Drawing 1. Part Two - Intimacy

Drawing 1 Part Two - Intimacy

Observation & Interpretation

My first delve into this section is directed at the two basic needs of any successful drawing as named above. The previous exercises and studies have shown me the need to understand and take the period of time from observing to making marks as fulfilling as possible to obtain a successful reaction to what I see. Observation is a personal and a bespoke viewing, what I may consider viewing through an observation for instance of a life drawing maybe changeable to someone else who would have the different aspects, light, direction and we all are drawn to lines and shapes and forms in different ways. 
The capture of detail I have discovered is not necessary the volume of detail but the study and success of snatching elements and sensations of what I see or feel when I am studying an object/objects or even a person. The detail then shows through more successfully. Looking forward it maybe that the detail is sustained in literal observation over a period and also the detail of a drawing that is not enclosed or restricted by one influence or another.

Materials & Tools
I am already in possession of a varied selection of drawing tools and papers, this has already been a great help with me on the path of this course. Previously, I have always used the majority of the time, materials I am quite familiar with and not really experimented too much. The reasons I think behind this are the risks and failure in being able to handle the medium.  However, the assignment prior to this one introduced me to using graphite, charcoal and a couple of other new drawing tools, this has given me a nudge to test myself. 

Looking at variations of drawing tools.

More varations of using various mediums

A gallery of mediums. Alcohol markers - Crayon - Ink & spray - drawing pencils - watercolour markers - wax & watercolour - gelato sticks - Fibre tipped pens.

I have created some samples and tested some new products in my sketchbook to see how they work and flow. 
The choice of material/s used can alter the style of how the image will be conveyed, learning to choose drawing tools that will suit the image will be my next pathway. Though, I think that the need to experiment and test other mediums that maybe not the first choice is always a good side step to see what can occur. 

Page from Sketchbook looking at varied methods of mark making to produce shape and shade.

Composition
Noun: The way that people or things are arranged in a painting or a photograph. 
The previous exercises guided me through drawing a composition on the skeletal level of the negative spaces, the shape and forms and the solids, tones and shade and shadow and light. 
The setting of a composition may not be what makes the painting or drawing interesting but the context in which it is shown and collated. 

Research:
Reading list
bridgeman & oxford art
tate

My research into Still Life Artists suggested and more can be viewed here:
Reference & Research


The ages of still life work has varied and continually evolved and changed from the influences that each artist faces. These are not necessarily one thing, they tend to be inputs from different life aspects, whether they be circumstance or from personal impressions from other human influence. I have researched into a selection of different artists. 

What makes the still life? - Influences.

I looked at still life from different aspects and styles. The Cubism movement was very intriguing and the style seemed to be born from a handful of artists. I had a go at a still life using pastels, I looked through methods used by Picasso and Gris, and took some of their elements to create my own. It was really an experiment to try and see what it created. I find that to look at a cubist still life it is easier to read than do. There is a certain amount of minimalism and understanding of the spaces you are creating and taking overlooked spaces that are actually the structures of the picture you see. 

I worked on these principles: Block colouring - Sample the main visual of the items - No full outlines - being aware of negative shapes - limiting colour pallette. 

Trying to recreate the cubism styles of 1900-1930s. I used pastels on grey pastel paper. 

The next stage of research looks at positive & negative spaces. I looked at the works of Patrick Caulfield & Gary Hume. This is in my Research & Reference page.

I have as suggested by India (my tutor), and also guided by the course work started to keep a handy A5 sketchbook with me. This has been helping me. 

Project 1 Detailed observation of natural objects.  

This section has been inclusive of the comment above. I have been using my pad and taking some quick sketches where i can and available opportunities. Here is a selection of some pages from my book. (This book is separate to me Sketchbook of coursework). 

A selection of pages. I have studied natural items when and where I can. The lily head was in a reception while I waited form an appointment! 

One of the days, I took my sketchbook out for a roam on the shore. It was a really bitter cold day and unfortunately, really was a bit impossible to draw due to the horrendous wind and numb fingers. I took some images of some great still life objects, which keep for my own reference and use. One item I did have a go at sketching was an empty plastic bottle. I know it is not a natural item but it was work and battered and full of grey sand and mud. The sketches are below, I also then took it another step and using ink pens, I broke the line markings down and colour blocked the whole image to make a quite bizarre still life of the bottle on the sand! 

Quick sketches of the poor battered beached bottle.

