Check and Log: Self Portrait

Which drawing materials produced the best results? Why?

The gouache produced good results because of the mode in which it was used i.e three brushes and three colours of different tonal values starting with a large decorators paintbrush. This resulted in bold shapes and lines and discouraged overworking. I produced a lively drawing using this which I like very much but it wasn't the use accurate of the best likeness.

For likeness and accuracy, charcoal produced the best results. The reason for this was that it is very versatile and can be added and subtracted multiple times (within reason). By using a putty rubber in some areas and adding darker areas in others I could keep adjusting my drawing until it was accurate.

Does your self portrait look like you? Show it to a couple of friends or family members and note down their comments.

I posted my favourite gouache self portrait on my Facebook page but didn't mention that it was a self portrait. There were a couple of comments about how miserable the model looked such as "she looks how I feel!" but no-one really picked up on it being me. My husband was vehement in saying it didn't look like me and that it looked miserable - so I guess it was effective in communicating emotion but not likeness - but I'll settle for that at this stage.

The final charcoal self portrait was a better likeness. My husband and son both said that it looked like me as did a friend at work. My husband was still concerned that I looked miserable. My explanation is that I tend to frown when concentrating, also trying to hold a smile while drawing without looking like a rictus grin would be virtually impossible so my face is relaxed (and my relaxed face tends to look a bit grim).

Did you find it easy to convert your sketches into a portrait?

I did a lot of preliminary sketches but I wouldn't say I converted any of these sketches into a portrait. I used the sketching process to explore my face from different angles and to try to pare the features down to the basics, By making mistakes in the sketches it helped me to lear what to avoid in the final drawings (for example elongating the chin or exaggerating the size of the eyes.

Were your preliminary drawings adequate?

Yes, I think I did sufficient preliminary sketches to be really quite familiar with my own face by the time I came to draw a larger portrait. Despite this, my attempt with intense and coloured pencils was not very accurate. 

Check and Log:The Moving Figure

How well  did you manage to convey the sense of a fleeting moment rather than a pose?

I do think that most of m y drawings in this section convey a sense of movement and fleeting moments. This is because they were, by necessity drawn extremely rapidly. I think the most successful drawings are the continuous line drawings, most of which were drawn virtually blind with just the occasional peek at the paper or the i-pad screen (I often draw on the i-pad in the airport as it makes me feel less conspicuous than drawing on paper). These drawings have a partially abstracted quality about them which I like but they still 'read' as human forms.

How successful were your attempts to retain an image and draw later?

Not successful at all! This exercise has led me to understand that my visual memory is really quite poor. Any attempt to draw someone's previous position after they had moved resulted in a very stiff 'stick man' appearance. I seem to panic when the image to be drawn is no longer in front of me. I guess this requires more practice.

Were you able to keep to a few descriptive lines to suggest the person's movement or were you tempted to keep introducing more elements into your work?

This improved as I did more sessions of drawing at the airport. Initially my sketches looked a bit  hesitant with multiple lines and complete outlines of the figures. Gradually I began to control the impulse to be over detailed as I realised how little was required for the figure and movement to be readable. The more successful drawings are the continuous line drawings especially those drawn 'blind' on the i-pad and those drawn  with a bamboo pen and ink.

Check and Log: The Clothed Figure

Did you find it easy to approach the figure as a whole or were you distracted by details of the sitter's dress?

Details of the sitters dress were certainly distracting. On the coloured pencil drawing, however, I did feel that I successfully negotiated the distractions and managed to convey the weight of the figure and create a reasonably well-proportioned drawing. 

How did you create volume in the folds of fabric?

I used variation in tonal values to create volume in the folds of fabric. The deepest creases were where the darkest tones were found with the lightest areas being on the crests between the folds.

Does the finished drawing give a sense of the figure beneath the fabric?

Although I did find the folded fabric of the dressing gown quite distracting, I do think that the coloured pencil drawing does give a sense of the structure of the body beneath it. The ink drawing is not so successful in this respect.

How would you tackle a drawing like this again?

