PhD sketchbooks: SBB (17/7/19 - 24/11/19)

The second in the SB (small books) series! The first is here. (Time-lapse video of SBB here!)

This one contains a sequence of drawings in which I wondered what William might have felt during the ophthalmia epidemic. 

Early appearance of the black sphere. I use it to represent the ophthalmia, or sometimes just unendurable/ oppressive feelings, like when you've got an obligation or a responsibility that you did not ask for. I borrowed it from one of my favourite films, Ben Wheatley's A Field In England (2013) - it's in the trailer - and I also use it in Disorder and (Un)Known Associates.

William in the mirror later appeared in Disorder. The right-hand page later became this.

I also put some of these in Disorder. 

Drew the courtroom scene before I found reference for it.

Among other things, such as notes on what I was reading, and character design explorations, this sketchbook also contains my initial ideas for my adaptation/ appropriation of William Blake's poem The School-Boy, which I used in order to recontextualise some of my characters. 

See the whole thing here: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

See one of Blake's original prints of the poem here.

I took this sketchbook with me when I went North in 2019.

Wetherby from memory. Wetherby is on the Great North Road, which William and other schoolmasters would have travelled up and down when they did their twice-yearly London trips. 

York, also from memory. 

Drawn on location, in Barnard Castle (and in Darlington waiting for the bus to Barnard Castle). Barnard Castle is four miles up the road from Bowes, where William's school was, and Charley and Ann and their family ended up living there. Charley and Ann got married (illegally) on the bridge, and the cross in the churchyard marks the mass grave for the cholera victims of the 1849 epidemic, one of whom is Charley. 

I also visited the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle and took loads of photographs. The Gainford Stone ended up having an influence on my work. It was dug up in the 1930s, according to the museum signage, but there are other Neolithic/ Early Bronze Age cup-and-ring stones in the area (such as up on Barningham Moor). Charley and Ann had their (legal) wedding at Gainford! I used similar marks in Charley's visual language in Disorder. 

I think that's it for the most relevant bits of this sketchbook - stay tuned for more, or head back to the list/ sketchbook index and choose another one.