A Brush with St Trinians

To view the photos, drawings, plates or prints click on the image below. 

This set of prints were inspired by drawings I did while on the set of the Ealing Studios film St. Trinian's 2: The Legend Of Fritton's Gold. My daughter was an extra on the film when they were filming scenes at Liverpool Station in London. So I took my sketchbook along and drew the girls as they were milling about around me. They spent a lot of the day marching up and down the concourse or dancing to a coreographed set of moves. In between takes the girls huddled in to groups as they were surrounded by the public standing around watching. The girls understandably were a little suspicious of me at first as I focused on them while I drawing. Who was this guy ogling at them as they paraded around in short skirts! When they saw that I was looking after several of their group though I earned their trust. Also I showed the girls my drawings after I finished them. They loved this and then started to try to capture my attention as the day drew on so I would draw them. Also I ended up having good chats with the crew. They cut me a bit of slack as I was getting in the way at times.

I was working very fast to capture the girls before each cut finished. Some sketches had to be captured in under a minute. This did lead to the drawings looking very vigorous and immediate. Something you just cant capture in the studio or off static photgraphy. I have tried to transfer this energy in to the prints so have kept the plate desings as true to the original drawings as possible. I have even included the ring binder marks in to some of the final prints to show the drawings in context.

There were some funny moment as a group of scousers on their way back to Liverpool no doubt surrounded me and demanded to see all the drawings. Come and see these 'Bobbins' drawings they cried. A more enjoyable day I couldnt have had despite being exhausted after drawing on my feet for nearly 7 hrs!

The prints have been created using traditional etching techniques. The creation of the plates was a complex process. To learn more about this visit the Plates page.