Response to Tutor Report for Assignment 1

I am pleased to have received a generally good report regarding my first assignment with the OCA; my thoughts and comments regarding it can be found in bolded italics throughout…

The first part of the course is about the core concepts of drawing – developing a repertoire of mark making, understanding basic shapes and forms and creating 3 dimensional effects.

Overall Comments
Well done Joanne, this is a very promising start to the course. You demonstrate good observational skills, confident use of materials and a strong sense of composition. Thank you for sending a well-organised assignment and learning log, it made it a pleasure to look at your work.

Your preparatory work is very promising, as here you allow yourself to be more fluid and expressive. Try to bring some of the spontaneity, freedom and life of your thumbnails and preparatory work into your final drawings. – I definitely agree with this; I do tend to find I indulge myself too much in recording the finer details in my finished drawings, and actually really enjoy how quickly I can work when undertaking thumbnails.

It’s encouraging to see you taking opportunities to experiment, for example, the finger-painted rose, this approach to trying things out in the moment, will serve you well during the course. I’ll be encouraging you to extend your repertoire of mark making and range of materials, and to take more risks to develop your creativity. – this I am most certainly looking forward to.  The finger-painted rose was certainly a spur of the moment thing, coupled with a desire not to throw away unused paint.  I loved how the idea came to me suddenly, and how easy it was for me to act on it.

The following comments on the projects are based on looking at the work online. (Next time can you send me a sketchbook) – I admit I was a little worried about sending sketchbooks as I try to work in them often, but will endeavour to send at least one of the three I work in when I complete Assignment 2. 
Making Marks
Given your declared preference for pen/biro I’m pleased you went on to use charcoal for the reflected light project. I’m going to press you to spend more time with charcoal and wet media like brush and ink to expand your repertoire of marks, especially to make some discoveries by using media that you cannot control to the same extent as pen or biro.
I like your slightly free way with hatching; it keeps the drawings alive, try not to tighten up too much when you become more skilled.  – I don’t like to admit defeat when something is getting to me, much like when I try my best to like using charcoal when in reality I find it slightly unpredictable and a little ‘clumsy’.  However, I am not too proud to persevere with it, especially as there are so many types to choose from i.e. charcoal pencil, which can be sharpened to a point and is better for retaining more control.  As for the hatching, I find that constantly changing the direction of the marks and keeping them ‘loose’ is a lot more enjoyable than having them too uniform and rigid.  Its not a technique I aquired on purpose, it just came naturally to me!  I am glad that it has a positive effect on my drawings.

Basic Shapes and Fundamental Form
You have a good grasp of shape and proportion and are able to distinguish and represent the relationships between different shapes and proportions.

Tone and Form
You understand how tone works. You could increase the depth of tone in your drawings to create more visual variety and interest.
In describing form you clearly enjoyed exploring through an unfamiliar method of making marks. You don’t make assumptions about what you’re looking at, generally you observe closely which results in objects looking individual rather than stylized versions of things we know. – I find that since beginning the course, I look at my subjects a lot more; I keep my head still and glance up and down between the object and paper constantly.  I believe my observational skills have improved significantly since the start of the course.

Reflected Light
Well done for producing closely observed reflections and for getting to grips with charcoal. As you say it’s a very response medium and you have used it fairly freely for this kind of work, when the temptation is to tighten up to get the reflections just right. From the photographs I can’t see enough to make a comment on blending – this was quite a large drawing, with the photograph not doing it justice; I must remember to send more originals in next time!

Still Life
You make good use of thumbnails, this is a very useful habit to get into particularly for exploring compositions and investigating details. I’m pleased you feel confident about making your own still life compositions and understand the difference a small shift can make. The same principle applies to selecting the frame for landscapes and anything else you choose the draw, the view is usually under your control and it’s up to you to find those that satisfy or excite you. – thumbnails were never really on the agenda for me before, when undertaking personal work, as I believed them to be time-consuming and only something that ‘proper’ artists did.  I am obviously quite wrong, on both accounts; I find I can produce a thumbnail in a matter of minutes, and can see how they will prove useful when working towards any finished piece.  I love how I can be spontaneous and experiment quickly with getting my ideas down; a bit like visual brainstorming.

