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 with some difficulties of arranging the items… trying like this, trying something else, different heigths. Not liking the items on the floor, but putting them on the table is too high. Changing the angles constantly to arrive at an interesting arrangement. Being annoyed by the easel which isn’t very stable, adding some blocks between the wooden board where I put the paper on and the easel to get it more stable. I own this easel since at least 20 years, but have used it only once or twice at that time. So these are really first-time problems – everything is new, and I don’t really know how to get started.
Then beginning to look and experiencing crumbling confidence, the task suddenly appears so complex, all these shapes of the books and boxes and I don’t know how to get the angles right, don’t know how to interpret what I’m seeing, feeling very insecure about it all. Then taking a heart and making the first try.
I used a graphite block rather than a pencil because I did not want to be interrupted by sharpening a pencil in between. I took A2 loose sheet of paper because I have no sketchblock of that size. I tried an A3 sketchbook but found it too small, did not want to be obliged to scale down the items, in addition to trying to get the shapes right.
I began with light lines and the book at the bottom, then worked my way upwards. Made plenty of errors, difficulties to orient myself between what I look at and how I translate it into two dimensions.
The recommendation of drawing the boxes as if they were transparent was difficult to follow because I could only guess where they were. Some long forgotten knowledge about perspective came up – I analysed what I saw and knew that the lines on the sheet were violating perspective laws, but was torn between sticking to what I saw (even if “wrong”) and applying perspective laws and getting things right. I still am…
I worked my way up to the top box (matchbox), trying to correct errors as I saw them. The many lines make the drawing somewhat underdefined and searching, but towards the end I became a little bit more confident, as can be seen in a clearer trait applied with more pressure for the second upper box.
I think I will do some more of this exercise, changing angles and arrangement, trying out different heights, to get some practice. While I like the large format, I’m not used to keeping my right arm in the air for drawing, and the inflammation in my shoulder will prevent me from continuing with this technique. I will have to try out something different, maybe a drawing board which is flatter and permits the arm to rest a bit.
Page 2
I changed the arrangement a bit, but only the angles, not the height. I felt a little bit more confident. It helped me to apply an imaginary horizontal baseline on the arrangement to measure visually the angles and translate them against the horizontal bottom of the paper sheet. I felt that this improved my orientation on the paper, compared to the first try. Even though I don’t see much improvement from first to second try, it felt better.
I also made tiny pauses for my arm instead having in in the air all the time. This was better and less exhausting for the muscles. I was still struggling with knowledge about perspective and simply drawing wat I saw. I would have no problem constructing a technical perspective drawing, but I prefer to train my eye to interpret the angles correctly, rather than constructing them technically.
I made photographs of both arrangements, maybe this will help to analyse the errors that I make. From the drawing, it’s the backwards lines which are rather undefined and where I’m insecure.
Maybe I should change some of my items to have them more differently in thickness – there are too many of roughly the same thickness and some too similar in size. I think more difference would help me to improve.
Page 3
I did another try of the arrangement, this time with graphite pen 9B and in the living room where I could place the books and boxes on a flat table rather than improvising a stand (as I had done for pages 1 and 2). I exchanged the box for a thick book to have more variety in the forms.
I remembered about my idea about the horizontal line in the picture and searched for an imaginary baseline. I tried to relate the angles of the shapes to this baseline as I saw them, but I think in the drawing there is a tendency of my items to “fall of the plane”. I’m currently not able to analyse where the error is. Otherwise, I feel that I gained a bit more confidence to draw a defining, darker line, rather than many searching light lines.
Page 4
Another go for books and boxes. This time, I placed the arrangement farther away from me and exchanged some books for boxes of different size. One box was square which turned out to be especially difficult to get right, because the eye immediately detects perspective errors – with the hand not being able to correct them, for the time being. In this drawing I made more corrections on the size of shapes than in the other ones.
Summary
Overall, I found this exercise rather difficult – showing me that “I cannot draw” – not yet, and not in a technical sense of getting things objectively correct. But from drawing 1 to 4 I nevertheless perceived some tiny progress in the ability to draw lines to define form. I guess I need much more practice.