Creating a drawing from my sketches. I was trying to look at the negative spaces around the bottle and those spaces where the plastic has creased and distorted. I wasn't really pleased with it, but I am only experimenting so nothing lost. 

Exercise 1: Detail and Tone
For this exercise, I created a still life with some sliced fruit and whole fruit, I wanted to try and do something that had colour and contrast so I could get some great shades and deep colour variations on shadows and shape. 
My first attempts were made in my sketch book, I looked at the composition and manoeuvred the light around and looked at the objects from different angles. 

I worked on thumbnails for some ideas on positioning myself for the still life. I want to get good negative spaces between the items, some shadows that are varied, and also I want to practice from another angle, rather than just sitting in front of the composition. 

I experimented in shadows and colour tones in my sketchbook, I want to use this as an opportunity to try some coloured crosshatching and line work.

More inserts from my sketchbook on the composition, I did the ink pen sketch to highlight the shapes and spaces. I am trying to see which angle offers interest.

My drawing came out okay, I used plain colouring pencils, which is something I very rarely use. I find the control is quite restrictive so I was pleased it came out better than I thought it would, but maybe using another medium would be better, but I really wanted to get the drawing to show the cross hatching, and I think though I am not keen on using colour pencils as a rule, the cross hatching and colour build up worked really well. It was really time consuming but it did pay off in some areas. I also tried using line build up by overlaying line upon line of colours to get the shape and space I wanted. After I had done my thumbnails, I decided an over view would work well, I may have oversized the image as it didn't fit all on the page and I also subtracted the spray bottle as I felt is one too many items to contend with and I was more looking for those shapes and spaces.  I maybe should have just stuck to doing maybe one or two objects but it was a good exercise is using the medium and seeing how when I started I did about 3 hours on it and was going to start again, but stuck at it and kept building up those lines and it did come together. 

Plus: - I found the crosshatching in several colour pencils worked really well to show the dimension of the orange.
The shape between the three fruits and the knife. This was interesting to do, I was looking down so it had four areas in one space. The whole negative space and this had three shadows plus the plate surface. I think I did capture this. 
The small piece of crosshatching on the knife handle, this looked really effective, I used four different colours and used sharpened pencils to get the fine line to overlay. 
Minus : - I think I started to lose the feel of the cut fruit and my shaping seemed to start to go a bit astray. 
I kept finding myself having to stop being precise but look more at the shaping and working out the darker areas and spending time to build these up.
Using a putty rubber, I found this does not bounce the highlights out as well with coloured pencils, it was hard to remove to show the sharpness. There was a lovely sharp white line of light on the knife back edge and I over worked the lines and couldn't get this bit back.
I don't think using the pencils showed the table cloth very well, I tried to build it up, but I think it looks very scratchy and I lost the small dark line shadow around one quarter of the plate. 

Still life - line work & cross hatching. 

Feedback review- It was very reassuring to get some positive feedback from my tutor as I approached this section. The suggested reading viewing of Jan Brewerton is fabulous. This artist does show how I have touched the verges of her style. I particularly enjoy viewing Brewerton's prints as they have a comforting familiarity about them and the monochrome versions are simple and effective. I think the prospects of producing a visual like Brewertons style excites me for the future! 

Project 2: Still Life.

Exercise 1: Still life using line.
I was a bit unsure about this exercise and whether I truly have grasped the use of line work. In processing the composition I tried to break the view down to stick to accessing just viewing the lines I see and putting these to the paper. I used black ink fineliner and once finished I did wash in some areas with a wet brush. 
Once I had decided on my objects, I went through the decision of positioning and direction I would take. Going back a stage again, I decided to thumbnail sketch some views and see what areas had the best view. In the previous exercise I was looking for shadows and shapes to use for toning and shaping, here I wanted the some of this, but I wanted some natural chaotic lines and also manmade straight lines. I used plants for this. 
My idea is to have some textures and shapes to work with, mixing this with some solids and shadows.

Thumbnail ideas from sketchbook

Working on the basis of some ideas from my composition.

After my initial start, I think I just felt I was not getting the method right of understanding the importance of getting the lines to tell the story of the picture. 
I came away from this work halfway through and came back to it the next day. This gave me a breather to think about it.
What I then decided to try was to hold the ink pen very lightly. I had overworked what I had already done but I liked the feel of the cactus and the feather. I held the pen looser and tried to redraw the image as I looked at the still life. The light had changed from the day before and I didn't consider this when I had stopped. But I think the shadows are not too in disarray. But I took that as a lesson learnt. To make sure I note block areas of shadows and highlights.
I also found myself crosshatching in an almost natural method once I started overlaying lines around the images. 

