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.