ASSIGNMENT 2

I really felt like this assignment was a good opportunity to show that I'd moved forward considerably since the last one. My understanding of the changing nature of reflected colour has definitely improved and I think my ability to recognise a more balanced composition has too - though I do still find it tricky to explain in words exactly why I think it's a good composition, perhaps the correct lingo will come in time with more practice, observation and reading art texts?

I chose oil pastel, firstly because the last oil pastel drawing I attempted was a disaster so I set myself a bit of a challenge - I wanted to prove to myself that I do have a handle on the medium, however minimal it may be. Secondly because it's a pleasant, bold medium to work with and if you get it right it can look really good. However, there were a few things I wanted to add to the medium - I wanted sharper lines than it can offer, so I used a pencil here and there in areas where I thought would benefit from being more defined. (I do think that using watersoluble pencils would have been a really good medium to use for this still life too, so if I hadn't opted for oils I would have used them instead.)

I chose some vegetables (aubergine, mushrooms, pepper), some driftwood, a tin potted plant and a white ceramic jug. I began by doing some basic sketches in my sketchbook, messing about with the composition, adding things, and taking some away. I wasn't sure intitially how prominent I wanted the jug to be. I wanted it to balance with the tin pot somehow. I then did a large initial idea, then I changed the composition one last time and using a viewfinder did another line drawing in brown pen. I followed this up with a tonal sketch in ballpoint pen - I knew this stage was going to be crucial for getting the tones right in the final drawing so although it was quite a quick sketch I looked really carefully at the range of tones from the bright white of the wall behind to the almost black beneath the aubergine.

I felt ready for the final drawing, but due to losing light that day had to leave it for the following day. By this time my seated position had moved slightly to the left, which changed the composition quite dramatically. At the time I wasn't worried about this but in hindsight, I wished I'd used a grid and been a little more observant because I actually prefer the composition I had in the tonal drawing. I missed off a large part of the jug and the third mushroom, which I think was a mistake when looking at the finished drawing.

The drawing took me a long time - the aubergine and the plant in particular. The reflective skin of the aubergine was fascinating in that it changed quite a lot when a cloud moved over the sun or away from it. But because of this it was really tricky to get it right in the moment, and in the end I just had to focus on each plane of colour/tone separately to the next. I am pleased with the way the leaves of the plant turned out, though without seeing the still life group yourself it might be hard to believe that the plant actually looked anything like that! It was a very bright day for the most part and the natural light was streaming in from almost directly above so the leaves had flashes of almost white flicking across those planes that faced directly into the light. Overall though, I was disappointed with the end result. Mainly because I foolishly wavered from my preliminary sketches which renders them pretty much obsolete, so that was a really silly thing to do. And also because however pleased I may be with one area like the leaves of the plant, it doesn't make up for the fact that the pepper is not very good and there isn't enough strong cast shadow to make the still life more alive. I think I preferred my tonal study to the final piece! It has more depth and although colourless, more vibrancy too. But, I set myself a challenge deliberately by using oil pastels, I was well aware that it may not turn out to my liking, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. There will always be areas I'll need to work on with more vigour. I just need to focus and be more aware of my mistakes as I go along, not only afterwards.