Line work. I think my over worked areas make the shapes blend into one another too much and differentiating between textures and shapes has been lost somewhat. 

When I had finished this I was initially pleased, but I think I have made a bit of a mess of it. I think the restrictive is understanding to be more fluid with line making. I have been going back to assessment one and retrying a couple of those exercises to see if I can be more open to creating rather than staying in my comfortable box. I did manage to get the lines to encase the shapes and the negative and positive spaces are easy to distinguish. I just need to hone in on fluidity of line. 


Second attempt. I really was not happy with this line drawing and think I had overworked it, made the shapes quite flat and though at the start I did make some good spaces between the vases and the table, it all got a little lost. This time, I made more of a collective composition and used black in and a stick from assignment one section! I wanted to try and force myself to be free and not so precise but to try and work out what lines I need and where I need them and holding the stick (which is about 18" piece of dowel) I had to be a lot me less precious and more selective. I have to admit after the first hour on this, I stopped and was a little undecided whether to carry on, but I did. I am fairly pleased with it, and it probably doesn't work to my usual sort of flow. 
The ink meant that in some cases where it fell from the end of the stick I had to work with it and be selecting the right area to place the line and fast, which I think worked better for me as I really had to keep looking at what I was drawing and not concern myself with shadow and colours. I also think using a strong black line in places shows the weight and strength of some of the bottles. I was not too worried about adding the details such as label names etc. (if I had done this in a fine liner I probably would have spend ages doing each label!). With the ink, it did take a long time to build the image up as it is a case of : View, decide which part, dip and draw. So, I did have to spend more time line watching and looking at the spaces. 

Bottles and box - Black Ink & Dipping stick

Exercise 2: Still life in tone using colour.
I was a little apprehensive of this exercise as was not sure if I am understanding the use of tone and how to apply it. The easiest option would be to revert back to colour pencils but in the exercise it dues suggest using pastels so there can be some sweeps and movements of colour and build up. 
I did start the exercise as a trial with some watercolour brush markers. I picked five colours and designated them to mid tone and low tone etc.. The still life did not look great but it was a good exercise is seeing the variation in tone areas.

This was done with water based brush markers.

I moved away from this this and gave the pastels a go. I had some attempts at this but found it was a case of sticking with it. I think the layering of the tones means you cannot always get the picture straight away and moving quick and building it up as I went. I abandoned one or two pieces mid flow because I just did not think they were sitting right. 

This one I started but stopped. I found I seemed to start to lose some form while building the tones up, but realised if I stick with it,, it does start to form naturally!

This one is a much better version (below). I started this one and just kept working through it. it actually took me the least time in terms of what I got on paper but t seemed to me to capture the variations of the tones much more than before. 

Pastels still life trying to capture tones. 

I think the best part is the middle boot. The tones of the side blend well from the layers. I regret using the dark grey with the brown around some of the dark tones of the surface as they became a bit of a black-ish mess but these were the darkest areas. I am unsure if I am happy with this. I think I am still wanting to refine it, but maybe in pastels the drawing should be more about the shapes and tones rather than the minute detail I keep wanting to add! 

Review: The last two still life exercises have been a struggle, I think I initially went in with the purpose to complete two pieces of work and spend the time on the whole aspect of the image rather than take on board the purpose of the exercises. The first which focuses on the line work, I have spent a while on this. I went back and re-attempted this exercise as I really was not happy with the finished work. I think I had over worked the lines and spent too much time and put in too much detail and the lines became a bit lost and the purpose lost too. After a rethink and trying a couple of methods. I decided to create another still life. This time I used all glass bottles and arranged them so they over laid and had some strong sunlight coming through them. I bit the bullet and had a go at doing this with a piece of sharpened dowel and a pot of black ink. It took me a while to form the shapes but I did find, by using the ink on the stick, I had a limited time to place my marks and also I thought more about where I was going to place them before I dipped as the ink soaked in the wood pretty quick! The points I liked about this version of the exercise are the sharpness and solid shapes the black in has given the bottles, I also think the dimension and less is more factor has proved a success. 
The second exercise again, I am not pleased with and at this point I may revisit it before assignment date and have another go. After using the black ink, I though of trying another medium, first I tried watercolour markers which I just think did not work at all, so I jumped in and went for coloured chalk pastels on cream textured paper. I thought maybe I could be a bit more free than markers and get some good background tones in to build up and get some good tone by restricting my palette colours to only 1/2 dozen or so and I desperately didn't want to incorporate too much line work so I could try and get the tone to give the sense of dimension and light/dark. I found the building of the pastels a success, but I just can't put my finger on which bit went array but I didn't like it. I think the struggle was to be loose with the lines and let it be as it would be rather than trying to go back to drawing it each time in more detail. So, overall the first exercise I think I achieved, whereas the second one I seem to have found the tones of the still life but I am not sure it is a successful drawing. 
Feedback review- On this exercise the constructive points made to keep trying new approaches and take risks will try and remain with me, I do find it hard on occasion to break away from what is comfort and what personally I know brings results. Trying experimental methods may not always work, but it is experimental and it is the only way to find out if they do work! Hope I can continue to venture further using this as introductory to whats to come!