Instead of launching immediately into drawing the fabric I would probably look at measuring the relationships between the parts of  the future first such that I had a framework on which to superimpose the folds of fabric. that way I could be more confident in placing the folds in the correct position on the body such that the enhance the feeling of weight rather than distracting and interfering. So essentially I would try to see through the fabric to the figure underneath before starting to draw.

Check and Log: Structure

How accurately did you depict the overall proportions of the figure?

I struggled with the overall proportions on some of the drawings. This was especially problematic on the lying down pose with the foreshortening. I really underestimated the effect of foreshortening on the proportions until I measured more thoroughly.  However, notwithstanding these struggles I can see that I have made significant improvements in my understanding of the proportions of the figure over the course of the last few exercises.

Did you try to imagine the sitter's skeleton and muscles? Did this help to convey the figure's structure and form?

I did find this helpful in conveying the structure of the figure. I was particularly attracted to the strong shape of the junction go the lumbar spine, sacrum and pelvis on the lying down pose. On the seated pose. imagining the underlying skeleton help me with my depiction of the hunched shoulders and prominent collarbone of the reading man.

Check and Log: Gesture

How well have you managed to capture the poses? What could be improved?

I think I have captured the poses quite well in most cases. However, some of the drawings are too detailed especially the first few of the two minute poses that I did and some of the left handed drawings in the 'energy' exercise. Improvements could be made by being much more selective in the number of lines drawn. This is why the drawings made with less controllable implements such as bits of string or syringes and needles full of ink seem to be more successful.

Do you think your figures balanced? If not where did you go wrong

I do think that my figures balanced. I don't get the uneasy feeling that they are about to topple over when I look at them

How did you go about conveying a sense of energy?

I tried various methods to do this. Mostly this consisted of not drawing static lines. Where lines or forms looked too clean or static if they were drawn in charcoal or graphite I broke up their continuity using a putty rubber.

I also drew multiple lines when drawing with my left hand. I was influenced in doing this by the sketches by John Singer Sargent of Spanish Dancers. Unfortunately this wasn't as successful as I hoped - it looks more like uncertainty in drawing with my left hand rather than confident representation of movement - I might have to revisit this with my right hand.

I enjoyed spraying ink onto the paper. This technique I do feel conveys energy as it involves energy and lack of control in the application - I sprayed the ink at high pressure through a very fine needle. The lines produced were flowing partly because the drawing implement is not in contact with the paper allowing freedom of movement.

Check and Log. Project: Form

Were you able to maintain a focus on proportion at the same time as creating a sense of weight and three dimensional form?

It was more difficult in this exercise because given that the objective was to build form there was less time available to spend measuring. I think most of the drawings have ended up with reasonable proportions despite this. A couple of the drawings look as though the head is too small. This may be the result of not measuring carefully and overcompensating for my previous errors with the head being too large.

Which Drawing gives the best sense of pose and why?

I think this XL charcoal drawing gives a good sense of the weight of the model going down to his feet. The verticality of the lines of shading on the trousers helps to emphasise this weight travelling downwards

I also think this coloured pencil drawing gives a good sense of the pose. The body looks relaxed but with a tension in the upper torso and a twist of the shoulders away from the anne of the pelvis. The right side of the torso is elongated and the left side shortened as the model twists round to look at the TV. 

Was there any movement or gesturer away from the central axis. If so did you manage to identify this and put it in your drawing?

All of the poses in drawn from photographs have a degree of gesturer yo them - they are deliberately sped to give some sense of movement. Despite this and having positioned the limbs in approximately correct positions the drawings themselves don't have a lot of movement. I haven't made use of the gestures in the poses I was concentrating on th basic shapes so I think this is why this static effect has occurred.

The poses my son is adopting are mostly relaxed 'couch-potato' poses with little movement however the poses in which he has his arms raised to his head al have a degree of twisting and movement away from the central axis which I think is conveyed.

Check and Log - Proportions

Have you managed to make a complete statement in this time? What were your main problems?

