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.

Drawing fruit and vegetables in colour

Check & Log
Your composition should occupy most of the paper’s surface. How much negative space do you have left?
In all three drawings I was conscious of this and feel I have been quite successful, but less so with the drawing using coloured inks and markers. Probably because I arranged the lighting to cast long shadows on one side (intending to dramatically enhance the appearance of the negative spaces around them) with the light falling on the objects on the opposite side, producing dramatic contrasts of tone – light on one side, dark on the other. I couldn’t arrange things in a way which looked balanced and the cast shadow at the far right looks as though it is pulling off the corner of the page. Despite this I concentrated intently on the shapes formed by the negative spaces, trying to achieve a balanced composition by carefully arranging the objects and the lighting, together with the resulting shadows. I tried to fill up most of the paper’s surface with the objects and and cast shadows, even running some off the edge of the page in the coloured pencil drawing. In the pen and ink drawing I thought about cropping the paper on the left hand side but didn’t. Although I have done this in the image on my learning b/log. With the other two exercises I wouldn't say I had a problem arranging the objects to fill up most of the paper. The only problem with them was arranging them in a balanced way, but I got there eventually. Of course I could have zoomed into the views more, but then I think the negative spaces would have been less apparent.

Using hatching to create tone - watercolour pencil

What I have learned from drawing the details of fruit and vegetables:
Using hatching to create tone:
When using coloured pencils on their own in the past, I couldn’t take to them. The colours appeared weak compared to other mediums, but when I tried them out by firstly applying dry pencil shading, then a damp (not wet) wash over the top, it gave more intensity to the colours, helping to build up depth and definition where desired. Shading with a pencil point dipped first in water (on the grapes sketch) intensified the depth of tone even further – perhaps too much. Yet when I looked at them from a distance they looked more convincing than I expected.
On reflection, especially with the second and third sketches, I can see I got too carried away experimenting with different techniques rather than concentrating on just hatching alone. But if nothing else it was probably good practice for future drawings. I used loose hatching on the orange segment, rolling the pencil between my fingers. A technique I used for the first time was to use the pencil dry, blend with a slightly damp brush, once dry, hatch or shade with dry pencil. I used complementary colours for shadows, as well as cool muted colours. Blue being the complementary of orange was used in the areas of shadow. I also decided to use it in shadow areas generally, to help unify the composition, particularly as it seems to combine successfully with the dark sepia I used to tone down and help darken the shadows. Whereas I think sepia alone would have been too colourless and ineffective. I also think blue is effective for cooling down areas of deep shadow, helping to give them depth and recession.
Dip pens and markers – when doing my experiments, I discovered that using lighter colours first (under darks) is a good idea; if things are done in the reverse the lines and colours will be visible.
I also discovered that I really enjoyed using ink from a medicine or ink dropper – squeeze and instantly a blob of ink appears, which can simply be pulled outwards with the end of the dropper to form lines of varying thicknesses, reaching outwards in all directions - had to be careful though, otherwise the ink could easily run all over the paper. Dip pens (changing between 3 different nibs) worked surprisingly well when I tried them out on 90lb watercolour paper, considering its uneven surface,  yet were hopeless on a certain absorbent sketch paper. I’m guessing that maybe the watercolour paper was sized better, making it less absorbent.
Altogether I did three or four preliminary sketches of the fruit in different arrangements with the dip pens and markers, but they aren't illustrated here.

Using markers or dip pens - final drawing

Oil pastels
As I’d included a sliced section of red cabbage in the arrangement I thought it wise to practice possible techniques to use for the texture of the sliced section. Whether I filled the dark tonal areas first, then the lightest or the other way round, I noticed the colours merging into one another, darkening the light tones and lightening the darks. Eventually I tried a really light sketchy technique, simplifying the detail significantly, leaving areas of the paper showing through. This seemed to be more successful than all previous attempts. Although the paper was a buff shade it was noticeable and at last I think I began to realize the meaning and intention behind using the term ‘let the white of the paper break through’ in the instructions - the metaphorical ‘white’, designed to help discourage people such as me from using a too heavy handed technique which shows in the resulting merged and dulled down appearance. This may be fine for some effects but I don’t think it was the intention on this occasion.
By using a cotton rag dipped in odourless thinners in parts of the background and gently dabbing it onto areas of dry colour, this resulted in gently spreading the colour giving a subtle muted effect. I used this technique in the background, which I think helped it to merge more softly into the distance, helping to make the fruit and vegetable arrangement more apparent in comparison.
As the red cabbage looked very isolated from the rest of the group – being the only object not overlapping with any other, I tried to integrate it by adding touches of the colours from within it, throughout the rest of the composition, which seemed to help promote a more harmonious effect.


