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

Again I was a bit confused by instructions and not sure whether the focus was on varying lines or mark making in general. I decided to do a bit of both on interpreted this exercise as trying out the variability of lines for making marks in different media.

Page 1: HB pencil

The first page was done in HB, trying to invent variations in line-based patterns by varying the characteristics of the line. I got into a flow of inventing different types of marks and ran out of spontaneous ideas after roughly half of the squares. Then I began to search more consciously for variation which added a systematic aspect to what I was doing.

When reflecting now, I seem to have taken one particular aspect of a drawing and varied this in the next, for example from short, straight lines to longer, curvy lines, or from flat gray lines to some with varying darkness.

Page 2: comparing different media

On the second page, I compared the effect of 5 different line-based patterns in 5 different media: 9B graphite pen, soft thin charcoal, grade 3 pressed charcoal block, 6B pencil, and 2B graphite block. I was surprised that differences were subtle at most, but then understood that I had used only two broad types of media, charcoal and graphite, with graphite being generally lighter than charcoal. Variation would therefore come rather from different movements and mark types, than from the difference between charcoal and graphite.

More and more I realized that I like charcoal a lot. I’m attracted by the irregularity of the marks, which I find inspiring. I did use eraser in some squares to make some highlights, but did not like the idea to take bread instead of putty rubber, not wanting to waste food.

Page 1: Thick charcoal stick

I liked this exercise. Again, I felt inspired by the marks that charcoal makes and despite I was drawing inside some squares, there was some sort of flow in what I did – new ideas generated out of what I was observing when making marks.

The first square was filled quickly with simply trying out the flat tip – the resulting lines were so fat that I just wanted to leave the square at that. I really like the quality of charcoal lines, their impredictable shadings of dark shape with white stains.

For the second square, I wanted to try out smooth shadings of varying darkness. The charcoal stick turned out to be so soft, that even slightest touching of the surface led to rather dark tones, and increasing pressure over some areas creates truly black marks. For the effect of this medium, I wouldn’t use it to draw a sunny summer afternoon with blue sky and no clouds, rather it lends itself to dramatic atmospheres like thunderstorm.

In the third square, I drew lines of varying thickness by using the edge of the tip as well as some of its flat by twisting the stick a bit. The resulting lines are rather dramatic and their deep black creates strong contrasts to the white of the paper. The drawing in this square reminds me of a seaside landscape with a very high horizon. This type of marks might be used to draw far-away structures, omitting any detail and just bringing out their size and shape inside the perspective of the scenery.

In the fourth square, I combined smudging and loosely hatched lines. I reworked some areas to create tones of varying darkness, and the lines are the darkest marks in this square. I was tempted to use the eraser to bring out some lighter areas and increase contrast, but didn’t because I didn’t want to mix up too many techniques.

In the fifth square, I created broad marks with the flat side of the stick. These vary all by themselves in darkness over the area they cover, again showing the uniqueness of each mark drawn with charcoal with I like so much.

Square six was filled with some simple marks to create patterns. I varied the density of dashes and lines to create a depth effect, but I feel I would have drawn better if I observed nature, rather than constructing something from imagination.

Square seven was a smudging exploration, I used the pigments from my grubby fingers as a first layer, worked out some highlights with putty rubber, went over this by pressing some of the charcoal bits that were scattered all over the sheet to create quite sharp and dark marks, smudged again, erasered again and so on until I liked the overall pattern. I didn’t have any lump bread at home to try out its eraser effect, maybe I’ll do that at some other time in the future.

Square eight was filled with line strokes – with the tip of the charcoal stick at an angle, then smudged a bit with my fingers, more lines with a sharp edge of the charcoal’s tip. Then a repetition of these steps and I like the resulting pattern, it reminds me of grass in an African Savannah.

In the last square, I drew fine (well relatively) horizontal lines with an edge of the charcoal stick. I tried to create a very even pattern of marks, only varying the pressure a bit to have some lines darker than others. The pattern reminds me of the surface of quiet water.

Overall, I enjoyed this exercise a lot, probably due to charcoal as a medium, and will have another go with a differently sized charcoal stick or maybe combining different charcoal types into the same square. Can’t wait to leave those squares, though!

Page 2: Four more squares

Again I got carried away by the beauty of the medium. I did four larger squares on another A2 sketchbook page. The first was done with pressed charcoal stick grade 1, trying different marking techniques: Lines of varied thickness and darkness, graded shading of an area by drawing lines with the flat tip of the stick, a pattern of small dark dashes, and a patern of marks made with the side of the stick, creating different tones of darkness by varying the pressure.

