Ghost Notes

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When I go to museums or talks, even if I’m not actively drawing, I like to take sketch notes. It’s a habit I got into while studying for an art MA five years ago, where we were required to keep a visual diary of talks and exhibitions we attended. (You can see that diary here). Earlier in the summer I went on a ghost tour of Cambridge via work, and I took these notes. (You can read more about haunted Cambridge here too). If I’m in a situation where I’m walking around or moving a lot, I block out the text and images in non-photo blue pencil, and then do the inking later when I have a desk. If I’m sat down, then I do them straight in pen- usually a 0.7mm bullet Posca marker. I’ve scanned a few pages today from my current sketchbook, and I’ll post them gradually, interspersed among other things.

A few notes about this page:

  • Cambridge is essentially on a drained swamp, surrounded by a lot of water, and on completely flat ground right to the North Sea. This means lots of swirling fog and mist in the winter. Ideal for ghosts and haunting.
  • The Night Climbers are apparently a real club of students who scale buildings. Or maybe they’re ghosts.
  • Cambridge was very badly affected by the Black Death. This means a lot of plague pits and mass graves. Again, ideal for haunting.
  • I didn’t go in the Haunted Bookshop, because it wasn’t open very often. I did however go in the “haunted” cafĂ© next door, and nothing spooky happened, apart from a braying young man with a supernaturally irritating voice yelling at the table next to us.
  • The Everlasting Club is a local ghost story about a secret club with yearly meetings.
  • Charles H. Fisk (I wrote his name wrong) is an American study abroad ghost.
  • “Stone Tapes” is a reference to this famous ghost story, and its idea that ghosts could be a physical recording of dramatic and emotional moments in the past.
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