Exercise 3: Experiment with mixed media


I have not really experimented much with mixed media work on paper and thought I would try a few different marks with various tools and mediums. 

A collection of various mediums that can be combined within a mixed media project. 

I looked at various mixed media artists and their work, mixed media is quite a new and exciting method of combinations, such as collage. The use of collage has been incorporated in art to help tell the story or suggest the image clearly and give the images shape and dimensions. I researched into some artists that used varied methods. This can be seen in my Research & Reference. The use of print and photography mixed with paints really came to life in the Pop art movement. 
As new mediums come into play and artists have new ways of experimenting. 

Mixed media:

• Opportunities for suggesting texture
• The ability to use the medium that relates to objects with in the artwork
• An abundance of choice
• Widens the palette for colour and detailing
• Gives choice to platform to work on from board, card, canvas, material, metals etc.

I looked at some various still life ideas around the home and went through some of my sketches and photos. Back on another exercise, I had taken some photographs on the shoreline. One of them I have used for this exercise. I liked the close up of these stones and shells on the blowing sand and the shadows from the low sun. 

Collection of some camera shots I have collected from the shoreline. Used this as my theme for the mixed media exercise.

I took the opportunity to use the mediums to experiment with textures, I washed the paper in a water/acrylic mix and used brush flicks to build up a sand like effect. From this point I made some rough outlines and built the images up using a variety of mediums.

I was unsure if the collage works, I have done this on the large red stone and the smaller brown pebble and the worn orange shell. I used a printed paper and then added colour with inks, sponge. For highlighting areas of light, i used my knife and scraped back areas. I think this worked will on some areas. On others I used a paint pen to really brighten the glistening parts.

I painted a white acrylic base for the white large shell, when dry created the shape and details with oil pastels. I found this a hard medium to control and is doesn't do for detail, but a happy accident I found scraping into the oil with a cocktail stick I could create the shape and detail of the shell.
I did draw the outline with black ink and the cocktail stick, I made a mistake and tried to draw ink on the oil pastels and this led to the discovery of scratching in the oil! 
From this, I used paint to create shapes on shells and scraped lines in them, and also did this on the top white shell by scratching lines with my knife. 
Overall, I am fairly pleased with it. The shadow was done with alcohol markers as I wanted to still see the sand, it didn't work as well as I expected, but I did like mixing up the sections of the art. I also found working from the photo, I could come and go between drying sessions and the image didn't alter, whereas drawing in natural light the changing of the shadows can alter.

Mixed media: Collage/Acrylic/Alcohol Markers/Oil Pastels/Pencil.

Review- A question arose regarding the use of collage and the choice of musical paper, I initially used this to represent sound, thinking of the shore noises and the rhythmic tide but now looking back, I think I was possibly overthinking my structures and trying to over express the exercise. A good point had been raised about being mindful and I can see how when working on an exercise the involvement can start to pool around what is being studied, and a bit like uncontrolled pooling it eventually thins out too far and dries up!

The viewing of Madaline Stilwell (an artist who uses collage in her varied collage work and as art the stories did not speak to me, but the valid point of her use of imagery and taking elements of images and constructing in precision to create it in to something else, or the making of it into a collective of other objects and images and making it belong with those other items is a fantastic skill. Very much food for thought. The drawing collage work gives me some ideas, so will keep this in mind. 