What I found most challenging about this part of the course:
 During the process of drawing the cos lettuce with coloured pencil - using hatching to create tone, initially I wasn’t enjoying filling the veined leaves – getting impatient with the complex network and my enthusiasm was starting to wane. But I decided to persevere and eventually started to notice some semblance of recognition appearing. I could make out pattern and shape in them and some directional movement – however the central area is inaccurate (see sketchbook). The final drawing has only one lettuce leaf, and this was fairly straight and flat in reality, whereas I previously sketched the whole lettuce. I think the sketch version works better as a three dimensional object because of this. Although, adding plenty of tonal shading and cast shadow on and around the lettuce leaf helped its 3 dimensionality. On the part furthest away, using a little artistic licence - adding more curves would probably also have helped. When sketching the individual pieces I have the distinct impression I got too carried away by detail.
Building up what I thought was adequate colour and tone on each object, without going overboard, proved a little tricky, particularly with the pear in the first drawing, as it had a stubborn tendency to look flat and distorted. I noticed that even after applying what I thought was sufficient build up of varied yellows it still looked rather colourless - but I suspect by then I had already added a bit too much purple and sepia in the shaded areas, trying to obtain more three dimensionality. So I added more rich dark yellow in an effort to balance the effect. I was a little nervous of using purple for shading on the pear as it is such a strong dark colour, but I think it worked better once I warmed up the look of the whole pear with deep gold yellow near the end. The process was helped by repeatedly moving away to view the drawing from a distance.


For some reason I had more difficulty arranging the objects in the dip pens and markers exercise (above), trying to achieve a sense of balance, once the shadows were included. Because the bottom right hand side shadow runs of the edge of the paper it seems to pull the whole composition in that direction, causing it to look bottom heavy. The shadow being so long and dark doesn’t help matters either. The final drawing seemed tedious and I felt I had completely overdone some of the colours and layers, to the point of deadening the effect in places. The cast shadows became very dark, whereas beforehand I thought they were too bright, so I added the darker colour, which I think it needed, but it is probably too dark. I think the first sketch gives a better example of cast shadows, as they appear more vibrant to me in this one, without looking over the top.
I wanted to include the complementary hues of violet/yellow with red/green in the shadows, some red from the apple and yellow from the banana, but the risk of the colours merging and mixing into a dull mud was quite high, so I had to be careful with this aspect. Fortunately I don't think it turned out too bad and the underlying colours are visible, adding interest and depth, which I was  surprised about, considering how many layers of colours I applied in some areas. I did get lots of prior practice, scribbling around with and overlaying a multitude of  colours in my sketchbook, so maybe it paid off a little.

Using oil pastel

 I was getting increasingly frustrated at the length of time it was taking to arrange the objects for the oil pastel drawing – over and over again, still not arriving at an interesting composition and yet often when I turned away and happened to glance at some other fruit literally thrown into a couple of bowls nearby, I found their arrangements somehow interesting. However, I couldn’t use these as they were mostly just one or two types of fruit without sufficient contrasts of texture and shape i.e. oranges and bananas. I wondered if I was thinking about it too much and just becoming fussy to the extreme, but from what I’ve read on the subject it does seem to be a not too uncommon problem! On the whole I was quite pleased with this drawing. What I like about it are the variety of textures and the objects look quite 3 dimensional, picking up the directional light effectively. There is a sense of depth also created by the overlapping nature of the objects. However, the blinds in the background are too distracting. I realized my error and tried to blur them with a turpsy rag but it isn't sufficient, and - as my tutor pointed out - the line between the top of the sliced red cabbage and the blinds should be more broken up ie. it would look more interesting if its shape at the top was angled so that it doesn't run parallel to the slats.

Still Life Group Using Line and Still Life Group Using Tone

Still life group using line Medium used - black Pitt artist's pen and coloured felt tips.
Still life group in tone Medium used - conte crayon


Aspects of each drawing that have been successful, and what I had problems with:

Still life group using line I decided to again try using the upright easel but had difficulty with accuracy of the contour lines due to my arm hanging in mid air and having nowhere to rest. I became frustrated by this, and consequently  picked up the board and placed it on my knee so that I could turn it round to enable easier drawing of shapes of outlines of certain objects ie. the top of the leek and the shape of the parsnip. 

