Research Point: Ben Nicholson

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 24, 2012

I began my reading about Ben Nicholson with a Wikipedia article. It mentions that he had been married three times. His third wife was German photographer Felicitas Vogler. I was curious about her but despite her reputation as a landscape photographer, no photograph of herself was available on the net.

From the Wikipedia article I understood that Ben Nicholson was influenced by cubism and also lived some time in France and the United States. I had to look up where ‘Cornish landscapes’ are – in Cornwall, of course. My first idea in response to the research question, why Nicholson would have superimposed simplified still life forms on these landscapes, was that the choice of forms and simplification mirrors the cubism influence, and integrating the landscape might have reflected his liking for Cornwall.

Tate Gallery shows many of his works on line, this helped to obtain a first impression. There are quite a few silhouette drawings. I especially liked the one of a lying woman. It’s probably not representative for his otherwise more abstract works, but I like the sensitivity of line and the friendlyness and joy in the woman’s face.

Ben Nicholson (1968) Smiling nude

 

To answer the research point question, it would probably important to know when and for how long Nicholson lived in Cornwall, to see where the stay is placed in his biography and which events may have influenced his works.

But first, I was curious to know more about the Cornish landscape. A Google image search brought up beautiful photographs, for example these two of a cliff and the stony coast.

Cornwall is in the South West of England. It seems to be a very rough landscape, dominated by strong winds from the seaside. The character of this landscape is in marked contrast to my memories of other areas in South England, with a gentler climate, soft green grass and many cows, and very idyllic. I imagine that the very distinct character of this landscape did not fail to capture Nicholson’s admiration.

I then found a highly readable and interesting blog article: Ben Nicholson’s Cornwall. The article discusses the BBC4 documentary ‘The Art of Cornwall’ (2010) and presents artists who lived in Cornwall, together with some of their works. There seemed to have been a very lively and productive artist community from the 1920s on, and Ben Nicholson met Alfred Wallis there, a fisherman who late in his life turned to painting and made beautifully impressive, almost childlike paintings of the sea, fishing boats and the landscape.

According to this article, Nicholson came to Cornwall in order to flee London at the beginning of the Second World War. He first continued with abstract works but landscape more and more returned in his paintings, as for example in this view out of the window.

Ben Nicholson (1943-45) St. Ives

I’d interpret this development in Nicholson’s work as a departure from the strong Cubist influence during the time when he lived and worked in London. Maybe it was a kind of re-connecting to nature, where nature seemed to have been banned by Cubists. At least this is what I conclude from a quote cited in the blog article: Piet Mondrian visited Nicholson in his Hampstead studio, and purportedly said with disapproval, when he saw a tree in the garden through the windows: “Too much nature”. So the Cornish Landscape might have revived Nicholson’s artistic relationship to nature, which had been silenced during a period of strong identification with other influences.

According to an article by the British Museum, Nicholson had been the leading figure in British abstract art in the late 1920s. They present the linocut ‘Three mugs and a bowl’ as an example of Nicholson’s geometric style. And it’s indeed these objects which return in the later Cornish landscape works. The return to nature must have represented a kind of inner landslide for the artist, an attempt to find a solution between abstract idealization and recognizable representation of the outside world.

Ben Nicholson (1928) Three mugs and a bowl

References

Tate Gallery selection of Nicholson’s works
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/slideshow?f=1&wi=1&wp=1&aid=1702&ws=date&wv=list

The Cornish Landscape: Stony Coast photograph
http://www.cornwalltour.co.uk/landscape.htm

Cornish Landscape: View of a cliff
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/regions/south_west/ourwork/atlanticcoastandvalleysproject.aspx

Blog article: Ben Nicholson’s Cornwall
http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/ben-nicholsons-cornwall/

British Museum article on Ben Nicholson’s 1928 linocut of
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/b/ben_nicholson,_still-life.aspx

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Drawing fruit and vegetables in colour, Research points | Comments closed

Check and log: Still life – line and tone

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 22, 2012

What aspects of each drawing have been successful, and what did you have problems with?

I think I managed to place the objects well on the paper and arranged them into interesting compositions. Proportions are ok, textures are only sketchy but enough to recognize the objects.

For the first still life group in tone, I did not make a good choice with taking pastels because the medium wasn’t so well adapted to drawing small objects. Or maybe it was just technical problems and wrong choice of colours. But the objects tend to fall into each other, they are not well enough separated and the colour choice is not very attractive. Overall execution is too hasty, I haven’t put enough love into the picture.

The second still life group in tone satisfies me more, because its objects can be better distinguished. Building up colours with colour pencils worked better for me than with pastels. The second drawing would have benefitted from more work on the grapes, I think.

What I found difficult in all drawings was to deal with “loose ends” – when I drew a line but got lost and then later when coming back to that part of the drawing, I didn’t know where this line would connect to other objects or their details in the drawing. It’s probably a problem of hand-eye-coordination.

Did you manage to get a sense of depth in your drawings? What elements of the drawings and still life groupings helped to create that sense?

Yes I think I managed to create depth in all drawings, in some I was more successful than in others. Depth was mainly created by having elements overlap and also by drawing lines in perspective that came closer together in more distant area of the arrangements.

