Pushing myself forward now, the Sun's coming up and Drawing at 6:30am!

The view from our cottage window down the Hetton valley is truly beautiful this morning, Dovecote field in front of us is thronging with young pheasant poults, field hares and a few adult pheasants too.

A cock pheasant in all his resplendent colours is guarding his harem. His regal pose, with upright stance, his head and neck stretched way above the other birds commands instant respect. There is a sense of piety in the way he looks, especially because of his striking reverential white dog collar surrounding his neck. Like the village parson, overseeing his flock, perhaps even giving his morning sermon? This is far too anthropocentric I know, but one does wonder!

I find it incredibly hard not to believe that certain species of animals are able to intercommunicate with one another, especially herbivores. There is a sense of sharing in mother nature's glory on the morning like today which is tangible and palpable.

The remnants of wispy mist rise slowly from the distant hills and valley basins. A quick sketch before breakfast sets me into a good mood for the rest of the day and I've started to write some further ideas down to speculatively think about representational images from the Peregrine's perspective and "the Peregrine's story".

Thinking about the clouds and the free movement of the summer swallows, I positioned myself speculatively above them or at least floating in parallel with them. I imagined how it might look from 3000 feet, as according to Baker peregrines often glide and rise on the thermal air currents to that sort of height. The classic towering cumulus clouds nearby would appear lower on the horizontal plane, whereas distant clouds would appear higher on the horizontal plane as one would be above them. This would be the reverse view that we as humans have from ground level.

A suggestion by Rowan and Richard a few weeks ago to renew some of my thoughts and remove images of the Peregrine itself has been playing on my mind. Critically thinking through what a Peregrine may see as an important object in its day-to-day activities, I feel that the inclusion of other peregrines, and particularly when in the United Kingdom, the breeding grounds of peregrines, then it necessarily follows that encounters with either the Falcon's mate, the Tercel (the male); or alternatively for the tercel to see the Falcon (the female) will occur frequently. It is perfectly appropriate therefore to include images of other peregrines and also their chicks.

This is led me to think about some speculative drawings of chicks feeding? I'm also thinking further about views from the Peregrine's scrapes too. My plan is to climb some nearby crags which are perfect Peregrine nesting points to try and find primary source material.

Conclusions:

• The inclusion of Peregrine images in my book is absolutely verified now after thinking about this deeply. So too are parts of Peregrine anatomy of close-ups, both of the viewing Peregrine's anatomy and equally, of their mates, chicks or siblings.
• I need to try and find some primary source images and real live views of steep cliffs and craggy outcrops and spend some time creating rough sketches that can then be digitised back in the studio.  There are plenty of spots nearby to do this so weather permitting, this will be a little expedition and adventure over the next few weeks.
• Breeding season for peregrines is now completely over, most of the birds having fledged and probably returned to their northern hunting grounds through June and July, so the chance of seeing young juveniles this year has gone. 
• Nevertheless, there is substantial video available from online web cams, particularly of city peregrines and their chicks. I need to make some enquiries and research around copyright before I potentially use these images as secondary sources, nevertheless, with a bit of imagination, I should be able to develop sufficient drawings that are completely independent.
• I'm going to increase the level of my blogs a little more over the next few weeks to help with my clarity of thought, as I find that writing is particularly important to my practice.
• As I temporarily reduced and even suspended publication of blogs during the last four weeks or so, during the academic quiet period to allow my tutors to have some breathing space during undergraduate degree marking and also during their marking and review time for ourselves.
• I feel that it is acceptable to restart the weekly frequency of these again. And publish the backlog that I have been saving up too. I hope this meets with their approval and doesn't overload them of course!

Re-cap on the week's work, but feeling pretty down with myself still.

Back home now for a couple of days before heading back up to a new cottage. The last week has been really difficult for me, even though I made it an intention at the beginning of the week not to worry too much, nor to be anxious about production, and just to take some time out!

Doing nothing is very difficult for me, and with being in a depressed mood to start with since the presentation, which I feel I messed up completely last week, all I've managed to do is wallow in some rather dark thoughts, which have translated into the darker side of peregrines outlook on life.


