Assignment 2 - Still Life in watercolour pencil and crayon

It wasn’t easy for me to decide on what to use for this assignment, but after some thought, my inclination was to include some natural objects I’d collected on visits to the beach - in part because they had been underused for any drawing so far. The instructions also suggested the inclusion of a plant or flowers and a bottle or jug in the background. Gradually things began to piece together and the initial idea evolved into one with a theme; I could include a bottle containing a piece of paper suggesting a message and my choice of seaweed was influenced by the plant suggestion and would help to imply a marine theme. So now at least I had a basis to work from.

As I went about arranging the layout I was conscious of selecting items which contrasted in various ways. It was many hours (and a few headaches) later before I reached a decision. By then, viewpoints and objects had been moved around several times. It was also difficult to discern most of the items from the background. This looked very evident in my sketches, even after removing some to reduce the overcrowded look. At one point I almost changed the objects completely and I had to muster up a good bit of willpower to stop myself. I thought if I didn’t continue with the choices I had made, I would never know for sure if it would have worked. Being the assignment project didn’t help matters, for the pressure was on me. Eventually, the items to emerge from my final selections were: four rocks in a pile, a single rock or large pebble, a seashell, a bottle containing rolled up piece of paper, a piece of driftwood and a couple of pieces of seaweed. They were far fewer in number than earlier choices and were placed in a much lower position. Moving the objects to the lower position seemed to open up spaces between them without them resulting in appearing isolated.  I tried to arrange the objects and the background cloth in a way which gave directional flow, helping to connect them.

The format had become narrower from the third sketch onwards, until by the sixth it was almost square – the high viewpoint and the layout of the arrangement appeared to favour this.

The lighting was tricky, but I think I eventually got it right by placing the lamp at the front of the arrangement in a low position. It added a quite dramatic effect, casting shadows which, seemingly, improved the directional flow of things and added an extra significance to the negative spaces.

Media: my decision to choose watercolour pencil and crayon was influenced by my enjoyment of using them for a fruit and vegetable still life and a fish on a plate drawing which I'm not as pleased with, infact I think it went a bit haywire. Also because they seemed to work so well for the objects in my initial experiments for this project. I must admit these pencils would not have been my first choice in the past, but I’ve discovered during experimentation in this part (2) of the course, that they are quite pleasant to use and appear to lend themselves relatively easily to many interesting effects.

Throughout the process of building up layers in the drawing, I tried to make the most of the media and add variety between objects, by employing differant techniques. This consisted of dry multi directional hatching over dried washes of pencil and crayon, plus some dots and short flecks mostly on the rocks. In areas I thought to be in need of it, I was able to intensify colours by blending any dry hatching with a damp brush to give some interest to the surface texture. I erased parts of the rocks to strengthen the highlighting.  On some areas of seaweed I used the wetted tip of a sepia pencil. This produced a strong dark mark. In other parts just light shading with a dry pencil seemed to have enough impact. It was just as well because I soon realized that I had placed it in a way that was cutting across the centre, splitting the composition in half. Fortunately I was able to rectify this, to some extent, by erasing with a plastic eraser and adjusting part of the central portion, generating a more inconspicuous effect. It was a relief to know I could erase this area, as by then  the drawing was well under way.  For texture, wax resist was used on the driftwood initially, then damp washes and dry shading. There is a little damp brush blending on the underlying surface and the background, followed by dry hatching, erasing to tone down certain areas and more dry hatching of almost random loose flicks.