I was also having difficulty placing the objects accurately on the paper even though I was really concentrating on the negative spaces, their size and shape, in between. On occasions I have used a viewfinder (as in this case), but even with this I find  that if I move even only very slightly I have to continually line it up again with the objects. Despite this, it does usually help with correct placement of the first one or two objects, after which, the rest will hopefully follow on easily, but it doesn’t always happen. I can often lightly sketch in one object after another and so on (but my eye can deceive me) and when I look again I spot some inaccuracies in scale and positioning, compelling me to adjust them again. Its seems that only a slight movement of the head can make all the difference, so it’s just as well I didn’t draw them in straight away with ink and then discover the above discrepancies! Alas, further practice is needed – and a very still head!  

In the early stages my approach started to become quite uptight, which naturally is far from ideal! As I progressed (once the objects had been placed) I began to cool off, realizing I wasn’t helping myself with that kind of approach. So I made a conscious effort to loosen up, especially as I don’t want my work to look tight and contrived.

I wasn’t sure how to go about making reference to the colours so I decided to just hint at it in strategic places – as the drawing was primarily about line rather than colour.

By doing this I did find that it helped in deciding whether the colours were balanced and distributed evenly.

The inclusion of the chopping board, I would say, helped to emphasize a diagonal movement, preventing the drawing from becoming too static looking.

As I was conscious of correct perspective and foreshortening I think I have gone some way to achieving this, with the mushroom on the right hand side and the near end of the long leek. The sliced onion at the back would be larger if placed directly alongside it, but in this case it is only the same size as it was placed a little further away.

Using line - art pen and felt tip markers

 With the still life group in tone - below, after I had every object sketched in, I reduced the size of the celeriac as it seemed to dominate the rest of the arrangement and I didn’t think it was desirable, considering its position at the back (it would also make creating a sense of depth difficult). Even after this it still looks large but more in proportion. I also slightly increased the size of the earthenware pot – I included this because it was hand made and has an organic look, harmonizing with the shape of the other objects. I found that I needed to repeatedly blend the area on the left side of the celeriac (in shadow) to give a smooth transition with the cast shadow area, as it had a persistent tendency to look too obvious and cumbersome, as if about to topple over.

Although I tried to work quickly and was conscious of varying the marks, I think the drawing appears to lack some spontaneity, mainly because I also thought that the drawing needed to look finished. I wouldn’t say it is overworked, yet there seems to be such a fine line between this and finished I’m not always sure where it is. The paper I chose to use has a good tooth and is neutral in tone, and the chosen medium – conté crayons. I enjoyed using both because: the medium lends itself well to a tinted paper; the neutral tone causes the colours to appear more vibrant than on a white background and is perfect to use white on.  It is relatively easy to build up layers with this medium and it is vibrant and expressive, yet quite easy to obtain detail due to its sharp corners and edges. It is also very stable and controllable in comparison to the crumbliness of soft pastel.

How did I manage a sense of depth in my drawings? what elements of the drawings and still life groupings helped to created that sense?

The sense of depth I think is created by inclusion of: the overlapping of objects and the diagonal direction of the board in the case of the group in line - above, all help to create movement within the composition. I felt there needed to be at least a suggestion of light and shade to give a feeling of depth and I think I got too carried away with this. The onion at the back looks about the same size as the mushroom at the front on the right, but it is larger in actuality, which is what I wanted to achieve. At the suggestion of my tutor I deepened the ellipse on the pot (below). It's an improvement but I'm not sure if it's enough, as the upper part looks slightly more curved, yet is closer to eye level than the base, so should be more level. 

Before ellipse rounded off on base of pot

Still Life Group Using Tone after improving the ellipse at
base of pot - Conte crayon 

I think there is an apparent sense of depth also in the still life group in tone, despite the onion and garlic being relatively small objects in the foreground. This may have been due to the gradual building up of tonal layering and the obvious differences (contrasts) between the tonal ranges used and the use of complementary colours of orange and blue. The lines seem to respond by creating a sensation of pushing and pulling against one another. Using lines and marks following the contours of the objects blending some areas quite smoothly (such as the celeriac) also to help to define depth in the composition.