I have made a fairly complete statement in the time. My main problem was the relationship between the length of the torso and the legs. I had to keep stepping back and reassessing and remeasuring and being careful to place myself in the same position relative to the mirror (the tiled floor helped in this respect).  I overdrew several times in pencil then had to pick out the line which was most appropriate in ink. If I hadn't measured, the figure would also have been much wider because my mental image of my body is larger than I found when I measured. 
Another problem I encountered was the one of actually measuring accurately. I was quite close to the mirror and I couldn't crouch to measure my lower half so the measurements on the feet and calves were affected by angulation.

How well have you captured the characteristics of the pose?

I think that I have caught the characteristics of the pose. I am standing firmly on my feet with most of the weight on the forward foot facing towards the mirror. I am happy with the face as I think I have captured my gaze at myself quite well with relatively few marks.

Do the proportions look right? If not, how will you try to Improve this?

I struggled with the proportions and had to redraw quite a lot but I think the proportions are roughly correct. The only area I am unsure about is  the head. If anything the head may be a little small. My face looks a little shorter than it really is. I need to continue to practice measuring and cross referencing proportions of parts of the body.

Check and Log: Drawing Trees

How many different tree types have you drawn?

I think I've drawn about 18 different types of tree but I'm not entirely sure as some of them were quite distant and I didn't identify what they were.

What techniques did you use to distinguish each type?

I looked at the overall shapes of the trees and then I also looks at the texture and density of the foliage to decide what sort of marks to make to suggest it. For example, long flowing shapes for willow beaches and more abrupt straight jagged marks on pines. 

What did you do to convey the mass of foliage?

It was winter, so many of the trees I drew had very sparse or no foliage. On the evergreens I tried to mark in the basic shape of the mass of foliage and the put marks for shading and texture in the shaded areas. On my larger study of several trees I just put a suggestion of foliage with patches and splatters of colour. I did not include any detail on the foliage  there. On the olive trees I really struggled with the foliage because it consists one very small lives which are much lighter in tone than the shaded trunks beneath them. I tried just to give a suggestion of the texture of the foliage with a few marks but drew very little in this area. I let the shading on the trunk below the foliage delineate the outline of the mass of foliage but was careful not to get to detailed and outline the foliage itself.

How did you handle light on the trees? Was it successful?

In some of the smaller sketches I used erasure of charcoal on illuminated ares. One of the biggest challenges I came across in this project was sunlight shining through the branches of the trees on the study of several trees. I tried may different experiments in trying to tackle this but it still wasn't entirely successful. 

Did you manage to elect and simplify? Look at your drawings and make notes on how you did this, and what could you do better?

Initially I did not select and simplify enough when drawing close up views of my garden trees in pencil. I tried to include too much detail of the foliage. I found it much easier to simplify when drawing distant trees in charcoal. When drawing the skeletons of winter trees I initially tried to include too many of the branches but I did manage to be more selective about this on the larger study. When drawing the olive trees I got drawn in to the texture of the trunks and tended to neglect the overall shape of the trees. I have improved my selectivity on the whole over the course of this project but there is still room for improvement. I find simplification especially difficult when I am drawing a tree that is very close to me. It si still very tempting to try to draw the details of every leaf and twig.

Check and Log : Townscapes

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

I used tonal variation to construct the forms for example the intricate shapes of the metalwork on the door and the dark shadow behind this. I used greater detail and darker tones in the foreground than further back (look at the texture inn the wall for example). However, my drawing was rather simple involving a wall in a side street so it was not a large panorama. This meant that there was little scope for the use of aerial perspective to create depth.

Did you preliminary sketches give you enough information for you final pieces of work?

My preliminary sketches gave me quite a lot of information about texture and particular structures. I had separate sketches of the texture of the wall, the ironwork on the door and the Vespa but I think I would have struggled to bring the composition together fully without referring to my photograph.

Would you approach this task differently another time?

My approach to this task was severely limited by depression and anxiety such that I made greater use of photography than I would have liked. I am pleased that I managed to spend some time sketching outdoors and I hope to build on this in the future. So yes, I would approach this differently another time in that, improvement in my mental state permitting, I would do more preliminary sketches on site and rely less heavily on photography.

Have you got that scale of the buildings right? Make notes on what worked and what didn't.