Using Texture
I was pleased to read your comment – ‘I was feeling somewhat liberated by just how quickly I could render a drawing to convey texture without having to draw every single tiny detail I saw. It was certainly a revelation!!’ – this is a crucial learning point. Being able to work over the whole drawing, investigating what you see and developing the drawing as a whole, in it’s own right, if that makes sense. In the next assignment see if you can use different methods to create texture. – I am slightly obsessed with texture at the moment, which is also evident in the other OCA course I am currently studying (Painting 1: The Practice of Painting).  In the past, I always used to insist on the tightest drawings to show every detail but found doing this produced inconsistencies where some areas would be rendered better than others.  My aim now is to see the object I am drawing as a whole and work on it as such, and not just concentrate on any one area and focus on ‘suggesting’ the texture, as opposed to drawing it.

Feedback on assignment
Your first assignment asked you to produce two large drawings, a study of natural forms and a collection of man made objects. You were asked to use materials of your own choice and to experiment with mark making and composition.

Natural Forms
Your rendering of form and surface is skilled in your final drawings and your preparatory work Your thumbnails show you can
select what’s important and work with economy of marks to record the
key elements of composition. This is will be a great advantage in assignment
3 when working in the landscape. The final drawing is a curious composition, I like the close up view and the cropping. It is technically well executed but perhaps a little slick, partly the smooth paper and drawing style, a bit like an album cover from the 1980s. This is exacerbated by the colour balance which is awry, there is too much magenta and sienna. Compare it with the pencil study and see what you think. The treatment of the pencil study is a little freer, the shadows have a better colour and shape relationship with the objects, the rougher surface means there is no slickness. Without a magenta cast all over we get much more sense of three dimensions and distance. On the whole I think the study is better drawing, however both of them are skilled drawings. – I want to kick myself slightly regarding this piece; everything had gone so well until I fixed the final drawing.  I used hairspray, and not a lot at that, misting it on from a reasonable distance.  Almost immediately, I could see my colours changing; my shadows, which were a deep blue-purple, turned a magenta-pink and this in turn completely ruined the complimentary effect I had hoped to achieve with the ochres in the wooden table and natural objects.  Therefore, I agree that the coloured pencil study is more pleasing to look at and gives a more accurate depiction of my chosen objects and the space they occupy.  I shall now be doing more research into the type of fixative I use, however I was under the impression that hairspray would be fine…

Man-made Objects
A very interesting choice to draw some areas in colour and some in monochrome. On the whole I think it has worked and it is helped by your technical skill. You have clearly applied what you have learned from the projects, especially in the following –
1. The reflected light on the glass necklace and the drawing of the beads themselves.
2. Tone, including cross-hatching, to describe form.
What I think doesn’t work so well are the coloured light shadows on monochrome, the surface of the bag and scarf has disappeared. The similar treatment of surface for the bag and scarf and apart from the brush, the lack of darker tones. – again, in complete agreement; it was only upon looking at the drawing again after reading this comments that I can see where the choices I made were perhaps not the best.

As in the Natural Forms drawing I think there are aspects of the preparatory drawings that are more successful.
1. The charcoal treatment of the faux leather bag and thin scarf, in particular have a better range of tones and more sensual surfaces. I can feel the plumpness of the bag and the softness of the scarf – I can see that the appearance of the bag and scarf alludes to them being made from the same material, and the same colour, when this isn’t the case.  I believe I got too caught up in the fine cross-hatching to notice this.
2. The small scale study has a strong sense of narrative and personality, we get the sense that these objects have been chosen by an individual getting ready to go out. There is real life in this study.

Sketchbooks
I was only able to see your sketchbook work in your learning log, please send me a sketchbook or at least some photocopies next time.