Difficulties created by being restricted to line or tone:

Still life group using line I thought it would be impossible to create a sense of depth without using tone, so I added cast shadows and shading to the objects and as I wasn’t really sure how far to go with shading in this drawing, I have a feeling I went too far with it…..and that they tend to detract from the other details in the objects.

By being restricted to three colours in the still life group in tone I had to be more aware of trying to depict a varied tonal range – more of a challenge to remind myself to vary the pressure and density  of the shading within each colour. I think this is much more obvious in the darkest shade. I decided to use two very close colours for each of the three tonal ranges i.e. dark  green combined with dark blue for the darkest areas. This was to help give some added variety within each tonal range.

Detailed Observation

Detailed Observation

1. Which drawing media did you find most effective to use, for which effects?

For the drawing of a piece of driftwood (getting tone and depth in detail) I found the versatility of soft pencils from 2b to 6b were very suitable for both building up soft areas of shadow, yet with some noticeable hatching and for underneath quite detailed areas. Also a sharpened pencil on the point was just the thing for producing very thin wavy and broken lines.

Detailed observation - driftwood

 I enjoyed the wispiness and energy of the line produced by the ballpoint pen - used for the shell drawing (stipples and dots). It lends itself well to a tentative delicate line or mark and the building up of tonal depth in areas of shadow, with a sketchy mesh like structure – marks interweaving and crossing over on another. In these areas the marks were quite short quick frenzied flecks and scribbles formed by a flick of the wrist. Depending on the pressure applied and how the pen was held, I found it was relatively easy to create various weights of line, from faint and delicate to quite dark and bold.

 2. Did you enjoy capturing details or are you more at home creating big broad brush sketches?

I generally prefer the freedom of doing larger less detailed sketches, although I have to battle with an enduring nervousness about using broad brush effects if it’s work to be critiqued or put on display. In the past (and often still do) I had a tendency to become bogged down when trying to include a lot of detail, resulting in a sense of frustration and irritation. Unsurprisingly perhaps, in recent years this has resulted in my increasing attraction to more free and expressive work by other artists. Surprisingly though, I did enjoy doing these exercises. I think this was because the object was to concentrate on detail and create interesting texture in only one object rather than the whole composition.

Above are some notes and sample marks which might work well to create tone, pattern and texture and ways I could improve the composition of each drawing.

Stipples and Dots - shell in ballpoint pen

5. Did doing a line drawing get you look at space more effectively?

Because the spaces in the drawing (sliced cabbage) were devoid of detail I think they became much more apparent and larger than a drawing containing tonal shading, greatly emphasizing the contrast between open plain areas and patterned areas. Because of this the effect is more 2 dimensional and less solid. As there are no directional shadows within or around the object, it could almost be a flat cut out shape floating in space, apart from the fact that, it is safe to assume I think, it is in front of the white background of the paper surface.

Line drawing - cabbage section

Part 1, Assignment 1, Man Made Objects

Made Objects 
To some extent I was influenced as to what I wanted to use for this part of the assignment, by previous experiments with textures and frottage. There were certain  textural techniques I felt inspired to use again more than others. Among them were: bristles of a decorating brush, dull metal finish and plaster board tape. I considered objects that I could connect to various themes but when I looked around my surroundings, DIY related objects were literally crying out to be drawn! I considered pencil to be the most suitable medium for the same reason (it was used in the texture experiments)  and I have to admit, because it's such a familiar medium to me, I felt relatively safe with it. So with the inclusion of some uncertain type of slim decorating/dusting brush with long rough bristles, a piece of zinc plate (a boiler part), a roll of plasterboard tape and a wood plane (amongst others), I began with a short lived attempt at sketching my first choice of objects. I say short lived, because I began to sketch the wood plane and after just a few lines I gave up in frustration and removed it from the line up altogether - slightly  too overwhelming a prospect  for me to continue with at that stage, particularly along with several other objects.  I continued with the rest of the objects (above) in combination with a long narrow wood file, then a chisel, sandpaper and measuring tape until by the third small sketch I had settled on the objects I was reasonably happy to use for the remainder of the assignment. By then I had also cut down the number of objects in the arrangement, as it was rapidly becoming too crowded.

