ASSIGNMENT THREE

I did several sketches in my sketchbook, but despite this I don't think I was ever clear enough about what I wanted to achieve with this drawing. I think I chose a good view - it had all the aspects required to show all that I've learnt in this section of the course, but it just hasn't worked out. My reason (apart from the obvious one that I mention above about not being clear enough) is a bad choice of mixed media - I don't like the black or green felt pen, it looks too stark but unfortunately you can't undo pen. It actually looked better as a simple line drawing before I added any colour. Perhaps I need more tone in the window frame? The plant stands out on its own like it has been stuck in the wrong drawing! I wanted to be selective in an interesting way with the foliage but I don't think it worked well with the water soluble pencil. I felt really disappointed when I'd finished it - it's all a bit of a jumble, with too much or too little going on. I think the only bit I was happy with was the hanging basket... On reflection, I need to do this final drawing again. This one is not a success.

For inspiration I looked back over my sketchbook, and towards the Bridgeman Education archive. The drawing that I believe was the most successful out of all throughout this section of the course was the line drawing of a townscape view from the attic window. I decided to revisit this view and take some inspiration from other artists who tackle the difficult task of drawing buildings.

This George Sidney Shepherd drawing of the Yard at the Talbot Inn has a very similar style to my townscape drawing - simple black line, but with a busy feeling about it. I always admire the obvious patience of artists who draw in such a detailed way, especially of buildings where it's crucial to get the proportions and angles right. I'm not sure I could draw like this all the time!

I like this de Vlaminck painting because of the atmosphere created by his brushstrokes and use of colour - and the gorgeous looming sky. There isn't a huge amount of detail included in this painting, but it shows that there needn't be if it's atmosphere and a sense of place that you're trying to produce.

I think this is probably just a sketch and not a finished drawing but I've noticed that Nash has all the elements here in this drawing that I need in mine - aerial and linear perspective, and both manmade and natural aspects. Definitely a notable sketching style too.

I took some photographs out of the attic window (it's a skylight window on an angle so a little tricky to draw on the spot for any length of time). Below is the view I decided to develop. I really liked the composition - the sloping roof in the foreground bringing your eyes down to the gardens and the row of houses leading you to the looming chocolate factory.

I worked in my sketchbook looking at ideas on how to develop the drawing and what medium to use and did a couple of A3 preliminary studies.

The final drawing is a damn sight better than my first attempt at an 'outdoors' drawing! I did a colour wash that I printed onto the board from pieces of paper to create a textured, stained kind of effect. I used fine liner for the drawing itself and kept to simple line, no real shading to speak of. I am relatively pleased with the result because I think it's quite an interesting drawing, however I think there are areas I need to work on when drawing outdoor scenes such as this - like how to create aerial perspective in a more effective way, and how to add tone to buildings without ovewhelming and overcrowding the drawing. I just about managed to create this sense of place I mentioned above - I think the drawing is quite evocative of Bristol suburbia, or at least how I see Bristol suburbia (as without a doubt congested, yet in some way quite charming). There is something a bit olde-worlde about the drawing that I can't quite put my finger on... The Victorian buildings coupled with the stained wash effect perhaps?

Project: Drawing trees

Exercises: Sketching an individual tree and Larger study of an individual tree  

The tree I chose in St Andrews Park I believe to be some kind of maple, judging by the shape of the leaves. I tried to indicate this by drawing the leaves in a jaggedy way. It's quite a spindly tree so probably quite young, the foliage is busy and thick in some areas and then very sparce in others. I used a hatching technique to indicate the mass of foliage, darkening it in denser areas and lightening in the more naked areas. Where shadows fell on the leaves and trunk I again used hatching to distinguish it from the areas where light fell, which I left more or less blank.

I think I did reasonably well to show the kind of tree it is, but the drawing as a whole is lacking something. I only really hinted at what was going on in the background so sadly the tree has no real sense of belonging! It was a difficult exercise, mainly I think because deciding what was important to select or simplify was hard when being bombarded with so much information an individual tree can hold.

