Project: Still life

Exercise: Still life group using line

I chose to draw a group of vegetables - a large beetroot, a pepper cut in half, a couple of carrots with their leafy stems still attached, some nasturium leaves and a tomato. The medium I chose was red drawing ink and dip pen, which looks quite intense and striking. I deliberately chose items that were inherently connected (by all being natural, edible forms) but wanted as much variety in shape as possible for more of a challenging and interesting result. I focused on the outlines of the vegetables to begin with and tried quite hard to draw with a continuous line, to keep the objects connected. Then I drew in the detail - the seeds inside the pepper, the veins on the leaves and the hair-like fibres poking out of the root vegetables. My impulse is always to shade in areas quite early on in a drawing, so it was actually quite difficult not to this time. When I stood back from the drawing initially it was hard to see what the objects were. It looked quite alien, and the bright red ink didn't help this much, but after more detail had gone into the work and I'd indicated areas of cast shadow using sweeping lines, the objects began to have more life in them. Drawing the background in simple horizontal lines also helped the composition hugely.

I felt it was a shame that only half the tomato was in view - the drawing looks as though it has been cut short and would look more whole and well balanced in my opinion if the rounded edge of the tomato could be seen. I also feel that there is an issue with depth in the drawing. Of course it's clear that some objects are in front or behind the other, but the drawing overall looks flat. Some of this will be down to the lack of tone and shadow, but I think it would have helped to have made some of the objects stand out further by using thicker line or darker patches to indicate their prominence in the group, or otherwise finer line and lighter patches to indicate their background status. The leaves look too solid - they don't look fragile enough. I think it was a mistake to have made the outlines of all the objects the same thickness - in hindsight, this is not a helpful way to show off the qualities of the singular objects themselves. I like the beetroot and the pepper, but the other objects are too strong in comparison when they should be less so.

Exercise: Still life group using tone

This time I chose a bowl of apples and half a lemon, a couple of shells and a banana. I sat the objects on some cardboard and a piece of fabric. I sat almost directly above the composition. I began with a brown pencil crayon, working in the darkest areas and ignored completely the outlines of the objects. What I noticed here was that unlike the line drawing the objects were already looking like fruit and shells, even at this early stage and just merely with their darkest areas indicated. I used green pencil for the midtones and yellow for the lightest. The fruit I think is fairly well represented, but I could have worked more on the shells, perhaps using some stippling and even leaving some areas blank to show where they are free of tone. I wonder now why the shadow of the bowl was only a midtone green colour and not a darker brown tone...

Research point: two contrasting styles

Picasso was quite a character by all accounts, and it certainly showed in his work. His drawing style was fairly free, or loose you might say - he did not constrain himself by messing around with exact proportions or shapes. Nor did he with tone or shadow. In fact it was this avoidance of the finer detail that gave his work an enormous amount of appeal. He wasn't trying to prove anything, other than that he could, and would, do as he pleased. And still come up with incredible, enviable results. Picasso's work was hugely expressive of his personality - bold, alive, different and a little but naughty.

Picasso would sketch the outlines of his subject and leave much of his page bare, but yet did not skrimp on the mood he was trying to express or the character of his subject. He had a simple but ballsy style, unlike a lot of great artists who tended to stick firm to the teachings of traditional drawing technique.

Unhappy at architecture college, M.C.Escher gave up his parents' dream and took on graphic design instead. And thank goodness he did. He shortly became an artist that grew extremely adept at his game. "I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well." Unlike the free style of Picasso, Escher's style was almost impossibly accurate, not a single detail was forgotten. He used this amazing skill of observation to design his own bizarre and mind-boggling fantasies.

Clearly an intelligent mathematician as well as graphic designer; the proof is in the pudding. He created some 400 lithographs, woodcuts or engravings in his lifetime as well as thousands of drawings. I remember being dumbstruck as a child when I first came upon some of his work, but these famous images are the kind that do not in any way become any less awe-inspiring as you reach adulthood. The closer you look, the more amazed you are.

