Wild and windy weather...

I've missed not going to Geevor for a couple of weeks, so I'd planned the trip today whatever the Cornish weather decided to throw at us. Unfortunately, I'd planned to make a detailed study of the pithead, but as this can't be seen clearly unless outside was forced to think about other (indoor) areas.

Having started to study tone in drawing, I worked solely today with a range of 4-8B pencils in my sketchbook, deliberately trying to describe what I drew using tone values rather than line. I found that working indoors while the wild squalls rattled the roof made me more inclined to spend longer on each piece- with one exception-and I came away with a satisfying six pages filled.

As we'd arrived early I decided to head into the Dry first, so I could work uninterrupted before many visitors arrived. On my previous visit I'd tried to take some photographs of the lockers, but the very bright window in the background confused the camera and the results weren't good enough for reference. The study above took me about 45 minutes, the hardest part being the shape of the boots- this side of the room is relatively dark and the boots are defined mostly by the shadows made by the moulded ridges on them. I found I had to concentrate on negative spaces to get the whole to come together correctly.

After a quick pit-stop for coffee I dived into the sample hut to make some more studies of the pots and paraphanalia on the shelves. Since my last visit the hut had been tidied up and the pots were mostly in regimented rows, but I did a couple of studies nonetheless.

The fuse box above is the one connected to the ball mill, a fantatic device which tumbles mini cannon balls with tin ore to pulverize it further (imagine a giant gemstone tumbler). This corner is really dark so I wanted to capture the shapes of the various components as I find them great jumping-off points for abstraction (see also my earlier post of the pit-head fuse box).

This partial sketch was because I found the overlapping circles full of energy, but despite trying to define some construction outlines the sloping angles of the cogs threw me out- as you can see I misjudged the lower intersection and placement of the furthest wheel by rather a lot!

The cogs are made of wood and are actually mould formers, they were pressed into sand or clay to form the mould where the metal was cast into. They had to be made larger than the finished piece to allow for the contraction of the cooled metal, no mean feat when many of the carpenters of earlier times had little more than rudimentary numbering skills!

 It was not the easiest to see as you are looking between some foreground objects - another cog on one side and a combination vice/anvil type workstand on the other- which can be distracting. I'm fairly sure I have a photo from an earlier trip, probably not a good exposure,  but may find that the items in front obscure the cogs.

Another pair of formers, this time of a gear sprocket and a half section of a bore thread. I loved the shape of the gear but just failed horribly on the angles, a more technical contruction approach needed I think! The screw thread is a beautiful work of art in its own right, made of finely carved and smoothed wood.

For my final drawing I went to the drill store, where a row of stoping drills are stood along one wall. I particualrly liked the shapes made by the spring lever, especially when seen from different angles. I probably spent about 40 minutes on this, long enough for my husband to go and watch the entire documentary film in the adjacent Hard Rock Museum!

It occurred to me while I was working on this that I was probably better able to see the tones and shapes because the object was somewhat alien to me, so I see it only as pattern and shape. To clarify- I mean that if I had gone in the workshop at home and drawn the bandsaw, or an electric drill, I would have responded differently to them because I know what they do, what it feels like to use them, and what their component parts look like if stripped down for maintenance. I would have probably made assumptions about what they "should" have looked like on paper as a result, and then wondered why they hadn't come out right! With the stoping drill, although I know how it's used, (to bore holes for blasting) I'm not being so subjective when I look at it. Maybe I can develop this into a "once-removed" technique when drawing more familiar objects!

Possibly this theory could underlie my fascination with Geevor, as it gives me so many images of new things to record in an impersonal way which I can then develop and abstract at leisure.

I shall meditate further. Meanwhile, I need to get this pithead drawn- I can see potential for a landscape inspired by Patrick Caulfield's fantastic lithographs...