Keeping sketchbooks and a learning log is an integral part of this and every other OCA course, not only because they constitute 20% of your marks
In formal assessment but they are also an excellent way to see how you are developing.

Different people use sketchbooks in different ways. Some people carry them all the time and make observations about the world around them, others use them as visual diaries to record their thoughts and feelings, they can be used to explore ideas and compositions for larger pieces of work, for imaginative drawing and doodles, some people collage found material,

Learning Log
Your learning log is a place to record the development of your thinking, especially in relation to your progress on the course. This is the place to reflect on your drawing and your research, probably where you’ll record visits to galleries and your research (though these may be in your sketchbook). Most importantly this is where you make notes about your own work and what you are learning. It will help you and your tutor see your progression and development.

If you’re new to OCA courses, read your Keeping sketchbooks and learning logs study guide for further information. You may wan to combine your sketchbook and learning log in the same format.

What an impressive learning log! Good critical reflection and thorough analysis on the exercises and projects. This kind of learning log will support you to gain the most out of all your OCA courses and gives you the potential to make significant progress. – the learning log is a joy for me to complete, as I am an organised person (I like to think), and keeping a log needs a lot of organisation and technical skill!  I feel that if I were to have produced a hard-copy log, the quality wouldn’t be consistent and I wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

Research into other artists – Don’t spend a lot of time on artists’ biographies unless it’s for your own benefit, it’s not a requirement for the course. Make sure descriptions of artists’ work relate to you own drawings and the project in hand. Concentrate on making comparisons between your work and theirs, observing their techniques and compositions and noting how you can apply what you learn to your own work. I am also interested in your surprises, disappointments and inspirations. – I will try my best to integrate these points into future research posts!  I also now understand that I need to be able to link my research to work I am currently undertaking or hope to undertake, so that it is relevant to my learning.

Suggested reading/viewing
Have a look at Winifred Nicholson and William Scott for the different ways they deal with still life subjects. – I have made a note of these and will be researching them within the next couple of weeks.

I am pleased to see that you are looking at other OCA students’ blogs. Do go on the study visits if you have time, they are well worth it to see art in the flesh but also to meet students and tutors face-to-face. – I am in awe at some of the work – visual and written – produced by other students and find it a constant source of inspiration.  I have also joined an OCA Facebook group and take great pleasure in engaging in discussions on others’ work and general thoughts regarding their learning journey.

Formal Assessment
I understand you are aiming for a Creative Arts degree. I will make a comment on your progress in the next assignment report. Please read the section on assessment in your Student Handbook. Your Assessment and how to get Qualified study guide gives more detailed information about assessment and accreditation. See the assessment criteria at the end of the report.

Pointers for the next assignment
In the next assignment you’ll be drawing a still life in colour. You need to show an understanding of the use of colour and a rationale for your choice of materials and techniques, as well as contining to apply your learning from assignment 1. – colour is an area that has become more and more intriguing to me as my artistic career progresses, and I have no doubt I’ll always be learning something new about it.  My current favourite area is complimentary colour and how to utilise it to maximum effect.  I look forward to the next part of the course and putting my existing knowledge into practice.

This is an opportunity for you to develop your techniques with laying down and over lapping colour, looking at relationships between adjacent colours and exploring the way shadows are not black but contain colours from the ground and the objects. – again, this is an area that I have learnt a lot about recently; I have been looking at the colour of an object and then using some of its complimentary colour in its shadow.  I adore working in this way, and will do all I can to avoid black which can deaden even the most dazzling colours.