I think the scale is OK on the larger studies completed indoors. (the limited palette study, townscape in line and the Giamei church). However, on the townscape in line the people are much too small in comparison to the buildings even taking into account the fact that there are in the distance across the piazza. 

In some of the outdoor studies the buildings are not accurate. In particular this coloured watercolour and pen study of a street in Cerreto. 

I really struggled with this one as there was not only the usual problem of perspective on the receding street, but also the fact that the street goes up a steep hill. The third house back almost looks like it is a single storey  and the front door looks like it is made for a hobbit. So I definitely had some issues with scale on the buildings in this one. 

Have you captured the colour and atmosphere in your studies?

The study of a townscape in line was monochrome. However this was entirely appropriate for the subject as piazza plebiscite is not a colourful place being entirely made of pale coloured stone. In my other studies I have referenced the colours around me. In the limited palette study I have used blue and yellow as accent colours along with the tonal black and white as these reflect the colours of the yellow stone and the sunlight on the steps as well as the reflective blue of the vespa and the Fiat Punto parked outside the house. The other larger  study I do think captures how colourful Cerreto is. Although I have done very little blending of colours I think this is quite appropriate because the colours around me were bold and bright and in strong sunlight with a bright blue sky.

Check and Log : Perspective

What problems did you find in executing perspective drawings?

The first problem is that I find it very difficult to draw straight lines without the use of a ruler. The second was that the interior view that I chose at first glance I thought were simple (because they are very familiar to me being inside my house and seen every day) but they proved to be much more complicated than they at first appeared. 

Once I had drawn my first attempts and then started to draw the constructed lines over the top I found that my mind tends to underestimate the angulation of receding lines in particular. 

When trying to construct the perspective lines on the angular perspective exercise I found that my vanishing points were well off the side of the page and had to resort to placing the drawing on a much larger piece of paper in order to see where the vanishing points would be - this would not have been a practical exercise to complete outdoors in the wind.

Make notes on the merits or otherwise of using, or not using rulers to guide you.

Rulers can be helpful because I find it extraordinarily difficult to draw a straight line freehand. However. a comment I would make is that the drawings constructed with a ruler, to my eye look more like technical drawings than sketches (i.e a bit static, calculated and scientific rather than an honest response to the scene). I also find that when using a ruler in the construction of a drawing I tend not to look so closely at the subject and the drawing although theoretically constructed using the rules of perspective can end up looking not much like the subject at hand. I first noticed this in the 'boxed and books' exercise pack in part 1 of the course.

Personally, I am of the opinion that it is better to look more continually at your subject and draw freehand than to concentrate on the ruler and the page. Corrections can always be made afterwards with the help of a straight edge or a ruler can be used to check whether the perspective is wildly inaccurate. Having looked at the drawing by Sir Muirhead Bone, I am more convinced, as this is an example of a drawing where the perspective looks great but is not,  strictly speaking, entirely accurate. 

Check and Log : Landscape Drawing

Check and Log:

In what way did you simplify and select in your study? Were you able to focus on simple shapes and patterns amid all the visual information available to you?

In this study:

The first thing that heaped me to select was taking a view finder with me. Without this I think I would have been overwhelmed by the vast amount of visual information present. Viewing through the viewfinder also helped in terms of viewing the basic shapes of the composition relative to the edges of the paper. I have managed to simplify to quite a large extent in the background but feel that the foreground area is still a bit too busy and could have benefited from my being more selective. This is something I find very difficult. I do have a tendency to get distracted and overwhelmed when there is too much visual information. This needs more work. I specifically selected the overhanging tree on the left tend side in the foreground as a framing device but I think less detail on the right side riverbank would have made the composition stronger with a more direct line taking the eye towards the bridge not interrupted by shrubs and trees.

How did you create a sense of distance and form in your sketches? 

