Time lapse film of a drawing in the making for The New Sylva

We wrote recently about a visit to a forest in Wales to make one of the last treescape drawings for The New Sylva (read more). While we were on location Gabriel Hemery set up a camera and during the course of six hours took 600 photographs of Sarah Simblet at work with a view to making a short time lapse film.

We wanted the film to provide our followers with an insight into at least one of the wonderful locations that we’ve been privileged to work in during the course of this book project. The film shows Sarah setting up the drawing and developing its composition before starting to fill in the detail using pencil.  You will hear Sarah’s busy pencil strokes with the river babbling in the background. During the two minute film it takes a while for the drawing to appear on the page but eventually patience is rewarded. Look out for a brief cameo role by Gabriel at the end of the film.

As usual Sarah will work more on the drawing back at her studio before completing it using pen and ink. The drawing is of a stand of sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and will feature in the final chapter of The New Sylva.