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 up ignoring it.
I started with selecting some objects. I tried to chose both cubic and cylindrical forms with varying sizes:
– A wine bottle
– Coffee packed in a box
– Tuna can
– Coconut cream box
– Cylindrical tea box
– small cubic tea box
I also looked a bit for the colours to make them somewhat harmonious – the items are coloured in various brown tones up to yellow/ocre, with occasional spots of other colours, for example the metal of the tuna can and some blue spots on the label. Since I felt unsure about how I might colour my drawing, I began with some preliminary experiments to explore coloured media.
Page 1: Conte crayon mark making experiment (A3 sketchbook)
I thought to use conté crayons to colour the drawing, and did a mark-making exercise first to explore colours and behaviour of the pastel blocks. I’m new to pastel and didn’t feel very comfortable with them. I don’t really like how they behave when applied in layers, they tend to smudge easily, the crayons take up the colour which is already on the paper and diffuse particles to other places on the paper. So drawing spontaneously with light and dark colours easily spoils the colours already there.
When I bought the box of carrés, I hadn’t noticed that it wasn’t the general assortment, but the landscape selection of colours, which doesn’t contain clear yellow, red and blue tones. There’s an emphasis on “natural” tones, with many different shades of green and brown. I’m not very happy with the selection, because they push the drawings into the direction of a particular palette which I wouldn’t have chosen for my mark-making exercise nor for drawing the arrangement of supermarket items. On the other hand, I’m not very much into pastels currently, so I’d rather not buy a second box to have the general selection right now.
Overall, I will have a look whether I have some other colours for the supermarket drawing, something different from pastel. Ideas are
– wax or oil pastel: is very rough, not fine
– coloured crayons: are very light in colour
– watercolour: would require to work flat, and to take heavy paper
– coloured ink: preferably for small sheets of paper if applied with dip pen. I might be using it afterwards (on top of a b/w drawing) with a brush, then take heavy paper right away
– wax pastels with water: Another idea would be to make a pencil drawing first, then draw the contours with black ink (waterproof) and apply wax pastels for colour, then diffuse them with water to create blendings.
The last idea interested me most, but I would need to try out the technique first – another mark making experiment.
Page 2: Wax pastel mark making experiment (A3 clean white sheet)
initial ideas:
– take rather heavy paper which can support water.
– working in layers: Pencil drawing first, then wax pastel, then water. I took a HB pen – the hardest I have – hoping that it smudges less with water than 2B
– try out the effect of making contours with black ink and dip pen
I took medium weight paper (190g) in clean white, smooth surface which works better with dip pen and ink. I drew 4 squares on the A3 sheet because I thought to make some experiments to explore this mixed-media technique.
Square I – drawing some objects, colorizing them (upper left)
For a beginning, I chose three small objects to mimick the supermarket topic – two ink boxes (cubic), and a pencil sharpener (cylindric). I had the sketchblock flat in front of me and placed the objects bedirectly behind it. Contrasting to the first two exercises with large objects which I had put onto a table to my left, this improvised arrangement was much easier to draw, because the horizontal baseline which I had difficulties finding in the earlier drawings, was now much easier to locate – I could simply take my own position as a reference point, such that the position of the sketchblock became the horizontal line against which to locate the objects’ angles.
I did a pencil sketch first and had much less difficultiy outlining the objects – firstly due to the easily available horizontal reference line, but also because drawing flat permitted the arm to rest, my hand was much more safe and supported during drawing. Very nice for a change. I then drew the objects’ contours with dip pen and ink, and after the ink was dried, I applied some colour with the wax crayons. I did not want to draw too many details, but still take up the main colours of the objects. This was easy for the sharpener with its red body and black top, but less easy for the ink boxes, which had printed upon the surface a merchand’s label and some information about the product, plus a tiny illustration based on the ink’s colour. So I got back to pen and ink, but used a finer nib for an abstract representation of characters and text, and made some coloured patches roughly in the form of the illustrated objects on the box. Next, I dissolved these colours with a brush and water. Taking a rather short and hard brush was a good decision because it permitted some control over the process. I dissolved some coloured areas completely, but let others irregularly textured from the original wax crayon marks. The effect was a greater resemblance to the original illustration. So this was the first try, the technique seems to work, and I’m not sure what to do with the other three squares. I might simply try out some abstract shapes, colour blendings etc.