I tried to create a sense of distance and form by making the line work in the foreground much more detailed than in the more distant areas. I also used colour to try to create a sense of distance. Using brighter bolder and warmer colours in the foreground with bolder tonal differences. As I moved back in the space of the pictures the colours got lighter - more purply ad less bold. However, I think this probably needed to be taken further. I have tried to dull the colour by working into it with graphite and soluble graphite but this wasn't entirely successful. I think perhaps a more blue hue might have receded better. I also tried to emphasise the detail in the foreground by working into it with drawing pen. This isn't entirely successful as although it does emphasise the detail it stops rather abruptly in a sort of arbitrary division between the fore and middle ground. On balance I think my demonstration of aerial perspective  was more successful in the much simpler monochrome sketches for the 360 degree studies series.  I think they communicate a sense of depth better and I have also managed to be more selective here because they were very rapidly executed in charcoal.

How did you use light and shade? Was it Successful? 

I used light and shade to create form and substance in the objects in the composition. I also used it to help with the sense of depth. I tried to make the tonal value differences more exaggerated in the foreground and more subtle in the middle and background. The deepest areas of shadow are in the foreground. The tone gets lighter as we move back in space. It was almost successful but I think that the area that is the very furthest back should have been lighter in tone relative to the middle distance. It doesn't recede as well as I would have liked.

What additional preliminary work would have been helpful towards the larger study?

I think several more sketches of the same subject would have been useful - first of all more tonal studies trying to simplify and pare down the composition further. I also think that some rapid colour sketches would have been useful to try out the colours for showing the aerial perspective before committing to the larger study as the colours I have chosen for the background are not the best for showing aerial perspective but I was not confident to work back over them as I felt this would make the background relatively too dark.

Check And Log: Drawing Animals

What were the main challenges of drawing animals?

The main challenge is the one of movement - you can't ask a dog or a cat to hold a pose for half an hour or even 10 minutes. Even sleeping animals tend to move around quite a lot to change position for comfort. This means that it is no use being tentative. You have to try  to capture the essence of the body position and character of what you are drawing very rapidly. You can always take advantage and work it up into a more detailed drawing if the animal unexpectedly keeps still but is best to assume when you start that there is a very limited window of opportunity. It is much more difficult to capture an animal's vitality when drawing from a photo.

Which media did you enjoy using most and which did you feel were best for the subject matter and why?

I enjoyed using biro for the quick sketches of cats. You can draw rapidly and confidently with this without worrying about damaging the nib of the pen. 

I also really enjoyed using  the oil pastels for the fish. I thought these worked really well for the reflective surface of the scales as I was able to use opaque white pastel on a dark background for the highlight and multiple colours together for the reflections in the scales. 

As an aside - for quick sketches at work I found a drawing app on my I-pad that was quite useful. This meant that I could draw with confidence without wasting reams of paper when drawings weren't coming out well.

Where can you go to draw more animals?

I have a lot of opportunity for drawing animals where I live. Most of our neighbours have at least one pig and lots of chickens. There's a dairy farm up the road and a buffalo farm a few minutes' drive away (for buffalo mozzarella). I had a lot more opportunities for drawing interesting animals at work (particularly wildlife casualties) than I actually had time for drawing. I've taken photos but am wary of drawing from the photos.

I could go to a wildlife park or zoo to draw. I also really liked the fish exercise so perhaps I should go to the aquarium? When I win the lottery I'll go to the Galapagos islands and take my son on Safari in Africa!

Drawing Plants and Flowers: Check and Log

How will your experiments with negative space help your observational drawing in the future?

The negative space exercises, while very difficult, have made me more aware of the integral role the negative spaces play in a composition.  Also, having done used the 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' book for exercises I can now understand how concentrating on drawing the negative shapes can help with accurately representing forms as the brain has less of a tendency to draw what it 'knows' when it is looking at abstract shapes rather than the objects themselves.

I have certainly noticed an improvement in the accuracy of my drawing with this approach. The main obstacle is remembering to apply this and not to fall back into old lazy habits.

The other thing I have learned is that trying to fill the paper and leave no negative space results in an overcrowded drawing. It is better to have some interesting negative shapes within the composition.

What techniques did you use to ensure you drew your plants in proportion?

As well as looking at the negative shapes within and around the plants I also used a viewfinder with the same proportions as my paper when planning a composition.  I made thumbnail sketches and made a few measurements of proportion relative to the paper before I mapped in the composition on the larger sheet of paper.

How did you achieve an effect of three-dimensional space in your drawings?

