My journey through the drawing course at the Open College of the Arts

Did you do enough preliminary work before starting work on your final pieces?

I did more preliminary studies on the natural objects drawing than on the made objects drawing. For the natural objects, the studies were part of the process of selecting the elements of the arrangement, and also trying out different techniques. They helped me with the decisions around the final drawing arrangement and technique.

By contrast, once I had chosen the objects for the made objects drawing, I felt confident that I would not change them any more. The first study was already a compositional study, reflecting the confidence I had about my arrangement. My objects had quite regular surfaces and from the start I had a strong tendency towards using charcoal or pastels. The studies served mainly to try out blending techniques and studying the metal surface of one of the objects, which I perceived as the most difficult task.

In the made objects drawing, I noticed some progress from initial studies to final drawing on how I drew the knives. I think that over the process, I have begun to observe more attentively and have improved on using tonal/colour shadings to create volume. I might have done more studies on the individual objects for this drawing, but I feared this would wear out my interest. So I’d say yes, I have done enough preliminary work for the final pieces, but I’m well aware that more drawing practice would generally be beneficial for me. I think I’d like to pursue a mixed strategy, alternating between studies of particular details one time and doing complex drawings next time, the latter to practice drawing quickly and finding acceptable ad-hoc solutions.

Do your large drawings give an accurate interpretation of the still life groups? If not, what went wrong?

For me personally, my drawings give a very accurate interpretation of the still life groups, with an emphasis on ‘interpretation’ rather than ‘accurate’. I am not able to draw accurate in a photographic sense. Both drawings certainly resemble the visual impression that I had, but they also represent significant departures.

For example, both arrangements were placed on a white drawing desk before a white cloth background. My drawings are quite far away from the photorealistic representation. Instead, they are a translation into a different colour palette. This translation, or even distortion, is a result of the interpretive process in combination with my attempts of using pastels to capture what I found essential in the objects and the arrangement.

For the natural objects, I saw the main challenge in the irregularity of the forms and textures. I could not have imagined to draw every single leaf of the twig or particular dark areas in the bark of the piece of wood. Instead, I searched for ways to convey the characteristic irregularity of each element in a more abstract manner, by using line, shapes, colour, and tone, but without drawing any concrete details.

The situation was somewhat different for the made objects drawing, because the objects’ shapes were very regular. My main challenge here was in getting the shapes of these identifiable objects correct, and to convey the sense of material (metal, wood, clay, bamboo basket) of each of the objects. Using blue paper added a surrealistic note to the drawing, but I think the objects are nevertheless quite believable.

Overall, I wouldn’t say that something went wrong. But there is certainly much potential for obtaining more realistic or more ‘accurate’ representations than what I have done. If I had to rework the drawings, then my personal aim would be for the natural objects drawing to improve on the colouring, because the brown tones are too dead, compared to what I saw and how I perceived the arrangement. For the made objects, I think I would rework the metal reflections because I find them not subtle enough, and I would prefer more warmth in the overall colouring scheme. The “icy” impression may be a result of the light colours and the substantive amount of chalk in the pastels.

Did you make a good selection of objects or did you try to include too much? Would you change the arrangements of objects if you were to start again?

I think I made a good selection of objects in both drawings, not too many elements and yet enough complexity. I felt overwhelmed by the irregularity of the twig in the natural objects drawing, but this was part of the challenge I wanted to approach. I also felt that the objects had inner connection and some coherence. So I wouldn’t want to change them.

Do your drawings fit well on the paper or could they be improved by working on a larger sheet of paper?

While I had some problems with fitting the objects on an A3 format for preliminary studies, I felt quite comfortable with the larger format of the final drawings, I chose 50 x 70 cm sheets. I think the arrangements fitted well on the paper. But I would have liked to draw even larger to have more space for working out fine details like reflected light, or particular details of my objects. I found the pastels quite clumsy at times.

Did you have problems with drawing or find hatching too difficult?

Somehow, the whole assignment felt like a sequence of problems with drawing, and subsequent attempts to overcome my technical inadequacy. Neither blending pastels nor hatching techniques worked in a satisfactory manner. I found it very difficult to work out details with pastel sticks on the space that I had on the 50 x 70 cm format. But I think the solution is not necessarily enlarging the drawing space. It may well be that my eye is not trained enough to recognize the relevant visual elements, and that errors in drawing are the consequence. I hope to improve with more practice.

It took me some time after finishing the first drawing before I actually began serious work on the second. I had some initial problems of deciding on a topic. I had spent some time with theoretical musings about the diverse possibilities, but these had not resulted in a concrete plan. It was only when I actively began reviewing my household equipment, that I was able to identify something to build my ideas upon. The following sections are again a protocol of initial ideas, preliminary studies and reflections on the final drawing.

Monday 5th March

Somehow I feel quite unproductive because after finishing the natural objects drawing last Saturday, I haven’t progressed towards the second drawing for the assignment, the made objects still life. I photographed my work on the first drawing and wrote blog notes on Saturday and Sunday. I thought that I might at least collect some ideas on the second over the week, but so far not much has happened.