This was done with the perspective lines of the table background in the first still life group (the vegetables), and with the parallel lines of the wooden board in the second (the fruits). The pastel drawing of the vegetables conveys the least sense of depth, probably because the object contours aren’t always clearly recognizable.

What difficulties were created by being restricted to line or tone?

Being restricted to line was difficult because shading to create a sense of depth wasn’t permitted. Without overlap, the drawing would have been rather flat.

Restriction to tone on the other hand made it sometimes difficult to separate objects from another. In this respect, the coloured pencil drawing of the fruits was more successful than the pastel drawing of the vegetables, because the finer drawing tool permitted to create small, rather precise shaded areas which helped to make objects more recognizable – especially the grapes.

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Check and log, Still life: Line and tone | Comments closed

Still life: Line and tone

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 22, 2012

This project was about drawing two still life groups, one focusing on line and the other focusing on tone. I did two pairs of drawing: First I worked on an arrangement of vegetables and made two drawings (line and tone), then I did two more on an arrangement of fruits.

Still life of vegetables – line drawing

I chose broccoli, five tomatoes, two turnip cabbages, and three potatoes and arranged them on a small wooden table. It took me quite a while until I was satisfied with the composition. The potatoes were added after a series of unsuccessful arrangements and they seemed to round the group off. I was trying to combine smooth and textured forms in a way that went well together and left enough space to breathe for each of the different textures. I was interested in the inner structure of the broccoli, the round forms and lengthy twigs of the turnip cabbage, and the smooth surface of the tomatoes. These were in contrast to the twiggly character of turnip leaves and the outer areas of the broccoli.

In earlier line drawings, I had been very tense because I did not want to make “false lines” because they cannot be corrected. This time, I deliberately chose a more sketchy approach, as if I was drawing with a pencil, and permitted myself to make errors. They are indeed disturbing in the final drawing but it was nevertheless a much more pleasant drawing experience.

I had some difficulties getting the proportions right and there are some errors in the placement of objects as I drew them, but overall I think it’s a nice composition which fills the paper effectively. Maybe I could have improved the drawing by just continuing and emphasizing correct lines to bring out the forms a bit more.

And while I was at it, I stayed with the composition for the next drawing.

Still life of vegetables – drawing in tone

Since I liked the still life group which I had set up for the previous exercise, I thought it would be interesting to do a second drawing in a different technique and medium. I chose chalk pastels for it and used rough pastel paper.

I followed instructions to begin with one colour for dark tones, then a different colour for medium tones, and a third colour for light tones. But there were big problems with my choice of colours: I used dark brown for dark tones (the wooden table and some shadows), dark green and red for medium tones (outside of broccoli, turnip leaves and tomatos) and pale yellow for light tones (inside of broccoli, twigs and root of turnip cabbage, and potatoes). This choice was informed by the attempt to use actual object colours, but this did not work at all. I think I wasn’t very successful in drawing the objects, they are not very recognizable.

I think this is because the paper size was too small for the task, and I did not have enough place to work out details in my rather fast and loose technique. Also, it didn’t work to draw with light over dark colours, the green and red pastel sticks didn’t match object colours and I didn’t manage to work towards the correct colours.

I think this drawing would improve if I chose a larger format, and I’d use A2. It would probably benefit from an initial pencil sketch to help me orientating about the objects on the table. Then I think with pastels, I would need to “try harder”, i.e. take more time to get the colours and object details right. The pastel colours do not fit out of the box so I would need to develop a technique permitting to mix colours until they are more truthful to the objects.

Reflections on the two drawings

Overall I think it was an important learning exercise. I was quite satisfied with the line drawing, less so with the tone drawing. I think I will take the time to draw another composition. While the A3 sheet was ok for the line drawing, the size felt inappropriate for the pastel drawing. A3 should work better with a finer colour medium. Maybe I’ll try coloured pencil next time.

Still life of fruits – line drawing

I did another line drawing composition. I found it quite difficult to decide on a background, and while I was certain that I wanted to draw a pineapple, it took a while until I had chosen the fruits to combine it with. I think if it weren’t for the exercises, I’d rather just draw what I see instead of deliberately arranging objects, choosing a background etc. Somehow the naturally occurring compositions I see around me have more appeal to me, as if hazard was the better composer.

But after roughly an hour I had found a rather simplistic arrangement of pineapple, grapes and flat peaches which I found good enough for drawing. I chose the Faber Castell artist felt pen which has a soft tip that permits to draw lines of differing widths, almost like a fine brush. Until now I had only made some tiny experiments with this pen, so I was curious to use it for the natural forms.

I briefly considered to draw a pencil sketch first to outline shapes and proportions on the paper, because I thought this would help me not to loose orientation while drawing with the black pen. But I decided to be brave and do without. I observed the arrangement for a while to get acquainted with the objects’ proportion, and I searched for a relatively secure starting point from which to develop the entire drawing. I was afraid that if I would begin just “somewhere” then I’d risk to loose control over the drawing, for example extending one object too much to fit with the remainder of the arrangement.

After a while, I decided to start at the left lower edge of the pineapple and worked my way upwards. I chose this point because I felt that it represented a central orientation from which I could roughly estimate my space needs upwards (the pineapple hight) and to the right (pineapple width), leaving some room for the wooden plate with the other fruits to the left, right and bottom.

