The way there on the Friday night was exciting. It took us about four hours to get there and the countryside we started to pass closer to the Moors was getting more and more beautiful as we traveled. It got me eager to start exploring in the morning.
It was quite disappointing on the first day in terms of weather, as we didn't get much sunshine. It was mostly quite overcast and dull, but this was at the start of December so I'm not sure what I was expecting really. I did however get a lot of photographs of the Moors and got a lot of information for when I create my environments.
These are the best photos I took on that first day. As you can see, the day started to clear up later on but it still didn't create as much interesting contrast as I was looking for. I did enjoy seeing all the flora and fauna that was around the area though, such as the heather, moss and all the different species of birds. It was really interesting to really be there looking at the landscape, feeling the bitter wind on your face and smelling the freshness of the countryside. The book starts in winter, so this is how the land would have looked. It made me really see what Mary felt, and especially Dickon, who is a nature loving boy who hiked through the Moors every day, making friends with the animals.
I also got a lot of information about the shapes of the valleys and the area in general. There are so many peaks and troughs, and even being in the car travelling from one place to another, the roads are almost vertical in some areas. It makes for an exciting time, and I really enjoyed this day.
On the Sunday, we went to Castle Howard. It wasn't exactly the place the book was based on, as that castle was unfortunately closed for winter, but thankfully this one was still open and had beautiful Christmas displays which were an added bonus.
The majority of the furnishings were from around the mid to late 1800's, which is when the book is set. There was a lot of William Morris[18] wallpaper and all the beautiful finishing touches which they have tried to preserve and keep true to how it was at the time of completion, before the great fire of 1940 which ruined a large section of the castle.
They also had beautiful gardens, and even a rose garden which seemed to be based on the secret rose garden of the book. Thankfully it was a bit better weather that day, so there was areas of beautiful sunshine that gave me some really great light and shadow outside.
The grounds and outside of the building were stunning. I can just imagine how beautiful they would be in the summer when the weather was better. I really loved going around and getting inspired by the landscape. I felt so lucky to have such support from my boyfriend to take me there and make sure I made the most of my time there, and it was really such a lovely day.
Inside was where it started getting much more interesting, though. The rooms were mostly quite dark so taking photos was quite difficult, and we were ushered out of rooms quite quickly which meant I didn't get any time to stop and draw on the location, but I took possibly a hundred photos going around of things that inspired me. I will put a selection of the best ones here.
Some of these photos probably don't look like the most interesting photos, and possibly look pretty boring or uneventful, but they all inspire me in some way. Such as the flooring, lighting, architecture or furnishings. The way light streams through the curtains, the beautiful carvings and moldings of the ceilings, the pattern and lush fabrics in every room. The intricate pelmets on the curtains or the little touches added to make the rooms look authentic like little statues and ornaments.
It was such a wonderful experience going through and it seemed to go in a flash, and suddenly we were on our way home again. It was amazing to look through the pictures afterwards and see just how beautiful the area was. I would definitely go to the Moors again if I had the chance, the walks were amazing and the castle was beautiful.
I did some drawing on location, but not too much as it was pretty cold so we started to freeze if we were in one place for too long. I did manage to do a page and a half of sketches though, trying to focus on shapes and shading.
Some were from the first day and some from the second day. You can see just how my mark making got more confident and quicker as I worked, making my sketches look better and better. Although there's not a huge amount of pencil on the page, it does give the information needed to relay what the scene looked like to the viewer. I feel this has helped me to really understand how to keep my sketches simple and not go too much into detail with it, as I always tend to over detail my work.
I can now take some of these sketches and practise my colouring skills, and use the photos to really try and authenticate my upcoming environment art. I am excited to start trying to draw environments, as they're possibly some of my weakest art skills, so I really want to experiment and try different methods out.
This was a great experience overall, and I feel it has really given me such a huge amount of inspiration and visual information to take forward with me through this journey. I don't think I would have had such a huge surge of motivation as I have now from actually visiting the places and experiencing it for myself. I feel if I were to have just looked at photos I would never have felt the same way about the area. I had never been there before, so my eyes were opened to a whole new place that I had only ever seen before in videos and on photos.
I will definitely be using these inspirations in my upcoming work, and can't wait to see how it turns out.
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