This has manifested itself through drawings of dead prey creatures, dead rats & mice and especially a desire to draw Peregrine favourites like pigeons and pheasants!

I found a dead dove/rock-pigeon on the dirt track next to our cottage, and although I think it was shot as vermin by the local game-keeper, it nevertheless got me thinking and wanting to draw it.

Turning the carcass over, I realised that the entry and exit wounds would individually look quite similar to the strike wounds of a bird of prey, so in a way, the macabre find was actually very useful.

In thinking about this though, and coupling it with some of the recommendations that Dr Bailey and Richard Mulhearn kindly offered, may be the slightly alternative view becomes a self-reflection of the peregrines daily dalliance with life-and-death?

Having also thought considerably about making some sort of installation work, whilst I believe it is achievable to some degree, I am now wondering if it is, in fact, a cohesive output? Having thought about this for the last week, I've decided to postpone any kind of installation work until after my submission date of 1 September. I believe that such an installation would actually detract from the work that I've already been building upon, and the suggestion to focus on my book and build and expand upon this, together with much more drawing makes far more sense to me.

Conclusions:

• Still, lots to do with regards to drawings and writing, but if I keep the focus of these next three or four weeks and make time to draw whenever I can then at least I have a chance of creating a robust and professional artefact is a much bigger book (page number -wise).
• Thinking now about the critical reflective summary, I need to create a framework again for the production of the CRS and create some scaffolding headings to start working with.
• Next week is going to be another busy week with various jobs that need to be completed in the cottage to make it watertight and bug proof.  I am sure my priorities will no doubt be dictated through those, but I need to ensure that each spare moment can be used for reflection and be drawing too.

Getting into the flow of writing and drawing.

The need for uninterrupted concentration when writing and drawing is essential for me, and my recent acquisition of the cottage that I'm now sitting in, while on the one hand provides me with a wonderful base of complete peace and solitude: but on the other, requires a fair bit of work to be done on the house in terms of thoroughly cleaning it, rearranging and buying new furniture, painting and decorating and generally making our mark on the property. I simply can't ignore this, and my rather obsessive need to keep putting things right often gets in the way of my creative flow.

The idea of coming away from the University and my normal bustling and busy home environment was, nevertheless, a very sound one. I have been able to write alternative points of view for the various components of my research themes as intended, I probably have more than enough words. However what I recognise as being important is to make sure that these words are re-crafted, reshaped and "re-wordsmithed".

The process of honing and polishing the work of writing often takes as much time as the initial commitment itself. I just need to keep pushing myself through and keep working, together with generating good quality ink drawings as intended.

Conclusions:

There is still much to do, but I'm feeling reasonably comfortable that what I have set myself to do as an overall goal, is indeed achievable. Nevertheless, my focus must remain absolutely fixed!

Thinking about my essay for the 70% creative submission

I've been trying to work out the most efficient way to writing my essay while at the same time incorporating a sufficient level of artistic practice based on drawing.

Having considered creating a research article, my feeling is that it would lack some of the magic that I am trying to capture as an original document. This has been troubling me for some weeks, and how I will incorporate the multitude of research sources that I have been reading throughout the past nine months or so, would have been very difficult. Thankfully, following a conversation with Dr Rowan Bailey last week, and reviewing the structure created through the storyboard, a sensible option to take forward is to create an artefact which includes as many of the original voices picked up from my research as stories in themselves.

I have spent the last couple of days tucked away in our bolthole up in Northumberland, and the local landscape is truly inspirational. I was up at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the dawn chorus has woken me up. Just outside the window to the sitting room, overlooking the rear garden to the property, one can see through the stock fence to the meadows beyond. At this border between manicured garden and the barley field is a thin strip of fallow land which the farmer leaves to allow the smaller creatures to find suitable habitat. At such an early hour, it was thronging with life and vitality. Between the fence and this margin, a whole family of stoats marched and bounced across the meadow grass.

Sketch of Stoat Family at Cuthbert Cottage, GP Hadfield (June 2017)

 Tiny little white throats sat on the ears of barley and at the tops of the fence posts, a small flock moved across the field beyond. Red-footed partridges croaked the morning songs to each other.
Like the dawn of the new day, it dawned on me that each of these creatures had their own stories to tell. How they see the world through their own eyes and with their own sentient mind will always be impossible for humans to truly know. Nevertheless, in a creative piece of writing, I would have full licence to try and project my own (clearly anthropocentric) interpretation of what they may be thinking?

