For my review of part 3, drawing outdoors, I’m beginning a new sketchbook. This time I chose one with heavier and more robust paper (160 gms) that will hopefully be appropriate for wet media, too. I will do the exercises not necessarily in the order they appear in the course materials, because I need a bit of planning whether I will be able to draw outside or have to use photos. Drawing outside and taking photos depends on weather conditions so I’ll adapt to what’s possible.
I started my review with the cloud drawing exercise. The task was to make small sketches of cloud formations in charcoal, oil pastel and conte chalk pastel. I used oil pastels first and selected four photos. I divided my 23 x 30.5 cm sketchbook page into 4 separate areas.
Page 1: Four small cloudscapes, Guardi artist oil pastels (set of 48)
The most difficult aspect was to make a study on this tiny area with a medium as bold as oil pastels. I think this is not the best combination. If I’m to make a study, I want to look closely and have enough space to work out what I want to depict. So I’m having the same problems now as on the first go for this exercise. Maybe the idea of the exercise is to give students first hand experience on what works and what doesn’t. But my aim is to become better at cloud drawing, so maybe I’ll have to try out a different approach, once I had my go based on task instructions. And to see where I get I will stay with my four selected photographs for a while, this will help to compare between media.
Page 2: Daler Rowney oil pastels (set of 24)
Working on the entire sketchbook page worked better, but the photo I chose was difficult to depict with oil pastels. There are no singular clouds, instead there is a cloudy sky torn apart by the winds. I decided to include the panoramic view over the East River towards Williamsburg Bridge below my sky in order to see how the sky would correspond to an actual landscape. From the smaller colour choice I chose only few tones and tried to use them to create tonality. I think the result is interesting with respect to the tones and colours I created.
Page 3: Conté pastels (24 colours, landscape selection)
The same motif, but drawn with chalk pastel. I experimented with tissue paper, cotton tip sticks and putty rubber. Lacking different grey colours, I used medium blue, violet and black which felt like a very restricted palette but I began discovering how to achieve lighter and darker tones which corresponded to the skyscape. With these dark tones, the darks tended to become exaggerated. The result was quite a dramatic sky. But so far, my clouds do not look realistic.
Page 4: Charcoal
Another try on the motif with charcoal. The monochrome approach makes sense as I realized in the previous picture that the cloud structures can be depicted with a tonal approach rather than with different colours. The cloud formations in this photograph are difficult to capture, but this drawing gets them more cloud-like than the previous one. I also discovered that there was an aspect of aerial perspective – the further background with the bridge was softer in tone than the middle ground of the piers to the left and right of the river. This creates much depth. The sky directly above the ground was indeed quite dark, but in the drawing this seems to work against the depth impression as that area became a bit heavy.
Page 5: Conté pastels
Aim: Attempting a more realistic depiction of a cloudscape by developing three-dimensionality
Result: Looks like I’m working in the right direction, this cloudscape is much more cloudlike than earlier attempts. I worked and re-worked quite a while. I still have difficulties identifying and drawing dark, middle and light tones. Initially I thought the purple would serve as a dark tone, but then I realized that it worked better as a medium tone. My tonality is thus a bit chaotic, but I feel that I learnt something.
Page 6: Chalk pastels
Aim: Another try to depict a single cloud before a blue sky
Result: At the first stage, the different tones and overall forms in the drawing looked correct, but I found the white paper shining through the pastel marks disturbing the overall impression because the colours were not intense enough. I worked over the drawing to soften the pastels and added a tonal gradation to the sky, this was an improvement.
I think I now understand better why the task wanted students to draw the clouds small scale. With my roughly A4 sized sketchbook and a large cloud on it, I have to go 4 to 5 meters away to be able to appreciate whether the tonality worked. So while the larger size makes it easier for me to work out shadings with bold media like pastel or charcoal, it is not easy to judge the effect while sitting close to the page. Drawing small scale permits easier judgement of the tonal effects while working. But I had the problem that I wasn’t able to make realistic tonality with the bold sticks. So I see two possible solutions: Take my time with the bold media on small scale, or change to something which permits finer tonality shadings at small scale, for example coloured pencils.
Page 7: Small sketches in charcoal and coloured pencils with wash
Aim: Try again the small format with a bold medium, incorporating colour for a blue sky
Result: As expected, the charcoal was difficult to work with in the small format. The landscape with the cloudy sky is not very realistic but I made some progress in that I was able to increase the number of tones produced. For the next two sketches I used coloured pencil hoping this would work better in the small format. I was indeed able to draw a bit more detailed, but the main problem of creating a cloudlike impression remained. I couldn’t resist to try a wash, but this was also very difficult in the small format.
I’m not satisfied with the “cloudiness” of my cloudscapes, but am not sure why they don’t work. Maybe it’s again the old problem of too much visual information for me to capture. Maybe I should restrict myself to small sections for which I have the capacity to study in detail and use these to learn how to depict realistically, and then tackle larger cloudscapes. That said, I still like the little sketches because they are quite expressive, the only problem is that they don’t realistically depict the clouds.
Larger drawing: Sunset cloudscape
Some days later there was an incredible sunset, and I took lots of photographs from my terrace into the sky. Later I selected one for a drawing – some apartment buildings, almost black, contrasting against a sky with clouds on fire. I did a perspective correction on the photo to bring the angles of the “falling vertical lines” of the buildings back to 90 degrees. This had the effect of opening up the sky, which made it feel more realistic.
I made a drawing on A3 cartridge paper with coloured pencils. I wanted to capture the yellow, orange and rose tints of the clouds against the darkening blue sky and the near black silhouette of the buildings. The main problem was to build up the desired colour intensity with the pencils. I worked two hours or so on the drawing, and the clouds looked approximately like clouds, but coloured pencils wouldn’t be my media of choice for drawing cloudscapes again, I thought. Maybe I’d prefer wet media when it comes to colours, because they permit obtaining deep colours in one go.
Since I was dissatisfied with the result and remembered that inktense pencils are watersoluble, I briefly researched the techniques involved and also wrote a blog entry with tipps and resources for my “drawing skills” section. Then I made a smaller sketch to try out dissolving the coloured pencil layer with water. Main finding was that the paper quickly begins to crumble, so if one’s not using watercolour paper, it is better to use a very soft brush and don’t work in too many layers.
The result of the sketch were moderately successful and I just wanted to try whether I was able to improve the main drawing. So I worked over it. I made more layers of reworking than intended and it was at the edge of dissolving the paper. Unfortunately I did not make a photograph of the first stage. I think the overall impression of the drawing has improved, although I still wasn’t satisfied with the intensity of my colours.
What have I learnt, and how can I improve?
Dissolving coloured pencils with water is a complex technique and I find it difficult to master. In the end, I wasn’t able to create even colour layers where I wanted them. Problems similar to watercolour drawings appear: The risk of overworking the colours and getting muddy tones if too many colours are mixed.
If I were to do it again, I think I’d try watercolours with ink. The watercolours to be applied generously for the cloud formations and their burning colours. The ink to achieve real dark tones for the silhouettes of the buildings, which become lively through hatching, maybe combined with a wash.
I also realized the source of my problems with the final drawing for assignment three: I wanted to increase colour intensity in my coloured pencil drawing, but did not master the technique. All the problems occurred: Buckling paper, smudging colours, uneven colours where I did not want them. So part of the disaster can be attributed to my difficulties with a new technique.