Today I went outside during lunch break for a walk and tried to think about what I might draw, but nothing from these ideas stayed in my memory as particularly interesting. Some ideas were

– gardening utensils: might be nice, interesting forms of objects. But somehow cold, much metal and plastic, and I was afraid that I’d not be able to build a personal relationship to these objects
– my mountaineering boots plus tour utensils – Problem is that I’ve never been on a mountaineering tour. I might use the daypack I have, plus some socks. But I don’t know, this is so “civilized” and I’d prefer to draw something simpler.
– A selection of keys: appartment keys, house keys, cellar keys. But these are very small objects, I don’t think this would be a good idea for the required A2 format
– computer equipment – this is something which really dominates my life. Not very interesting though
– coffee making utensils. Why not, but this is beginning to get so arbitrary!

Tuesday 6th March

Still very undecided about what to choose for the drawing. Some more ideas:

– one (or more?) of the wicker baskets I have stored on the balcony. They are quite large and rather old. I like old things with a used look. I also have a hedgehog shoe cleaner which would go nice with that. Plus maybe my rubber boots and some gardening equipment. For example, I have bought a spade to shovel away snow from under the car. I’ve also a box with some gardening tools from which to select some
– Funny enough, I’ve done a Google search and found a foot mat with a still life printed on it which seems to capture what I have in mind: Rubber boots, a watering can, a spade, a fork, garden gloves, some plastic pots… The items on the mat are “properly dirty”, unlike mine which are cleaned for keeping them in the house.

Friday 9th March

After some rather resultless reflections about what I might draw for this assignment, I decided to not wait any longer and just try to make a selection of objects from my household which are interesting for me to draw and which have some common theme. I began with the gardening items idea. I would have liked to draw the table and chairs outside on the balcony, and place some gardening stuff around, but the balcony is small and it looked all too stuffed. And it’s still quite cold, hardly more than 5 or 6 degrees Celsius, so I prefer to draw inside the house for now.

So I took the wooden chair inside and placed a wicker basket upon it, arranged the rubber boots and the hedgehog shoe cleaner in front of the door to the next room, which I have chosen for my regular drawing area. But the arrangement didn’t work. I would have needed the table as well, and some more objects, and I thought I was getting off track from the central idea of the assignment. For me this assignment asks us to draw a still life, and I would have departed into the direction of an interior arrangement, with these large items. It might be fine to approach the assignment in that way, but I preferred to work closer towards the still life idea.

I went back to the kitchen and had another look through the cupboards for something interesting, and my attention was caught by the Thai clay mortar. Then the idea of a Thai kitchen utensils arrangement developed. I selected the mortar, plus two knives, some plates and bowls. I also took the aluminium pot with its bamboo basket, these are used for cooking steam rice. I arranged everything on the drawing desk to see whether the objects would work together, and was satisfied. After some reflection and rearranging objects, I excluded the plates and bowls, and rearranged the remaining objects. This type of still life is “very Morandi” (to use the words of another OCA art student), but I liked it and decided that I could use it for the assignment.

Page 1: Compositional sketch

I wanted first to try out whether my arrangement would work well in the landscape format. I chose an A3 white paper and 6B pencil in order to make a simple compositional sketch. I only wanted to sketch the objects’ main shapes and try to get lighter and darker areas correctly, without any details of texture. I’m quite satisfied with the drawing, it’s simple and has some errors in proportion, but it is basically correct and I think that the arrangement works well with the format.

The object group again lends itself to using pastels, as this permits to work out fine tonality shades. Only one object has a rough structure, the bamboo basket, but the objects have quite different materials: metal, bamboo, clay and wood. So the interest might be in trying to capture the different surface qualities by differentiating the reflectivity. Also, the objects’ forms are quite interesting, and they create nice negative spaces. Especially the two knives have some sharp angles which create a sort of tension and contrast to the more rounded other forms. I think I will do some studies on the individual objects to try to represent the different materials of the objects and try out different different media, before approaching the final drawing.

A problem might arise from the drawing position though. I chose a standing position to draw, because the viewpoint had nicer elliptical shapes and also gave a fuller view on the shapes of the knives. This was ok for the sketch which took me about half an hour, but I will probably run into problems for the final drawing which will take me much longer. Probably I should get me something to sit on in a higher position, as I seem to prefer a somewhat elevated viewpoint for the items that I arrange on the desk. It was the same for the natural objects drawing.

Saturday 10 March 2012

I had planned to do some studies early in the morning, but had other things to do, and was occupied almost the whole day. Only now that I felt a bit quieter and thought I might draw something. It’s sometimes difficult to “fit an hour of art in”. On the one hand, restricted time available may help to focus on what is really important. On the other hand, it is difficult to keep everyday worries outside of the mind and concentrate on doing artwork which is beyond everyday usefulness.

Page 2: Charcoal study of metal objects

I reflected on my selected objects and thought it would be good to work on metal reflections as a preparation for the final drawing. I had seen works in charcoal by other students which had very even textures and perfectly captured the reflected light on metallic surfaces. I had also been very impressed by the drawing of deKooning (1921), Dish with Jugs, (seen in the book ‘Experimental Drawing’ by R. Kaupelis, 1980), which used the charcoal medium in an incredibly subtle manner to depict surfaces of objects.

By contrast, my own style with charcoal is quite raw and underdeveloped, I’m not a master of blending layers of charcoal into an evenly toned surface. So I thought I might try and see whether I could work towards this direction.

I chose an A3 format of white, rough paper and chose the aluminium cooking pot and the two knives. I drew these objects in portrait format, and rearranged their position slightly to obtain more interesting reflections. My own position was seated, but I was close enough for the knives’ shapes to be large in perspective. In the first attempt, I drew the pot too large, such that the knives wouldn’t have fitted below them on the sheet. I corrected the error with a soft tissue and putty rubber, rather than beginning a new drawing. The erroneous lines later entirely disappeared under the charcoal marks.