To achieve an effect of three dimensional space I placed objects overlapping in front of each other (the begonia was placed in front of the vase of roses and the the vase was related to the background). I also used shading to add form and dimensions to the flowers and the leaves. The dark soil in the pot and the shadowing under leaves helped to bring the leaves forward in the composition. 

My second drawing of the begonia with the orchid wasn't as successful in this respect. Here I had concentrated on the textural an bold colour/design elements but I overlooked relating the objects well to their background. There is a half hearted attempt at this with the shadow of the orchid stem on the wall behind the plants but really this picture is more about colour and decoration rather than depth and composition.

Project: Still life - Check and Log

What aspects of each drawing have been successful and what did you have problems with?

Still life in line: 

The use of the dip pen for this drawing was successful as I was able to create some interesting and variable lines and marks. The less controllable nature of this drawing implement was well suited to the organic nature of the subject.

I had problems with getting a good sense of the solidity of forms without resorting to hatching and shading. Luckily, the jug as a prop was helpful in this respect, as the ellipses helped to create a sense of rounded form. However the lack of a good range of tonal values makes the rest of the subjects look rather flat and two dimensional. More like a cartoon or illustration in appearance than an accurate drawing.

Still life in tone:

I like the contrast between the dark and light tones in the second attempt at this drawing. Also I think that the fact that I worked quickly is successfully translated into the second drawing and makes it look more 'alive'. 

I had problems with composition because I avoided drawing lines to map out the composition. I also started by blocking in the darkest tones.  This meant that I had committed myself at the beginning and could not adjust the position of objects on the page very easily. On my first attempt the composition wasn't as intended, but my second attempt was more successful.

Did you manage to get a sense of depth in your Drawings? What elements of the drawings and still life groupings helped create that sense?

I did manage to create a sense of depth. This was much easier to achieve in the tonal study than in the line drawing as the shadows help objects to recede in space and help with the construction of the forms. 

In the line drawing, the factors that contribute to the sense if depth are:

(1) The overlapping of forms so that one object appears to be behind another

(2) The ellipses of the jug and the receding rectangular form of the chopping board.
(3) The thicker and bolder lines used on the vegetables in the foreground (pepper and artichoke) compared to the fine lines of the scarole in the background.

What difficulties were created by being restricted to line or tone? 

The main problem was to actually stick to the restriction stipulated. It was very difficult not to introduce tone elements into the line drawing and vice versa. In fact I found it impossible! There are certainly suggestions of tone in my line drawing and there are also lines in my tonal drawing but they are each mainly about line or tone rather than being an even mixture of both.

The other difficulties are already described above i.e. overcoming flatness with line drawing and planning compositional arrangement on the page with the tonal drawing.

Detailed Observation: Check and Log

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

Drawing pens were very effective for the line work at the beginning of the project. They give a bold and graphic effect. It would have been good t also experiment with dip pen here as it gives a different character of line and is less controllable.

Soft pencil was good for subtle and gradual tonal variations but a range of pencils could also be used with a sharp point for creating interesting textural marks (such as on the leaf of the artichoke)

Drawing pens were also very good for stipples and dots as the density of the black ink contrasts well with the white of the  cartridge paper.

What sort of marks work well to create tone, pattern and texture?

An enormous variety of marks can be created to represent pattern and texture - they are not just limited to dots and hatching lines. The type of marks which work best really do depend on the texture and character of the object being drawn. I have made some sample marks in my sketchbook:

Look at the composition of the drawings you have done in this project. Make some sketches and notes about how you could improve your composition;

I did not spend much time considering the composition with these small, single object drawings. The drawings would have benefited from this. It would have been a good idea to use my viewfinder to enable me to more clearly see the negative shapes around the objects which would likely have helped with my placement of the objects on the paper. In particular with the stipples and dots exercise the object was not well placed on the paper - tho photograph looks better than the actual page because it has been cropped.

Check and Log: Assignment 1

Did you do enough preliminary work before starting on your final pieces?

I would have benefited from doing more preliminary work for both of the drawings. In drawing one this meant that I changed the composition several times even when doing the larger scale pieces and ultimately the final composition was not as interesting as it could have been. It would have been better to work all of this out on a smaller scale so that I was sure of the composition I wanted to use before getting larger. 

