Drawing Statues

This is one of three statues of dark hooded figures, standing beside one another outside  the Church of  Ireland  in Fermoy.  I found its gothic look and the drapery an intriguing subject to draw. It was done with a Conte Pierre Noire black pencil. Perhaps I could have used a more interesting angle.

Small scale sketch in pencil. This was
done quickly when outside the county hall  in Cork. I think they were prominent union men at one time. Now I
will resist saying anything controversial about the County Hall...The day was sunny so there was plenty
of light and shadow. I sketched  these statues  while sitting on a low wall, but  I would
have liked to have been able to obtain an even lower angle so
that they would look larger and have more impact. 

A Townscape in Line, a Sketchbook of Streetscapes and a Limited Palette Study

For the drawing of the townscape in line, I searched round for quite a while to find a view that might come somewhere near to what was suggested in the instructions. Finally I found it - some unremarkable looking backs of buildings which fronted on to the main street of a local town - Mitchelstown. Although I hadn't noticed it initially, while in the process of trying some early sketches I began to realise that it had the potential to make an interesting drawing. I was a little intimidated by the idea of interpreting what appeared like a multitude of textures in pen and ink, but after some practice sketches (below) and outlining the main features in pencil beforehand my fear slowly began to diminish. A couple of areas did give me a fright when I thought I had messed them up with a slip of the pen or over zealous shading - the eaves on the two central buildings), but I think I managed to reduce most of the damage with a little first aid.  

A few of the townscape sketches

Townscape in Line

How did you use a limited colour palette to create a sense of depth?

This applied only to the Limited Palette Study in coloured pencil (below). I used a little black conte crayon and dark blue watercolour pencil – a cool receding colour, with a touch of rose red pencil in the shadow areas. Where I used only blue and rose red combined, they merged into a vibrant but cool dark purple like shade. In areas where I thought increased shadow was needed I added a little black. A sense of depth was enhanced by repeated layers of shading and increasing amounts of pressure on the pencils. I applied rose pink alone, to areas where I wanted an advancing effect. I changed the colour, from what it actually was, on the larger building. The actual colours were black and light grey but I wanted to use a palette that would help to unite its appearance with the much smaller deep pink painted building next door. As the light grey paint on the large building had a blue tinge I decided to deepen the blue and mix in some of the pink shade from the adjoining building into the shadows, and vice versa with the blue and a little black.

Above - a sketchbook of streetscapes

As all the check and log questions seem to be geared towards them, I will keep to the sketchbook of townscape drawings and the limited palette study. I found some of the instructions confusing, as I’m not sure whether, for the limited palette study, I was meant to leave some parts unfinished (as stated at the end of the townscape sketches exercise) or to do a complete drawing, while leaving out a small amount of detail present in actuality. If this had been another sketch I would have done so.

It transpired I wasn’t happy that my preliminary sketches were sufficient because:

1. There was no variety light and shade, as the weather was overcast and at that time of day the orientation of the building I wanted to sketch was away from the sun.

2. I concentrated totally on the flat façade containing the shopfront and the ornate doorway next to it, which didn’t appear to have much potential to provide some sense of form.

After some thought I decided to return on a bright evening a couple of days later, when the sun was shining on the front right hand side of the building and was also casting quite long shadows. I did another couple of sketches - one of them of the complete scene. Admittedly, part of it was from photos I took there and then, as I didn’t have enough time to complete them on the spot.

It was quite frustrating trying to get the scale correct, as I had the scale inaccurate in the sketch of the buildings and I initially used the proportions in this for my final drawing. As the drawing progressed I soon noticed that a roof looked too high in one place then too low in another. When I took out a 30cm ruler to check these with the estimated vanishing point off the paper, this confirmed things, along with one or two other mishaps. So trying to judge the scale and perspective purely by sight was something I certainly wasn’t ready for!

Limited palette study

I felt it was really important to capture the architectural details such as the scrollwork and carved details around the nearest door and the left of the shopfront, even the roofs and chimneys, but in an understated way, as I think they are such a crucial part of the atmosphere and character of the buildings in the village and in the surrounding area. Part of the reason I wanted to extend the scene to include the small cottage type building next door was its smaller size and lower roof level. There are also other interesting disparities between this (pink building) and the larger, closer building. The two are both old and full of character. They are very different in style, one is older (probably), more rustic and relatively plain. The other, the larger blue building, is more elaborate in style but still traditional in appearance. Both are typical of local vernacular buildings.

Research Point 4

Claude Lorrain and JMW Turner - how these artists divide their landscapes into foreground, middleground and background.

Claude was a master of aerial perspective and was very curious about the effects of light at different times of the day - of which he made many studies. His lighting effects were soft and subtle and he had a great ability to depict vast areas of sky and great distance.

Usual characteristics of his paintings are enclosures of dark trees and/or rocks in the foreground bringing into focus brighter paler tones in the middleground, containing figures, animals and/or a building or some other structure - mostly classical looking. The sky is calm and magnificent, sometimes luminous (as in View of Tivoli at Sunset) above distant blue hills or mountains. The harmonious nature of his paintings is enhanced not only by the classical/biblical themes he employed, but also by his use of a very wide tonal range throughout. His paintings of sunrise and sunset reveal these effects very effectively. Many of his works are believed to have darkened over time, so some spatial clarity has disappeared.

The famous Claude Glass is small slightly convex mirror tinted a dark colour. It subdues and simplifies the colours in a scene, so giving them a mellow tone. They were once popular with travellers and poets.

View of Tivoli at Sunset



Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia 1682.



Joseph Mallord WilliamTurner (1775-1851)

Turner emulated Claude and other masters such as Poussin. At the time, this kind of landscape art - the Grand Style was held in high esteem. All three artists made wonderful observations of aerial perspective in their paintings.

Claude’s landscapes had a look of calmness while Turner’s were much bolder.

Unlike them, he portrayed more dramatic scenes – ships in a storm or shipwrecks and aspects of nature, such as storms and lightning, more ‘real’ scenes. A huge glowing sun was often a feature in Claude’s paintings, which Turner too used repeatedly. He was fascinated by the sea and air and the motion of the elements. Light was a major factor and it certainly seems so in two such studies – ‘Sunlight' and 'Sea: Stormy Sky'. His finished watercolours and later his oil paintings, although still full of atmosphere, are more detailed and describe a more defined foreground, middleground and background. Much of his later work was criticized as abstracts of aerial perspective causing his reputation to suffer - they were studies of the elements rather than representations of objects of nature. Interestingly, Turner’s work has enjoyed a revival in popularity in more recent times, following an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966, coinciding with the rise of Abstract Expressionism.



Sea: Stormy Sky - watercolour



Sunlight - watercolour

    


















Norham Castle, Northumberland: Sunrise – is a painting in which the paint (oils) appears to have been applied thinly, giving a delicate appearance.  Bathed in a warm golden glow and an atmospheric haze, there is an impression of vast space and  minimal detail. In the foreground there are soft warm yet clear contrasts. The tones are warm yellows and reds and there is a grazing animal in warm red. Red and warm yellow tones and relatively distinct brushmarks bring the area forward. Moving back, the middleground contains some

 cooler blues. The horizon is very blurred and colours merge even more. Golden reflection on the water from the sun is quite noticeable and contrasts with the blue of the castle, while it is also very subtle. The background is bluer still and so indistinct as to give only a slight suggestion of distant hills, giving the illusion of great distance.

Norham Castle, Northumberland: Sunrise 1835-40, 78 x122cm, oil canvas