On my way home after work on the 4th, I came up with an idea for indicating ‘floating’ over the forest, by showing the ground at some distance directly below the view point. I could indicate that it was the point directly below me by having all the trees around the point angled towards it, indicating a vanishing point:

“4-10-00. 5:20pm. I’d like to incorporate a section of trees being higher than the vantage point.” An imaginary view.

The next day at lunchtime, I put together a quick sketch of a possible solution. This was really my first prototype. This drawing has something special about its depiction of space which wasn’t easy to duplicate (as I found out)!

“From southern end. 5-10-00. 2:20pm.” Extreme wide-angle view, looking northwest and using curved space. The bridge has been deliberately left out.

I can feel this working. It is interesting to compare this image with the very first one I jotted down, as the views are basically the same:

On Friday 6th October 2000, my day off, I began a full sheet drawing (75cm x 55cm) using conté and pastels, based on the extreme wide-angle view I had come up with.

After comparing the start of the pastel drawing with that earlier biro prototype drawing, I wasn’t happy with the particular view I had chosen. In particular, I did not like the arrangement of the trees in the left side of the new pastel, compared with the interesting arrangement of forms in the prototype drawing. In the lunchtimes of 9th and 10th October, I started a more detailed biro drawing from a revised position.

On Friday, 13th October, I began a new large pastel drawing from this new position. I had to work standing up, to see over the sides of the footbridge. I was also working in the full sun, which made working on the drawing very hot and tiring. The drawing was also in the full sun, which made it difficult to judge overall tonality, and made my eyes tire quickly. I found that it was useful being able to rotate the drawing to keep the ‘circular horizon’ of the drawing (dictated by the curved space I was using) lined up with the real horizon for each section as I worked. I returned to continue the drawing about 12-15 times over the next few months.

I started the drawing in sanguine (blood red) conté. I drew the trees as simpler forms, as I'd done in the biro drawings. I thought of using (and subsequently did use) exaggerated aerial perspective (an effect of colouring due to distance) to enhance the depiction of forms and overall structure. In this way, close objects were given more intense yellow orange colouring, and more distant objects were made bluer (or less intense). I also wanted to give an idea of air and space around objects and parts of objects, and found applying blues around them helped this. So there was overall and local aerial perspective.

After a lot of work, and putting up with difficult conditions for concentration, I was very pleased with the result:

Floating Across Flinders Forest

Conté and pastel, on Canson paper 75 x 55 cm, drawn entirely on-site, in the pine forest which is part of Flinders University.

A Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo flies slowly along the valley. Walking across the footbridge, which stretches across the valley through the cleared area shown in the drawing, often makes me feel as though I am floating, or flying. I deliberately didn’t draw in the bridge, and wanted to draw the scene as if I were floating without the bridge holding me up (which is why I wanted to show the point directly below me - the “X”). I’ve used a very wide-angled curved-space view, with an exaggerated ‘aerial perspective’ (within the colouring), to depict the strong presence, free air, and 3-dimensional structure within the valley.

Detail: