I found a comfortable place on the floor, with a view to drawing the clock from Dover Castle (c.1200) -
but ended up standing the whole time as I had to go nearer to be able to see it and to work out which cog was connected to which lever. It felt very complicated, for such a "primitive" mechanism - in fact, not primitive at all. It's my drawing that is the primitive thing -
Nor can you actually see it, because it's a mass of sketchy pencil lines, nothing definite.
So, while preparing this post, I took some tracing paper and a pen and, not without gnashing of teeth, came up with this -
Only a week after spending two hours looking at that clock, I had completely lost all sense of the interconnections of the mechanism, even with reference to the photograph. While doing the tracing, I reminded myself this is not a technical drawing, and it's a first attempt, done without any technical knowledge.
What I carry forward from the various frustrations arising from the drawing and the tracing is: (1) consider using different viewpoints for small details, to understand interconnections; (2) give up the pale pencil marks; (3) be bold and be prepared to start again. It also made me think about the different qualities that pencil and pen bring to a drawing.
Another view, end on -
This has words added (rather than detail drawings) - at the top, "foliot mechanism goes here"; elsewhere, "decorative details", "more cogs", "more wheels", "how many cogs on this wheel" - and "losing the will to live - perspective gone wrong - not enough space". The use of words was spurred by this module of the extended drawing course.
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| Jo's telescope, by James Nasmyth, 1848-52 |
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| Janet B's ever-sketchier, personality-laden chairs |
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| Joyce's equinoctial sundial, Russian, 1771-1820 |
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| Sue's clock from the 1500s |
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| Carol's hourglasses, including the Divine Office glass - 9 1/4 minutes, for timing parts of religious services |
And the tool of the week - "pure liquid ink" rollerball -
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