Exercise: Study of several trees

There were at least three types of tree in this view, but I couldn't tell you what they all are! One of them was definitely some kind of fir and I tried to indicate this by drawing drooping boughs - the branches heavily laden and often pointing towards the ground because of this. The tree next to this one was thick with foliage, but had a fine and light coloured leaf. And the tree to the right of my view was not hugely disimilar but had a slightly darker leaf and there were gaps where you could see branches pointing almost straight up to the sky. I used hatching in various tones to indicate the more dense or lighter masses of foliage. I used a putty rubber to show where sunlight fell on patches of leaves, and drew quite clearly the huge shadows of the trees themselves stretching across the grass. As it was such a bright day there were areas of the scene that were very dark in shadow (for example the trunks of the trees) and other areas that were almost hazy in their brightness, like where the sun fell on the grass. I kept the details in the background quite simple - the fence for example was quite a way away and was difficult to see very clearly. I used a very limited palette to give a vague idea of the colours involved but didn't want to go over my pencil drawing too much at the risk of spoiling it.

Project: Townscapes

Exercise: Study of a townscape using line

I did one quick preliminary study in my sketchbook of this view out of a skylight window. (I drew on sight, so figured one quick sketch would be enough this time.) I thought it would be an interesting view, with the old chocolate factory in all it's delapidated, Victorian glory. I chose to keep our neighbours chimney as the focal point just slightly of centre, and tried to indicate its close proximity by using thicker line. Along with this method, depth was created by including the row of houses opposite, their receding line jutting up to the chocolate factory adjacent. If I were to do this exercise again, I'd have worked harder at indicating depth by using aerial perspective, graduating the tones more. To be honest though, there isn't a huge amount of distance in this particular view and I think that helped create the atmosphere. I merely suggested at clouds and the small amount of foliage present, because I quite liked the fact that the atmosphere was kind of industrial, heavy and claustrophobic almost, like the bulidings are leaning in one another - I didn't really want to mess with that by focusing on the natural forms. When it comes to the scale of the buildings, I have to admit to them being inaccurate, but only slightly. The horizon line of the chocolate factory itself should be at more of an angle - it should be going diagonally down from right to left, which again would have helped to create more depth in the drawing.

Exercise: A limited palette study

After several preliminary sketches sitting in a cafe window opposite my chosen subject, I chose red, brown and black as my limited palette of colours. I guess I chose colours that resembled the buildings, which was perhaps a bit of a boring thing to do. Creating depth was harder than I thought. The facade of the building is obviously pretty flat so I needed to use the roofs to indicate what depth there was in the view. I used the black to show where shadow fell on the roofs and I think this helped a little to add a sense of depth, but sadly otherwise I think it looks very flat. I was quite selective over what detail to include - perhaps too much so? I'd definitely approach this task differently if I were to do it again. I think it needs to be bolder. I need to be clearer over the aspects of my view that I find appealing or interesting. I basically feel that this drawing is very dull and gives nothing away of the actually quite vibrant atmosphere of this particular area of Bristol. I don't quite know how I managed to sit for hours doing preliminary sketches, trying to get the 'vibe' right, then produce this drawing! (Win some lose some?)

Exercise: Drawing statues (see sketchbook)

Back to the cemetery for this exercise. I chose a statue unique to the others - there were tons of angels, cherubs, crosses, Virgin Mary's etc but this was the only one of Jesus I came across and it was very tall. What interested me about it was the commanding pose, the way he stands looking down, arms outstretched and eyes half closed in a meditative way - like he's praying for the person buried beneath his feet. I found it pleasing to draw, especially with ball point pen because you can achieve the nice flowing lines of his robe and hair, as well as the finer detail of his (quite efeminate actually) hands. And of course you can get a huge amount of tones using hatching techniques.