Apple Trees

At the beginning of May I visited Orleton Court Farm in Worcestershire and camped in an old apple orchard. The trees were starting to leaf while the main blossom time looked a couple of weeks away. I was struck by all the different shapes formed by the trunks and branches and so took a collection of photos to record their appearance. I had initially planned some illustration work but decided to create a photo collage instead. Clicking on the image should enlarge it.

 

Hop Picking Machine

 

The tracked time on my iPad says I had this file open for 6 hours and 38 minutes. This might well have included snack breaks and lunch. Even so, I reckon around 5 hours in a farm shed sheltering from the rain and drawing part of one of my favourite subjects was time well spent. I was enjoying myself so much I hadn’t realised I had spent most a day doing this. Why? I wasn’t keen on going out for a walk and getting wet as I was camping in the car on this farm for a few nights. This huge machine gave me an ideal opportunity to just sit and draw and focus on detail. There are so many interesting geometric shapes and different perspectives and I was able to work in complete safety as it is only in operation for a few weeks in late summer. I limited myself to working solely in black linework, no grey tinting or colour allowed.

I am fairly happy with the result, in this case it was the process I enjoyed rather than the final outcome.

Hop Picking

 

This took a bit of working on and I could have tweaked it here and there. This is a hop picking machine I visited in September in Worcestershire. The two workers are attaching the hop bines brought in from the hop yards to the trackway. The hops are then lifted into the picking machine which strips the hop cones from the bines, removes all the stalks and leaves, and carries the cones off to to be dried. Just outside the shed himalayan balsam and woody nightshade were growing. I added them in, along with a few hops at the top, to frame the image.

I started by drawing a outline A3 sketch in pencil which I then scanned. From then on I worked entirely on the iPad, using the split screen function to view reference photos and my working image side by side. The final image was A3, 300 dpi and 190MB. With such a large file size I was limited to 30 layers so had to keep flattening parts as I progressed. 

Classic Pizza Company

 The Classic Pizza Company at Orleton Court Farm in Worcestershire serving up delicious pizzas paired with craft beers brewed onsite with home-grown hops. This illustration took probably the longest time I have ever spent on an artwork in terms of production, not actual drawing time. I have been dipping in and out of it over several months, eager to work on it but somehow finding it hard to concentrate on the detail and apprehensive of what direction it was going to take. I am fairly happy with the result, though  I had considered redoing it to make a few improvements.

Hop Picking

Farm worker on a hop picking machine back in late summer. Once the hops have been stripped off the bines at the front of the machine they are fed by conveyor to the secondary picking mechanism. This guy's job was to ensure the flow of hops into this was even and to remove large clumps or blockages which were re-fed back in later.

Illustration based on a series of photos I took at the time. I have had a few ideas for pictures and this was one I immediately wanted to do though it has taken over two months to get round to doing it. I may work on a few more sometime.

Hop Picking Machine Repairs

I was very pleased with this iPad illustration/cartoon. I have not shown the caption to it because I don't generally like publishing information directly identifying people. It was basically playing on the idea that to keep an ageing hop picking machine running, the farmer has to salvage parts from a washing machine from the nearby farm house.

Hop Picking 2019

The hop harvest has always fascinated me and a few days ago I had the opportunity to visit a farm in the Teme Valley in Worcestershire to watch the huge hop picking machine at work. I was there last year but didn't really get what I wanted so spending a whole day drawing on the farm was like being in heaven! The sketches were rather quick as I wanted to work freely and unplanned machine stoppages could easily happen at any time. The black and white sketches were A3 pen and wash sketches whilst the coloured ones were done on the iPad. I took lots of photos and have a few ideas for some proper illustrations to work on during the autumn.

Mind-Mapping

Spent the hot bank holiday afternoon planning my novel. It is a magical reality novel based around apple and hop growing around the Teme Valley in Worcestershire. I was using the technique of mind-mapping to work out and resolve some plot ideas. Unless I sit down and actively write or plan I am not able to plan in my mind all the things I need to. Sitting down with large sheets of paper and connecting lots of ideas and words together enabled me to visibly link ideas and begin to create a structure. In this case I has to work out how 'magic' or whatever I am calling it, works in my world. It has to link into the reality of the area in which I am writing and be believable.