I drew the pineapple’s body contours first, then some grape contours, and then the plate outline with remaining grapes and peaches. Then I continued with the pineapple structure and drew its leaves at the end. The most difficult part of the drawing was the texture of the pineapple. I had problems with eye-hand coordination, with focusing on details, and continously got lost when I switched between loking on the pineapple and looking on the sheet to control what I was drawing. These difficulties are not unknown and I’m not quite sure how I can resolve it. Maybe it would be good if I stop switching between object and drawing, and just keep my eyes focused on the object. I will try that out.

Other than that, I like the drawing. I think the paper is nicely filled and the pineapple structure is interesting and recognizable, even though it’s not very orderly nor accurate. From the line drawing approach, I was more relaxed than with the single object line drawings, but tried to exert more control than with the first still life group. I wanted to avoid erroneous lines and therefore paid attention to the intersection of objects, not drawing through intersections but changing line direction instead. I think this and the thicker line are the reasons why this drawing appears more solid than the first still life group line drawing.

I see room for improvement in the pineapple texture, and maybe the wooden plate would benefit from some texture. I could have chosen a more interesting background, but on the other hand, my main interest in this drawing was the pineapple texture and a textured background would probably have distracted from what was essential for me in this drawing. The proportion of the wooden plate is not correct, it appears too much like a square but in fact the black side line indicates the longer side of a rectangle shape.

Still life group of vegetables – drawing in tone

After I had finished the drawing and made a pause, I wanted to draw the arrangement as still life group in tone, to complete another pair of drawings sharing the same composition. But I also thought that another study of the pineapple texture only might be beneficial. I opted for the still life group in tone and chose colour pencil this time, because I thought this would permit to avoid problems I had with the rather clumsy pastel sticks with fine details on a relatively small paper size of A3. I thought that with pencil colours, I could more easily build up the desired colours without quickly saturating the paper. I also thought it would be easier to maintain the light areas of my objects. Then I rearranged the objects because I thought it would be more interesting to have a different composition. But somehow I didn’t find an arrangement I liked and then realized that I was quite tired. I decided to make a break, hopefully to continue soon.

On the next day, I found an arrangement I liked and thought it might be nice to try this as a linocut, because the motive is quite clear in his forms. Then I began the still life drawing in tone of the fruits arrangement, using coloured pencil. I really enjoyed that drawing, especially the beginning of just sketching areas of dark, medium and light tones. I chose three different brown tones rather than different colour values, and this was much easier to work with than the strong colours I used for the previous still life group in pastel.

Things became more complicated as I proceeded. The main difficulty was with details… While I clearly saw a green diagonal cross-lined pattern on the pineapple, I wasn’t able to draw it. And my grapes were completely invented… I don’t know why this is but I’m not able to focus on particular object details and accurately draw them. My eyes just loose their refererence point, and this is reflected in the drawing, I have lots of lines with loose ends. It’s strange really and I’m not sure how I can improve this. Maybe restriction to less information, or a technique of really not lifting up the pen from the paper and the eye from the object and draw without looking, more or less.

Nevertheless, the drawing has some appeal to me, it’s very light and sketchy but despite the few details I have managed to capture, I think the objects are recognizable. Also, building up the objects’ colours worked nicely just as I had expected. I found getting the colours (approximately) right much easier than with pastel as in the previous still life drawing.

I think the drawing wasn’t finished then. I’d have like to improved the pineapple texture and be more detailed with the grapes. On the other hand, this would have risked to make the drawing heavy and solid rather than light and fresh, so I wasn’t sure whether to leave it as it was or continue working on the details.

But it turned out that I did not continue working on this drawing. Maybe  it’s just for documenting how far I’ve gotten, leaving much room for future improvement. I think it would be good to draw more often.

I did a study of the pineapple surface pattern in the sketchbook, enlarging and drawing only a few elements of it. Very complicated. I think I should be doing more of this and keep at it. This drawing was “not enough” but maybe with time I’ll get there, to capture this type of structures. I feel that currently I give up too early… lack of concentration, eyesight problems, not enough inner calmness. It would be good to improve on these three things.

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Still life: Line and tone | Comments closed

Miscellaneous: Charcoal self-portraits

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 13, 2012

After the oil pastel peanut which compensated for the stipples and dots experience, I felt inspired to draw two self-portraits in charcoal, also into the A3 sketchbook.

They were fun to draw. They don’t particularly resemble me so there’s room for improvement but nevertheless I like their expressiveness. The first one has a somewhat sad and tired expression, the second one is a bit friendlier. I think it would help to use an easel rather than drawing with the heavy sketchbook in the hands. These portraits remind me of the ones I did when I was in my twenties. I like the idea of not being obliged to draw every wrinkle which has found its place since then.

I reworked the second drawing on the following day because I wanted to try whether I’m able to increase resemblance. Far from perfect, but I like it. I might also rework the first drawing. I’m addressing something which I find quite important – my reluctance and anxiety to really work on a drawing. This is something I seem to avoid, probably out of fear to spoil a drawing. For this portrait, I had already used spray fixature so it wasn’t possible to “clean up” initial errors entirely. Rather, I tried to build on what I had drawn already, just working out details to what I observe. Resemblance has improved although I’m uncertain whether anyone would recognize this portrait. Still much room for improvement but I’m nevertheless glad about the tiny step forward.