On the second drawing I didn't do enough compositional development sketches. I had lost confidence in being able to identify a good composition because my efforts to improve the previous drawing had actually made it worse.

More experimentation with mark-making might have helped to make the final drawing of the made objects more lively and interesting.

Do your large drawings give and accurate interpretation of the still life groups? If not, what went wrong?

In the first drawing, the main problem with form is the pineapple. I chose to draw this from a difficult angle. As I've mentioned before, it is difficult to deal with foreshortening in natural forms which don't have the same defined shapes as man-made forms. The pineapple and especially its leaves have ended up looking elongated. The folds in the fabric also look rather stiff as if they've been starched.

I think the representation of form in drawing 2 is more successful. The folds in the fabric look a bit better. However, the fabric was a satin which had a lovely sheen to it which I found impossible to capture with the coloured pencil.

Did you make a good selection of objects or did you try to include too much? Would you change the arrangement if you were to start again?

I always seem to start off by trying to include too much and removing objects as I develop the composition. Because of this, in the first drawing the idea of my original theme is essentially lost. I don't think anyone looking at the final drawing would understand what I originally intended. It just looks like three rather random natural forms plonked on a page for no good reason. So yes I would change it to try to give more depth and a more obvious connection between the objects. My idea had been to link the separated  objects via the drapery folds but as I struggled in drawing folds I couldn't pull this off.

The second drawing works a bit better from the point of view of an identifiable theme but there is a large mid-toned area where the red fabric is so maybe it loses some impact. I'm not sure how to change it to improve it.

Do your drawings fit well on the paper or could they be improved by working on a larger sheet of paper?

The drawings do fit well on the paper. However, with drawing one I think larger would have been better. The reason for this is that I did some mark-making in my sketchbook with soft pastel for the texture of the pineapple. When It came to actually drawing the pineapple for the final piece I realised that I couldn't employ this technique because the pineapple was on too small a scale to build up the lovely marks I'd made effectively.

Did you have problems with drawing?

Drawing the same objects many times shows up all too clearly how inaccurate my drawing is. However I am already seeing some improvement compared to my very first drawings. For example I wouldn't have considered trying to draw a complex shape like the vertebra at the beginning of the project. Although there is variation in my representation of it in the preliminary studies I have resolved it reasonably well in the final drawing.

Check and Log: Using Texture

Have you discovered any new ways of using your drawing tools to depict surface and texture?

I have discovered that a chopstick dipped in ink can make an interesting drawing tool. I have also enjoyed the variety of marks that I am able to make with a dip pen. I've also employed a variety of scraping techniques. Scraping into roughly applied paint or into a base of pastel and then applying graphite on top. I also tried scraping into oil pastel and applying ink into the scraped areas.

How successful were you at implying form with little or no tonal hatching? 

This was more successful in objects with a definite shape such as the shell. On the log I did not use tonal hatching to suggest the roundness of it. I tried to make the fissures a bit closer together on the underside to suggest curvature but it didn't really work so it looks more like a flattened piece of bark. On the rock I have cheated a bit as there is some tonal variation to suggest the form.

What are you impressions of frottage as a drawing technique?

Although I really enjoyed playing with this technique I think it is quite a difficult technique to employ effectively. The reason is that when trying to give a texture to a surface, if the surface is curved it is difficult to use frottage as it is often not possible to change the direction of your marks to follow the contours of the surfaces. 

It works well in Jane Dixon's 'Platform' as this is a drawing of an architectural model which has straight planes. The textures she has chosen are of the right scale and in keeping with the feel of the model. 

Frottage might more easily be employed as part of a collage because it easier to be selective  as to which areas receive the texture in this way.

Check and Log : Still Life

Do you think it is easier to suggest three dimensions on man-made or natural objects?

I think it is easier to suggest three dimensions with certain types of man made forms than it is with natural forms. For example a box or a bottle has a definite recognisable shape and therefore it is easier to get the eye to read it as three dimensional using linear perspective and ellipses respectively. This doesn't apply to all man made forms - for example folds in fabric soft squashy man-made items like bread can have the same problems in this respect as organic forms.

