Flora OCA drawing 1

For this exercise we were asked to make tonal studies that analyse receding features  using aerial perspective. I worked in charcoal on this picture using stronger harsher strokes in the foreground and softer less detailed work towards the background. I like how this turned out – both in it’s success as  an exercise in perspective and in its drawing style. I used putty rubber to work into the background and give it a softness and movement and then used much quicker more definite marks on the leaves in the foreground – I like both in contrast.

For this exercise we were asked to draw a group of buildings corner on or failing that a group pf books, I had to make do with books. We ere then asked to carry on straight lines towards eye level and see where they all meet, I realised that my eye level was above the page so extended the canvas and drew the lines on the computer afterwards. unhelpfully I chose books that were in a variety of states of decay and none of them have particularly parallel lines – in hindsight not so useful for the drawing! It’s just a mess of lines and difficult to see if any would meet at eye level so I’m not sure how helpful it was, perhaps I ought also to have positioned myself lower and closer to the corner to make the perspective more extreme for greater effect.

In this exercise we were asked to draw an interior view with receding lines and then to carry on those lines to see where they meet using a ruler which I did in orange, before drawing another set of lines (green) as if all lines met at my eye level. The orange lines based on my drawing were all over the shop but quite a few of them met in a similar area and checking against real life I think I put my eye-level/horizon line too low so that the green is way off. In reality it falls somewhere between the green and orange groupings so neither drawing is quite right. The orange lines show my original drawing to be technically inaccurate but it feels more real than if the drawing had been done using a ruler and rules based. There is a midle ground to be had though!

For this exercise I used a photograph I’d taken of the view from my parent’s garden looking out past their hedge and across town to the hills behind. I used watercolour and black ink, diluting the ink and using soft blues for elements of the landscape which were further away, with pure black and richer colours in the foreground. The next door house sits in the middle ground. I think as an exercise in these three distances it works well to differentiate between the three and the mass of black is very effective but this picture I like less now than when I had first finished it, I’m not so keen on the appearance of the next door house and garden – I don’t think the shading has worked so well there – it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the picture.  Still overall I think it’s reasonably successful and what it does have I think is that early morning soft hazy light so I’m pleased with that.

In this exercise we were asked to look at the preparatory drawings in the previous exercises and produce a composition using elements from those drawings. I still had the romance of the view from my cousin’s house in France at the forefront of my mind and wanted to use that as a basis but incorporate the rolling charcoal clouds that I’d been so pleased with in the cloud exercise. I decided to echo that style in the rolling hills and woodland and was really pleased with the results. I hadn’t really tried working from preparatory drawings or composing images in this way before and it felt quite exciting. This was charcoal and ink on A3.

I did this exercise twice, once from life in France doing very quick sketches using a really simple bit of colouring in watercolour and then pen, and then again working from photos I’d taken for purpose up on Hampstead Heath in drawing pen having felt that the first batch didn’t really work. I actually now feel like apart from the first France drawing where I didn’t really know what I was doing and did a very bad drawing and tried to include too much detail – they do work, but I’m really glad I did the second lot as they are some of my more competent drawings!

France:

Hampstead Heath:

In these Hampstead pictures I really like the sense of space – there is a lot of white paper which maybe I avoid generally, but with the more intense worked up areas works really well. I also really like the almost print like quality that the big splashes of colour have in the France images and I think you can see that they were drawn from life – they feel like a hot summers day whereas the Hampstead shots are very still and have a totally different quality.

This exercise was to do four quick sketches along a walk that you regularly take. I took out different media to see what would work well for on the spot sketching but as it turned out I wasn’t all that happy with any of them apart from the charcoal.

I tried marker pens first using just trhee colours. Looking at it now I can see it’s an accurate enough representation that I could use it to work from which perhaps is the point but the drawing feels sloppy and a little harsh to me.

In reaction to the pens I tried pencil to get something softer but I don’t really like this either! I like the less detailed less tonal areas such as the car but the main focus of the sculpture itself does nothing for me.

I didn’t have time to do all four sketches (blame the baby) so had to work from photographs for the last two.

This one seemed to need colour to show it’s dullness and I worked in watercolo

ur pencil and marker which gave it a sort of school textbook feeling.. appropriate for the subject matter but pretty boring as an image.

This last one however I really enjoyed! It was still very speedy but the charcoal was the perfect choice for the subject matter and I loved how it all melted together giving just an impression of where things begin and end but still very clearly showing the subject. It has all of the atmosphere and light that is missing from the other drawings.

In this exercise I experimented different media to try and capture clouds – here are four very different examples, the first and second dealing with big fluffy clouds in the midday sun and the third and fourth looking at wispy clouds around sunset.
As I was doing these I hated all but the second drawing in charcoal and ink, but looking at them now there are elements I like in each of them.
1. Pastel and marker, A4.
Initially I didn’t like how cartoony the marker made this but looking at it now I think it’s really softened by the messiness of the pastel and I like the way they work against each other. This was a relatively still, hot day and I think some of that comes across.

2. Charcoal, ink and white acrylic ink.
I so enjoyed doing this one and I love it just as much now. There is so much movement in these clouds – I’d love to try this on a bigger scale, I can see it working particularly well as a large scale series.

3. Oil pastel, A4.
Again I hated this while I was doing it and in the few days following I couldn’t see any merit – it seemed too wishy washy – however it was a fairly accurate representation of the sky on that day and actually I quite the style now – it still maintains some of the energy that I like.

4. Fine-liner and marker, A4.
This is probably my least favourite but more because of the cityscape which looks cartoonish and poorly done. The clouds themselves give quite a nice flavour – it might be nice to try this style over block watercolour if I get a chance to get rid of some of that white.

This study (A3) was done in watercolour and oil pastels, I wanted to try to keep up a bit of colour work and play with oil pastels a little more as I’d only really touched on them in the previous part. They are such a playful medium and bring out a really illustrative style in me which I think in this instance works quite well. I was trying particularly to look at light and colour use – using blues predominantly rather than black for the shadows.

The only tree that differed species-wise was the one in the foreground which had much more visible texture so it was quite easy to mark out just because of the proximity.
I found it really helpful to use the watercolour underneath to give the impression of the receding trees and allow some white for the gaps between, this and the deep blues of the shadows at the forest floor gave space and depth. This style made it quite easy to simplify  and still give an impression of the foliage etc. but it is very illustrative and had I used inks and charcoal I might have been able to produce a much finer more delicate image, it would be nice to try that approach too at some point if the opportunity arises.