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Detailed observation, Miscellaneous | Comments closed

Check and log: Detailed observation

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 13, 2012

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.

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Check and log, Detailed observation | Comments closed

Stipples and dots

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 12, 2012

This task was about drawing another single natural object, but using stipples and dots as mark making technique.

I drew a peanut in this technique and enlarged the object for better fit on the A4 sheet. I did not manage very well to capture the texture. I did several pencil drawings afterwards, but feel that I got nowhere. This is an object I would like to draw with a light colour on a slightly darker background, I feel this would be more natural.

Peanut attempt in pencil

I couldn’t get myself to give it another try with stipples and dots, but was indeed fascinated by the peanut’s surface pattern. So I tried whether I’d be able to capture this in a pencil drawing. In the first drawing, I tried to draw the entire peanut but realized that there was simply too much detail for my patience. Therefore I did another starting with just a tiny area in the middle of the peanut. The visual impression is exaggerated contrasts resulting in exaggerated depth, but I feel I’ve come somewhat closer to learning accurate representation, even if it’s currently only rudimentary.

 

What I don’t like about the exercises in this project is that I feel they don’t allow me to do justice to the object. For example the peanut – drawing this with stipples and dots would be about the last thing I wanted to do if left on my own. If anything, I’d draw this in colour and quite large, trying to get the 3-D-texture correctly. Maybe I should do exactly this, to get rid of my inner knot from doing stipples and dots.

Peanut in oil pastel, for a change

Just to loosen my soul a bit from stipples and dots… I drew the peanuts using oil pastel into the A3 sketchbook. It may not be very convincing but nevertheless it was nice to use colours and allow myself some real arm movement over the entire sheet, rather than making tiny dots with millions of millimeter-sized finger movements to arrive at dark shades, hours later.

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Detailed observation | Comments closed

Getting tone and depth in detail

By patriciakarsten | Published: July 12, 2012

This task was about getting practice with drawing greyscales, using pencil and hatching/cross-hatching techniques. The focus should be on a single object’s pattern and texture, drawn on A3 paper size. We were supposed to try to create good contrast, use a variety of different marks, combine different soft and medium grade pencils and hatching stroke directions and fill the paper in an interesting way.

Pineapple

I selected a pineapple for the first attempts, with 2B and 6B pencil, but used only 6B. I was very dissatisfied with the drawing and didn’t enjoy drawing at all. I thought about why this was such a negative experience and I think it’s because the task was too complicated. The object too large and too complex, compared to my skills level. So I got stressed and disheartened because I realized that I’m not able to make a pretty drawing.

It would probably the best if I just slowed down a bit and adapted task complexity to what I’m able to achieve at this point in time. Maybe I would get along better by not drawing an entire object, but just trying to get some tiny detail right. I understand the task to be about pattern and texture and getting the tones right. So for me it would be important to find a personal way how I can learn, rather than trying everything at once, making one dissatisfying drawing after the other and not seeing any progress or learning taking place

I made another try with the pineapple, this time trying to draw a detail of its skin. Again I am entirely dissatisfied with the result. I don’t like this day.

 

Feeling disheartened

I must have been really disheartened by the pineapple experience. I just couldn’t get my self to give it another try with this exercise. Having to fill an A3 sheet seems just like an additional punishment, whenever I think of a natural object I might draw, because these objects that come to my mind are all so tiny.

I just can’t get over my dislike for this task, and I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t want to drop out of the course because of this, but I just can’t motivate myself to make a drawing that fits the task. I really tried to break it down into smaller steps, like thinking about small objects or only drawing a detail, but there’s simply nothing I’d be interested in drawing of the type ‘natural object’. No interest in drawing the internal structure of a a cauliflower.

A long time ago I have switched to photography when I saw something with interesting structure or detail, and probably this is the reason why. I don’t like detailed drawing. But this won’t help me in getting the coursework done, so I’m actually stuck. Help needed!

 

Lettuce

I did another two drawings. I wrote to my tutor about my blockage and this in itself seemed to have a kathartic effect, at least I was able to decide on an object and to give it another try. I chose fresh lettuce because the foldings of its leaves looked quite interesting.

But unfortunately, the experience was again very disheartening. I felt extremely incompetent and my drawings are far from demonstrating observational skills. Well actually they demonstrate that I don’t have adequate observational skills.

The big question is: How long will I try on this? In order to learn, I could spend a month at least, with daily practice. Not sure if this is what I’m doing the course for. But at the moment I don’t have the tiniest glimpse of how to approach the topic or how to improve. I think despite my lack of interest, I will stick to the topic until I at least feel that I understand how it’s done.

Still need to work out how I will continue. Probably I will try to do only details (not a whole object) and to enlarge it, hoping that this will permit me to focus on something and to understand how I can accurately represent what I see.

The whole thing is really disheartening. I hope that with practice I will get better, but I’m not sure about it. It feels like a foreign language with neither dictionnary nor grammar nor teacher at hand.