Natural forms have more organic and variable shapes this means that it can be difficult to get the viewer to interpret such aspects as foreshortening. I encountered this problem with my veg piled and propped up an a plate. Organic objects, however are 'easier' to draw that is to say  there is more scope for errors in accuracy being undetected than there is for example with a PlayStation box.

How did you create a sense of solidity in your composition?

I tried to create solidity in the composition by attention to the tonal values placing highlights ad areas of shadow where appropriate and getting the shading to follow the contours of the forms. In some cases I have overlapped forms to try to give depth to the composition.

Do you think changing the arrangement of your composition makes a difference to your approach and the way you create a sense of form?

Changing the arrangement of the composition makes a great deal of difference. For example in the composition of natural objects when I looked down on objects from above and they were also lit from above the vegetables appeared flat and it would have been difficult to create the sense of the solidity and roundness of the objects. When the vegetables were lit from the side, were viewed from a different angle, and were overlapping each other it was easier to see different tonal values which helped when trying to represent the forms.

How did you decide how to position yourself in relation to the objects?

I did this by a process of trial and error. Luckily I have a reasonable amount of space to work in. I tried placing objects on the floor. I tried a low picnic table with me standing or sitting. I also placed objects on a high table and sat on a low stool so the objects were at just about eye level. I walked around the objects and looked at them from different angles. 

When rearranging the objects I needed a viewfinder to assess the arrangements. Despite having been warned that a digital camera was not the best tool for this I was tempted to try it for convenience as I had my phone handy and could easily take quick snaps from different angles. It was only after doing this for myself that I understood why it wasn't the best way forward. The digital shots all looked very flat. They lost the depth of the original arrangements. Ultimately I went back to a good old-fashioned cut out cardboard viewfinder. The other advantage of this was that I could make it in different formats such as square or elongated.

Check and Log: Reflected Light

What are the difficulties in separating cast shadow from reflected light and shade?

The cast shadow should be much darker than the reflected shade, I realise looking back at my images that I have frequently not made this distinction. The milk jug is probably the example where this has worked best. 

The first difficulty is identifying where the cast shadow is and where the areas of reflected light and shade are. The next problem is to actually distinguish between them in the drawing. I need to be able to produce a wide range of tonal values in order to distinguish the variation between these.

The other problem I had was working with charcoal - I like this medium but do find it problematic maintaining areas of white highlight. It is important to remember to look for that fine rim of reflected light at the edge of an object before putting the cast shadow in because it is difficult to lift it back out once a thick area of shading has been applied.

The reflected shadow and light follows the contours of the objects. How have you shown this in your drawings?

I've done this without really thinking about it. The drawing tool such as the side of the charcoal stick automatically follows the contour of the object when shading.

Check and Log: Tone and Form

How difficult did you find it to distinguish between light from the primary light source and secondary reflected light?

Initially I found it difficult to distinguish the two and I also found it difficult, therefore to render a difference between the incident light hitting the object and the reflected light so they ended up looking very similar in value when drawn whereas the reflected light should in fact be less distinct. I also was often missing the sliver of reflected light that is frequently present at the shadow side of a rounded object. This thin strip can be quite small and it is easy to miss it if you don't know to look for it specifically. 

Referring to the diagram of a sphere in the notes and annotating prints of Martha Alf's strongly illuminated studies of fruit helped me to overcome this difficulty.

How has awareness of light and shade affected your depiction of form?

Awareness of light and shade has allowed my depicted forms to appear more solid and three dimensional giving more depth to the drawings. It has also prompted me to try to improve my handling of the media I have been using to enable more satisfactory rendering of light and shade. 

Struggling with a drawing tool means that I concentrate too much on the tool and end up missing important details of light and shade. I am therefore convinced that lots more practice and the resulting improvement in confidence in handling different implements will allow me to concentrate better on the forms. For example I concentrated well on the tonal variations when using the pencils after a few practice runs but when I changed to pen the principles were lost as I struggled with the pen. The remedy, therefore will be to practise more with pen.