Detailed observation

I collected a number of different items from the garden, most of which I couldn't even name (my New Zealand flora and fauna knowledge is not up to scratch). Some leafy or needly branches, nasturtium leaves, flowers, a weird seed pod type of thing, and some other bits and bobs. I also ventured into the fridge and grabbed some vegetables and fruit. I've gained quite a lot of shells from New Zealand beaches so those were an obvious choice because of their variety, and of course driftwood too.

Exercise: Line drawing detail

I chose to slice a chilli in half, lengthways for this drawing - possible influence from the student drawing of half a pepper below the brief? I quite like the simplicity of drawing purely in line, and trying not to take the pen off the paper makes it more challenging. The result is a slightly pop art-esque version of a not very detailed and therefore actually quite abstract chilli. The negative space looks equal to the positive, because the only thing in between is a fine line? Anyway, I like.

Exercise: Getting tone and depth in detail

This one took forever - I was just having a bad day, but I struggled on with it to the bitter end. Wasn't particularly happy with the result (unsurprisingly) but the method of slowly building up the tones was really great. I'm not usually totally aware of my method of getting the tones down while I draw, I just sort of get on with it, which is an embarrassing admittal but true. So it was useful to be conscious of exactly what I was doing and why, right from the start. The cast shadow looks weak and I didn't put anything in the background so the shell sort of hovers on the page - obviously I didn't put much thought into the composition, I was too busy with my tonal building! I think one thing I did manage was to create some texture - the shell looks kind of rough, as it actually was. Using a variety of pencils alone can obviously do wonders for creating a textured effect.

Exercise: Stipples and dots

I chose the weird seed pod thingy that I pulled off some sort of pine tree in the garden. It's not like anything I've seen before and it has a very unusual texture and a pleasing shape - I knew it was going to be a challenge but I was open to it. I decided on black ball point pen because I know from fiddling about with all the mediums that it is a great tool for stippling and getting those fine patterns. I really enjoyed getting my head down and focusing on that detail - could have used a magnifying glass in retrospect, that would have been really handy. It was quite a difficult object to draw and I lost it in a couple of areas, but was relatively pleased with the result. However, the cast shadow again is very weak, I have no idea why I seem to have developed a problem with depicting the cast shadow when it is such an integral part of making an object look as it looks - I wouldn't even have noticed if Emma hadn't pointed it out in my report. Definitely something I need to focus on next time.

PART TWO; Observation in nature

Exploring coloured media;

Oil pastels; You can be really expressive with oil pastels, they have a rich and vibrant quality, you can build layer upon layer, which means you can easily alter mistakes. The only downside to them really is that it's difficult to be very precise, intricate detail like fine lines or dots are hard to achieve.
Pen and ink; Also a very expressive medium, deep colour, is great for hatching, blends well, and can overlay a lot of other mediums well too. Can be messy at times (though that isn't necessarily a bad thing...) and a bit inconvenient in terms of carrying about with you.
Pen; I really like using pen to draw, particularly ball point. You can get such great line with it and the finest details. It's good for stippling, hatching and outlining - all in all probably one of the better mediums for detailed work. But it is a time consuming medium, covering large areas takes time.
Pencil crayon; Blends well, good for detail, a good tool for sketching ideas, and it doesn't make so bold a mark that you can't later change it. Good for indicating colour for preliminary studies but probably not a medium I would choose for a final piece, due to it's wishy-washy look, i.e. it's just not very bold.
Chalk pastels; Gives a lovely soft look, good for creating a natural effect, blends perfectly. Again, like oil pastels, just not very good for the finer details, too textured and soft to make a fine mark.

I have been enjoying mixing up my media and would like to go further down that road. I love the way pen and ink mixes with other mediums such as oil pastel - as we know oil and water don't mix but in this case it has an interesting relationship of slightly broken, shiny marks. I enjoy using oil pastel in general because of its vibrancy, and the fact that it's forgiving - you can go over an area time and again to get the colour right. But for detailed work, that involves lots of hatching for example, I like pen (ball point or fine liner). You can make it look scratchy and weak or deep and pronounced. It's reliable.