Odilon Redon (1840 – 1916) was a french painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Redon is well known as a symbolist painter, but he also made many naturalist paintings. I do not like the strong mystical, surrealist aspects in many of his works, but I admire his sensitive and colourful paintings, when he chose more realist themes […]
Category Archives: 1: Mark-making and tone
Tonal studies
After reflection whether to draw some more on exercise 1 or to proceed to exercise 2, I decided for the latter. Although I found my drawings for exercise 1 not really convincing, I thought I had understood what to look out for, and that by varying the type of practice I’d prevent becoming bored. Reminder […]
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Drawing Skills: Hatching
Looking for some additional technical information on hatching as a drawing technique, a Google search directed me to the Wikipedia entry for Hatching (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatching). To summarize “an artistic technique to create tonal or shading effects by drawing […] closely spaced parallel lines “when lines are placed at an angle to one another, it is called […]
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Observing shadow and light formations on a surface
This exercise was to take two simple objects, have them lit from the side and draw them using pencil. Beginning with a quick outline, then adding light and shade, then drawing all gradations of light and shadow that can be seen on the objects. Also including tonal gradations from light reflected from one surface to […]
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Check and log: Basic shapes and fundamental form
Are the objects in your drawings the correct size and shape in relation to each other? I found it difficult to get the angles of the rectangular shapes of the books and boxes correct, and I had some difficulties with the elliptic shapes of cylindrical objects though, I think there are some distortions in my […]
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Supermarket shop
The task was to use about six objects from a supermarket shopping list to create a still life group, and draw the group using some colour. The task description caused immediate confusion by asking me to not forget “to compare one thing with another” and I couldn’t imagine what was meant my this. I ended […]
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Jars and jugs
The task was to select at least six cylindrical objects, and arrange them in a way that I could look slightly down on them. Then with a soft pencil, draw what I see without rubbing out mistakes, as an indicator of where difficulties are. Then make a second drawing from a slightly different angle and […]
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Boxes and books
The task was to arrange at least six boxes and books of different sizes, placing them close together or even on top of each other, and then use only line to describe the rectangular surfaces. I made four drawings of slightly different arrangements and exchanging some objects to add some variety. First page I began […]
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Research point: Eric Ravilious
Eric Ravilous, Vase of Flowers in a garden Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) was an English painter, designer, book illustrator and wood engraver. He became an official war artist in World War II and was killed while accompanying a Royal Air Force air sea rescue mission. He became one of the best known artists in the 1930s. […]
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Check and log: Making marks
Check and log How did holding your pen or pencil in a different way affect your drawing? Different hand helds were helpful for inventing new types of marks, and in exploring the possibilities of each drawing medium. A typical effect was less control over the effect of the marks I made. In some cases, the […]
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