Mow Cop Castle

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

So I could draw it

I had to do a drawing prompt for an art group that I’m in and I wanted to draw something old with ‘nooks and crannies’ which was the prompt.

I love the phrase, I think of old buildings, of old corridors and priest holes that people could hide in. Like Cavaliers hiding from Roundheads. Of hidden treasures, or pirates gold doubloons.

Mow Cop Castle is actually a folly, it was built on top of Mow Cop Hill that looks out over the Cheshire plain. It was never a ruined castle, but built to look like one, with the walls built to appear like they are tumbling down, and it’s silhouette is very striking as you look up to it. If you go up to it you can see the Jodrell Bank Observatory over at Holmes Chapel.

The drawing is not a good representation but it gives you an idea of how it looks.

Mow Cop, twice

Experiment with paint and ink. The first painting was from a photo, the second one was extrapolated from the first. Both college work. Its fun trying different mark making and adjusting colours and hues to create different atmospheres in a piece of art. Mow Cop is a folly (pretend castle) sitting on a hill overlooking Cheshire and Staffordshire

Mark making and trying natural and more expressive colours.

Mow Cop limerick

There is a prompt set by Esther Chilton to write a limerick using a particular word. This week it was Mop, which was good because I’d just drawn Mow Cop at Five am this morning.

Mow Cop is a folly of a castle near Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, and stands above the Cheshire plain with views of Jodrell Bank Observatory and beyond.