You have good technical skills but don’t let them dominate your final drawings. Keep investigating even, don’t tighten up at the end, keep the drawings alive. – this is probably the comment I will have at the forefront of my mind when working on future final pieces; I need to keep loose, not tight, and spontaneous.  I am aware that my smaller colour studies for the natural and man-made final pieces had more ‘character’ and texture than my final pieces; I just somehow need to fight the urge to keep everything neat and orderly.  I am really looking forward to working in colour for the next part of the course; I have noticed in the past that I am more likely to loosen up with colour than with pencil/charcoal as I am always excited about the ways colours mixed when applied spontaneously and freely on a larger scale.  We shall see…

Assignment 1: Man-made objects

For this section of Assignment 1, I wanted to draw objects that were closely related and were almost like a ‘self-portrait’ of myself (I’d heard the term used before, to describe a painting of a group of objects that represented a person, as opposed to just painting their likeness).  I figured my bedroom would be a good place to start, so with the principle of finding interesting textures and shapes in mind, I set about collecting my objects, ultimately assembling a group themed on getting ready for a day/night out.  Namely, these were: a bottle of pink perfume, a make-up brush, a shimmery scarf, a pale gold clutch bag, and a beautifully colourful glass bead necklace my sister gave me a couple of Christmases ago.

A photograph of the objects chosen

The first task I appointed myself was to draw studies of the objects, using various media; as the course draws on I have become increasingly aware of the need to experiment with implements other than a standard pencil or ballpoint pen, therefore I introduced charcoal pencil, coloured pen and willow charcoal.  I tested different mark-making techniques such as cross-hatching (quite possibly my favourite –  as seen in the clutch bag study – due to its subtle tonal ranges), blending and overlaying marks.  I satisfied myself that I had chosen objects that all had a unique shape/size/tone in relation to each other, but having not drawn many similar objects previously with these textures, I decided I would study this next to establish the best way of depicting them when I came to the finished drawing.

Studies of chosen objects in various media on A3

I wanted to take the same approach as I did with the natural objects, in that I’d use a smaller sheet and zoom in on the structure of the objects to study their texture.  Upon closer inspection, I uncovered some interesting ways of showing the textures; for the crinkled leather of the bag, I found using a putty rubber to take away some of the charcoal used created a convincing patina, although I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the study overall.  There were so many facets to the glass beads and perfume bottle that it became confusing, to the point where my eyes crossed trying to pick them all out!  Drawing the make-up brush with a ballpoint pen was perhaps the most satisfying, as I was able to build the lines up by overlaying and cross-hatching them to achieve the deep tones and ‘bristly’ feel of the jet-black item.

Close-up texture studies in various media, A4

I was quite taken with the way the beads and the pink-tinged perfume sat next to the other more monotone objects, so I decided to undertake some pastel colour studies of just those, to establish the colours and the way they acted within their glass structures (such as the stunning reflected light patterns they threw on the table).  At this point I wasn’t entirely sure what form my finished drawing would take; monotone, colour, pencil, pen etc.  After this study, I had quite firmly made my mind up that I wanted to feature the colours of at least the glass bead necklace in my drawing…

Pastel studies of the more colourful items, A4 tinted paper

The bag was obviously going to take up the majority of the composition, due to its size, however I wanted to play around and see if I could get all of the items to sit together as a whole, as opposed to the bag dominating everything.  I tested out six different compositions, varying factors such as position on the table, direction and strength of light source and also the individual positions of the items.  Upon completion, I could see immediately which one would –  in my opinion –  work best with what I had in mind to achieve, which was simply an arrangement that would be pleasing to the eye, without any major technical nuances.

Compositional thumbnails, pencil on A4

I used charcoal for my composition development work, simply because I find it is quick and satisfying to work with in establishing tone and placement without hindering the process as a whole whilst working towards a finished drawing.  Although the composition I chose to develop had the necklace draped over the bag in a kind of figure-of-eight on the left-hand side, I decided to test out how it would look laying alongside the bag, on the table; I quickly discarded this ideas, as it seemed to create a jarring kind of triangle design on the right-hand side of the drawing.

Compositional development, charcoal on A2

I was still determined to use the colours of the glass beads in the drawing at this stage, and quite liked the idea of building up the deep hues using coloured pencils.  However, I wasn’t sure about the rest of the objects and how I’d like to render them; I did an A3 sized colour study in pastel to establish roughly the colours that I could use, but found that the range wasn’t very exciting at all in the other objects.  This exercise was extremely useful, as I could have very well gone ahead with a larger colour drawing and not been completely satisfied with the outcome.