With this in mind, I have decided to attempt to narrate the Peregrine's story in the first person context. Equally, I can compare that narrative with a "first person" narrative from other creatures, as well as adopt the same tactic, even a strategy, for the many learning research fellows that I have taken reference and inspiration from.

My creating a small book which reflects these voices, as well as provides an opening and closing series of sections to match a research essay style, I am banking on this being an interesting, unusual yet highly creative way of explaining my desired projects for my master's degree. I do hope that this gamble is appropriate and pays off. I thought about this for some time and realise that I have nothing to lose in taking a risk to complete the first creative artefact for submission in mid-July.

Conclusions:

• For the next few days, I intend to concentrate entirely on creating these alternative narratives.
• I need to make sure that my various research sources that are appropriate are included within the story and narrative.
• Taking on board the suggestions and recommendations from Richard Mulhearn, Dr MacDonald and Dr Bailey should provide me with ample structure for the finished article.
• I need to totally immerse myself for the next couple of weeks to not only write the original narrative but also to ensure the format of the document with appropriate drawings and marginalia is fit for purpose.

Some thoughts about perception, and a little sketching in Jersey

I was lucky enough to be able to take my poor long-suffering wife away for a few days to Jersey last week, to celebrate her birthday. While we were there, staring out to sea overlooking St Ouens Bay to the west of the island, I was thinking about not only the mottled reflections of light coming from the sea, all of the reflections from objects in their various forms and wavelengths.

Sketch of St Ouen's Bay, Jersey, (April 2017) Graham Hadfield

I'm not the first by any means, - to say that art is all about light, this has been a common theme for as long as people have been thinking about it since perhaps the renaissance and even before. Perhaps though it is Paul Cézanne, who explored the detail of light more than any other, particularly in his 80 or so renderings of Mont San Victoire, which later influenced the likes of Manet (and the haystacks comes to mind) to make his own recordings and renderings.

Thinking about this, that light reflected from particular pigments, or in nature compound surfaces, is, from my 'O' level physics, merely a reflection of the wavelengths that have not been absorbed by the material onto which sunlight (or white light). It is the subtraction (that is, through the absorption) of all the other spectrum wavelengths, other than the specifically reflected wavelengths, that gives us a perception of colour. This applies to all reflections of electromagnetic wavelengths, from infrared through to ultraviolet and hence all of the colours of the spectrum in between.

In my quest to trying to find common ground, that is a rapport if you like between human perception and the Peregrines' perception, surely I need to strip away everything that is superfluous phenomena. The redundant phenomena that humans may be used to, accustomed to or take simply for granted. So by stripping away all of the colours to leave just two binary states of visibility, that is light or not light (e.g. darkness), in plain language, black-and-white, this alludes to a presence and non-presence.

The idea then that a sketch or drawing rendered in black and white, the black of the ink and the whiteness of paper or the background is surely the minimal phenomena that I can engage with?

This underlines the importance during my next term of continuing to seek chances to develop through continuous drawing and reflection.

Fighting the the ideas of last week.

I'm still preoccupied with the ideas of using flight and the simple Peregrine drawings I detailed last week, and so combining this with the workshop we attended last Friday, I put together a simple yet rough animation...

Where this is going to take me, however, I have no idea!

I just need to keep "Making stuff" and something will pop out, I am sure of it!...

Initial ideas and drawings of the Peregrine...

I've been working through some drawings of Peregrines, just to get a sense of flow of ideas.

It's just a start! - I have to start somewhere and Drawing being my primary form of expression means that I can engage with the subject matter as an immersive experience.

Starting with some initial sketches, I quickly decided to move towards digital media and scanned in a couple of earlier Photo=shop drawings that I made from the various covers of the book "The Peregrine" by JA Baker...

Just simple rough sketches gave me inspiration to continue to make further images...

These initaial ideas helped me to experiment in a more digital way, and this got me thinking about how I could apply animation techniques to my drawings...