It took me hours of thinking which objects I might choose for this task. I had ideas but found none of them really adequate: – drawing the two scratching trees of my cats: they had rough and varied textures, but they are so tall that they wouldn’t give me “an arrangement of objects”. Instead, I’d […]
Author Archives: patriciakarsten
Tutor correspondence: From electronic learning log to blog
I had started by putting my reflective notes together with images of the coursework into an electronic document, and spent much time on obtaining a nice layout. But then I realized that every time I added a phrase, the whole layout changed, because images were sent from their current to the next column. I concluded […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Miscellaneous Comments closed
Research point: Max Ernst and Frottage
Taking a break from drawing textures objects (peanuts! – I tried peanuts, this is difficult!), I did some research on Max Ernst. The Wikipedia page gives a nice overview, as expected. Max Ernst (1891-1976) was born in Germany, but later lived in the United States and France. He was married several times. A Google image […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Research points, Using Texture Comments closed
Experimenting with texture
Part 1: drawing textures The first part of the task was to select a range of objects with interesting surface textures, and to draw the textures in an experimental way, using pencil or pen, in a series of 5 cm squares in the sketchbook. Then as a second part, we were to experiment with the […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Using Texture Comments closed
Miscellaneous: Pastel roses (continued)
When I had looked at the final drawing later that evening, I realized that the dark green leaves did not have enough contrast to the background, which was why the image appeared a bit unclear to the right side. It was like dark objects before a dark background. I slightly reworked the background and made […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Miscellaneous, Still life Comments closed
Miscellaneous: Pastel roses
This was some extra work in pastels. From Bill Creevy’s book on pastel drawing, I had taken ideas for mark-making and tried out some basic techniques, like dusting or colouring in layers. Then I wanted to make an attempt with the linear approach to pastel drawing, as explained in the book. The basic idea is […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Miscellaneous, Still life Comments closed
Observing negative space and perspective
Page 1: Positive and negative space with natural objects (onion and champignons) I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice getting the shapes of the champignons correctly, which I found difficult in the natural objects composition. I chose the same objects, 2 onions and 5 champignons, and placed them at the edge of […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Still life Comments closed
Check and log: Still life
Do you think it is easier to suggest three dimensions on man-made or natural objects? Try to explain your answer. I found it easier for the man-made objects, because they tended to have more regular shapes. Maybe my crude hatching technique was less disturbing when the objects’ shape was clearly defined – I’m comparing the […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Check and log, Still life Comments closed
Composition of natural objects
Deciding on the composition Selection of objects: a lengthy decision between fruit and vegetables, and the choice of where to put them on. I decided on vegetables and chose champignons and onions because I liked the reduced colour palette of only white and brown tones. I chose a wooden chopping board rather than a porcelain […]
Posted in 1: Mark-making and tone, Still life Comments closed
More artists: Bill Creevy
I did some research to learn about pastel drawing. I came across the great names of classical artists, especially Degas with his beautiful ballet dancers. I will look at them at a later time. I also looked for inexpensive study pastels at an art supplier, who had also listed some books on pastel techniques. There […]