Exercise Four: Monochrome

I seemed to spend a long time pondering on this exercise. I think the option of naturals mixed with manmade gave me too many options and being indecisive I kept altering what I wanted to draw. My aim was to choose something that would convey the monochromatic theme I work with and it all be quite fluid in its relation. 
I went for flowers as the natural element and tried them against different items from around the home, it was harder to do than I imagined, i thought about all manner of objects but wanted the two to actually be opposite but connect. 
A previous exercise I used glass and I did enjoy that so this gave be a point to start from, also my practice on getting the spherical shapes into perspective needed some work so I set myself the items. 
*Rose
*Wine Glass
*Foilage

I went for a plain background. I worked with two lamps to start with testing what threw shapes and light better, I used a powerful LED light and tried many angles and spaces to see which gave good design and also I wanted to have the gleam from the glass to get some pinpoints of light, giving some depth of tone on the other objects so I could use the choice of colour to maximum. 

Looking at position and direction of the still life. Want to get an angle that is going to give me detail in light and shade to work with. Got to remember that colouring is going to hold restrictions in some areas, so the light and shades will give me some good options.

I tried several positions for the three items. It is quite hard to make a still life interesting. Sometimes I find the rehearsal of the items can make it quite tricky and some still life (Such as the natural formation of the mixed media) that is not set is easier to work from as the rules are already set for you! 

Light direction and how it changes the shapes.

Once I had more or less decided on my position I did start to move the lighting around. There was some great shapes appearing and I moved the lamp into several positions. By using the stronger LED lamp, it did two things, one was it gave a good flood of light across the items and another is it didn't change the natural colouring too much as you get with some other lighting. 
My final decision on position came after I found having the light direction at a 90' angle to the items the shock of light was brilliant on the glass. I did pull the light back slightly at a lesser angle and still got the light but got a soft and hard patch of shadow around the rose stem and leaves. 

Sampling mediums. Choices of media to reflect the objects? Best of three Oil Pastels, Oil based pencils or wax crayons.

I tested several mediums in my chosen colour and set to work.
My decisions are:

Pinks - Why? Relates to softness of petals and the delicacy of the glass. Maybe even the subtle hint of romance and the suggestion of warmth. 

Wax/Oil Pencils - Why? I did try crayon, this was my first idea as thought the petals and glass though different material would have the same glossy feel and sheen, but the crayon did not offer a great palette for tonal work in monochromatic. Also, with pencil I could be has hard or soft as I wanted in detail. (originally markers but this didn't work so well!).

Glass, Rose, Leaves - Why? All three hold the same quality of being delicate, all three relate to the theme of love.  

After some deliberation I did make one attempt, I did it in alcohol markers as I was trying to experiment and see if the blendability would work better than the smoothness of pencil. It started well but when I got the the glass, I just knew it was going off track. Still, I carried on and did finish the piece. 

First attempt.

It looked awful and I was not happy with it at all. Unfortunately I know it took me a while to do but I just had to try it again so went for the pencil version. I am glad I did, as it turned out much better and the perspective and monochrome basis worked well too. I washed the card first in a water mix. It made such a difference and the pencil seemed to work really well. I am so pleased I did redo this one. 
Also, as it was monochromatic, I wanted to pick out the white pins of light on the glass, I used my craft knife and carefully scratched in the white reflective. 

Monochromatic exercise: I did a couple of attempts at this and ended up reverting back to using an acrylic wash on white card, the drawing is in oil pencils. 

I have come back to review this piece after being away from it for a few days. The first thing I thought about was the composition. I remember positioning the light at my preferred light and had set the items up on a sheet of A1 card leaning up the wall and the base on two A4 Boxes put together so it was more at my sitting height for the angle I had wanted. Though I did get good light, I did incur a few issues with how I was sat and trying to keep the composition in one place continually without movement over the time it took, one issue being the slightest knock and the glass moved, hence on the second drawing, the rose and the foliage is holding the glass in place! 
I definitely need to think more about the long term of doing a still life that isn't on a sketch basis! I am pleased with the curve and light fractions of the glass. I overworked the leaves and petals and think I lost the tonal changes on both the rose and the foliage. 
I liked the direction of the stem and I am happy on the second piece I managed to get the proportion of distance as it goes back. (I did mess this up once or twice while line working at the start and was unsure if it would look proportionate).  I liked the overall coverage of the one colour and honestly, did not expect it to be so difficult to create the variations of tone and depth using one colour as a basis. Using a variety of colour its much easier to add a hint of blue / grey / green etc, to suggest the changes under shadows and light. 
The composition worked, but think as I had set the objects at just below my eye height, I had not considered the proportion of air space above the items for this composition.
I have regret I didn't use another form of medium to try and make it looser and looking back I think some areas it is tight and not relaxed and it shows and maybe I have concentrated on it being: A rose, A Glass, A Sprig of leaves, rather than viewing it as a whole and flowing from one item to another. Definitely a worthwhile exercise.