Small-scale colour study in pastel, A3

Finally, I decided on a mixed-media approach that I had once seen elsewhere (I cant recall exactly where), that I thought was stunning; a monotone drawing, with the most intersting object rendered in colour.  The idea appealed to me so much -and I had already established I wasn’t satisfied drawing anything other than the glass beads in colour – that I went ahead and planned my final drawing in 2B pencil, using a subtle cross-hatch technique (as used in the earlier object studies), and coloured pencil solely for the glass beads.  I began by drawing the outline softly, and then proceeded to draw in colour the glass beads first, in order to gauge how the remainder of the drawing would evolve around them

I built up the layers of colour on the beads by starting with a light wash of colour, then adding mid-tones before accentuating with the darker tones/black to make them appear three-dimensional.  I did not get bogged down in detail, but simply draw what I saw – various shapes of various colours.  Once I had established I was satisfied with how the beads looked, I moved on to rendering the other objects and shadows using the 2B pencil and the gradual building up of cross-hatched marks, depending on how deep the tone was.

Nearing completion, I was aware that the background needed to be added, but I was wary about adding too much detail that would detract from the central composition.  Therefore, I kept the curve of the pale wood table but omitted the pattern of the floor and instead chose to render it in a large, cross-hatch fashion in a mid-tone; I feel the curve of the table in the top-right corner (unintentionally) mimics the curve of the necklace in the bottom-left, a accidental design feature that I am rather happy with!  Although, if I were to draw this again, I would probably not let the tassles of the scarf get so close to the bottom of the paper; the other objects all seem to be equal distance away from the edge of the paper, whereas the scarf tassles seem to ‘close up’ the bottom-right corner and make it appear a little dark and busy.

Finished drawing, 2B pencil and coloured pencil on A2

Conclusion

As much as the multi-media approach was a gamble as such – considering I hadn’t attempted something similar before – I am still happy that I made that decision as the final piece is unique against anything I have drawn before, and I shall attempt further pieces like this in future.  I like the ethereal quality the drawing has, with the glass beads being ‘living’ and the rest of the objects being ‘ghosts’.

As with the natural objects, I feel I did as much preliminary work as was necessary for me to establish my way forward; I ascertained the shapes and sizes through initial object studies, experimented with different textures using various media, fleshed out a composition that, for me, worked well, and then finally made an informed choice about whether to use colour or not.  I don’t feel that there was any other work I could have done that would have helped me any more than what I had already produced towards this; that’s not to say my list of preliminary work is exhaustive, by any means, but that I am happy with the result to which my preliminary work led me.

Although I conducted textural studies, I am aware that I didn’t really use these to any great extent in the final drawing due to my using almost exclusively the cross-hatch technique.  However, I did try to use this in a clever way throughout so that texture was still hinted at i.e. lighter hatching on the handle of the make-up crush to suggest the light hitting its shiny surface.  In hindsight I am glad I did it this way, as too many carefully considered and rendered textures would have taken a lot longer to draw and made the final drawing look fussy.

I feel that the whole composition could have benefited with being shifted up a centimetre or so, due to the scarf tassles laying very close and almost parallel to the bottom of the paper; with a little better planning upon roughing in the initial outline, I’m sure I could have avoided this.

Assignment 1: Natural Objects

I remember reading another student’s blog, before beginning the assignment, about how he’d rather not choose fruit or vegetables for this assignment due to their being featured further in the course.  I thought this was a good observation to make, so considered this myself whilst picking my items.

Eventually, I decided on objects that, on first glance, don’t appear to be the most colourful specimens that nature has produced.  Nevertheless, I was confident in my choices and was sure I could find some ‘hidden’ colours in there somewhere once I proceeded.  I collected my objects from two different gardens; I turned up two interesting stones, some dried sticks, a strange little pod, several vacant snail shells and some curled, dried leaves.  I also decided to add an eggshell after using it in my baking and realising it possessed some lovely patterns in its cracked shell.

