You might wonder why we ask you to draw cutlery in this first module. Well, we had to think of something everyone would have in their home. It wouldn’t have been any good suggesting plants and flowers because some of you might be in the dead of winter with snow and ice on the ground and not a leaf in sight! Spoons and forks seemed a safer bet. And, of course they are quite challenging to draw aren’t they? Looking back through my sketchbook I wasn’t too impressed with a couple of the early pages where I’d played safe and drawn and collaged pretty boring spoons and forks! I’m not sure why I did that because I have got some lovely pieces in my cutlery drawer!

I found this hand made pickle fork that was a gift from a friend in Canada. It only gets used when we have a party so was buried deep in the drawer!  As you can see, I’ve sketched the outline with a black pen, added the dark shadows with a soft pencil (6B) and added highlights with a white pen. I’ve worked the drawing onto a piece of watercolour paper that was a failed eco plant print. I think it’s quite interesting to have hints of something happening in the background of the drawing even if you can’t make out exactly what it is.

Having sketched the whole of the fork I thought it might balance the page to add a detail seen slightly sideways on.

You may have already noticed that there’s a fine scored line on the right of the page. I did that by running a craft knife along a metal rule about an inch in from the edge of the paper. The score line will enable the page to fold back smoothly to become the hinge that secures the loose sheet to the book. In this image you can see a strip of double sided tape waiting to have the paper backing peeled away.

And here’s the separate page attached so that it overlays the existing drawing below.

I think it adds more interest to the open page spread because it involves a different texture of paper, a little suggestion of leaves in the background and use of different technique too. Opening the additional page like a flap reveals the original drawing so only a narrow strip is obscured.

All I needed to do was to give the page a quick spray of fixative to ensure the graphite pencil didn’t smudge and it was finished. I’m enjoying going back and adding to my early pages and hope you might consider that when you have finished all four modules too. Your sketchbook will thank you for the attention!

Bye for now – Linda x