Project 3: At Home

Finding a subject.

 The studying of a familiar room or place is a great way to get the notion of creating a scene and setting in a drawing. I think the opportunities within it being in my home and around offers that touch of familiarity and connection with the objects to draw. Personally knowing the feel and texture of items and the history and its ownership and belonging could make for interesting lines and detail as to interpretation of the pieces within a room. 
Also, studying within my own space is showing me what there is to see that is right here and what is available to be used for work.
In my personal sketchbook, have a few rough sketches of items and objects from in my home. Not necessarily the full still life of a room, but pieces I am familiar with and have sketched pleasurably.

I have read through the section and take on board that exercise 1 - 3 all unite to produce a successful composition. The stages of creating this works from the first exercise onward. Guided by the notes and suggestions I have started from the first exercise. Although drawing is a natural pleasure, putting these practices into play has started to open up parts of drawing I had not explored. Looking forward through this section I hope to bring in some elements of my own skills and learn how to progress into larger drawings.

I have researched into the artists suggested within the exercise, (in my Research & Reference section.)

Exercise 1: Quick sketches around the house.

This exercise has been built up and I originally started some of my sketches with fineliner pen. I did like this as it gives some strong lines and a fineliner is brilliant for pushing out shapes and solids from the paper, however, I did think I should still keep practising using other mediums and trying to be a little more free. 
I changed some mediums in situ so started with pastel pencils and went into a conte stick, and ended up doing one or two with a charcoal block.

This one above is areas of the kitchen. It was one of my first, I tried to be loose and keep drawing and observing rather than stay technical and start to over think about positioning. The bottom drawing in the ink is one of the first. I think I was trying to draw to precise and not looking at the room as a whole but focusing on the objects I could centralise on.
The sepia stick I found quite free, though a know it looks quite flat but I wanted to expand into the room and try not to over focus as the previous image. 

Here is two from the same session, the bathroom, I liked the angle of the shower and seeing the reflections in the mirror and the reflections back from the glass. It is very hard to keep such as a sheet of glass in a shower door as a solid when trying to be fluid, yet when I redid this in the stick, the glass looks more solid in this form? I think it might be because, the line at the top of the door looks defined and angle makes it look a solid. 

Some of my first sketches of the lounge, they were done in the evening so the bonus on this was getting some great casts of light making shadows. I originally felt pleased with these sketches but looking at one or two of them now I can see the difference to the latter ones. 

On these two I went all out, detailing with fine liner. The hall cupboard was done while I sat on the floor and I think the angles came out well, from the shoe rack to the shelf. 
I have purposely tried not to over detail elements and keep the scene as a whole, I have noticed I tent to cling to one part (the small hall stand with the phone on it) and put in too much line work trying to correct it either for proportion or dimension when I maybe should just leave the sketch as a sketch and move on! 

These two sketches were just some different angles I looked at into the rooms. The old school chair sits in the hall but it is quite low level so I sat down on the floor and got the piece from here. It had plenty of shadows and the items of the wooden chair and the teddy on top worked well with the medium.  The other is a corner of my office that is stacked with books. There is nothing much in there but books and I liked the staggered make do shelf on the cabinet and the darkness in that room as there is little natural light. I did not want to be accurate but get the overall suggestive of all those books and papers crammed in! 

I had a little try of using the charcoal block, going in on a larger paper sheet and doing the lounge from one angle and trying to get the space in. I didn't want to go in and focus on things like the remote control or the coffee mug coaster! By using the block it almost restricts this immediately, but this gave me so good spaces. I can see now I have not completed the sofa or the end chair but from the lines the shapes and objects are familiar to me and visible.

I gave the large sheet ago again, but this time in the freezing cold I stood at the end of the garage and tried to capture it all in a very quick immediate reaction to each section as I worked. I picked the furthest point and worked from there and didn't stop drawing. I am really, really pleased with this sketch. I am not sure if it is clear to other viewers of what it it but it is definitely our messy garage! 

I have looked over this exercise and there are a couple of strong pieces emerging. I particularly liked the last one with the black pencil, the smoothness of the medium and the fluidity of the linework blended together well. 
The safety net of the fine liner has gone, I think, though the hall cupboard came out well, the majority did seem to be too chaotic and the room depth was lost such as in the kitchen and the hall way. 