It was very difficult to draw fine lines with charcoal, but I needed some for contours and spots of high contrast. I think I made good progress in the way I drew the knives’ shapes, compared to the first, compositional sketch. Also I’m quite satisfied with the larger knife’s blade and handle, and how I’ve used cast shadow to work out the forms of these objects. I’m less satisfied with the aluminium pot. Actually I did not dare to use blending in these drawing, because I feared to destroy the good elements that I had already drawn. I think the A3 format was too small for me. I prefer to draw a on a larger format which gives me more space to work out finer details. Maybe I’ll give it another go to try charcoal blending for metal surface. It’s a technique I’d really like to learn. Somehow strange that I’m so reluctant to just do it.

Sunday 11 March 2012

Pages 3, 4 and 5: Charcoal Mark Making Experiments

I wanted to try out ways to create tonal blendings with charcoal and used three different types of paper. I always used the flat side of a soft charcoal piece to make broad marks, and left the first sketch without any blending experiments as a reference point. I tried out blending with soft tissue paper, Q-Tip, plastic eraser, putty eraser, and my bare finger. For the last sheet, I chose grey paper and added white chalk, with the idea of adding white for highlights. Reflecting on these three sheets, I do not really like smudging charcoal. From the visual impression, I much prefer the irregular and rough surface which is created by using the flat side of a piece of charcoal. I’m not quite sure how I can integrate this preference in further work, because it rules out subtle blending techniques. But maybe it’s a matter of degree – some blending here and there, without destroying the overall roughness of the medium.

Page 6: Aluminium pot study, charcoal and white chalk on grey paper

From the mark making experiments experiments, I very much liked charcoal and white chalk on grey paper for the strong visual contrasts it created. I decided to do another study of metal surfaces, this time the aluminium pot only. I chose grey paper and had the intention of using white chalk for final reflection highlights.

I began the drawing again without blending, trying to capture form and tonality. Then I wanted to give it a try and apply blending on the pot’s surface. I used a Q-Tip and hatching-type movements. I didn’t like the results very much, but continued and reworked the whole drawing with Q-Tips, soft tissue paper, a brush and putty rubber for the highlights. I didn’t like the result and decided to add another layer of unblended charcoal on top, basically re-creating the first drawing on top of its smudged version. The effect of this was not that bad, the drawing got back some of its freshness while maintaining a somewhat more even overall texture. I tried to set the reflection highlights with white chalk, but I think I did not succeed with this. Indeed I was very dissatisfied with the drawing right when I finished.

Taking a break and looking again somewhat later has alleviated the feeling of failure a bit. I also realized that looking at the pot from a larger distance (4 meters rather than my drawing distance of 1 meter) helps to identify the main elements and distribution of light and dark areas. I don’t know if I will rework this study, but I will try to keep this in mind for the final drawing.

I’m somewhat undecided how to proceed for the final drawing. Initially I thought to make a colour drawing, but my objects are very low in colour, there are mainly different grey and white tones (table, aluminium pot, knife blades) plus light beige (bamboo cooking basket) and dark browns (clay mortar and knife handles). So even in colour, the drawing would not be very colourful. I might change this by choosing a more psychedelic style to draw light and dark areas, maybe on a black sheet of paper. I will think about this. Not sure if something eccentric would benefit the central idea. This brings me back to the main question, what will be the central idea of the drawing? I will have to think about this. I wouldn’t want it to be merely a study of different materials.

Page 7: The final drawing

I began the final drawing without further studies. I thought that the central idea was “Thai Cooking Utensils”, and I wanted to make the objects recognizable without being overly detailed or photorealistic. I feared that doing further studies would wear out my interest in the objects, and I preferred to approach the final drawing with a feeling of challenge and risk. Also I knew if I did further studies, I’d delay the final drawing for another week because during the working week I’d certainly be too exhausted in the evenings for drawing a difficult piece.

Choice of materials

For the paper, I wanted to choose a different colour from white because the objects were on a white table before a white background, and I thought a white background sheet would be too boring. Since I had already used grey paper for the natural objects, I wanted to try out a different colour. I wanted to avoid to become too similar overall to the colours of my natural objects drawing, with its objects in brown tones on the same white table and background. I chose a dark blue-grey tone, with the idea that would be an interesting task to draw the silvery metal objects with lighter colours on the dark underground. I also expected the brown tones to give a nice broken colour effect on this underground. The size was 50 x 70 cm, which is a bit larger than A2, but I hope I’ll be able to handle the size if I later decide to submit the drawing for assessment.

I decided to draw with pastels again, because they give me the full range of colours and tones from deep dark to chalk white, and permit to draw highlights on top of darker colours. I also like the flexibility pastels offer, they permit different blending techniques like smudging, broken colours or hatching.

Drawing process

The drawing took me about 3 hours overall. I began with an outline sketch in light blue, then added a first layer of colour using the objects’ colours and adding shadows. Then I tried to become more detailed and specific, and drew the surface textures of the objects. This was especially difficult for the bamboo basket. For the other objects, I focused on colour shades rather than texture, because the objects had a smooth surface. I also tried to capture the reflected light on the metal pot and the knives.