 At this stage I was ready to move onto a larger scale sketch in pencil, followed by a colour sketch in coloured pencil. I did consider using neopastel crayons, but decided I might have problems gaining sufficient detail with these and as it turned out, I was glad I opted for coloured pencils instead. The resulting relative scarcity of colour reflected what was there in reality.

I’m glad I cut down on the number of objects and in places replaced one or two with something elso, as I think I finally ended up on the whole with a composition I was happy with. The relationships between the various parts are helped I think, by directional shapes leading the eye around from one object to another and there are interesting textural contrasts, which I tend to notice more than the actual identity of the objects themselves. There is a tendency also for my eye to be led outside the picture, by the drill bit and the sandpaper being cut off at the side edges, which for some reason,  I also quite like. (see also end paragraph).

On reflection, after completing the two parts of the assignment I was quite surprised and pleased with this one in comparison the other part.
Natural objects would always have been my first choice of subject material in the past, yet on the whole, I consider that I did better with made objects on this occasion. Perhaps the practice from previous exercises has paid off.

However, it was a struggle for me at times with certain objects, such as the brush and the plasterboard tape and when trying to obtain accurate proportions between these and the tape measure, so I took great care with this in the final drawing. Up until this stage I hadn’t had any success with the correct shape for the brush so I measured the width of the handle and roughly doubled it for the ferrule and brush part, making sure the lines along the length were parallel. However, before later adjustment (as my tutor confirmed) the perspective was still out. I was uncertain of the best way to render the mesh tape as it is actually white, so I drew it in the negative (with darker mesh) as I couldn’t think of any other way to obtain a convincing interpretation. I did consider using pen and ink for this drawing, yet once again, confidence was lacking - so this is another thing I need to persevere with...

Both Drawings: For the two parts of the assignment, by the time I had done three small sketches with notes, a large sketch, and a large colour sketch, being certain enough of the general layout, I was ready to go onto the final drawing;  the only alterations necessary were to move the odd object around slightly. It was a case of going along with what I had built up by then, or at the other extreme, starting again from scratch and I certainly wasn’t going to do that! Then again, I can see how important it was to try out several different arrangements, utilizing various elements and their positions from certain earlier stages and incorporating them into the final drawing.

The size of the paper for both drawings is A2 and all parts seemed to fit on this quite well. Although the layout of the natural forms may have benefited from an A1 size, as this probably would have helped to give more impact to the whole drawing and it may have looked less crowded.

Large sketch A2

Colour Drawing A3

Final Drawing A2 before adjustments

Final drawing (adjusted) - man made forms

Additional Note:

After reading my tutor’s comments in relation to the drawing (before adjustments) and on re-examination, I  spotted some inaccuracies, particularly in the perspective of the paint brush handle. Suddenly  it became glaringly obvious and I wonder how failed to spot it!

Perspective Distortions

-         These are something I’ve seen used occasionally  in certain pieces of art, but I never looked into the process used to obtain them. I found some information in the book Drawing, Seeing and Observation by Ian Simpson, and this helped to clear up the mystery for me:

-         First of all to obtain accuracy in perspective he suggests, as in most information available on perspective, to put in the vanishing point/s at eye level as a straight horizontal line across across the drawing, so that angles going into the distance can be related to this. Otherwise it is easy to end up with inconsistencies in perspective, ending up with more than one eye level. The vanishing points (with connecting angles and shapes) must be constantly checked so that they relate to the subject. Although this only works if the viewer has a fixed viewpoint and is looking straight ahead.

-         But when making a drawing, what you see infront of you is much more than the 60° of vision which perspective allows – the angle of vision. This is when objects at the edges become distorted and what materializes is a series of separate viewpoints. It becomes evident when comparing photographs and drawings of the same place. Several photographs would need to be joined together to encompass the amount of information taken in by the drawing. Faults should become obvious in a perspective drawing if there is more than one viewpoint. So, drawing what you see in front of you is really a series of different viewpoints and this translates into something quite different.