Exercise 2: Composition - An Interior

Following through from exercise one, I decided to concentrate on the garage area. I found this room had the most depth and interest. The way the sides are full regardless of the wall space and the shapes of all the different objects and areas around them. Boxes squashed in, opened, unopened. Stacked up and miscellaneous items all around. There is only one window at the back of the garage, and this casts good day light in some times. It does mean the shadows all head towards the end of the garage and that my first exercise sketches of the garage door side, meant there is a lot of darkness and objects unclear in the natural light.
I had a couple of hours sketching, and came up with four concepts for the composition. Due to the day light restriction the lighting meant shadow time was premium. I tried using the overhead tube lights, but I found it was a bit bleachy and because there is three lights in there it became a bit washed out with the daylight as well. 
I tried some angles and found positioning myself in certain places I could get a good view and bring in some closeness to an object and still be visual with what was in the distance. 

This version above, I liked the angle I sat at, I could see down the line of the cardboard box flap and all the boxes stacked up behind it going towards the back wall. A really good mix of texture and shapes. Also the objects nearest the window and the floor has some good tonal values as the light floods in here.

I went back to the original sketch from exercise one and I re did this and looked more at the shadows and light. The problem I have is the vastness of the floor space, plus the door holds a lot of space but no light reflection as its a matt texture. The positive to this side is the structural horizontal lines of the roof and they would provide so great detail and height. The varied objects next to the bins are an interest point but again, it is rather dark this end of the garage so it would be heavily hidden. 

When I moved over the garage and started from this higher view point, looking over I was not too sure. I am more take with it now I have come away and viewed it again. There is some tonal areas and also some places that have crisp light to show clear lines and object forms.  The big old heavy mattress is hiding a lot of one corner, but it does make you think of what could be around the corner? The bag of potatoes is quite humble against all the other objects. I quite like that and the bag they are in gives some great shadows and shapes.

I moved to a landscape style and tried to get both angles of the garage in. I struggled to obtain an interest within this composition. I think the lack of middle seems to divide the picture up and it has no main point of curiosity. When I did one side, I felt the view may want to know what is in the boxes, and the other side the mattress was hiding something..(the tumble dryer!) but it held interest. I am not so keen on this. I do like the ideas of cutting the composition off like suggested as in photography.

The use of foreshortening in drawing is a very useful and essential technique. The ability to offer the viewer the dimension and perspective into a drawing and the sense of closeness that can come from this point of view. 

It is a difficult task to get the perspective correct if incorporating it into a still life as all items still would have to relate to the angles and sizes. There are rule breakers such as Artist Anthony Green, but by not sticking to perspective and opening the visual up to be foreshortening from many directions he created a unique fish eye style of art. 

I would like to try and include this in my piece for exercise 3. 

Exercise 3

I have reviewed my original four sketches from the previous exercise and want to try one of the angles that will allow the change in perspective of closer items and angles. I am also wanting to try the method of cropping the overall image that I can see and concentrate on one segment to make a drawing that shows a partial room and gives the viewer some free space to fill the rest of the room in.

I made some quick sketches and looked at how I could use the garage and try and decide from which direction to go for and also for me to be able to be comfortable for some time and have enough space to work. 

All the space that is around the objects is very interesting in the garage. I think this comes from the fact the spaces, unlike in a living room, the furniture is not positioned for comfort or ease but the items are for convenience or haste or to be dealt with another day! This meant there was a collective of different textures, shapes, sizes, colours and materials.

I also looked at which areas are effected the most by the window and where the best areas are for viewing. 

The plan above is a look at two possible viewing areas. The window casts light in a low level area due to the wintery sun and this does restrict shadows and tonal areas, I found some areas looked too dark and trying to work out shapes was difficult in poor light and would transpire so on paper. 

One solution to this, I am using pastels or white crayon to ensure that every bit of colour can be seen despite the darkness of the days. There is some good areas of change of tones within the restrictions on light direction. 

The above is my finished result of the interior drawing. The pastels worked well as I used a dark blue paper underneath. I used pastels in a previous exercise (Still life using tone using colour). It on whole was not successful for me so I really wanted to try again and see if I could achieve something that works. 

At the time of the work, I had got quite settled on the floor and found myself quite immersed in this piece. I really wanted to engage with all the aspects of the interior and process the view from my point through to the end of the room. 

I think I misplaced the depth, I spent quite some time working on the box flap leading into the picture and from where I could see beyond, I think I somehow misplaced how the angle of the crates on the floor should be, they look almost too far away. 