Reflection on this drawing

I’m not sure about this drawing. I see many things that are “incorrect”, but I decided to stop at one point, because doing more might have killed the drawing by closing the surface with an opaque pastel layer. It’s possible that I have already done too much, or not the right things. All the textures, colours and tonal shadings could be much better. But I prefer to get more practice with different drawings, rather than running the risk of destroying this one by overworking it. So I leave it as it is, imperfect.

Nevertheless, I’m quite satisfied, despite the shortcomings. I like the somewhat “psychedelic” quality it has, maybe a result of my using blue and violet as a background for shaded areas (later overdrawn). But it’s also the selection of objects which I like, because they have a special meaning for me – I’m a great fan of Thai Cuisine, and seeing the objects also evokes memories of a vacation in Thailand.

There’s one aspect I’m less satisfied with, that’s the overall colouring, which is somehow cold. Maybe this is a result of using pastels with their chalky character, and also the dominance of metal objects and their reflections. The drawing might be entirely different in character if I would have done it in oil pastels, possibly much warmer.

Brief preliminary reflection – What have I learnt?

Over the course of part 1, I have tackled many problems one by one, and this has been a good foundation for the assignment. I have become much more attentive on surface texture, on reflected light, on proportion, and also more experimental in my approach. I know that I have still a long way to go before I’ll be able to draw more realistically but still not overly detailed. But I feel that I have made first steps into the right direction.

I found it very helpful to learn that I could tackle a difficult task by breaking it down into smaller, simpler parts, and doing studies first to try out different approaches. But from the first drawing I also learnt that there is the risk of doing too many studies, or maybe it is the risk of defining the final task too close to what one has already done before. I’m certainly someone who needs to see a challenge in a drawing.

Monday 12 March

Reworking the final drawing

When I looked over the photos I have made of the final drawing, I was surprised that there seemed to be not much pastel on the paper, especially the brown clay pot was really thin. Also, the shadow areas had lost the final light layer which had made the drawing somewhat coherent in tone. I wasn’t sure what had happened and took a second set of photos, because I suspected that my daylight lamps had not been strong enough. But after comparison with this second set of photos taken at daylight plus light from the daylight lamps, I saw not much difference. Remembering what I had read in Bill Creevy’s pastel book, I realized that this must have been the darkening effect of pastel varnish, which I had applied on the final drawing.

I compared the photos of the drawing before and after varnish, and found my idea confirmed. I hesitated between leaving the drawing as it was and accepting the problem, or trying to rework the image, running the risk of spoiling it. I decided on a rework. First I added a layer of light colours, using the flat side of pastel blocks and also hatching to add lighter and darker areas. The problem was that I did not have a darker grey pastel tone, only light grey and black. Black was too dark, but otherwise I would have needed to use a colour for the shady areas, like blue, but this created a somewhat surreal impression which I did not want. I tried to use the black in a very light fashion without much pressure, to avoid darkening the areas too much.

Then I did a blending of the entire drawing, using a soft tissue wrapped around my finger to smooth the pastel into an even surface. This process was accompanied by severe doubts whether I would be able to “save” the drawing or whether this smudging might be its ultimate death. After the blending, I applied another layer of pastel using the flat side. This added “broken colour” in the words of Bill Creevy, and the drawing became more lively again. Since I had already put back all my objects, I used a photo of the arrangement for the final touches. The final drawing again darkened from the finishing varnish, but I think this time it was ok and the drawing did not loose too much of its character.

References

Willem deKooning (c. 1921), Dish with jugs, charcoal on grey paper. In Kaupelis, R. (1980) Experimental drawing, p. 8

Bill Creevy (1991): The Pastel Book, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York

Assignment 1 consists of two still life drawings: One of natural objects, and the other of made objects. Both are supposed to be at least in size A2, and should be prepared with preliminary studies. These studies should serve to explore aspects of composition and mark-making, and they should be executed with different drawing tools.

I decided to work first on the natural objects drawing, and begin with the made objects drawing afterwards, because I felt that I needed to focus on one task, rather than solving different types of problems in parallel.

Initial ideas centered around “sea objects”, and I thought to combine oysters, sea shells and wooden objects. I made some initial studies on these objects but upon reflection I found that the piece of wood I had did not work very well with the oysters, and that oysters and seashells were in a sort of competition against each other, rather than being complementary elements of an arrangement. Therefore I changed the focus of the selection towards “objects from the wood” and chose a piece of wood, a twig, a large leaf and three tree fruits (possibly nuts, I’m rubbish at botanics). Overall, I’m rather satisfied with the final drawing because I managed to resolve problems that came up during the preliminary phase.

The next sections contain my diary notes as I progressed from initial ideas and preliminary studies to the final drawing.

20.2.2012

I’m very glad to have reached this point of beginning with assignment 1! I have been slightly faster than anticipated in getting through the exercises – I planned roughly one week per project, but there were two weeks where I managed to do two projects. The agreed submission date was 1st April and I had planned 3 weeks for it. Now the time schedule would give me roughly 40 days to complete the assignment, but I think I will be faster.

Although I worked through the projects at quite a steady pace, I hope that I have invested sufficient depth in each project. It wasn’t my intention to rush through the tasks. The reason why I did not stay longer with each project was not that I thought to have exhausted the topic or completely mastered the step. Rather, I thought I would benefit the most by making serious efforts at each stage, and then proceed to the next in order to broaden my approaches and explore the variety of different tasks.

