Category Archives: 1: Mark-making and tone

Check and log: Using texture

Have you discovered any new ways of using your drawing tools to depict surface and texture? Yes, I have developed more variety in the use of line with dip pen and ink, and think I can extend this to other line-based drawing tools. I guess it will also influence my mark making with pencil and […]

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A drawing with textures

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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