Eventually the basic arrangement evolved into something intended to emanate a theme giving a subtle suggestion which,  I want to leave mostly open to interpretation, rather than spelling things out as I see them. Though, I can’t resist elaborating a little more on the individual items that make up the arrangement. So here goes:

I chose to incorporate a length or two of dark stringy seaweed – what variety I don’t know. It was interesting for its inky darkness and winding irregular habit, more than surface texture. I think it helps to connect different elements of the composition, breaking up the smooth forms of most of the other objects such as the bottle. It also perhaps helps in holding the composition together, being draped across the bottle and curving round towards the left hand rocks and in a more subtle way, other objects. The bottle looks as though it may contain a message. Is it washed up on the beach or is it about to be sent out to sea? There could be some kind of symbolism surrounding the shell and the rocks piled on top of one another. The shapes and negative spaces materialising from their arrangement, intrigues me. Another exception to the smooth objects is the piece of driftwood – its texture, pattern and shape falling somewhere between the other objects. My curiosity is again alerted by the power of suggestion in its shape and direction. The directional lines created by the fabric of the underlying surface, the cast shadows and the random loose hatching also seem to  contribute to the directional flow and to give an impression of sand blowing and swirling round -  maybe I’m getting too carried away here. I tried to give some hint, in many areas, of possible transience in the shape of the layout, the nature of the objects and the way the media was used. So whatever happened to leaving some things open to imagination?

I would say that the actual shapes and textures are generally quite varied and I tried to do the same in the process of mark making, although I could have been more adventurous with them in some places, such as the bottle. I find it hard to differentiate between the top edge of the bottle and the shadow behind. I don’t know how I could have improved the effect.

The objects didn’t appear to have much colour in reality, so I exaggerated them in an effort to prevent them from looking totally insipid and washed out.  I think I made a better job of the rendering of the cast shadows with the previous exercises (in Part 2) which I did in coloured pencil  – they appear to be more vibrant, but in actuality there was more colour reflection from the objects in those exercises.

All of the objects and the background are quite close to being face on in this composition, due to the high viewpoint, so the back was only slightly further away than the foreground. Because of this, in many ways it was relatively challenging to obtain a look of 3D form. I hope I have solved this problem. All things considered I’m glad I went along with my eventual decision to draw this arrangement. It turned out to be a very worthwhile learning experience for me, so it has accomplished its goal.


I later adjusted parts of this drawing, after my tutor's comments that the cloth and the bottle could be more convincing and the bottle more grounded.
 When I look at the old drawing again it now looks so obvious to me how the folds and the  crest of the cloth looked confusing, being in the opposite place to where they should have been, giving them no depth whatsoever.  The only way to check and correct the areas where I went wrong was to set up the arrangement again. The light was set-up from the the front right hand side as it was previously. I managed to make the alterations with the help of plenty of selective erasing and increased directional hatching, where I added the shadows in the base of the folds and the highlights at the top, where they are catching the light.                   
 I continued the shadows around and underneath the bottle which were in reality, quite visible, due to the bottle's transparency. When I re-visited this still life set-up I was quite shocked how my powers of accurate observation were so awry the first time around. At least now I feel a lot happier that by doing adjustments on the areas mentioned the surface looks much more 3 dimensional (almost wave like) and the bottle now looks grounded in relation to the previous version, looking more natural in its surroundings.
NB the photo (above) of the previous drawing is little  washed out looking.

Castaway - pencil and crayon (watercolour)

Adjusted drawing. The photo of the version above is a little bright
 compared with this.

Research Point Assignment 2 - George Stubbs

Mares and Foals in a River Landscape 1763-68

Stubbs’s great anatomical knowledge combined with precise draughtsmanlike skill in portraiture has earned him the accolade of being known arguably as "the greatest painter-scientist in the history of art".
He had a passion for anatomy since childhood, but his life is poorly documented up to his mid-thirties. Amongst his earliest surviving works are illustrations in a textbook on midwifery, for a Doctor who worked at York County Hospital, where Stubbs studied human anatomy.
After visiting Rome in 1754, he spent 18 months in Lincolnshire dissecting and drawing horses. Following this, in 1766, after moving to London he published the book The Anatomy of the Horse. Because he was unable to find an engraver to make the plates, he made them himself. The book was a great success and demand for his drawings grew enormously.
His ability to depict equine subjects with beauty and grace without sentimentalizing them was equaled by his command of anatomy. His paintings became generally recognized as being more accurate than that of any of his horse painting predecessors and his range of feeling was wide ranging, from the relative calm of ‘Mares and Foals in a River Landscape’ to a series of pictures of a horse being attacked by a lion.
Apart from horses he also painted many other animals, including tigers, giraffes, rhinoceros, a zebra and numerous dogs.
His last project was begun in 1795 – A Comparative Anatomical Exposition of the Structure of the Human Body with That of a Tiger and a Common Fowl (15 engravings) which, on his death in 1806 was left unfinished. Equestrian art is now held in higher regard than in Stubbs’s day, and he is now generally regarded as the best painter of horses in British Art.

