Project: Drawing Fruit and Vegetables in Colour - Check and Log

Your composition should occupy most of the paper's surface. How much negative space do you have left?

Having read this check and log before embarking on the drawings I became a bit obsessed with filling every piece of the available space. The result of this was that rather than achieving a pleasing composition, several of the pieces have ended up looking quite cluttered and overcrowded. I've come to realise during these exercises that the negative space really does form an integral part of the composition. If you can make pleasing negative shapes between and around objects this helps with the aesthetics of the pieces. Obliterating every trace of negative space by cramming too many objects into the composition just makes everything seem uncomfortable and busy, perhaps making the viewer want to turn away.

What have you learned from drawing the details of fruit and vegetables?

I have learned that marker pens can be used in very variable ways. I have learned that I really like oil pastels especially for glossy and reflective surfaces. I have also realised that I still have a lot to learn in terms of planning compositions. In addition, I have a tendency to get carried away and overwork something if I am enjoying the medium and the subject (see marker pens) so I need to be aware of this and step away from the drawing sometimes before I think it is 'finished'.

What did you find most challenging about this part of the course?

I found using the coloured inks the most challenging. I found them difficult to handle. I have blamed the very small range of colours I have for this but I suspect that even with an unlimited range of colour I would still find this difficult. My attempt to place a wash in the background of the drawing after I'd drawn the subjects was especially disastrous as the resulting wash was too thick and the colour fought with the other colours in the subjects. I find water-based media such as watercolours very difficult. I need more practice.

Exercise: Using Oil Pastels

I completed this exercise on 5th April 2013

After fiddling with the hatching exercise and several iterations of the marker pen and dip pen exercise I was ready to loosen up and get a bit scribbly. I enjoyed doing the thumbnail sketches for the oil pastel drawing. However, it was only after drawing the first one that I realised that my view finder was not proportional to the size of A4 or A3 paper. I had to cut a new viewfinder and template. I settled on a landscape format arrangement of vegetables and some wild asparagus our neighbour had brought us after a foraging expedition. Wild asparagus is long and spindly (but has a very intense flavour). I had to cut a few inches off the stalks to make a good composition.

I loved using the oil pastels. I used to use the cheap version when I was a child but haven't even considered them as a medium after the age of about 12. The colours are really rich and dense and you can layer one colour over another to mix the colour on the paper. I really enjoyed the exercise. The pastels were especially well adapted to the glossy surfaces of the pepper and aubergine. I deliberately stopped myself from continuing for too long with this exercise as I thought there was a risk of me getting carried away and everything getting overworked. I have deliberately not completely filled the tooth of the paper in places to allow its texture to show through.

Although there are more individual objects in this composition than the previous one, I have left more negative space and to me it feels more aesthetically pleasing; less overcrowded than the marker pen pictures.

Evercise: Using Markers and Dip Pens

As instructed, I worked out various compositions in my sketchbook using marker pens ad dip pens with coloured inks. The first attempt was using marker pens and showed two pears precariously balanced against each other. I quite like the tension in this composition brought about by the sensation that the pears are about to topple over. In fact, they did topple over in the middle of my drawing them which was 'inconvenient' (not my exact choice of words at the time of the event!).
Incidentally after I'd completed this drawing I realised that the composition has some similarity to the Ben Nicholson drawing of pears on a plate on page 62 of the course notes. I had read ahead in the course and must have absorbed this subconsciously as it was not a deliberate reference. 

The next composition was using dip pens and coloured inks. Although I enjoyed some of the marks I could make with the various nibs, I struggled with the limited range of colours I had. It might have been appropriate to mix the inks in a palette or container to obtain a wider range of colours. Instead I just tried to mix the colours on the paper with hatching and allowing colours to run together. This wasn't really successful and the green and lemon yellow look particularly jarring and unreal.

Next I tried another composition in marker pen on watercolour paper. I'd been looking at 16th and 17th Century Dutch still life and noticed the peeled lemon as a frequent feature (as a feat of painting and also with symbolic meaning for sobriety and also for life - beautiful to look at but bitter to taste) I liked that motif so decided to  include it here. I was also trying to make good use of the whole surface of the paper so several pieces of fruit plus some draped fabric were included here. 