-         It became clearer to me when it was pointed out that when you look at a drawing your eyes do not travel over it in the way they do over a subject. I guess it is like looking at a photograph in that sense, unless the drawing is so large that it cannot all be absorbed at once. I would imagine that this happens with landscape more than other subjects, as there is usually such a vast expanse on view,  it would be more difficult to reduce the size of the space - the head would need to move so as to take in the view. Using a viewfinder would reduce this vast expanse but it is still very hard to keep it in a fixed position and things can again become distorted. Therefore the wider the angle taken in, the flatter things towards the edges become, like a plan view. My tutor remarked about the faulty perspective in the brush handle in my drawing prior to alteration and I think this is the mistake I made - it looks to me as though the handle could be at the upper edge of vision, giving it a flatter appearance. Certainly there  appears to be a delicate balance between the laws of perspective and relying on observation alone. One may want a drawing to look convincing, while not sticking rigidly to geometric formula.
      I later made some adjustments to the same drawing  - see above. The perspective at the top of the brush handle has been altered and now appears much more convincing. The cast shadows have been softened around the edges and darkened in certain places under or beside the shaded side of an object, such as between the brush handle and rear tape and to the left of the tape. This has been darkened in the foreground seeming to create the illusion of shadows underneath. I softened the curve of the ellipse slightly on the roll of tape and added extra variety of marks such as on the measuring tape to the right.  I think (hope) these changes combined have the effect of improved cohesiveness and interest to the arrangement as a whole. Faulty perspective is now also very evident in my attempt at the boxes and books exercise.

Part 1 Assignment 1 Natural Forms

Natural Forms

The initial arrangement looked crowded and quickly turned into a tonal sketch; otherwise I didn’t think it would have been possible to make any sense of it. When I started on the third sketch, I had changed round the arrangement three times. As I think there was too much empty space at the bottom I later reduced the size of the rectangle there. I liked the way the pepper was given more prominence in this third sketch and there appeared to be more directional flow than in the previous versions. 

   After starting the large third sketch in pencil, on an impulse I decided to try using charcoal. First I tried out a few ways of rendering the various surfaces in charcoal, which seemed to lend itself well to these objects, especially the textures of the broccoli and cauliflower. I like the expressiveness of this medium, yet I didn’t think it was too challenging to obtain an accurate depiction of most of the objects. While at the same time they weren’t overly realistic. It became a rather messy affair doing the colour sketch, for which I used soft pastels. The shape of the pepper in this one became a little elongated in relation to the actual pepper and I thought there were too many sliced vegetables, so I replace the sliced mushroom with a whole one to match up with the broccoli.

large sketch with more work

large sketch 1- willow charcoal

In the final drawing: Generally I liked the way the rendering emerged. I was attracted at an earlier stage to the way the vegetables overlapped, seeming to form a kind of zigzag pattern from top to bottom and vise versa. However the arrangement didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. I decided to move the broccoli further back and upwards, away from the pepper, to create more space in between, but now it looks as though doing this and by moving the cauliflower further over to the right resulted in the cauliflower appearing too insignificant. Applying more shading to the left hand side of the composition makes it appear too heavy in comparison to the lighter area on the right, having the effect of knocking the drawing off balance. It may have helped to simplify the flowers on the cauliflower and to have given them a little more definition, similar to the third small sketch. The area around the base of the broccoli where it meets the top of the pepper doesn’t look quite right to me. I think there is too much going on around the mid section causing it to look confusing. Despite this, I tried to arrange things so that a series of lines in some shadows and objects would lead the eye around the drawing, but I'm not certain if this has been successful.
Changes:

  I set up most of the arrangement again a few months later to have a go at some tweaking. I thought all three drawings looked a bit disjointed. Again this was confirmed by my tutor’s comments. I noticed this time the mid-tone shadows in the set-up and adding these to the negative spaces in all three drawings, with some smudging and erasing, helps tie the objects together more successfully than previously. I included the effect of reflected light on the shadows, which really added to their variety. Applying more mid-tones and blending there, prevents them from otherwise looking over fussy. More tonal shading (particularly mid-tones) and extra marks were also applied to the objects. I concentrated on the soft pastel so called sketch, last of all. I had built up a mental aversion to soft pastels for some reason, but through this experience I now feel a bit more relaxed with them. I shut out thoughts of possible outcomes and pushed myself into focusing on enjoying the process instead, despite it being part of an assignment piece. An advantage was that I returned to a previously fixed drawing and now I realize that fixing underlying layers prevents white from mixing with them. This was something that didn’t occur to me previously, but should have done - duh! I had completely underestimated its effectiveness. But something to guard against is fixing then trying to erase as that didn’t work for me.

