I did the drawing above this week at the Museum of the Order of St John, in Clerkenwell. The museum tells the history of the Order of St John, established in eleventh century Jerusalem to provide medical care for sick pilgrims, and then acquiring a military role in the crusades. After a complex history, it is now the St John Ambulance Brigade. A second drawing, below, shows the process I am using quite a bit at the moment, drawing in coloured pencil onto a pre-prepared background of water colour.
The two drawings below were done at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. The first is a display related to the battle of Waterloo, the second, a display of historic army uniforms.
Lines of enquiry 
I love these Jo – the colours are lovely and the figures look like ghosts emerging from the past – very appropriate. Fiona x
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Thank you, Fiona. I thought the figures in uniform did seem ghostly, grey models trapped in a glass case. I hope all is well with you.
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I agree with Fiona. And I really like the “figure/ground” effect of the red jacket and bust. We saw several of these multi-layered paintings at the Salvador Dali Museum. For several of his painting you downloaded an app and then focused your phone on it and as you moved, different layers emerged and/or the figure layer would emerge from the ground, Wonderful way to train your eye to see these layers without a device.
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