Low morale, continued

I wanted to do another observational study yesterday evening, but I was in trouble because my cat Paula had been refusing food all day. This is related to her illness and it has a devastating effect on my morale, because it makes me realize that her days are ending. I’m so sad and worried about her health that it’s difficult to keep up with other things in my life. By 9 p.m. I had managed to give her some medicine mixed into food, through assisted feeding using a syringe. Thanks to the medication (Prednisolone), an hour later her overall state was much better, and luckily this morning she ate sufficiently. The problem with Prednisolone are its side effects, so I’m trying to find a balance between giving her enough of it to alleviate the symptoms of her illness (like nausea, the reason why she doesn’t eat), but not too much, to avoid the negative side effects. It’s a difficult situation to live with the constant question, when will we arrive at the limit where it would be better to let her go. Sometimes I just can’t help crying, because I’m so helpless and our time together was much too short. She’s my little girl.

So yesterday evening just wasn’t the moment for another lettuce observational study. Luckily the morale is back to a more normal level today, corresponding to Paula’s improvement.

One idea I had how to tackle the problem of my lack of skills was to search the internet for drawing courses oriented towards detailed observation. There don’t seem to be many free resources at first sight, but I found a course description from the University of Hildesheim (Germany) which recommends as course literature a book by Karl Blossfeld and his co-worker Hans-Christian Adam. I found the works by this artist quite inspirational. My reflections are in a separate blog entry for ease of reference later (see More artists: Karl Blossfeldt).

New studio equipment and new inspiration

Inspired by the focus on detail in Karl Blossfeldt’s work and realizing that part of my problems may be related to diminishing eyesight, I did some product search and decided to buy a magnifier lamp. This may appear a bit exaggerated, and I do ask myself whether I will find enough pleasure in detailed observational drawing, but … it might be useful for many other activities as well, because my eyesight problems are not specific to drawing. After some reading around the topic, I chose one with a magnification of 175%, this is not too much and shouldn’t lead to too much distortion. I chose one with a relatively large lens although the smaller lens was in a more modern LED-technology instead of using neon bulbs, but I thought a large lense would be more comfortable to work with. The lamp has a daylight colour temperature, so it will also be good for capturing true colours when I work in the evenings. So overall I’m quite happy with the decision and newly motivated to approach the topic…

I also decided to buy a more robust easel – my old one was a tripod and recently the upper block to hold the canvas broke because my cats played hide and seek around the easel and it fell down. So this time, I opted for an H-frame design which has more stability. And while I was at it, I followed up a book advertisement presenting the drawings of Piotr Sonnenwend, a Polish artist and stage designer. Some illustrative pictures and my reflections on his work are in a separate blog entry (see More artists: Piotr Sonnenwend)

From an artistic point of view, I find Piotr Sonnenwend’s works inspiring, especially with respect to trying out new techniques of working with the materials on a surface. In my own studies, I think I am not ‘working enough’ – I draw some lines, try to capture some details, and since this looks like ‘nothing’, I give up disheartend, then try to recover motivation for not entirely abandoning the topic.

One solution would be to stick to the drawing and ‘try harder’, and see whether an initially weak representation can improve. Under the proviso that I can overcome the eyesight problem (it’s really hard for me to focus my eyes on tiny details about structures and how they are represented through light and dark areas), being more experimental might be my way to go.

So the problems with the ‘detailed pencil drawing’ of natural objects will probably remain, and I think I will develop more towards the other drawing style of more expressive, less detailed kind of works. Influenced by the works of Sonnenwend, I developed some ideas about how I might make the task of detailed observation more interesting and rewarding for me. One of the ideas was to combine pencil drawings with other media, especially acrylic colors. I was thinking of colouring the support and re-working light and dark areas in layers of transparency and opaqueness, using a dark colour range like black, paynes grey, indigo, van Dyck brown etc., in combination with soft pencil or graphite.

I’m currently quite stressed due to other commitments, but I will try to free up at least some hours next week-end for course work. Hopefully from July on I will be able to devote more time for the course, although I must acknowledge that my time budget will be rather tense over the rest of the year. The good side of this is that I need activities that I do ‘for myself’, and practising art is one way of recovering from other obligations. So not finding time for coursework actually implies that I’m so stressed that I don’t have any leasure time, which is not a good thing. Therefore, finding time for coursework is something vital.

Cauliflower

I had a breakthrough yesterday evening! I thought I should give it another try, and took a cauliflower as my natural object and the A3 sketchbook. I intended to try and make several tiny detail studies on the sheet, but then just stayed with a single one, and drew for about 1 and a half hours. There are many errors and distortions and the balance of gray tones isn’t right, but nevertheless for me it was a huge step forward and I’m quite satisfied with my attempt. The cauliflower isn’t immediately recognizable due to all the errors, but I think when one looks a bit longer, the shapes begin to appear.

I did not finish the drawing, because it was late and I was tired. Otherwise I think I would have drawn some more leaves at least sketchily to make the object more recognizable. At the beginning, I was overwhelmed by the many details I saw and wasn’t able to outline shapes, but after a while I began to ‘understand’ my object better and was able to connect loose ends which made some shapes clearer. It will still be a long way to go, but for the first time I felt that I was learning something and that there was progress. Really glad about this!