When I'd finished I reviewed the instructions again. It said ' take care to avoid building up too many layers and using too many colours. I had built up too many layers, in particular on the red apple which had looked much better than this half way through the drawing I'd overworked it. Looking at the picture, Although I quite liked some of the marks especially on the lemon and the pear, I realised that it didn't really look like it had been done with marker pens. Because the watercolour paper can take a lot of punishment I'd built the colour up and up. It was too much.

I then went ahead and re-drew the arrangement more rapidly with fewer layers of colour and less textural detail in a more graphic style appropriate to the medium.

Despite this, there was still something wrong. I realised that my current obsession with filling the whole of the paper had resulted in and overcrowding and general invasiveness of the subject. On balance, I think the first drawing I did (balancing pears) in this exercise was better than the subsequent ones.

My portfolio goes on a tour of Europe!

My work for part 1 of the course arrived back to my work address and was in the Head Receptionist's office. I told reception that I would organise a courier to send it back to Italy and I was allowed to leave it where it was until it would be collected.

The next night I arrived at work and one of the receptionists handed me a receipt from the courier for the collected parcel . The blood drained from my face and a few choice words escaped my lips......You see......The thing was.......I hadn't had time to organise a courier. My portfolio was on its way to the head office of IDEXX laboratories in the Netherlands!

A few frantic emails and a conversation with avery nice Dutch lady later and my work was returned safe and sound. I decided not to courier it to Italy after all but to book it as hold luggage on Easyjet for my return journey (although I don't on balance think that's any safer). One of the perils of being an overseas student.

Drawing Fruit and Veg in Colour: Using Hatching to Create Tone

I complete this exercise over a long period of time between 6th and 21st March 2013. 

I started out by experimenting with drawing individual pieces of fruit in my sketchbook with coloured pencil which I worked into with water soluble markers. Although I had hated the original exercise on stipples and dots, I found I enjoyed building up texture and colour with coloured stipples and dots. This worked particularly well for the texture of a clementine.

After this individual objects I drew several thumbnail sketches to try out different compositional ideas. I tried various open and closed compositions in landscape and portrait orientation. 

I eventually settled on a tightly cropped composition in portrait orientation using a basket in the background for textural interest. I thought this gave a bold composition with the two clementines drawing the eye in in the lower left corner, the pear pointing into the picture and the banana preventing the eye from exiting on the right hand side drawing you back into the picture.  Unfortunately when I moved on to make the final drawing on A3 paper I didn't translate the composition well onto the larger paper. I feel I should have stuck with the tight crop as the edge of the pear just slightly poking off the side of the page looks unintentional as all the other fruit is contained within the page.

I was quite pleased with the foreshortening of the banana and with the texture of the apple and enormous lemon. The clementine in the foreground didn't  work so well - I obliterated the highlights and it ended up looking very flat and overworked.  Reviewing the picture, I really wasn't happy with the composition and I also realised that the shadows were not dark enough as I'd fallen into the 'it's a white plate' trap. The other thing I realised was that the drawing I'd produced didn't have much to do with hatching to create tone. It was more about stipples and dots for texture. I thought I'd try again and produce a drawing about hatching this time.

I worked much more quickly this time. I chose peppers and tomatoes for the boldness of their colour combinations. I also liked the contrast between the shiny waxy outer surface and the ridged and less reflective inner surface. The interiors of the peppers were like caves and chambers with a very architectural or sculptural feel to them so I decided to do a very tightly cropped and close- up composition. I used layers of hatching in coloured pencil to build up the tone and the form. 

I prefer this drawing to the fruit drawing. I like the bold colours and the close up visualisation of the interior of the peppers. I think the gloss of the exterior of the pepper could have been better captured in another medium. I found a beautiful example of this in a painting by Felix Vallotton which I have annotated in my sketch book.

I think that my drawing could be improved by simplification. Concentrating on one or two of the peppers and leaving some more background negative space would perhaps have been less invasive and provided more impact.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

6th March 2013

I have recently re-established contact with my mother after a long period of estrangement. (It's complicated - we have our ups and downs. I was brought up by my father from the age of 4). Anyway the reason I mention her here is that since we were last in touch (about 7 years ago) she has become a pensioner and has also completed an honours degree in painting.

My mum recommended 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' by Betty Edwards as she said she found it quite helpful in her first year of college. I thought I'd take a look as it appeals to my 'science geek' nature with it's references to research into left and right brain functions and the experiments performed to ascertain the functions of the different sides of the brain based on work with patients who had surgery to sever the Corpus callosum (the link between the left and right hemispheres) as a last resort procedure in the treatment of refractory epilepsy.