   

My first task was to really get to know the objects, the best way of course being to draw them.  I wanted to study the shape and tone primarily, and to gauge their suitability for my composition.  I selected an A3 sheet and made several small-scale studies of each object, trying out different media with each one (I haven’t used pure graphite and coloured pen a great deal for drawing in the past; graphite was agreeable but I’m not sure I’m happy with the ‘saturation’ of colour that the pens produced – too bright).  For the eggshell, I knew the only way I’d be happy to draw it was with a very fine pencil (4H), so that I didn’t produce tone that was too heavy.

Object studies (tone and form), various media on A3

Once I felt confident I was able to draw the objects – and I was happy to include them all in my piece – I then moved on to exploring their textures.  For some reason, I felt that an A4 sheet would sufficiently hold close-up drawings of each object but I was soon proved wrong.  What then resulted was a kind of textural montage, with drawings huddled close together.  These were again undertaken in a variety of media, where I selected which tool I believed would portray each texture satisfactorily.  The light sepia pencil I used on the more irregular rock was a good choice, as it not only produced a hue similar to that found in the rock, but also I was able to get a realistic grainy ‘bumpy’ texture from it.  Again, I used a fine pencil for the eggshell here but I’m not sure I was able to produce a realistic, eggshell texture; I found myself using my putty rubber more than I wanted to, in order to pick out highlights and the small dimpling found on the shell.  I was happy overall with the effects I produced, but unfortunately a fine misting of fixative to set the materials took the edge off the crispness of the marks somewhat.

Texture studies, various media on A4

I was keen to decide on a composition, and of course didn’t want to delay starting any further, so I drew up a handful of thumbnail sketches on an A4 sheet.  These were executed quickly in pencil, with me moving the objects around sporadically to see what interesting light and shade patterns I could create.  I drew rapidly, taking care not to get oo involved with the details, shading etc.  I experimented with possible compositions that could fit both landscape and portrait, to give me more variety.  I had originally started with more leaves but these threatened to take over the whole drawing, so I pared them down to just three of the most interesting ones.  I knew I wanted to make the larger stone quite dominant, and liked the idea of it being towards the top of the paper as opposed to the bottom.  Finally, I settled on composition no. 5 and chose to develop this one further.

Compositional thumbnails, pencil on A4

Charcoal seemed ideal for this next exercise, so that I could draw the compositions rapidly and fill the A2 page a lot quicker.  I wasn’t interested in showing too much detail at this point, so this also swayed my decision towards charcoal.  The idea of having compositional ‘lines’ running through the piece really appealed to me, to draw the viewers eyes in different directions.  Therefore, I decided to arrange the leaves in a diagonal from top-right to bottom-left, and then the dried stick follows the bottom of the large stone, down through to the bottom-right and out of the picture.  I was also conscious in my decision to have a kind of ‘hierarchy’ in the objects; the large, ‘powerful’ stones sit at the top, followed by the empty shells (egg and snails) and finishing off with the extremely fragile dried stick and small pod.  A kind of barrier is created aswell, between the strong and fragile objects, by the diagonal placing of the leaves.  I was very happy with this effect, although wondered if there should be more to fill the space underneath the rock on the right-hand side.  As I drew I also noticed lots of interesting negative shapes being created between the objects, that I hoped would strengthen the final drawing.  Once I drew the left-hand composition, I realised I wasn’t happy with the ‘zoomed-out’ viewpoint, so decided to bring the objects in closer for the right-hand composition, and view them almost from above and with them extending off the page a little.

Development of composition, charcoal on A2

Composition decided, I moved on to deciding how to portray it in my final drawing.  I was keen to try colour even though, as previously mentioned, the objects were not very exciting colour-wise.  I used an A3 sheet to conduct a small-scale colour study using coloured pencil, and paid extra-special attention to the objects, looking hard for those ‘hidden’ hues.  I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw; the stones had dashes of purple and blue in their darkest shadows and also highlights, and the shadows thrown on the table had a bluish tinge.  The eggshell radiated reds and pinks on its shaded side, as the light source from the right shone through it.  The snail shells were individually beautiful, with hints of violet and blue throughout.  I did darken some shadows with pure black but instantly told myself that for my finished drawing, I would only use layered darks such a blue and purple to convey these.

