is a technique I will use often.
29th November: I worked on the All Saints church drawing for ten hours on Monday, perhaps the longest I've worked on any drawing at my time in Arts College. I finished the drawing at 23:55 / 11:55pm and the scanned image to the right shows what I accomplished (picture taken: Tues 30th November, 13:32 / 1:32pm). I kept the clouds in this drawing since they suit well, and I chose to carry the checkerboard style pavement in the foreground from my old post office drawing, completed five days earlier. When I finished the drawing nearly at midnight, I felt pleased to see it look realistic! This is perhaps my favourite drawing of the four I drew for this project, and coincidentally, the Affordable Arts Fair takes place at All Saints church in December 2021! I should draw more Hereford church buildings soon.
Comparison of All Saints church (18th April 2019) to All Saints church (November 2021)
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Sustainability: My four drawings were drawn in my A3 sketchbook from June 2021, and the paper in that sketchbook can be recycled. I used Derwent fine liners and Faber-Castell greyscale brush fine liners for my work, and both companies have become environment-friendly in the past two years. Derwent is a member of the Valpak initiative, which advises on improving product packaging. Dominique Weiß, Head of Marketing International, explains Faber-Castell's process; "The company has high quality standards for its product range, which is why every step of the value chain is closely monitored, from wood production to product packaging. Faber-Castell is expanding its commitment to the environment with new sustainable solutions".
(picture on the right: students' feedback on my pencil architectural drawings, picture taken Wednesday 1st December 2021, 12:20am).
Packaging/Branding: I plan to place my work in A3 sized eco cardboard boxes, and this is for packaging. I may add a simplified silhouette print of the drawing on the packaging (e.g. Hereford Cathedral drawing silhouette on packaging, with cathedral drawing placed inside); I will place the TR3X wordmark below. Speaking of which, my branding turned towards TR3X PR0DÚCTÍ0NS, and it was easy for me to think of that since I've used that as my internet username for the past five years (it is a computer code-style rendition of Trex Productions, established seven years ago). I plan to add my TR3X wordmark on my drawings, possibly in the bottom-left corner so it represents my YouTube thumbnails (the wordmark will be small and set to 25% transparency).
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CONCLUSION: Like the "Celebrating Hereford 1621-2021" project, this project was also enjoyable since I experimented with many new techniques, especially the 0.05 / 0.1 m fine lines in the infills of the four buildings. I also enjoyed using the Faber-Castell greyscale markers for my later drawings too, and I will remember to use them again in future works of mine. My next artwork will be a tribute to my first cat Loki, and I may also make one of my third cat Harmonie as well. That is all I can say. Thanks for reading, and here's to the next time! :-)
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"Affordable Arts Fair - Hereford 2021" by Fabian Musto
Written on Tuesday 30th November 2021, 14:25 / 2:25pm - 18:50 / 6:50pm,
Wednesday 1st December 2021, 13:00 / 1:00pm - 14:30 / 2:30pm, 17:10 / 5:10pm.
TR3X PR0DUCTI0NS
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