The book is quite interesting although I do think it takes some liberties and makes some sweeping generalisations and assumptions based on little evidence. I did, however decide to suspend my over-critical and very left-sided thinking to have a go at some of the exercises!

I tried the 'upside down drawing' exercise. the theory behind this is that you want to achieve a switch from left brain to right brain mode. Turning an image upside down is supposed to stop the brain from identifying what the image is, naming it and then drawing what it knows rather than what you actually see. You are supposed to make a conscious effort not to name the parts of the body in your head whilst drawing the upside- down picture of a person.

I didn't find the exercise entirely successful. One reason for this is that turning the picture upside down did not prevent me from seeing what the image was. I found it very difficult to push away the tendency to name things in words in my head and describe them in words in my head and the exercise- if anything made this more pronounced. The exercise stated that the reading of an image upside down is difficult and that reading text upside down is difficult. I've always found that reading text upside-down is quite easy. Does that mean the book is inaccurate or does it just mean that I'm so left-brain dominant that learning to draw will be very difficult ?!!?

Although this particular exercise wasn't helpful, there are some exercises further on in  the book which look like they might be useful- in particular the exercises on negative space as I did struggle with that in the last section of the course. I fully intend to dip back into this book at a later date.

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.

Exercise: Still Life Group in Tone

I completed this exercise on 1/3/13

I started by making some compositional sketches in my sketch book. The first attempt didn't go too well because I'd placed my group of objects in front of a brightly illuminated window and I found it very difficult to accurately see the objects and to look into the bright light. I therefore repositioned the objects relative to the light so that they were side-lit.

I used a pumpkin (the last of last year's crop) with a garlic bulb which I felt reflected the shape of the pumpkin with the segmented bulb structure. Plus some onions which had similarities to the garlic. (These also happened to be the ingredients for a pumpkin soup). With the objects I was using I found that a square format worked better than the normal rectangular paper.

The instructions were to build up areas of tone and to work quite fast to try to keep spontaneity and energy. Bearing that in mind I thought that if I was working quickly it would be fine to work with the objects illuminated by light from the window. I started by using coloured pencil on textured paper and filling in the darkest areas of tone with a violet tone. I then chose an orangey shade for the mid tones. I tried to just block in areas of tone to start with and I started with the deepest shadows around the centre of the pumpkin without putting in any initial outline drawing. The drawback of this approach was that the composition ended up not quite as I had planned: the garlic in the foreground ended up spilling off the edge of the paper at the bottom.
The other problem was that I was interrupted by unexpected visitors and by the time I got back to my work the light had changed completely and I was left with guesswork as to how it had been previously.

I decided to have another attempt at this and to use soft pastels which I could build up more quickly using broad strokes. I used a tan coloured sand-paper as I had never used sand paper with pastel before and I wanted to try it. This turned out to be a good decision as the sandpaper texture did not really allow a lot of smudging and blending which meant I had to be bold. I used three pastels, a deep wine colour for the dark tones, an orange for the mid tones plus white for the lightest areas (and the buff colour of the paper).

I'm generally much happier with the second version and it took less time than the first. The composition has been kept within the page as intended, but the main reason I prefer it is because it is more visually exciting and has more energy and tonal contrast than my first attempt.

Project: Still Life. Exercise: Still Life Group in Line

I completed this exercise on 25th February.

I chose a group of vegetables for this exercise with contrasting forms and textures from the curvy and jagged-edged leaf 'scarole' (curly endive I think in English) to the waxy and almost architectural forms of the pepper. I included some wilting celery (I buy celery with pathetically thin stalks to use the leaves for flavour rather than to eat the stalks - as a consequence they wilt very quickly). I really liked the curve of the bending stalks and the cascade of leaves and the way the curves of this reflected the curve of the jug in which they were sitting. I placed the veg on a large chopping board as this seemed like a good background context for them.

I had to fight my urge to start hatching to create form with tone. I have suggested tone by varying the character of the line such as the thick lines on the surface of the pepper and on the edges of the artichoke leaves. I really enjoyed using the dip pen as I could create a variety of lines. I especially thought it was suited to the fine, flowing lines of the endive and celery leaves.

To give a suggestion of colour without building up too much tone, I scraped some pigments from my soft pastels and spread them onto the paper with a paintbrush in a sort of dry wash.

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.