photography

Time warp (pen vs earthquake)

| Anna Cull
Pen vs earthquake #7 – Jubilee Clock Tower, 2014
Pen vs earthquake #7 – Jubilee Clock Tower, 2014

This coming Sunday will be the fourth anniversary of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that rocked Christchurch (22nd February 2011). Four years on and we are still the City of Orange Road Cones. One sign of progress is the restoration of the Jubilee Clock Tower ― the road cones are now gone and the clock is no longer frozen in time!

Jubilee Clock Tower, 2014
Jubilee Clock Tower, 2014
Other pen vs earthquake updates:

The deconstructed band rotunda Retour is still in a sorry state. I have no idea what they plan to do with the dome that has been salvaged.

As far as I know, Christchurch resident Peter Croft is still planning to restore Shand’s Emporium but progress has been slow, apparently due to new city council rules and regulations.
Update: Shand’s Emporium touches down on Manchester Street, Christchurch. June 2015

The Octagon is being repaired and earthquake strengthened, and work is finally underway on Mona Vale Homestead. If all goes according to plan, Mona Vale will re-open in June 2016.

My pen vs earthquake sketches are originally from a student project. Ben Heine’s ingenious Pencil Vs Camera images inspired the series.

Life is too short to blend in

| Anna Cull
Galah, Australia – original photograph, 2014; Galah, pencil sketch – study for painting, 2015
Galah, Australia – original photograph, 2014; Galah, pencil sketch – study for painting, 2015

Sometimes the only opportunity to take photographs is from the back seat of a moving vehicle. No time to think ― just point and click. It helps if you are really quick and a little bit lucky. When you see the original shot prior to cropping (below), you could be forgiven for thinking that there was nothing much in this scene worth painting…

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…but I zoomed in and used the scribble sketch to figure out my composition. I’m now painting the landscape and building up lots of lovely textures, and then I’ll have to figure out the best way to paint the cockatoo — too realistic and he won’t have the sense of fun I want to create; too abstract and no one will know he’s a bird. Wish me luck : )