The task was to make a landscape drawing on A3 cartridge paper, this time trying to deliberately establish foreground, middle ground and background using a variety of techniques. The drawing could be done by enlarging one of the earlier sketches or as a new drawing made on the spot.
I’m very unsure whether I have actually completed this task or not. I found the instructions difficult to digest, and the associated illustration suggested that annotations and explanatory ruler lines were expected.
Nevertheless, I had these instructions in mind with the three larger drawings I made after the oil pastel drawing of the evening sky at the Schillerpark.
Friday 12 October 2012 – Jungfernheide
That afternoon, I made a trip to Jungfernheide, a large recreational park in Berlin with forest, some meadows, a pond and nice pathways between the trees. The location did not work for 360° landscape drawing as I originally intended because there was no open view, and not for cloud studies because the sky had become just one thick gray mass.
So I made a drawing of a scene that I liked, trying to take on board the instructions from the “plotting space” exercise. The location was to the side of the little pond with a view towards a pedestrian bridge, framed by large trees. I tried to incorporate some of the hints on foreground/middle area/background.
I took some more time for the drawing and learned something about the reflections on the water. I think I should take still more time while drawing, and try to draw the elements correctly. I like the drawing, but it isn’t accurate with respect to the distance between elements and this creates some visual confusion. For example, the branches of the tree to the left are too far towards the middle, so they lack connection to the tree from which they originate.
A major problem had to do with my myopia. This time I put on my glasses, so I could see much better at a distance, at the expense of having a blurred view on the sheet where I was drawing, due to far-sightedness. Basically, I have two situations: not using glasses and having a clear view on the sheet but not being able to see details at the distance, or using glasses and having a clear view at the distance but blurred vision on the sheet. It’s really a nuisance to have both of these eyesight problems.
While walking back, I reflected on the drawing and the problems I encountered. There was another thing I noticed, this had to do with figure and ground. When I looked at the scene, there were many light objects before a dark ground, and also many dark objects before a lighter background. Most objects also changed their relative tone over their entire space. This is something that I see but cannot draw yet. I think it’s the reason why my drawings don’t work (besides many other problems, that is). I’m drawing dark elements and have the white paper background, and the other part of the visual impression, the light elements before the darker background, is missing. On some very few areas in the drawing I included tone to achieve the effect of light object before a darker ground, for example the bench to the middle right.
The problem with this is that I don’t want to use hatching to indicate the darker areas, because the parallel lines seems to distroy the impression of foliage. So the solution might be to just keep working and making more leave-like marks until the area which serves as a background to another gets darker than the other object.
Taking time for details
The other aspect that I found interesting was the effect of taking some time for details, because it’s like a journey of visual discoveries. For example, at the beginning of the drawing I saw that the water was darker than many of the other elements. Only after some time spent drawing, I began to see the reflections on the water surface: the bridge, the trees and the sky.
I drew no sky in this image because the sky was just a uniform light gray. Hopefully there will be some more interesting cloud formations in the next few days. From time to time I have seen extraordinary beautiful skies over Berlin. Recently I made a trip to the countryside eastwards of Berlin, towards the Polish frontier. When I went on a walk towards the river Oder which designates the frontier, there was indeed an open view into all directions, and on that day, there were wonderful cloudscapes. They would have been great for drawing. So I hope something similar will occur again.
Other places to go
Before departing to Jungfernheide, I had spent some time searching the internet for locations in and around Berlin which would be nice for landscape drawing. I found several which I might explore in the future. I’m glad that the drawing course gives me a reason to make some more trips out of town!
Protected natural parks by the Horst Sielmann Stiftung
– Döberitzer Heide in the western outskirts
– Wannichen, around 120 km to the south, midway between Berlin and Dresden
– Groß Schauener Seen, around 100 km south-east of Berlin
Müggelberge near Köpenick, around 60 km to the east of Berlin
And I’ve just viewed a documentary about Ireland on television. It would be a dream to travel there just for drawing and painting the landscape. If only I could take my cat Paula with me!
23 October 2012 – Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway
I went to Oslo to visit the Emil Nolde Exposition, and later that afternoon I made a walk to Akershus Fortress which is an ancient Wiking fortress at the harbour. I had taken some drawing materials with me on the trip because I had planned to draw there. I began with a sketch in watersoluble graphite and then used watersoluble wax crayons for the coloured bushes. It was quite cold and after about half an hour, my fingers became stiff and I stopped drawing. Originally I had the idea of maybe using a light wash to create tones, but then I did not have any water with me and also preferred to leave it as a simple drawing.
I think I did well in outlining the view on the building using the graphite pencil, and the lines of the pathway are creating the sense of space and distance. But adding colours didn’t do the drawing well. I thought it would be nice to depict the strong autumn colours of the bushes on the side, but it didn’t work out. So actually I wish I had stayed with graphite. Nevertheless I like the drawing, and it’s also nice because it’s associated to my memories of Oslo. It was just a bit too cold for drawing outside!
26 October 2012 – Volkspark Rehberge
This was the day with the very strangely patterned sky, whose cloud studies are included as No 2 in the cloud formation blog post. I went to the park to work on both exercises – cloud studies and plotting space. I made this drawing after some sketches of the cloud formations. I was sitting on a bench and right before me, there was a path running from left to right, with many autumn leaves. Behind the path, there were a few higher grasses demarcating the beginning of the middle meadow, then the open meadow, and at a distance the trees on the opposite side of the meadow. At the distance to the right there were only lower bushes so somewhat more of the sky could be seen.
If I had been able to, I would have drawn some detailed leaves in the foreground, then the higher grasses, and then the large trees at the distance. But it was cold and I was impatient and instead of drawing close-by details, I scribbled the visual rhythm of the leaves in front of me. I reworked the distant trees to achieve some of the light before dark / dark before light effect, but I think it is not very successful because the marks are too rude.
What was nice about the scene were the autumn colours and the fresh air, and none of this I captured…
Reflections on the three drawings
I like the drawings, but I think they were not very successful in terms of the task instructions. So I’m thinking about having another go at the exercise. Maybe I should work after a photograph, but then everything becomes a matter of copying what I see on the photo and this doesn’t mean very much. At an earlier occasion (I think it was after the Schiller park oil pastel drawing) I thought it would be good to draw outside, but select a detail to focus on rather than depicting the whole scene. But then I would never arrive at drawing a landscape, because for larger scenes I have to abstract from detail. Probably I should try a variety of approaches and see what works for me.