What I find very difficult is to draw the textures while getting the proportions of the elements right, plus the internal balance of gray tones. There was an instruction to draw an outline sketch first, which should actually help with the proportions. In my first drawings I began with a sketch and it was roughly ok, but not this time with the cauliflower. I’ll keep trying.

I had contacted my tutor some days ago because I felt so disheartened and her answer was to be patient and keep trying, because drawing is difficult and it takes time to learn. I guess she’s right! She recommended to resolve the block by trying out different approaches to the task, and draw something I like to get into the flow, then get back to the tasks I find difficult. Good advice and it suits me well.

Rose, strawberries, cucumber

I made a pause with writing, though not entirely with drawing. After the cauliflower, I made some more drawings. I wasn’t able to draw every day as I wanted and as I should, to get into the habit, but I did make a drawing every two or three days.

I drew a study of a rose three days ago, and today I drew a strawberry and a cucumber. I’m not extremely satisfied, it rather feels like walking without getting forward, but I’ll keep on trying. One of the problems is that I don’t manage to find interesting textures. And when I have an object, I seem to focus on shape rather than surface texture, and I feel that I’m producing a caricature of the object, rather than a natural study. I do not really know how to improve, but I think it’s all about ‘learning to see’. For now, I’ll just give it some more tries, hoping that insight comes through practice.

Walnut and Clematis

I made two more drawings, a walnut and a clematis flower, trying to get back into the process rather than focusing on the exercise. I don’t feel comfortable with this exercise, because the task is described in so technical terms. This leaves not much flexibility to adapt the technique to the object at hand and constantly creates inner resistance for me when trying to get on.

I think that using hatching to draw patterns as the task description demands is not a very good idea in general, because this technique is not able to create fine structure. I think a line technique is much better for textures. Hatching can then be applied on top to work out the darker zones. But I really don’t like this, because I feel that it destroys the subtlety of the line texture.

What would work for me would be selecting smooth objects, like apples or pears, then do an outline sketch, and use hatching to work out the grayscale. Alternatively, if I select an object with an interesting texture, then I’d use a line technique to bring out the texture, and create light and dark areas in this technique by making lighter vs darker marks or increasing the density of marks.

 

Back to line drawing: turnip cabbage

So I’m a bit at a loss with task instructions. I’ve just given it another try and got back to the first task of the project, doing a pure line drawing with a deeply black pen. I chose felt pen 0.2 thickness and drew a turnip cabbage. I focused on the root because I found it interesting how the twigs grow out of the root. I wasn’t able to comply to the instruction of not lifting the pen from the paper. Probably this works better with objects that have a more pronounced surface structure. By contrast, the surface of the root is rather smooth, and the twigs turn it into a somewhat architectural structure.

So basically, the task and the object are not very well matched. Maybe that’s what students are supposed to learn? But despite all kinds of problems while drawing, I still can see some progress from my first line drawing (the pepper half) to this one. I feel more secure and more ready to take some risks at the same time. To me this means that I’m more open to try out something, with less pressure to obtain a “perfect” result.

I will now try out the hatching technique. Maybe is more appropriate for the object: It has a smooth surface and the twigs might look nice when brought out through hatching grayscales. Not that I’m any proficient at hatching, but I’ll just try.

Turnip cabbage pencil drawings

I’ve made two turnip cabbage drawings and will now proceed to the next exercise because I’m beginning to get very annoyed. I don’t know why this happens, but being obliged to use a certain technique which I feel is not appropriate for the object and with which I’m not comfortable puts me in a position of doing some drawing gym, and this is not why I’m studying art.

I think that it’s enough for now, I’ve had my share of hatching tries. Unfortunately, I’m no more comfortable with stipples and dots, the next task. I have to admit that I’ll be glad when this project is over.

I permitted myself to first make one turnip cabbage drawing without restrictions to a certain technique. I was more comfortable with that one. My approach was to get into a flow of movement to get the forms right, then try to get the shades right by a soft application of the pencil with its flat side. This technique makes for gray areas that are more embedded in the entire picture than doing greys by hatching, because my hatched lines do not correspond to the forms in space. But I fell back on another old error and drew a “dark background” which is ugly because it’s so uneven and hastily drawn, destroying somehow the subtlety of the cabbage forms.

Then I drew the same object again, this time trying to use hatching. Because I constantly seem to forget that this is the focus of the entire task here, I wrote it on top of the sheet to remind me!

Overall, I’m not very happy at the moment with my coursework. I also feel that I’m too impatient, having difficulties to spend more than 15 or 20 minutes on a single picture. I think I’d rather just take my sketchbook and draw anything I like, without restriction to “only natural objects” or specific techniques. I’d be more comfortable with just exploring the object I see and draw in a way that feels good, whatever the technique.

Another issue is the format. The tasks contain instructions about paper format, and I’m constantly at odds with this. My objects for this project tend to be small, so I just don’t get the A3 sheets filled. I would need to enlarge them by a factor 20 to fill the sheet but I have much resistance to do this (and that’s probably why I haven’t, so far). I’d prefer using smaller sheets of paper, selecting an appropriate size depending on the object, and this would normally be A5. Instead, I draw tiny objects which get lost on the A3 sheet, like strawberries or the cucumber. Nothing seems right for me with these instructions, I constantly have the feeling that things are going wrong.