Small-scale colour study, coloured pencil on A3

Soft pastel pencils were the material of choice for the final drawing, as I believed they would give me the subtle nuances of colour that I was after.  And am I glad I made that decision!  I found drawing with them such a joy, and was pleasantly surprised at the luminous glow I achieved with them in portraying otherwise quite dully coloured objects.  I followed my colour study closely, as well as having the actual objects nearby, but as I worked it occurred to me that I wanted to make the colours ‘pop’ a little more, and to make them more consistent and coherent by using dominant colours in the shadows.  With this in mind, I pushed one with the drawing using colours I could clearly see, and then strengthened them by adding just a touch of certain colours, such as pinks and blues, into the shadows.  I found that even using a colour such as pink to pick out detail on the leaves, snail shells and dried stick really added a vibrancy that united all of the objects and avoided a muddy mix of browns and greys usually associated with such objects.  I made sure to depict both thrown shadows and reflected light from the objects,  which have created some really interesting negative spaces.  Occasionally, if an area became too dark, I used either white or my putty rubber to knock it back a bit as I didn’t want any dominant, dark areas to detract from the piece as a whole.  The putty rubber was also employed to aid in textural depiction, such as the marbling through the smaller stone and the veins in the leaves.  Throughout, I used my fingers to blend colours and also a colour shaper, a thin rubber tool that can help soften lines and also to move colour into small areas.

Outline of final composition

Beginning with the large stone…

On to shadows and the smaller rock…

Finished drawing, soft pastel pencils on A2

Conclusion

Perhaps the most disappointing thing for me was setting my final piece with fixative; as with previous studies, it seemed to reduce the crispness and also alarmingly the colour of the shadows almost instantly changed from a subtle violet to a more vivid pink.  In hindsight, I would probably look a little closer at what kind of fixative I use for certain materials.  I’m not terribly disheartened by it, but thankfully I took a snap of it before spraying, so the above picture is pre-fixative.

I’m reasonably happy with the preliminary studies I have made; I sat down and had a think about exactly what I wanted to explore before starting my final drawing.  These were tone and form, texture, colour and composition – and I feel I addressed these all in enough depth to inform and assist me with my final piece.  Regarding composition, I was aware quite quickly during my compositional studies that the objects would look better closer to the viewer as opposed to sitting in the centre, and feel the A2 sheet held the composition well; any bigger and the top-most part of the drawing with the stones would have been too imposing, any smaller and the objects would have appeared cluttered.

I also cant help but think that I may have selected too many fiddly objects, and made the composition quite fussy; hopefully the thought that went into it – i.e. the diagonal lines and placing of objects – helps to portray otherwise, but if I were to choose again, I may just have one or two leaves, and perhaps not the dried stick and pod; I may have gone over the top with colour on these to make up for the fact they are quite dull and unexciting.  I was happy with the two rocks, however, and feel these really add strength to what could have otherwise been quite a flimsy composition.  If I were to change how I arranged the objects, I may try and add something that lends a strong tone, to sit at the right-hand side of the drawing just below the smaller rock.

I used a variety of techniques for applying the colour, but of course pastel is rather crumbly so I found myself dealing with lots of loose dust which was a little annoying.  The only thing I could do was blow this away regularly to avoid it ‘cascading’ down onto other areas I had already worked on.  I did use hatching quite often, although smudged it too much by mistake and lost the line detail; when this happened I simply applied the hatching again (such as in the shadow areas).  I was thankful to have my colour shaper tool also, as I found it a little frustrating when I couldn’t blend into smaller areas with my fingers.

All in all, despite the negative points made above, I am pleased with what is actually my first large-scale, pastel drawing of natural objects.