Using textur

Have you discovered any new ways of using your drawing tools to depict surface and texture?

Yes I have mostly with inks tho. I've experimented with ink dropping this can give a pitted texture of mimic a surface with dark dots such as the imperfections in walnut wood. Also ink washing to give a smooth texture.



How successful were you at implying form with little or no tonal hatching?

I found it difficult to not use any tonal hatching but the use of line and light and shade should be enouth to imply an objects form frow texture. I think I managed to capture the form and texture of these objects without the use of to much tonal shading or ground shadow.

What are your impressions of frottage as a drawing technique?

I enjoyed playing around with a coin and block of wood and I was quite happy with there effect but I haven't yet thort or an application for it.

project: Still life

Do you thing it is easier to suggest three dimensions on man made or natural objects?

I prefer forming a natural shape due to it individual nature, no to apples are the same. This is why suggesting a man made shape is easier because a man made object especially some thing factory made has a pattern and all you have to do is match close to it and people will be able to read it like a letter on a peace of paper.

My still life of natural object shows this point by the lemon being hard to reconise  because the easily identifiable apple was a tiny one. It made the lemon seem like a far larger object in comparison than it is making it hard to prosses as a lemon.

How did you create a sense of solidity in your composition.

I think the flat angle that showed the fruit to be inside the dishing of the plate combined with areas of solid tone came together to create a sense of solidity in my composition. As well as the reflected light from the glossy apple to the waxy Orange and tangerine.

Do you think the arrangement of your composition makes a difference to your approach and the way you create a sense of form.

Yes I fond that different arrangements and different lighting made me choose different mediums to work with and the mediums naturally changed how a sense of form was created.

How did you decide how to position yourself in relation to the objects.

Mostly throw experimentation and trying a wide rang of positions. I choose the flat angle in the end because it gave a solid appearance and caught the light well.

project 4 Reflected light.

Research point. Patric Coalfield

 Patrick Coalfield studied at the Chelsea school of art from 1956 to 1960, and at the Royal college of art from 1960 to 1963. His work has a pop art style using flat colour and simple images with bold out lines. His later work uses a mix of styles for intense a simply shaped pop art like background but with a fish in the foreground on a plate with a detailed use of tone. To create striking contrast.
The use of negative space is a large aspect of his works as many are simple images with simple flat colour backgrounds that makes for a bold block of colour negating negative space. Others have a texture in keeping with the piece over a flat background of colour and some use massive white blocks of light to  brake up negative space in a none abrasive way.
Its the blocks of light over flat coloured negative space with a simple bold line drawing that I have chosen to mimic to create my piece in his style.
I feel my piece would of been more successfully  if the green had of been more uniformed and a bolder shade.

What are the difficulties in separating cast shadows from reflected light and shade.

The difficulties are that reflected light can be only a little lighter than shadow if allowed to be grouped together, betrays the shape of an object the same goes for strong reflected light. You can see in this piece were both have happened on the decanter.

The reflected shadow and light follows the contours of the objects. How have you shown this in your drawings.

The primary light sources reflection is split from were it hits the jug top to the bottom give a high light that follows the contours of the object giving more of an indication to it's shape and the shadow at the other side mirrors this. However The jugs reflection in the more shiny sugar pot is distorted to appear cylindrical  thus the light giving a false account of the jugs shape.

project3 Tone and form

Research point.

 Odilon Redon: Odilon Redon  born as Bertrand-Jean Redon, April 20, 1840 – July 6, 1916. He was a French symbolist painter, printmaking, draughtsman and pastellist. He drew from a child and worked mostly in charcoal and lithography until 1890 were he started to use more  pastel and oils.
His use of tone is incredible in his charcoal pieces and the subjects of  his drawings are warped and fascinating such as ''Spirit of the forest 1880'' witch is a drawing of a skelintoned body with an over sized fleshed head sprouting branches of its own like antlers well being stood perched on a branch.
Other later peaces of Odlilon Redon works such as 'The Buddha, 1904' with its heavy use of yellow/gold and it's illustration styled flowers Shers similarity with some of  Gustav Klimt's work.

How difficult did you find it to distinguish between light from the primary light source and secondary
reflected light?

I didn't have to much trouble distinguishing primary from secondary light as, if you can see the light scarce you can figure it out by the angles as well as intensely of light over distance in the earlier exercises I found the exaction of what I saw as the problem no some much processing the areas or the strength of light.

How has awareness of light and shade affected your depiction of form.

The excise on tonal shade has radical changed my depiction of form I think it was mostly walls hatching the apple I found that tonal shading can really be used to illustrate an object's shape, for instens how its a roughly ball shaped object that terns in to its self at the top and bottom.

Project 2: Basic shape and fundamental form

Are the objects in your drawings the correct size and shape in relation to each other?

Mostly the sizing is accurate however this was not always the case capturing the curb or line of an object I think this is most noticeable on the vars type object.

Do the shapes between the objects look correct?

Except for the cases were the shaping of an object was incorrect the spacings were fine and I did start to find that looking at the negative space made capturing a composition easier.

Do the objects in your drawings look solid?

I've found that my picture that uses colour gives a more solid appearance possibly due to the objects no longer being transparent.  Possibly also because of strong brand identification, such as red and Coca cola so there is a connection made to a genuine solid object that is seen day in day out. Rather than a portrail of a 2ler bottle shaped object.

Have you managed to create the feeling of depth in your drawing?

Using the coloured peace as an example again. I think there is a defiant sense of depth partly due to the sardine can being right at the front of the composition and the cirial box being right at the back a good 18inchs away. I think it would of been easier to create a feeling of depth in the other pieces if they had any use of tone.

Project 1: Mark making

This is project one - mark making.

• How did holding your pen or pencil in a different way affect your drawing?

I found holding a pencil closer to the tip allowed really precise mark making and bolder lines as pressure was easier to gauge. However, it did not have the lighter shade spectrum that holding a pencil at its end did. Although holding a pencil this way had less control but a finer mark.

• Which drawing tools suited the different mark making techniques you used?

I found that charcoal was brilliant for large, bold marks and suggesting shape. It failed to manage finer marks such as hatching and cross-hatching like a pencil or pen and ink did. However, charcoal, pastel and wax crayon were good for stippling.

• Did you find that any marks or tools you used matched particular emotions or feelings?

I found that charcoal gave a really bold yet cold presence but was also quite calming, opposed to ink and pen which conveyed far more of a scratchy energeticness. 

• How did the introduction of colour affect your mark making?

I found that using colour allowed me to be bolder with my non-colour marks such as charcoal because it gave me the ability to off-set the marks with a finer mark of colour. I found mark making in colour quite interesting as I have never done it before.

• Which of these experiments have you found most interesting and rewarding?

I found the experiment that encouraged the use of unusual tools particularly rewarding. The tools I used were a feather, a stick, a piece of straw, a smaller stick, a cable tie and wax crayons. I think I achieved my best marks with these as I found them quite diverse. Applying a large amount of pressure gave a brush-like quality, really bold marks and line but also could be used with less pressure to get fine marks like a nib.

Vincent Van Gogh, Winter Garden, March 1884, pen and ink & graphite on paper.

Here the artist has used pen and ink in mostly a horizontal manner in a number of strokes to cover the width of the piece similar to how a printer prints creating darker areas were  strokes meet suggesting tuffs of grass.

 Graphite is used patchily to capture some of the barks texture as well as to suggest the trunks curvature with the marks ruining across the trunk. Lines running across the tree in ink act as contour lines.

The lighter marks seem to of been drawn back in to the piece over the graphite with a putty rubber perhaps.

It begins

I think I've just opened up a blog.