Research Point Assignment 2 - Durer's Rhinoceros

An illuminating history

Research point Assgt 2 - Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer
At the start of the 16thC. the study of the natural world was only beginning to become a major area of interest and it was not considered a serious form of art until the 18th C. along with the success of George Stubbs. It is obvious from the number of drawings and watercolours that he made that Durer was one of the few artists who shared this interest. He never actually saw the rhinoceros depicted in the famous Rhinoceros drawing, but based it on another artists draft, who saw the animal, and imagination, which is why it is so anatomically incorrect.

A Young Hare - watercolour and gouache on paper (1502)

His depiction of a hare shows great skill and delicately detailed realism (unlike The Rhinoceros). The painting has since become a very popular image.

It is said Durer’s death came about because of his great interest in the animal world, after he contracted Malaria on a trip to the Netherlands to see a beached whale.

Lobster - pen on paper (1495)

Little Owl (1506)

Research Point Assgt 2 - Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo had a deep love and respect for animals, to the extent that he became a vegetarian. His most frequent animal sketches were of horses but he also made numerous bird sketches and his renditions were infused with nobility. His passionate interest in animals is widely believed to be unique for his time and this showed in the grace and realism in which he portrayed them in his sketches and paintings.

While he was living in Milan his plans to build a massive broze statue of a horse were ruined as the metal was needed to make canons to defend an attack on Milan by the French in 1499.Based on the notes and sketches he made for the horse, two full scalle statues were finally built over 500 years later. These are situated in Milan and Michigan.

Study of a horse and rider

Study of a lion

Study of cat movements

Drawing Animals

The main challenges:

As we have a resident feline, it was my natural choice to use him as a model. Prior to doing this project I didn’t have much experience of sketching cats, but it wasn’t totally new to me either as I had made the odd quick sketch of cats before.

one of the first of many cat sketches
-  lots  more on view in my sketches blog

 In the early stages I tried sketching him when awake and sometimes found it almost impossible to complete a sketch – I was lucky to even get the shape of the head down on paper. It seemed to make sense at this point to wait until he was asleep before attempting to do any serious sketching. When I did this things became much easier. Although even when he stretched and changed position just slightly (which happened frequently) it was a challenge that made me anxious to get the basic form in as fast as possible yet with some degree of accuracy. The process wasn’t helped by the fact that I wasn’t very speedy and only very seldom did the cat return to the same position – particularly the head and forelegs.

The next day I found a few tips on the internet on quick basic sketching of cats, so I tried out a few of them and found that when I attempted to capture his pose when eating, where had failed previously, the new technique made it much easier. The idea is to get the basic structure down on paper by first putting in the line of the spine, roughing in the oval shapes of the head, shoulders, belly and rump.  I found this to be a good basic guide for filling in the broad forms with simple fast strokes.

I continued with method when I did a few more sketches in soft pastel and oil pastel later on and it really simplified things for me. Beforehand I had found it frustrating to sketch any animal moving frequently and it had always deterred me from doing them to a great extent, so I will try to persevere with it.

oil pastel

pencil

pencil

Charcoal

Reggie, large scale drawing, conte pencil and conte crayon

Charcoal 

For both drawings of fishes on a plate I used watercolour pencils and/or crayons. The shimmering colours on the surface of the mackerel seemed to be constantly changing and served only to confuse me. Mostly because of this it seemed to take me hours to build up the layers of colour in the first drawing. Also my technique was quite labour intensive, first shading an area with dry pencil, blending the shading with a clean damp brush, followed by dry hatching and dots, then intensifying some areas with a wetted pencil tip for the dark patterns around the line of the spine and the eyes and head. The plate and background were quicker to do because I softened the detail in these areas.