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Detailed observation | Comments closed

Tutor correspondence: Resolving a mental block

By patriciakarsten | Published: June 21, 2012

During Part II of this course, I had to take a break from the course because my cat was so ill that she needed much care, and I was also extremely overworked. When I finally got back to course work in June, I found myself completely blocked by difficulties with the natural observation tasks. It took dimensions of a motivational crisis and although I never seriously considered quitting the course, I knew that I was at a point where I needed some help to get me back on track. So I contacted my tutor Diana for advice. Here’s our e-mail correspondence. Our conversation really helped and I was able to overcome the block.

 

My question on Saturday, 16 June 2012

Hi Diana,

I’ve made quite a pause from coursework, but gradually my life is getting back to normal. I’m still quite stressed because I have to submit a research proposal by 7 July, but nevertheless I wanted to slowly get back into coursework.

I made a pause after the first task in part 2, exploring coloured media, and started working on project 2, detailed observation. But I’m really stuck here and that’s why I ask for help. It seems that doing detailed drawing is something which I cannot motivate myself to do and I don’t know how I can overcome this block. At the moment, I’m really scared to drop off the course. I feel as if I have not the technical abilities, not the patience, my eyes do not capture details (my eyesight is getting bad), and the whole thing feels like a huge chore.

I made two tries: a line drawing of a red pepper cut in half, and a pencil drawing of a pineapple, but these drawings are so weak that I’m ashamed to present them. And all my further attempts to find something which I would be able to draw were in vain, I just wasn’t able to decide on a natural object which would sufficiently capture my interest for a one-hour drawing.

So I feel I’m badly stuck, and need some good advice how to resolve this block and get back on a more positive perception of the coursework. It’s not that I don’t like natural objects, on the contrary. It’s more a problem of the artificiality of the task to find an ‘object’ rather than simply drawing whatever I see and find interesting (provided it is natural). Would it be acceptable if I slightly adapted the tasks in a way which I can relate to more meaningfully?

Or should I just skip the tasks which I really don’t like? Any other idea how I might otherwise overcome the problem and find my way back into productive work?

Thanks for any ideas and feedback,
Patricia

 

Diana’s response on Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Hi Patricia,

Thank you for your email… firstly don’t stress! Secondly drawing is time consuming and it cannot be mastered in one go, it can take a lot of time and patience to achieve what you want. I think because you are a little behind and have left the project for a bit, you are trying to play catch up and seeing it as a to-do list. It can be frustrating but keep at it.

Unfortunately you cannot skip the tasks you don’t like as it all part of the learning process. It is important you do all the tasks so you can learn to develop your own style. At the moment detailed drawing may not be for you but once you come across say something more experimental and expressive you may get more excited. Some students want to only do detailed drawing because it is structured. Everyone is completely different.

You suggested just drawing what is in front of you, try that, just do what you feel like by just drawing then go back to it and judge whether you like it or not. then come back to it and see if you can rectify it by adding in the technicalities. Although you cannot skip something you don’t like you can have a different approach….the beginning of the fundamentals of drawing can be hard but have a break, draw whatever you like, just play with materials, scribble or doodle and once you are in the flow tackle the task.

Maybe be somewhere comfortable….outside on a sunny day when you are feeling more relaxed.

Let me know if you want any more help…but do not give up…you’re not the only one with a block, it happens to us all artists.

All the best,
Diana.

 

My follow-up on Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Hi Diana,

thanks for your encouragement! I feel there’s much experience in what you’re writing, and it resonates with me. It’s just so difficult to find my own way in a completely new task. I guess you’re right and I’m not patient enough.

Writing to you seemed to have dissolved the block a bit. I briefly searched the internet for some guidance on the technical aspects and came across two artists which produce very different work but I can relate to both of them and found some new ideas how to approach the task, just from studying their work. I also bought a magnifying lens to see whether this can alleviate my eyesight problems with object details. And I thought about experimenting with different media for a change (while trying to improve in detailed observation), in addition to using pencil.

I also searched online for books on classical observational drawing, but there are so many that I’m not able to decide without looking inside. I’m a bit ambiguous about using step-wise instructions because I usually don’t like the “standardized” and uninspired results these books present as successful drawings. So I really want to do it my own way but nevertheless would appreciate some guidance to find smaller tasks which I can manage… I will continue to try and find simple tasks, but if you know of any recommendable books on learning how to draw, this
would be very much appreciated. And of course, any other additional advice!

Now I doubt that I will be able to meet the 1st August deadline we agreed upon… I think I must slow down on this topic because I need time for practicing and developing the skills. So I’d like to suggest 3rd September instead… would that be ok for you?

Thanks again,
Patricia

 

Diana on Thursday 21 June 2012

Hi Patricia,

I’m glad I helped in some way. September 3rd is fine.

Be steady and do things beyond the set exercises, get comfortable then tackle the tasks.

What you’ll find with drawing books is pretty much the same as they all follow the same rules…same as the OCA coursebook. I’d suggest not confusing yourself and getting more as the OCA is designed for OCA students. Maybe try this:
Leo Duff, Phil Sawdon. Drawing – The Purpose. (Intellect 2009)

Best,
Diana.

