Original artwork description:

This is the second picture drawn from under a tree at the Tamsui riverside near ZhuWei, New Taipei City, Taiwan. This was the first time I’ve drawn at this spot after passing through the area many times and always wanting to draw Guanyin Mountain from this position. This area has always interested me because there are mangrove trees on the river banks and when the sun shines on the mountains across the river you can see many of the different shapes, peaks and valleys highlighted or drenched in shadows that you can’t see from other places. It creates a very dramatic and beautiful scene. Whilst drawing this picture the sun would illuminate the peaks with a hazy light and then disappear behind the clouds, so, I had to work as quickly as I could to catch the highlighted details as they revealed themselves in beautiful contrast to the dark hazy slopes.
As I was drawing this I felt a slight pinch on the back of my neck that was instantly very itchy, I thought it was a large mosquito bite and slapped it to get it away from me. It was strange because I had my collars up and had put insect repellent on, so it was a surprise that anything had got in! I continued drawing all afternoon with a very itchy neck thinking it was just a couple of mosquito bites, it wasn’t until I got home that I could see the full extent of how much I’d been stung by something! The doctor suspected it was an insect that secreted something that irritated almost the whole of the back of my neck!

Materials used:

Oil Pastel on 300gsm Black Paper

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