The second was done with the same medium, but by making different types of marks in layers one over the other, which created a depth effect. The first layer were fat stripes from drawing lines with the flat side of the stick, the second was a pattern of curvy lines drawn with a hard edge of the stick – producing lighter, thin lines. The third layer was another pattern of curvy lines, but drawn with a different edge of the tip where the charcoal was softer, thus creating thicker, darker lines.

The third square was done with a thick, soft charcoal stick, creating areas of different darkness with the tip at an angle. Then I used a thin soft charcoal stick and drew along the shapes and contrast contours. I used smudging to create areas of softer shadings and gradings of dark tones, and the putty eraser to work out some highlights.

The fourth square was done with pressed charcoal grade 3 and the thick charcoal stick. I made areas of different patterns and then reworked them, some with smudging, others by making layers of marks.

I liked this exercise a lot and can’t wait to draw with charcoal. But I won’t use bread instead of putty rubber, because I have strong objections against using food for other things than eating.

This exercise focused on techniques like hatching and stippling to create shades of tone from light to dark, to be explored with lots of different media. It also asked to work out shapes and form.

The instructions confused me, because initially I did not know what I was expected to do – exploring mark-making ok, but to draw what?

After some initial attempts I decided to just try to create simple forms like a ball by shading in different tones of darkness. I also tried out some colouring. I liked the visual effect and attempted to make blendings between different colours.

Although I like the patterns I created, I didn’t like this exercise too much because it continued to confuse me and left me with a feeling of repeating something from memory, rather than exploring something new. I felt that I would have preferred to work after natural objects, rather than inventing shapes and shading them to create the illusion of volume. Maybe the problem was this interpretation of the task which led me into a direction that didn’t feel right.

I didn’t like stippling very much, because it took so long to make all those tiny dots. From the drawing tools I used here, stippling worked best with dip pen and ink, making tiny dashes rather than dots. This permitted to create darker shadings much faster and I also liked the subtle variation in tone from the coloured ink. But I will probably tend to avoid this technique in the future, as I find it too laborious and too slow when I’m in an energetic mood.

This exercise was about trying out different media, inventing new marks and becoming involved with what I was doing.

Page 1: Doodling with a HB pencil

Initially I made neatly separated areas with different mark-making patterns, searching for continuous variation. An important change occured when I began to dissolve
the boundaries of a pattern consisting of tiny circles by increasing the distance between them, thus letting the pattern grow over the sheet.
From the next pattern on, I no longer separated different mark types with white space, but instead set areas of different marks directly next to each other, thus creating
a larger area of different textures. While drawing these patterns, I engaged so much with what I was doing that I felt the different textures were reflections of layers of
my personality, and therefore termed this pattern “soulscape”: a soul landscape.

Page 2: Doodling with various black drawing tools

On this page, I began to let go and covered the whole A2 sheet with all kinds of different patterns, varying size, density, and movements.

I combined dip pen and ink, black felt pen, biro and ball pen, observing the different characteristics of their marks, and how they all produced a different tone of black. None was well-suited to produce larger areas of deep black, nor subtle shadings, but I liked the almost endless variability and the strong black-and-white contrasts they created.

Page 3: Thinking about landscape – charcoal block grade 3

I repeated the doodling task with charcoal, and was inspired by the medium itself to think about landscape, which influenced my mark making such that I created rather organic, less controlled structures. My movements were fast and agitated, and I began working over some areas several times to intensify the structure and contrasts.

I felt that I wasn’t properly addressing the task, and that it asked me to think about something conveying an emotional quality which could have then influenced my mark-making in more subtle ways. I was imagining a wild landscape close to a lake, with long grasses next to the water and some windy weather bending the grasses, possibly inspired by the types of marks the charcoal made. I feel that the drawing conveys a much more agitated scenery than my mind’s image.

Nevertheless, I liked the drawing and enjoyed the task, and decided to have another go with charcoal.

Page 4: Again thinking about landscape – charcoal block grade 1

Again I started by making some some charcoal marks, briefly tried to focus on a subject, but the only thing that came to my mind was landscape. So I produced a second imaginary scenery, this time focusing on creating depth and perspective and combining different types of marks into the drawing.

I thoroughly enjoyed drawing this picture, and stopped to worry about not properly interpreting the task, concentrating instead on observing what I was doing and working on the structures and patterns I created.

