Assignment 1: Second Drawing - Made Objects

Pages 84-93: Sketchbook 1 (larger Drawing also submitted)

Starting Point

Continuing with my preoccupation with decay/ageing/degeneration as well as the combination of attraction and revulsion. I decided to base the items in this still life around my personal vanity. 

The menopause has had a strange effect on me - obviously my body has changed significantly with weight gain and the acquisition of more wrinkles as my skin rapidly dries out. Consequently I experience a combination of revulsion/attraction when I look in the mirror these days. Revulsion because I no longer conform to the norms of beauty in our skinny youth-obsessed culture. At t the same time I am older and wiser. The changes in my body reflect this and the curves are attractive to some. I am more confident in my own skin these days than I ever was when my body did actually conform and my face was soft and smooth.

In an effort to hold on to my femininity I have become a major consumer (which ties back in somewhat with the previous theme touching on carbon footprint). I fall for the marketing of anti-ageing creams and cosmetics even though my analytical science -trained mind knows that there  is no good evidence that they will slow my ageing. I buy high heels and various types of supporting undergarment. 

I've chosen cosmetics - partly because of the theme but also partly because it gives me the opportunity to draw shiny reflective surfaces which were not a feature of the last still life.

Initial Ideas (rough sketchbook work)

I tried out a couple of different viewpoints and layouts and decided to use my paper in landscape orientation this time as the first drawing was portrait.

Mark Making / Media

I'd looked at the texture of my cosmetics pouch when I did the experimenting with texture exercise. The surface is made up of lots of tiny metallic plates  a bit like chain-mail so it gives a lot of variation in tone over the surface. I investigated this a bit more using coloured pencil and graphite and working into the drawing with ink.

I had struggled with the drapery on the last picture so I experimented with soft pastel, oil pastel and coloured pencil. I'd had a look on the Internet for inspiration and decided to try under painting/drawing with a complimentary colour to construct the shape and tonal relationships and then using the fabric colour on top allowing the complimentary to show through in the shaded areas. I really liked the oil pastel but it was quite difficult to handle and I though it would work best on a drawing of a really large scale. I didn't feel I had enough time at this stage to practise using them enough to tackle a big picture. The soft pastels also worked quite well. However, I used those on the last drawing and I also wanted to work into some areas (the lace on the fabric and the cosmetics purse) with ink. I tried working into pastel with ink before ant is just absorbed it and clogged the pen. So although the coloured pencil was not my favourite medium I settled on using this. The other motive was that I am still not very confident in my ability to use coloured pencil so this large piece would give more opportunity  to practise.

Tonal Reference A2 Charcoal

The colour scheme of the composition was limited to mainly black and red. Because I thought the black objects would give a challenge. I thought there was quite a large chance of me getting confused between colour and tonal value so I went ahead by doing a quick charcoal sketch.

Final Drawing Coloured Pencil, Graphite and Drawing Pen A2

The final drawing completed in coloured pencil. I think my handling of the medium has improved somewhat from the beginning of the course but I still don't find it easy to use especially on a large scale. I found it very difficult to get the dark tones dark enough. In general there is not quite enough contrast or richness of colour. This might have been improved by using a paper with more 'tooth' like sand paper. Although as a whole there is a harmony to it because of the limited palette, I prefer the quick charcoal sketch above. It has more life about it.