PART 5: OBSERVATION IN NATURE

I chose to go back to observation in nature for my final assignment. I really want to discover and develop what interests me about certain natural objects - what exactly is it about them that interests me and where can I take this? I have a small collection of animal skulls and bones that I've been looking at and I'm hoping to create some interesting work with them. For as long as I can remember I've had a slightly morbid fascination for dead things but particularly the bones that they leave behind. Bones, and skulls especially carry a lot of significance - death and mortality, but also if you want to look on the brighter side, a connection or unity between all natural things.

For the first exercise, 'Draw and Select', I started by drawing some objects I hadn't drawn in the previous natural observation assignment. I was particularly interested in the shapes of the large sheep's skull, but also found drawing the pine cones and decaying leaves a real pleasure to draw too. The fragility of the leaves went well together with water soluble pencil and watercolour paint, and the repetitive patterned pine cones were replicated, I think, most successfully with ball point pen. I also drew a collection of snail shells that a friend picked up for me from a beach in Cornwall - such a huge variety of colour and pattern in objects so small, the sort of thing people would walk right passed without even looking twice. Luckily my friend knew I'd be interested in them.

What struck me whilst doing these drawings (particularly with the skulls and bones and the maple leaf) was that I really enjoyed doing the quick sketchy observations. I think in the past I've had a tendency to spend hours on the same drawing, painstakingly attempting to get all the detail precise and meanwhile losing interest in the object and forgetting the point of the drawing in the first place. I really want to escape from this trap. I'm beginning to understand that it isn't a direct imitation of an object that makes a good drawing, however precise it may be - it's the essence of the object that's important, and it's finding a personal meaning or point behind it that makes a good drawing.

There's a lot of routes down which I can take these first drawings - more studies of the changing Autumnal leaves, some decorative studies of snail shell pattern, more intricate studies of pine cones, etc - but by far the most interesting objects in my collection is the skulls, and what an object to begin a project with! I'm really looking forward to the Line Drawing project ahead because I think this will help me loosen up and become more experimental.