This drawing project started in November 2007 and ended April 2008 during some of the coldest weather I've known. I was commissioned to document the changes in the city between Wakefield Art Gallery and the site for the new purpose built Hepworth Gallery the other side of the city centre.

Armed with sketchbook and pens I set about recording life, the good, the bad and the ugly, hoping that my eye for the strange would come up with the goods. I rented a large studio space in the centre of town, where I redrew my sketches onto large rolls of white, heavy duty cartridge paper. I would spend time outside watching people, looking for something interesting, drawing the huge cranes and machinery that had moved into the town to transform and build anew. Newly built luxury apartments surrounded me.

Months past and the rolls filled with images. What had been planned as a sketch crawl around town turned into a graphic drawing style, solid blacks against bright white paper, warm grey marker pens and dry brush for effect.

My sketchbooks and the rolls of paper now reside somewhere in the Council archives.

Six Months (400 Hours) to Make Nov 2007 - April 2008

Pen, Brush, Ink, Marker Pen, Paper (All of light fast and archival quality)

Photographs courtesy of Wakefield Art Gallery

All images © copyright John Welding and Wakefield Art Gallery 2008