Meg  asleep - my sister' dog - pencil

For the second fish drawing I propped up the plate at an angle so that it was more face on than the first fish drawing. It didn’t take as long, as I included only one fish and feeling more certain about the colours, I didn’t incorporate as many. However, the fish looked rather lost on the plate due to the plate looking more circular than the first, being almost face on and only one fish occupying the plate. As a result there was more empty space above and below. There is slightly more space below the fish and this was quite empty looking, so I added further tonal shading which I think helped to solve the problem. By this stage I was beginning to feel more at home with the medium and techniques.

No. 1

Media I enjoyed using most and reasons why:

Cat sketches and drawing Chalk and conte crayon were very conducive to heavy, light,  thick or thin and soft textured lines and lines (mostly used for the texture of the fur) combined with shading in places, although I used the medium in a more linear fashion to describe the texture of the fur. It was quite easy to control and not smudging as easily as soft pastels. I liked the conte crayon enough to choose it for a larger drawing combined with Pierre Noire conte pencil, which was easier for finer detail such as eyes, nose etc. The white crayon was ideal to describe the white areas of fur on the tinted paper and I left areas of paper unshaded for the light grey/brown areas. It was quite pleasant to use this medium on ingres or fabriano paper, (I bought them in large separate sheets and I’m not sure which it was) as having a smooth yet uneven surface. I also used chalks and conte crayon on sugar paper for a few sketches but in comparison it produces quite an unpleasant scratchy sensation.

Fish drawing no.2

Amongst various media I experimented with when doing the sketches were: 6B graphite pencil - fine for both fine line and shading under or over.

Gel pen – the effect has an appealing linear and spontaneous look.

 Both the graphite and gel pen are smooth and pleasant to handle.

Other interesting media and techniques I thought about trying since then, might be pen or pencil underneath pastel or conte crayon.

Fish drawing no 2 cropped and turned

Fish  Some techniques I used with the watercolour pencils and crayons were fascinating. This medium has really grown on me, it is so versatile. A wetted pencil tip smudged slightly when applied to the paper and intensified the colour. I found the very strong mark made, ideal for dark accents around the eye and tail area and patterning along the length of the body.  It made an interesting textured wash which I used mostly on the plate and underlying background – applying loose open dry pencil shading then a damp wash over it retained many of its marks depending on how much pressure I applied in the dry shading and the wash. Applying the wetted pencil tip to a damp wash softened and spread the marks giving an undefined smudgy look. This seemed to work well for playing down the decoration around the edges of the plate, causing an out of focus effect, helping it to blend into the background, as opposed to more definition which I think would have resulted in a battle for attention with the detail of the fish, which I didn’t want. In the second drawing the yellow background was too dominant so I turned the angle of the fish, cropping it at the same time. I think the yellow still needs to be toned down even though only visible at two corners.

Where to go to draw more animals - places that will give me opportunities:

Local wildlife park - Doneraile – swans, herons and wildfowl, deer, cattle. Local fields and riverbanks – horses, cattle, sheep, birds.  Fota Wildlife Park – exotic species, African wild animals. Open farms – other farm animals. Donkey sanctuary.

Have I tried drawing a moving animal yet?

I tried sketching some horses in a field and swans on the river – from the car as the weather was cold, my sister’s dog and some cattle in the fields from the window of my dad’s house. This of course proved quite difficult with my limited experience, but I enjoyed the challenge and I feel eager to go out and do more, especially as spring is at last approaching.
Many months later I did some speedy sketches of a large group of horses in the field next to my dad's - just having time to get in a few lines, but I was quite pleased all the same. I have yet to upload them here.......