The WoW Fest Great White Shark

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Wind on Water

Over the 21st - 22nd of April, Geraldton held Wow Fest - the Wind on Water Festival! With rides, stalls, sand sculpture, String Symphony, amazing kites of giant sea creatures filling the sky, a fireworks display and even The Veronicas live on stage - it was two days of fun and celebration. With all this happening, the highlight for me was Fremantle based artist Ross Potter's free community graphite-sketching workshop held in the old Rocks building on Marine Terrace.

Creating Tones in Graphite with Ross Potter

Ross Potter creates beautifully toned large scale graphite drawings on paper. Among these works, are impressive life-sized animals that take hundreds of hours of dedication to complete. His whale illustration will blow your mind! For the community art workshop, Ross enlarged and gridded up one of his drawings of a small Great White Shark.

Each person was given a square of the artwork and an equally sized square of blank paper. After a brief demonstration on how to build tones and texture, we all sat down and got started trying to replicate our square.

2B, or Not 2B

We were supplied with four different graphite pencils to use on our squares, starting with the lightest lead first, then gradually building up the tones to create darker areas and suggestions of texture. Kneadable erasers were available to lift and lighten. I attended an afternoon session and completed two squares to contribute towards the Great White Shark.

The Great White Shark Unveiled

After a number of workshop sessions and the pile of squares slowly starting to build, Ross began to piece the huge beast together starting at the tail end first. Did I mention that I have a shark phobia?

On Sunday afternoon, the Great White Shark was revealed in it's entirety and it was a truly amazing site. Even as a static drawing on the wall of the old Rocks building, the sheer scale made the shark imposing and a bit unnerving. I'm pretty sure I managed to spot my two squares amongst the rest!

Thank You’s

A BIG that you to Award Winning Artist Ross Potter for travelling to Geraldton to run his Great White Shark community workshop (presented by GRAG). His valuable skills and knowledge are certainly appreciated by all those who participated, contributed to and viewed the finished artwork. Thank you to the City of Greater Geraldton for holding the Wind on Water Festival, and everyone else who was involved in the event.

Ross Potter

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Rachel Weaver

Rachel Weaver

Multidisciplinary Artist at studio 8T4
Rachel began her upbringing in the tiny mining towns of Cue and Leinster where isolation provided ample room for a rapidly growing imagination. A passion for learning and the experimentation of media has led her to become a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on illustration, design, art and photography.

She resides in her hometown of Geraldton, Western Australia with her partner, two dogs, two cats and carnivorous plant collection.
Rachel Weaver

Latest posts by Rachel Weaver (see all)

Rachel Weaver

View posts by Rachel Weaver
Rachel began her upbringing in the tiny mining towns of Cue and Leinster where isolation provided ample room for a rapidly growing imagination. A passion for learning and the experimentation of media has led her to become a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on illustration, design, art and photography. She resides in her hometown of Geraldton, Western Australia with her partner, two dogs, two cats and carnivorous plant collection.
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