I thought I’d use ink for this one so that I could get broad strokes to show the tonal values within the ten minute sits, I think that was a good decision in so much as that aspect worked and I learnt a lot about working with colour within ink but I don’t really like many of the drawings. What I’d really like is another ten minutes on each to finish the drawings with dip-pen! The first two I didn’t fit the figure on the paper, I played with bold colours which was fun but they look incredibly wooden – the weight isn’t there at all and I wonder if it’s partly feeling cramped by the paper, though it may also just be that I needed to warm up! I didn’t really like the white background with these colours, it would be fun to rework them and add more colour.
I looked at these again the next day and on the second image I did really like the brush strokes but the head and hand don’t connect as they should – I tried cropping the image and I really like what it became.
This next one has a pinkish underneath, I allowed the ink on the brush from the previous exercise to carry through to see how that worked as the first wash and found the different colour quite useful for contrast but pink and black is such a naff colour combination it’s completely off-putting! The proportions are good until it comes to the head which is way too small, and I think the weight is good, but it’s not my bag.
I tried viewing the image in black and white so that I can see what the mark-making is like without being distracted by the colour – I like it a lot more like this but the head still seems too small!
This one I did in brown and found that the brown ink reacts quite differently with the water – like there are too many pigments in there, they start fizzing and separating. I thought as I was doing it that this would cock up the whole picture but actually it’s one of my favourites. It feels more three dimensional than the others and the proportions are good.
again I found it useful to view it in black and white just so I could see it without any colour bias and look at the brush strokes themselves.
Thinking that the brown hadn’t worked I tried using a light brown wash but following with black for this one, I really hate the combination. the top of the drawing has some really nice marks but the bottom half is terrible and there’s no weight or body to it. The proportions are good apart from the feet which seem to cock up the whole thing!
Tried viewing in black and white again and I cropped to see how that looks, much improved – I think for ink I’ll stick to bold colours or good old fashioned black and white from here on in!
Put off by my attempts in colour I stuck with watered down black for the last pose. Tonal variation isn’t great as there wasn’t time for the layers to dry between coats so it couldn’t build up depth but I actually really like this all the same. I think there is more body and life to it and you can feel the weight even if the details aren’t so visible.
Flora OCA drawing 1 