So now I feel ready to begin with assignment number one. I will start with the natural objects study as suggested, and the first step is to develop some ideas what I might select. Typical candidates are the choice of vegetables for a dish. But I have already drawn some items out of the fridge and somehow I would like to broaden my horizon a bit and choose something else.

Some ideas – derived from a Google search for ‘natural objects’, results from ‘everything’ and ‘images’, plus some inspirations out of the blue
–    vegetables: a bit too obvious as an idea, I’d like to do something different
–    animals: natural objects, but I think too difficult at this stage
–    shells: extremely complex and small, would make for a small image and might be rather unnatural if enlarged to A2 as required.
–    a rock formation. This is something I would like to do. Not sure if it’s covered by the assignment, because I wouldn’t arrange the things, rather select my viewpoint to obtain an interesting composition. A difficulty is weather conditions – it’s winter and it would be too cold to draw outside for several hours.
–    plants: Would suit me well because I like plants. Not strictly adhering to instructions if the plants came in a pot (combination of natural and made objects). I might lay some flowers on a table. Problem is a certain lack of variety, if I choose only flowers, even if they are of different sorts.
–    an arrangement of stones. I like stones, but drawing them? Don’t know, this might result in a somewhat dead picture.
–    ingwer root. Very interesting object. Might be nice to combine with other objects. Let’s see if something suitable comes up
–    horn or skull: no, not interested. Horns not available, skulls too morbid
–    bird’s feathers: Interesting. Have none available.
–    a pineapple. Might be combined into an arrangement of exotic fruits. I think I would like this. Not very exceptional as an idea, but the objects would be interesting to draw.
–    growing mushrooms: Very interesting, for example on a tree in the park. But difficult to get inside the house. Left for another occasion.

21.02.2012

I don’t know where the idea came from, but it’ll be oysters. It popped up yesterday when I was thinking myself into sleep. Today, I courageously went to a restaurant which had oysters as a business lunch offer, and asked if they’d give me some of the leftovers for my drawing course. I was so glad with my plastic bag of 12 oyster shells! At home, I cleaned them and was delighted by their delicate outside and soft, whitish insides. They are a difficult subject for drawing, but perfect for exploring wiggly lines.

The next part of the problem is with what to combine the oysters. A good and rather obvious choice would be other things from the sea, or alternatively, just some lemon pieces. Since I really like objects from the sea, I looked at ebay for some low-priced maritime decoration, and finally bought some shells and seafish. When they arrive, I hope that they will combine to interesting objects for a natural objects still life. I also bought an inexpensive blue fisher’s net. This isn’t a natural object, but would perfectly fit conceptually, so maybe I’ll extend my interpretation of the task a bit.

Another idea would be to include dried seaplant and some stones. I’ll see if I can get hold of these. The aim is to have some variation in surface texture. After all, oysters and shells might be a bit too similar.

In view of the time it seems to take me to decide on some objects to draw, maybe I should prepare the two drawings in parallel and also begin to think about the made objects? Not sure about this, though. There are advantages in focusing on a single task at a time

22.02.2012

Yesterday at night some further ideas for the natural objects drawing
–    using a piece of wood with interesting bark – I’m thinking of a 20×30 cm Block, preferably old and dark, like having been forgotten in a wood for a year or so. Not sure whether I will find one in the nearby park, but will give it a try. Might also go searching in the woods at the outskirts of Berlin
–    Water plants from the sea. Unfortunately, the Baltic Sea is about 350 kms from Berlin. Will see if I can organize this from a source that is closer to me, maybe mail order? Or aquarium supplies?
–    Placing all objects on sand. I have a bucket of sand leftover from the days where I wanted to install an aquarium, might use that. Still need something to put the sand on without ruining the appartment. Like a large tray with a 5 cm rim.

Some more ideas for the other drawing (made objects):
–    Using garding equipment and tools, gloves, some pottery
–    and maybe one plant just for a contrast to the made character of the rest

Page 1: Study of an oyster

(evening) I did my first study on an oyster. Horribly difficult and not successful. I used Conté crayons in brown tones, plus white, light blue, some violet and red. The pastels were neither able to blend into the surface texture, nor could I create clear lines where I needed them. I tried to “save” the pastel drawing by drawing black lines over it and realized that neither of my chosen black tools would work: Pencil gave me grey, reflective lines. Black ball pen immediately dried out due to the pastel dust. Black biro wasn’t black but a bit reddish and reflective. The only tool that “almost” worked was dip pen and ink, although it was nearly impossible to draw a line because the ink would constantly dry into the pastel dust.

Conclusions
–    If I need clear lines, I’d better draw them before applying pastel – like I did in the sunflower drawing
–    Oysters are relatively small, and if they are not substantially enlarged, the drawing area within the contours is too small for coloured details of their surface textures.
–    Oysters are very complicated objects to draw. Maybe I should start with a line drawing to get more acquainted with basic shapes and their layered surface texture.

Overall, I’m not sure if this object is not much too difficult for the first assignment. I had the idea of using a more inventive technique for the surface. I will need to do some experiments to see how I might depict the texture in a satisfying way. I would need both very fine lines (to indicate fine the chalk layers) and grey tones for their shades. Although I think I might do without tonality. Maybe I should try out both approaches and later see what works best with the other objects of the arrangement.

