Now that I have the scrapbook, and decided on the format of the pages, I can start on the final drawings. There will be about 8 subject title pages, each of which will have a border, similar to these. I am drawing them by hand, within a grid, and colouring with watercolour pencils. It’s fairly slow work, I have so far finished one, and half done two more. Actually I haven’t finished, I have only drawn and coloured. My plan now is to scan the drawing, and print it out, it will be quite a bit smaller in the final version. Having seen how it looks, I will probably go over the watercolour pencil with water to bring out the colours, then over that with a fine black pen to divide up the colours, and give it the look slightly of leadlighting. I want to scan the drawing before I do that, in case it doesn’t look good. I might also go over one of the prints with the black pen, in case I decide to do just that step and miss out the water.
I’ve also started on the drawings for the subject pages. Each will have a pencil and probably coloured drawing of the subject, for example the ‘House and Home’ page has a drawing of a house, the ‘Recipe’ page has a still life of mixing bowl, jug, flour cannister etc. I took a photo of a vase of flowers to use for the ‘Garden’ page. I’m still keen on the Margaret Preston look for the drawings, although the look I am after is actually paintings rather than drawings, so I’m not sure how that is going to work. Co-incidentally a few days ago the Google doodle was about Grace Cossington-Smith, a contemporary of Preston’s, and also of Thea Proctor. The National Gallery of Victoria has quite a few works by all three artists, just go to  www.ngv.vic.gov.au, on the Explore tab, you can browse artists by name. I looked under C for Cossington Smith, but found her under S for Smith. She is less well represented than the others.
I have a feelling it would be possible to spend hours on that site, it’s a good substitute for going to the gallery, given that the gallery is several hours away even by plane, and even if I went I suppose not all the pictures would be on display at any given time.
I need to firm up on the other subjects, and decide on suitable drawings.
I also bought some calligraphy pens, not actual fountain pens, but fibre tip type pens with chisel points. I shall use them to write the quotations, and possibly some other stuff. I do have a calligraphy set somewhere, but currently I can’t find it so these are a good substitute. Will set aside some time for a little practice before I start for real.
Planning to get up early tomorrow morning and go to the dawn service for ANZAC day. Not the main one in the city, too much hassle to get there, and find somewhere to park, so I’ll stick with a smaller suburban one. I’ve never been before, but often thought I ought to give it a go. Material for a blog post tomorrow, and for 750 words.