 

Patricia on Friday 22 June 2012

Hi Diana,

thanks for the advice about books, that’s reassuring. I’ll have a look at the one you recommended.

And I have some good news, the block seems to dissolve! The day before yesterday I made another drawing. The object isn’t really recognizable (or only after 5 minutes or so) but for the first time I felt that I have made a step forward. A huge relief and I can see some light at the end of the tunnel!

Hopefully I’ll soon get back into regular coursework like it was before, and will try to work towards 3rd September.

Thanks again for your encouragement.

Best,
Patricia

 

Diana on Thursday 28 June 2012

Hi,

That’s brilliant to hear…now enjoy!

Diana.

 

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Detailed observation, Miscellaneous | Comments closed

More artists: Piotr Sonnewend

By patriciakarsten | Published: June 19, 2012

While searching for studio equipment, I came across a drawing book by Polish artist and stage designer Piotr Sonnewend (*1953 ). His drawings are very experimental and painterly in approach, very dark and conveying an atmosphere of mystery and pain. The artist’s topics are sinister, but this drawing techniques are impressive. He is also a teaching art professor in Poland, Germany and the Netherlands and in his publications, explains techniques and approaches.

I am thinking about developing into a career in art therapy, and found it very interesting that Sonnenwend is currently a lecturer at a school for art therapy, the ‘Institut für Ausbildung in bildender Kunst und Kunsttherapie’ (IBKK) in Bochum, Germany. When I look at Sonnenwend’s works, I can connect to them emotionally. I don’t know whether this is an ‘objective’ quality of a piece of art, but I see art therapy as a key to learning how to open up for emotional expression through art and I would hope that the resulting artworks represent the artist’s ‘personal emotional language’. Achieving this in my own artwork would be a development goal in art for me, and I would see it also as worthwhile helping people with psychological difficulties to discover the liberating effect of emotional expression through art.

From an artistic point of view, I find Piotr Sonnenwend’s works inspiring, especially with respect to trying out new techniques.

References

Website of Piotr Sonnenwend http://www.sonnewend.de (in German, but presenting many pictures of his works)

his two publications:
Piotr Sonnewend
Titel: „Monochrom Zeichnen“ 2011
Edition Michael Fischer GmbH, Igling
ISBN: 978-3-939817-78-9

Piotr Sonnewend
Titel: „Monochrome Zeichnungen“ 2009, includes a DVD
Edition Michael Fischer GmbH, Igling
ISBN: 978-3-939817-46-8

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Detailed observation, More artists | Comments closed

More artists: Karl Blossfeldt

By patriciakarsten | Published: June 18, 2012

Karl Blossfeldt (1865 – 1932) was a German artist, art teacher and photographer who became known for his detailed photographs of plants, which were used as educational materials in his drawing courses. I discovered this artist when searching for guidance and inspiration while feeling stuck with detailed observational drawing.

A quick Wikipedia picture search brought up very impressive black-and-white photographs. This was a nice co-incidence because when I reflected how I might approach the task of detailed observation, I thought that I might try to do something like a black-and-white photograph, using pencil and paper. This would imply concentrating on the texture and light-dark-contrasts to create an accurate representation. Seeing the photographies of Karl Blossfeld, this was what I had in mind… the photographs are really beautiful, and they capture how fascinating nature is as a creator of structure and texture.

From a variety of publications about Karl Blossfeldt, I chose for my personal library a monograph which includes reprints of two of his publications, ‘Art forms in nature’ (Urformen der Kunst) and ‘ (Wundergarten der Natur). Both are reprints of his photographic work.

Later I found that there is another publication containing all three published books (also including ‘’ (Wunder der Natur), but that one was out of print and used prints sell at quite high prices.

So I’m happy with the book I chose and am very curious about it. I don’t think I will use the photographs to draw from them, because I guess that I need to learn by drawing from real objects, but I think the photographs are very inspiring and may help to focus my attention on details and make it easier to try and capture them, using a pencil instead of a camera. We’ll see. I might need a magnifying lens though, because my eyesight isn’t good enough anymore to focus on these tiny details in their original size.

 

References:

Wikipedia stub Article about Karl Blossfeldt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Blossfeldt
(the German version of the article is quite comprehensive)

Monograph with reprints of two publications of his photographic work:
Karl Blossfeldt: Das fotografische Werk in einem Band. Urformen der Kunst. Wundergarten der Natur Schirmer/Mosel 2006

Website presentation in English by Photographische Sammlung (Cologne, Germany): Karl Blossfeldt http://www.blossfeldt.info/wEnglish/Karl_Blossfeldt/KB_index.php

Web-collection of his photographs http://www.blossfeldt.info/wEnglish/KB_WV/index.php?navid=6

The book containing all three published photographic books by Karl Blossfeldt:
Hans Christian Adam: Karl Blossfeldt 1865–1932, Köln, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Tokyo: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1999 [German/English/French]
This is a reprint of all photographs which were published in “Urformen der Kunst”, “Wundergarten der Natur” and “Wunder der Natur”, with some photographs of plants and from journeys from the collection of Stiftung Moritzburg Halle (former possession of Fotokinoverlag Leipzig) and 3 self-portraits by Karl Blossfeldt

Posted in 2: Observation in nature, Detailed observation, More artists | Comments closed