23.02.2012

Just a brief note for now. Later yesterday evening I looked again at the oyster study and was very surprised how much I liked it. I looked again this morning and still liked it very much. This is really strange. I remember a similar thing happened with the peanuts where I was totally unsatisfied right after drawing them, but short time later this had changed completely.

Friday 24.02.2012

Selection of objects for the natural objects drawing

I had the idea of combining the oyster with other maritime natural objects. In a wave of enthusiasm, I had ordered some very inexpensive mussels and seashells from ebay. They arrived Thursday, and I was enchanted by their beauty. Then after some reflection, I decided against using them for this assignment, because seeing them next to the oysters made me aware that all these very beautiful objects with their bizarre shapes, textures and colouring would get into a competition against each other when arranged together.

Page 2: Pencil study of a piece of wood

So I was thinking to select objects that are “further apart” from each other. One idea was to take a piece of wood. Yesterday I made a pencil study of a piece of wood that was once thought for an aquarium. I drew on clean white paper in the A3 sketchbook. I found the object very difficult to draw because of the bizarre forms and textures, but at the same time took some joy in making wiggly lines with pencil. I felt like transferring the technique that I had liked a lot with pen and ink to a new medium.

I began with an outline of the object and then worked out some details in the center, but after about an hour I stopped with the drawing “unfinished”. This was because my concentration was exhausted, but also because I felt that the drawing was primarily a learning experience for me, a first attempt to draw a new texture, and that I would rather destroy the light, experimental character of the drawing by completing it. I wasn’t particularly satisfied with the drawing and hoped for the effect that I tend to like drawings better after some time has passed. I like it, but I still find it somehow “incompetent”, showing that I need much more practice until my marks will support the object, rather than disturbing it.

More reflections on selection of objects

Today I went to the park, to have a look for some interesting objects which would be nice to combine with the oysters. I thought about a larger, block-like piece of wood with bark on it, which would make for an interesting surface texture. Actually this was missing on my aquarium piece of wood and I wanted to see which type of object went better with the oysters. It didn’t take me long to select something, and I came back with three different pieces of wood, plus some bark from two different trees, plus some dried twigs whose leaves and berries looked interesting. I washed them a bit and put them outside on the balcony to dry. I’m planning to draw some preliminary studies with them as well.

25.02.2012 (Saturday)

Page 3: Study of seashells (coloured watersoluble crayon)

I drew a study of one of the sheasells, with the same exemplar twice in different positions on the same sheet in an A3 sketchbook. I chose heavy, smooth white paper for this, because I wanted to use watersoluble crayons. I thought I could depict the colour pattern of the seashell by washing the colour crayons. But the paper wasn’t very good as a support, after very few brushstrokes the fibres dissolved. Probably there is no way around sizing paper or using specifically prepared and more resistant paper specifically for watercolours. Just choosing a heavier paper isn’t enough, when I want to rework the colours.

I’m not very satisfied with the study, as usual when reflecting right after drawing. On the second seashell, I emphasized the contours with dip pen and ink after drawing it in colour, because the shape wasn’t clearly identifiable. Overall, I feel unable to depict what I see, by lack of concentration or ability to analyse what I see and transfer it to a sheet of paper. Also I feel that I’m trying to draw too much in a too tiny format – drawing the details of colour patterns would require to enlarge the drawing to have enough space for working out the details.

Page 4: Study of bark (dip pen and ink, watersoluble colour crayon, pencil)

Later that day, I drew a study of a piece of bark. I chose the clean white, smooth A3 sketchblock for this, because I wanted to use dip pen for the wiggly lines I saw in the bark. The first try was dip pen and ink, colorized afterwards with colour crayon in brown tones. I’m quite satisfied with this drawing because it nicely captures the texture of the bark and also the colours.

I did a second study in pencil on the same sheet to the left. In the meantime the bark had broken into two pieces. I drew one piece from the outside, with which I was satisfied, and one from the inside, which I found less successful. The bark from the outside worked very well in line and darker shadings. But from the inside, the texture is different, somehow layered and this was much more difficult.

I did a third study of the bark from the inside, this time pencil and coloured crayons which I blended a bit with water, but I wasn’t very satisfied either. It was very difficult to depict the object’s bent form, probably because it had a much less textured surface.

Reflections on composition

I had the idea to arrange bark and some seashells together and try out how the forms would go together. I took three seashells similar in form to the one I had already drawn. The problem was that the objects are rather small, so unless they are placed very close together, there will be no overlapping contours when looked at from slightly above. I would need to take more distance or place the objects quite close to the horizon line.

I also tried out the big wooden piece I had collected in the park, together with some oysters. I liked the objects and found them very interesting to draw, but the same problem as with the seashells applies – they must be arranged quite close together or put on an elevated place to have some overlapping lines. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to do a successful drawing, I find the objects really complicated. But I’d like to try nevertheless.

26.2.2012 (Sunday)

Page 5: Study of a twig

I chose again an A3 sketchblock, this time rough, natural white paper, and chalk crayons in classic colours black, two brown tones and white. I began with a detail from the twig because I wanted to try out whether I was able to depict the shapes of the leaves and berries realistically. I did this on the upper left of the sheet, and worked over the drawing several times with tortillon and Q-Tips. I wasn’t satisfied with the result, rather quite frustrated because it looked artificial and overly detailed. Even after blurring over the whole drawing it wouldn’t work out to a pleasurable level of detail and contrast.