Also, the toning of the tall cupboard hidden from the day light by the folded wicker screen worked will but the wicker screen seemed to absorb the tones and shapes, which I didn't notice until a day or two after. 

Overall, I am pleased with this in the sense that I think I have started to move freely with by using different media again. 

Review: After some distance, and a revisit. I have segmented the finished piece to see if it works better. Looking at variations of the angles and positioning, I can see how it has become quite a complex scene and the division has broke the room up into segments and lets me see what is in the overall picture piece by piece. The first cropped image shows the garage as a room still without the excess of the foreground making it a better version of this drawing.

Assignment Two

Taking all these past exercises and looking at how to incorporate all these factors to produce a final piece of this assignment section.

There is a lot of aspects to be taken into consideration and ways for this to be used as progressive.

A spider-gram on working out the brief.

Material Source & Media

*Still life or/+ Interior scene

  *Combine? How? Make sure visuals are not lost

    *Contrasts/related/tonal values/linear work

       * Lines/marks create a image and story

          *Lighting: Daylight/interior light 

             *Colours/textures Bringing what is relatable

               *Mixing mediums?

                 *Influences? Previous exercises successes

                   *Artists in study/influences?

After some deliberation of what to work with or on I looked at what I feel had not been so successful, rather than what had so I could use these points and push myself with these. 

My points I wanted to try again:

* Still life

* Colour tones

* Using varied medias/possibly mixed

* Composition of natural materials

* Trying not to be restrictive with pen lines

I have decided to work on a still life of some flowers, the flowers had been fresh, but because of the heating they withered down quite quickly so I thought this added some interest to them in shape and bouquet and vase seemed to be a good starting point for many artists within the realms of still life.

I liked the colours, the shapes, actually the drooping of some of the stems gave some superb lines. From the use of a plain backdrop to to emphasis the colours of the flowers.

After my original line drawing was in place, I used a sheet of plastic and mixed my acrylic paints and using some cut up pieces of thick board, I dipped the thin edge of the card and started to build up the background. I started with mid-tone and then put in some darker and lighter tones. I liked leaving areas untouched so the movement of the lines could be seen. But!!! I got all the background done, which at this point I was in a dilemma on two points: a). I was not sure if this method is working towards a drawing. b). I am not sure doing this is picking up the points I wanted to make. 

The point of mark making with the cardboard strips was to suggest the downward fall of the flowers wilting and I wanted to suggest movement and lack of solidity with the stems and flower heads. 

I carried forward with using acrylic paint and dipping the board edges into the paint to build up the composition. I kept over working some parts and had to tell myself to walk away and return later. It was a case of switching all the lights off, closing the door and returning after a rest from it. I wanted to be continual with the feelings of the work, but not over mark the paper and start loosing some of the good marks that had been created. 

Two other parts furthered to complete this, which is I the dipped stick, with Indian ink, used to draw in some areas that needed defining as they were sharpened by the light or darkened areas.  There was a branch of leaves that protruded out at the front, plus all the unopened buds that had stuck in time poking out of the older flowers. 

To get these to be noticed, I lightly taped tracing paper over the work in situ and then started using a fine liner to sketch in the areas I wanted highlighting. Afterwards, I transferred my drawings to white card. Cut these out and with the guide of the tracing sheet, I paper pieced them back in place with glue. I liked this point as it shows the leaves and the buds are untouched and not wilting like the remainder of the vase. 

The finished piece: 

Does it work? I feel by sticking with using the varied board pieces I have managed to build the image and create the still life. It is completely out of my usual way of creating an image, so this section has got me thinking about the ways to line make and transfer visual to paper.

 Though the pen and ink did make a small appearance I am please with the mixed media pallet. It did take some time but I stuck at building the lines up and I think I have tried capturing the change in tones as the light shined through from one side. 

Personal feedback on this: I am pleased to experiment, it may have been a complete disaster, but as a still life I think it is okay.  I don't know if I am trying to be too expressive and missing the mark completely. I wanted it to be quite personal and try not to be restrictive with my own assumed ability and tools. using the simple tool of the board has given me some ideas for trying some other methods in the future. 

Looking at it as a still life: I find the vase are worked well, the lines and colouration has given some solid form and shape to the glass and the water with the stems within.  The back of the flowers have started to get lost but I think this maybe the part where I am reverting to think all detail must be seen, rather than giving the sensations of the forms.  

I find it hard to judge if I have been successful with this assignment. I have found this section has started to open up some possibilities of my artwork and in terms of what I can start to move towards.