I think that I got carried away by the expressiveness of charcoal, rather than being guided by some inner vision or feeling and letting this influence the drawing.

For me, trying to focus on an original idea and its emotional quality, then choosing an appropriate tool and sticking to what I intend to do, might get into conflict with a natural tendency of starting out “somehow”, then letting go and being taken over by the momentum of playing with the drawing medium.

Page 5: Blue landscape

This page was the last in the doodling exercise. I combined different media into a single page, but remained monochrome blue. I employed the same method of starting with some patterns, adding more by variation, and then reworking the whole into an imaginary landscape.

In the meantime, I had worked on the research point for this project and studied a van Gogh drawing, the “Garden of Flowers”. I think this had sensitized me for the variation in textures, and it may be reflected in slightly more varied textures in pages 4 and 5, compared to 3.

This exercise was about trying out different ways to hold pen and pencil and how this affects the marks that are made. It was also about making different types of movements, varying drawing pressure and exploring a variety of different drawing tools.

I filled seven sketchbook pages for this exercise, because there was so much to explore. I started with an A4 sketchbook for the first two experiments, then switched to an A2 sketchbook following instructions to use the largest sheets I could find – and stayed with the A2 format for the remainder of this project. The larger pages permitted trying out many different techniques on a single page, which made visual comparison and reflecting on the different types of marks easier.

Page 1: making marks with a fineliner (A4)

I (inadvertedly) made mostly small marks with small movements and compared the effect of different hand helds for each type of mark.

It felt more natural to hold the fineliner like a writing tool than any other position , for example closely to the tip or at the end, but changing the hand held helped to create novel effects because there was less automatized control over the hand’s movements. As a right-handed person, using the left hand resulted in somewhat erratic movements which created interesting effects, for example when dangling to make dots.

Page 2: making marks with a pencil (HB) (A4)

Next I tried out mark-making with an HB pencil. Holding the pencil in unusual hand positions, like between index and middle finger, or with 4 fingers bent around the pencil, resulted in subtle differences in marks.

The effects of different hand helds were sometimes rather unimpressive, compared to the black fineliner before, or as they would have been with charcoal. I think the effects become stronger with the darkness of the medium, or with the contrast to its background.

Page 3: large, gestural movements on a large sheet of paper

I chose an old A2 sketchbook for this exercise. I enjoyed making large and fluent movements despite some initial shoulder pain due to an inflammation. Varying the pressure of the line required more concentration. More pressure resulted in thicker, darker lines, while less pressure made thin, light lines. The combination of both on a single page created a depth effect, with the lighter lines receding into a distance.

Through this exercise, I realized that I had only made very small movements and small marks on the first tries, and that varying the size of movements is another factor affecting mark-making. I decided to continue in the large sketchbook because I enjoyed having more space on the sheet.

The next 4 pages were devoted to trying out different media: charcoal, dark brown pastel block, wax crayon, and graphite pen.

Page 4: trying out different media – charcoal

I used a thin, soft charcoal stick and tried out different hand helds, tip angles onto the paper, drawing speeds, and mark types, for example fine versus thick lines, fast vs slow movements, or lines vs dots.

I found it difficult to vary a line’s thickness by changing the pressure applied while drawing it, because it required much conscious effort to move on the paper and twist the tip simultaneously, while taking care not to break the charcoal.

Page 5: trying out different media – pastel block

On this page, I explored mark-making with a dark brown, pressed pastel block which I thought might behave similarly to Conté Crayon. I discovered that the pastel I used was rather soft, but still allowed to draw fine, dark lines when applied at an edge of the tip.

I enjoyed trying out different types of movements, pressures and mark types and the naturally diverse marks created from the pastel block – much more diverse compared to the fineliner I used for the first experiment.  Changing habitual mark-making movements opened up the pathway to creating a huge variety of new marks, which I found very rewarding.

Page 6: trying out different media – wax pastel

I chose a blue wax pastel for a change from all black and explored its behaviour with a variety of marks.

An interesting discovery was that by focusing my attention on controlling my movements while drawing a line pattern, I was able to change my sort of drawing frenzy into a meditative experience. The resulting line patterns were decidedly distinct, with the second conveying a more calm impression.

Page 7: trying out different media – graphite pen 2B

Again, the new medium inspired making new marks by varying hand helds, movements, pressure and angle.

One of the patterns was done by pressing the tip at an angle onto the paper and carrying out twisting movements with the hand. By chance, a structure was created which looked like a human eye. I termed it “the inadverted eye” (see second pattern at the bottom when enlarging the image).