I made a break for reflection and observed the entire twig for somewhat longer, trying to identify what I liked about it visually and how I perceived its forms. The elements I identified were the gnarly twig itself, the dried and curled up leaves, and the berries on their dark, thin stems. I wanted to do another study of the twig, but to progress in my learning, felt that I needed to change in approach. I decided to continue with the chalk crayons, but to change the level of detail by drawing the whole twig and to scale it down so that it would fit on the remaining space of the A3 sheet.

This time, I drew the twig in layers – firstly the basic shape of the twig and the areas of the leaves in wiggly lines, repeated with two brown tones. I also did a layer for the berries and their stems, and a layer where I changed the position of the crayons to make broader, less linear marks. Finally, I blended the colours a bit with a Q-Tip. With this second study, I was much more satisfied than with the first. I feel I’ve made a step forward by abstracting from details and introducing something like an “inner distance”. This distance helps to get away from copying details, in favour of drawing “what I feel”, drawing the more abstract visual impression I have from the object.

Page 6: Compositional study in charcoal

This drawing was a first try for an arrangement of those elements I planned to choose for the final drawing: the twig, the big piece of wood, and some oysters. I tried various positionings and stuck to one which I felt might work for the final drawing. Main problems were that the objects were all very similar in colour (brown tones), and that there was much less difference in visual appearance than I had anticipated. As soon as I placed them closer together to obtain overlapping lines, it was difficult to distinguish one object from the adjacent one: The wood somehow blended into the twig’s leaves, and the oysters blended into each other.

I deliberately used not much light because I wanted to exaggerate the problem. I thought this would make the problem more obvious and thus help to find a solution. The arrangement I chose for the drawing seemed like a working compromise, but as anticipated, it was very difficult to distinguish the wooden piece from the twig behind it. Maybe this was partly due to charcoal as a drawing medium. It worked well for getting really black areas, but I had difficulties making finer lines which could have made the leaves more distinct. I also realized that the grey paper flattened out the available contrasts. I had chosen grey, rough paper with the idea that I would use white charcoal to bring out the white insides of the oysters. This worked nicely for the oysters, but it created problems elsewhere in the drawing.

Overall I consider this drawing not very successful in itself, but it was probably a “necessary error”, confirming anticipated problems of a composition from my selected objects.

27.02.2012 (Monday)

Reflecting upon the charcoal study and selection of natural objects

Despite its shortcomings, I like the charcoal study. It meant a departure from depicting details too accurately, in favour of looking for something more essential. There are two main points I take away from this study. Firstly, the twig and the piece of wood are difficult to distinguish in my drawing. I think this is because mark-making and tonality of both elements are too similar. I had the idea of reworking the wood to make it a bit lighter, then it would set off better against the twig. The alternative Idea would be to rework the marks of the twigs. Maybe I should do both, and probably in a new study of a slightly modified arrangement, to be able to compare whether there is some progress.

The second point concerns the selection of objects. While I was trying out different arrangements of my objects, I felt that there was no inner connection between the oysters and the objects from the wood. I think an observer of the drawing would not be able to tell what these objects are, because they are not depicted in a detailed, realistic way but also because they are conceptually too far away from the other elements. On the one hand, the visual contrast is beautiful in the real arrangement, on the other I think it might be better to select objects which are “inherently closer together”.

When I took a walk yesterday, by chance I found some objects which might work better: Some larger, well-preserved leaves, and some very strange things which look like hairy balls with hazelnuts on them. They certainly are from a tree, but I wasn’t able to identify them botanically so far. The colour of these objects is dark brown like the twig and the piece of wood, so the colour element wouldn’t help to distinguish them visually. But their texture is very different, and conceptually they are closer to the other objects than the oysters.

So I think for the next study, I will try an arrangement with these new objects, and for differentiating the objects visually, will focus on mark-making, rather than on colour. Maybe I need to exaggerate differences in tonality to make the objects better distinguishable. But I’m not sure whether this is the best approach. It might be more authentic if I retain the characteristic that these objects seem to blend, this would be an argument against exaggerating tonality contrasts.

02.03.2012 (Friday)

Page 7: study of tree fruits and leaf

Despite having taken some days off due to my cat Paula’s health problems, I’ve continued working and thinking of the assignment drawing. I made a study with dip pen and ink, color crayons and graphite block of the tree fruits and a large leave yesterday and today. I really don’t know what these tree fruits are, but they are fascinating by their form. I like my tiny drawings, although I think that I’ve not worked hard enough on the visual impression. It is as if I still don’t know how to create form through tonal shading.

Firstly I made a study with dip pen and ink of one of these hairy things, which I then colourized using coloured crayons. Then I did a graphite study which was intended to focus on light and dark areas. I drew this from a larger distance and tried to abstract from details in favour of light and dark.

Finally I drew a large leaf. This was a study of form, although without outlining the shape in pencil first. I was surprised that I was able to draw the outline correctly without doing an outline sketch first. I’m quite satisfied with this drawing. But I think it would have been easier to first draw a rough pencil sketch of the form to give me some orientation on the sheet of paper, and only then draw with pen and ink to capture the characteristics of the lines. I will observe which approach I prefer for future drawings.

