Which drawing media did you find most effective to use, for which effects?
In this project, I didn’t use many different media: Just felt pen and pencil. To my surprise, felt pen worked quite well for stipples and dots. Pencil was good for subtle shadings from light to medium dark. For darker tones and strong contrasts I’d rather use charcoal. Overall, I feel that I don’t have progressed to a state where I am able to use any medium effectively for detailed observational drawings. Much more practice is needed.
What sort of marks work well to create tone, pattern and texture? Make notes beside some sample marks.
Unfortunately, none of the marks I used worked really well for me but I think it’s not a problem of the marks but one of my difficulties with observational drawing. For example, I get no-where with hatching, but instead find it very destructive when I use it for shades in a drawing of finely textured areas. On the other hand, using only lines with some hatching didn’t work either for my textured objects because I wasn’t able to draw fine textures with this technique. So my conclusions would be
– fine textures work best with delicate lines and irregular marks
– hatching should be ok for creating larger areas of different tones
– for tones of highly textured objects, better use increasedly dense irregular lines and marks, instead of flat hatching, to indicate darker areas
Did you enjoy capturing details or are you more at home creating big broad brush sketches?
That’s a difficult thing to tell. I think it depends on momentary mood. Sometimes I can get completely lost in the task, for example when I’m following some intricate texture with a pen, not worrying about the finished drawing. On other occasions, I just can’t seem to be bothered with focusing on details and get quite annoyed when obliged to work minimalist. For the future, I’d like to be liberal with myself and go with the flow, whichever mode feels good for the object at hand and with my mood at that moment.
Overall, I think I prefer the broader, sketchy approach. But despite my complaints it was good to try out the other approach too, and I will get back to it whenever I feel like it. For example, I like drawing with pen and ink a lot, and this is a technique which works quite well with detailed drawings.
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 don’t think there was much of a composition in my drawings, because I was too busy with observation. The main compositional problem was my resistance to fill the A3 sketchbook sheet with tiny objects by enlarging them by factor 20. The result was lots of near empty pages with a tiny object somewhere. My approach for improvement would be to choose a paper size which feels natural for the object at hand or for the idea that I have for drawing. Typically this would be a small paper for a tiny object, and a larger sheet for a larger object.
Did doing a line drawing get you look at space more effectively?
I’ve done two line drawings for this project and I think this was not enough for making relevant progress, so I don’t know whether I look at space more effectively now. There may be somewhat more sensitivity perhaps, but more practice is needed to see if I learn something.
Personally I’d prefer to do a pencil sketch first and when I begin to feel secure about the forms in space, then do the line drawing in a deep black tone. This would help to feel less stiff when drawing the lines, and obtain a more fluent movement.
Some personal, concluding reflections on this project
I realize that I’ve been very critical and dissatisfied over the entire project, fighting against loads of resistance against the detailed drawing approach. But when I look at the drawings I made, I like them, and I would like to continue with observational drawing. Maybe I’ll avoid stipples and dots, but line drawings are nice and hatching should find its place in my techniques as well. I think it’s just a matter of practice and despite all the resistance I know that I benefit from having tried, and will continue to do so.
It’s a bit strange, but a known pattern is repeating itself: While working and shortly thereafter, I’m extremely dissatisfied with (almost) everything I draw, but just a few days or weeks later I begin to like and appreciate what I’ve done and the progress I make, even if it’s just a tiny step forward.
So while I was indulging in a big rant most of the time in my learning log, this does not reflect my current state of mind. Overall, I’m rather satisfied with my drawings and see them as necessary steps in a learning process. And I’m far away from the feeling of never again wanting to do detailed observational drawing, rather the opposite is true.
I’m quite curious about the remainder of part II and hope that the exercises to come will feel more natural for me.