For my supermarket topic though, using watercolour would lead to an interruption in the drawing process – I’d first make the drawing of what I see, using the easel and upright drawing board, and then change to another desk where I can lay down flat the sheet and beautify (or not) the whole drawing by applying some water to the coloured areas. I’m not especially fond of the idea, because it feels somewhat artificial. I’d rather stay where I begin, and with a single drawing technique. Will think about this.
Squares II and III – mark-making in black and red (lower 2 squares)
I wanted to try out the washing technique and used watersoluble wax pastel. I drew a pattern of angles in black, with some shades of colour, and then used brush and water to dissolve the colour. I wanted the forms to overlap, and to obtain two different effects: soft blendings from darker to lighter, and contrasts of the dark edges ranging into lighter areas. This technique didn’t work very well, because the water tended to dissolve everything. But probably less than if I had been drawing with watercolour wet-in-wet. In my drawing, the angle shapes still remained defined, with an effect of transparent layers.
The third square was a wave pattern in red. I wanted to try out shades and create highs and depths. The pattern is nice, but there’s not much depth effect, probably due to the colour and to my lack of knowledge how to create depth effects.
After square II had dried a bit, I did another layer of angles, this time in red colour. I wanted to strengthen the transparent layer effect, but this turned out to be difficult, because as soon as I applied some more water, the black forms tended to dissolve, too. For this technique to work, one would have to apply an intermediate fixative layer, to prevent the first layer from bleeding into the second. This wouldn’t have occurred with ink, which dries water resistant – as far as I know. But not sure whether this still holds once the ink has been diluted with some water. A nice idea to try out though.
IV – ink and wax colour (upper right square)
I began with ink and made some brush strokes which resembled a pattern of hills in a landscape, then diluted the ink with water and made some more strokes. The ink dried very quickly and separate layers created different shades of darkness, rather than dissolving. On top of the ink layer, I applied blue and grean wax colour, which I then dissolved with water. As anticipated, this did not dissolve the black ink marks, and permitted to create blends of blue and grean colour. A limitation was the paper which was not good for watercolour drawings, the surface became rough very quickly.
learning point/practical point: When using this technique, use more robust paper which supports some brush work.
Page 3: Supermarket Shop
I drew my arrangement and decided on colour crayons. I felt slightly more confident getting the shapes right – after having spent half an hour or so to arrange the objects in a way that would be appropriate for a portrait format, and which resulted in nice between-spaces, angles, and shapes to draw. The initial HB pencil drawing was done like before, beginning with very light sketching searching lines, then gradually becoming more defined until I could draw the contour lines. Once I had these, I continued with the colour pencils and tried to get the general colour right, but did not attempt to obtain real deep tonality, instead remained rather light.
The one thing I did not like was to draw the labels on my items. I liked them for their shape and what I new was inside, but I felt silly to re-draw the illustrations on their cover. Probably I would be happier with more natural surfaces, consting of real materials like glass, metal or clay, rather than copying printed stuff.
I think I did quite well with this drawing – I could have done better at everything but for the first attempt since a long time, I was satisfied. I like working in colour, and I think I got the tones quite well. In the end, I think I’ve overdone a bit, I emphasized contrasts and added object shades, and also lightly coloured the wooden table surface but here I think I haven’t done a good job. Regarded from close this is nice, but from a distance of a meter, the objects cannot be very well distinguished from another, probably because of not enough contrast at overlapping shapes, and because I remained so lightly with the colours. Also, using colours with lamp light instead of daylight didn’t work very well. I have a daylight lamp, but only one, and it is attached to my desk. Probably I will buy a standing lamp and another daylight bulb, and move the lamp around to where I’m working. Especially in the winter with the short daylight hours this will be valuable.