Page 8: compositional study: piece of wood, twig, leave, tree fruits

I wanted to do another compositional study for the assignment, also with the idea to try out a different technique and see whether I could improve on differentiating the textures of my objects. I chose a different piece of wood – a long, thinner piece than the first one – plus the twig, a large leaf, and three of the tree fruits. I arranged them on the table somewhat differently, with the wood in the background this time. The initial chance arrangement pleased me immediately, and I only moved around the objects a bit to improve some overlapping lines and space between objects. I also resisted the temptation of taking too many objects and removed two of initially three leaves and chose only three tree fruits rather than the initial six.

I used mainly pencil for this drawing. I wanted to depict my objects in a loose and impressionistic way, rather than trying to draw their exact details. The drawing developed from a very rough sketch of compositional lines, over more specifically different line types to distinguish between wood, twig, leaves on the twig and the other elements, and towards the end I became more and more specific. Finally I coloured the drawing slightly with chalk crayons in two different brown tones.

I like the colour effect because it helped giving volume to the piece of wood and the leaves, but technically I would choose another medium text time because chalk and pencil (graphite) do not work very well together. Apparently the chalk does not stick to the paper when graphite is already there, which resulted in some slipping of the chalk pencils and no colour applied to the respective areas. Maybe this works better with pastels or color crayons, I will have to experiment with different media if I stay with this technique. Overall, I find the drawing successful, because it’s loose and I managed to differentiate the piece of wood from the twigs better than in the first drawing. But I still find the twig leaves not specific enough, probably I need to work some longer on a drawing to achieve more specific and recognizable structures. But after all, this study was meant as a compositional study, therefore I decided not to work out more details.

I’m still unsure about the selection of objects and technique for the final study, will have to reflect some more on that.

03.03.2012 (Saturday)

Reflecting on the choice of drawing material

Comparing the two compositional drawings, the charcoal drawing is much stronger in terms of contrast. The pencil drawing was done on grey paper, resulting in graphite grey lines on grey support – not much contrast. For the final drawing, I think if I select the grey paper, then I should take a drawing medium which gives me true black lines. If I choose pencil instead, I think it would be more effective to select a paper of a lighter colour.

That said, I do like the grey paper for this subject, maybe it would be an option to begin the drawing with pencil and add a deep black drawing medium later. I found drawing with pencil easier, because I did not constantly worry about smudging and it also permitted to build up the drawing from a light sketch to outworking forms. I might do the latter with charcoal too, would be worth a try.

Reflecting on the composition

I drew the pencil study in a standing position, because this permitted a better view on the objects, especially on the large leaf. For the final study, which will be more detailed and take longer to draw, I will probably have to find another solution because I standing for two hours or longer will be too exhausting for me (back problems). One solution would be to find a lower table, rather than taking a desk. Another solution would be to use a “seating stand”, but I don’t have any and would prefer not to buy one right now, although it might be very useful for me generally. A third solution would be to arrange the objects in a way that they look good when looked at from a seating position.

Page 9: The final drawing: natural objects

drawing materials: Conté crayons (landscape selection) on grey, rough A2 paper, landscape format
composition: the same as for the second compositional study (piece of wood, twig with many small leaves, large separate leaf, three tree fruits)

I chose the same composition as from the last study for the final arrangement, because I liked the objects. I had tried out many variations for the first study, and felt quite comfortable with the arrangement for the second and therefore did not want to change it anymore. To solve the problem of my viewing position, I placed my chair quite close to the arrangement and used its highest position plus two cushions. This permitted a viewpoint which was high enough to give a better view on the leaf, at the same time allowed me to be comfortable for the anticipated longer drawing time.

Reflecting on the two compositional studies, I thought that the problem of the first had been that there wasn’t enough difference between the piece of wood and the twig, and too much contrast to the oysters. So overall, I found that the drawing lacked coherence. The second drawing was too low on contrast due to my choice of pencil on grey paper – I found that I had captured the different textures quite well, but the tonal range of the drawing wasn’t satisfactory.

I liked the grey paper a lot and wanted to stay with it for the final drawing, but wanted to choose a drawing medium which permitted to work out a greater range from light to dark. I chose the Conté Carrés pastel sticks, because the landscape colour selection had many brown tones from light to dark, plus black, and I thought this would go well with my objects which were in dark to medium brown tones. I also had the idea that I might increase overall contrast by using a lighter colour for the background.

I began the drawing with a rough outline sketch of the position and shape my objects, and then in several layers became more and more specific. I also added a light, hatched background to increase the contrast range in the drawing. I found the drawing process very difficult and became dishartened in the middle of it, because I felt that my lines and shapes were too chaotic and did not resemble my objects enough. It was not my intention to depict all the details as photorealistic as possible. Instead, I wanted to create marks which worked in a more impressionistic way, by the character of the lines and shapes and by the colours with their tonality.

I kept on drawing and after roughly an hour made a small break. I looked a while at the drawing from a distance of about 3 metres and began to feel that I was working in the right direction. I saw where darkness was still missing and other areas where it was too strong. I began to rework the drawing, making several more pauses and checking the effects by looking from a distance. Finally I felt that the drawing needed only some more, but minor corrections and after these, I was satisfied. Overall, it took about two hours and then I found the drawing was finished.

In fact I am quite satisfied with the final drawing, because I think that I resolved both problems from the compositional studies: There was now enough differentiation between the objects, and I found that the tonal range was also much broader, from very light areas to rather dark brown tones. I also like the loose drawing style which omits details but still conveys a sense of the objects’ characteristics. I feel that I have taken a risk because I did not know whether this kind of drawing would work, but I like the result and I’m very glad about this.