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.