Same drawing after more work

It only seems to make sense now to make comparisons between the altered drawings, as  the initial versions no longer exist, except as photographs. What I will mention is the following:
I have tried to remedy their faults as mentioned above. There are obvious size and location differences between the same objects in each drawing, ie the cauliflower has reduced in size in the final charcoal  drawing (bottom right) and the pepper is shorter and fatter. The extent to which I reduced the size of the cauliflower in the last drawing seems to make it look a little out of balance with the broccoli. This possible fault was something I decided was too risky to try changing so was left alone. I think the additional rendering within and around it have helped to redress the balance though.

Colour drawing 1 - soft pastel

I'm happier that there is more of a difference between the outside and inside of the pepper in the final version in charcoal (below). It appears smooth and shiny in relation to the inside. To do this I used a combination of the side and end of the charcoal stick in a mostly horizontal direction.  The features of the inside of the pepper go in a vertical direction as opposed to the outside, which to me is an accidental but fortunate spin-off. I prefer the broccoli in the first charcoal sketch to the one in the final drawing as it looks more understated - it blends into the background more comfortably. Whereas the final version of broccoli is shaded heavily, causing it to compete too much with the pepper. This also probably adds to its over dominating effect on the cauliflower.(see paragraph above).In spite of this I think the background objects now recede more, thanks also to adding some shading in the negative spaces and blending of edges has softened their previous impact. What I am certain of is that there is an improvement in all three drawings now.

Final drawing 1- willow charcoal

Same drawing as on left, after more work

Using Texture

Texture Squares
When doing the texture squares I discovered a few new ways of using various drawing techniques to depict surface texture: Blending pencil dust with the fingers I found quite fun, and useful for dense grey or black smudgy areas, then erasing to depict lighter areas or reflections.
A blending stump was helpful to soften tonal transitions with control and has more precision than using fingers or a cloth. I used this to emulate dull metal.

For paper pulp I used ink, rubbing the paper with grass stick and quite dry ink,  producing scratchy rendering.

Ink in a dropper was dabbed and pulled to make tadpole like circles and smears for a certain type of rock.

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frottage

I find this to be an exciting experimental technique and ideal to use a point of departure for drawing, or to incorporate into other artistic applications, such as printmaking, collage and painting. I had real fun with this exercise. Apart from helping me to understand and appreciate the textural make up of surfaces of objects around me, it also helps to build up a library of textural marks. Even what I thought were the most unlikely of surfaces, such as the relatively smooth ones of brown paper, a candle and a chair cover gave surprisingly interesting results and would make  good contrasts to the more obvious textures. To use frottage directly in a drawing, I think texture rather than form would be the objective, although it would be interesting to see the results possible.

In the Drawing with Textures – after spending quite a long time experimenting with different materials I decided to try a combination of media for the natural objects, and begin with an open mind. I took a chance with some new effects with ink, including a cotton bud to dab in very dark shadow areas, dark holes in the bark,dragging it (with quite dry ink) for broken texture and for the rock fissures and textures in the bark. I knew I wouldn’t be able to render every object with ink, so I started by using an 8B pencil on the side of the point to apply smudgy tonal shading to the rock at the rear. Then I decided to try charcoal and was so impressed with the results, I continued rendering the bark with this. It seemed the the perfect medium for applying broken texture when I dragged it along lengthways on its side. Certainly it was so easy to smudge with the fingers or blending stick and manipulate on the side of the point for the fissures in the rock, particularly using the thin sticks. For the foliage overlying the large rock I made squiggly marks using a black Conte Pierre Noire pencil.

It is the first finished drawing in which I’ve used my opposite hand (right hand) for some otherwise awkward areas and it felt rather liberating - so not before time! Before very long, charcoal seemed to be dominating other mediums in the drawing – I just found it was ideal for achieving the right textures in so many areas, apart from the large leaf at the front. For this I used a 7B pencil to do the short diagonal veins. It would have had more impact on this occasion (from a textural point of view) if I’d used a grass or bamboo stick and ink,  as I’d originally intended, after trying it out during the experiments I did beforehand. If I’d used tonal hatching with ink and pen for the dark leaf at the top left it might have implied form better, but it probably wouldn't look balanced unless other parts of the drawing were rendered with ink also - the berries and leaves may also have been improved by the same treatment. I think the rock and bark aren’t too bad in this respect, as they seem to have more tonal variations, although I concentrated on bringing out the textures more than anything else. I also included the wooden texture of the supporting surface and the fabric background in this drawing.

A few earlier experiments

 

A Drawing with Textures - my final attempt.