Did you do enough preliminary work before starting work on your final pieces?
I did more preliminary studies on the natural objects drawing than on the made objects drawing. For the natural objects, the studies were part of the process of selecting the elements of the arrangement, and also trying out different techniques. They helped me with the decisions around the final drawing arrangement and technique.
By contrast, once I had chosen the objects for the made objects drawing, I felt confident that I would not change them any more. The first study was already a compositional study, reflecting the confidence I had about my arrangement. My objects had quite regular surfaces and from the start I had a strong tendency towards using charcoal or pastels. The studies served mainly to try out blending techniques and studying the metal surface of one of the objects, which I perceived as the most difficult task.
In the made objects drawing, I noticed some progress from initial studies to final drawing on how I drew the knives. I think that over the process, I have begun to observe more attentively and have improved on using tonal/colour shadings to create volume. I might have done more studies on the individual objects for this drawing, but I feared this would wear out my interest. So I’d say yes, I have done enough preliminary work for the final pieces, but I’m well aware that more drawing practice would generally be beneficial for me. I think I’d like to pursue a mixed strategy, alternating between studies of particular details one time and doing complex drawings next time, the latter to practice drawing quickly and finding acceptable ad-hoc solutions.
Do your large drawings give an accurate interpretation of the still life groups? If not, what went wrong?
For me personally, my drawings give a very accurate interpretation of the still life groups, with an emphasis on ‘interpretation’ rather than ‘accurate’. I am not able to draw accurate in a photographic sense. Both drawings certainly resemble the visual impression that I had, but they also represent significant departures.
For example, both arrangements were placed on a white drawing desk before a white cloth background. My drawings are quite far away from the photorealistic representation. Instead, they are a translation into a different colour palette. This translation, or even distortion, is a result of the interpretive process in combination with my attempts of using pastels to capture what I found essential in the objects and the arrangement.
For the natural objects, I saw the main challenge in the irregularity of the forms and textures. I could not have imagined to draw every single leaf of the twig or particular dark areas in the bark of the piece of wood. Instead, I searched for ways to convey the characteristic irregularity of each element in a more abstract manner, by using line, shapes, colour, and tone, but without drawing any concrete details.
The situation was somewhat different for the made objects drawing, because the objects’ shapes were very regular. My main challenge here was in getting the shapes of these identifiable objects correct, and to convey the sense of material (metal, wood, clay, bamboo basket) of each of the objects. Using blue paper added a surrealistic note to the drawing, but I think the objects are nevertheless quite believable.
Overall, I wouldn’t say that something went wrong. But there is certainly much potential for obtaining more realistic or more ‘accurate’ representations than what I have done. If I had to rework the drawings, then my personal aim would be for the natural objects drawing to improve on the colouring, because the brown tones are too dead, compared to what I saw and how I perceived the arrangement. For the made objects, I think I would rework the metal reflections because I find them not subtle enough, and I would prefer more warmth in the overall colouring scheme. The “icy” impression may be a result of the light colours and the substantive amount of chalk in the pastels.
Did you make a good selection of objects or did you try to include too much? Would you change the arrangements of objects if you were to start again?
I think I made a good selection of objects in both drawings, not too many elements and yet enough complexity. I felt overwhelmed by the irregularity of the twig in the natural objects drawing, but this was part of the challenge I wanted to approach. I also felt that the objects had inner connection and some coherence. So I wouldn’t want to change them.
Do your drawings fit well on the paper or could they be improved by working on a larger sheet of paper?
While I had some problems with fitting the objects on an A3 format for preliminary studies, I felt quite comfortable with the larger format of the final drawings, I chose 50 x 70 cm sheets. I think the arrangements fitted well on the paper. But I would have liked to draw even larger to have more space for working out fine details like reflected light, or particular details of my objects. I found the pastels quite clumsy at times.
Did you have problems with drawing or find hatching too difficult?
Somehow, the whole assignment felt like a sequence of problems with drawing, and subsequent attempts to overcome my technical inadequacy. Neither blending pastels nor hatching techniques worked in a satisfactory manner. I found it very difficult to work out details with pastel sticks on the space that I had on the 50 x 70 cm format. But I think the solution is not necessarily enlarging the drawing space. It may well be that my eye is not trained enough to recognize the relevant visual elements, and that errors in drawing are the consequence. I hope to improve with more practice.