Exercise 1: Line drawing detail
I found it rather difficult here to not want to add shading, even though the course book specifically says not to. Therefore, there are a couple of sections that have been hatched slightly, although this could pass as texture marks as opposed to shading! I admit that my pen came off the paper a couple of times, but generally I managed to keep it flowing around all the nooks and crannies of the pepper. I feel that my variation in line thickness helps to establish the outer edge of the pepper, against the softer lines of its inner flesh.
Exercise 2: Getting tone and depth in detail
For this, I chose a dry, crunchy lead from my garden. I was anticipating quite a challenge with regards to depicting the numerous fine veins running within the leaf, but instead employed the ‘eyes half closed’ technique to establish my main light, mid-tone and dark areas.
I used B for the lightest areas, 2B for my midtones and 4B and 6B for the darker areas. I began by working in the darkest areas, and then worked towards the lightest areas from there. I found it quite strange that although I used a lot of pressure with the 6B to produce the darkest tones, it just didn’t seem dark enough, therefore I overlaid this with the 4B which helps to deepen it somewhat.
Hatching was used throughout, and I made a conscious effort to vary the direction of my strokes to get some interest into the drawing. The contrast between the top, curled-over edge of the leaf and the dark area underneath help, I feel, to establish a sense of it being three-dimensional. When I placed the leaf on the table to draw it, it sat on its pointed tip with the stalk pointing upwards, hence the strange shadow. Once I had satisfied myself that I had used a variety of pencils and produced a pleasing range of tones, I did a final sweep over the drawing with the putty rubber to pick out the lightest areas.
Exercise 3: Stipples and dots
My ‘interesting textured’ object for this exercise was a strange sprig of bulbous ‘pods’ from my pot pourri pot (I have no idea what it is, but liked the look of it). Each ‘pod’ is slightly different in size and texture, so I though this fitted the task perfectly.
I started by very lightly working in the outline of the entire sprig, and when satisfied that it would fit on my A4 paper, I then worked in a much bolder outline of all the individual elements. I still used some hatching here, although stipples and dots are specified, to suggest the shadows – I just couldnt seem to help myself. I tackled each pod in turn, looking closely at it and interpreting its individual marks; some were smooth, others bumpy, the odd one dry and flaky. I used short, sharp dashes, light and dark dots and circular marks to suggest the various textures. In the darkest areas, these marks were simply overlaid to give them depth.
Conclusion
I found the dual components of this project – detailed observation and tone – were extremely important ones to consider, and liked how the two were combined. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and felt it was perhaps the first time in the course that I was able to draw natural objects in such detail and with an end result in mind i.e. a variation of tones and marks.
As much as I love to draw in pencil, I felt that I was able to achieve a much broader and deeper range of tones in the ballpoint pen drawing. Something about hatching over and over the same marks helps them to really shape the object on the paper into a three-dimensional form. I was amazed that although I was working fairly quickly on the ballpoint pen piece, I was still able to make an informed decision there and then on what kind of mark to use and was pleased with the results of my intuitiveness.
Research Point: Tight and rigorous vs sketchy and expressive
Dirk Dzimirsky
One artist – albeit it a very modern one – whose drawings have made a huge impact on me in terms of close observation and loyalty to detail is Dirk Dzimirsky. He favours working almost solely in pencil, preferring this to paint as he can work over the same marks and build up layers that interact with eachother.
His hugely detailed portraits – in the photo- or hyper-realistic style – are works of art, mistaken occasionally for photographs. He captures every fine strand of hair, every glint of saliva on the bottom lip, every highlight in the eye.
Although his work appears smooth and slick, on closer inspection one can actually pick out all manner of marks that he has employed to build up the layers of his subjects. Radiating lines, circular dashes, stipples and smudgy patches of opaque colour; they are all there, but blend together flawlessly to achieve the sense of realism that he is striving for.
Andre Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987)
Masson was a French-born artist who advocated the process of ‘automatic drawing’, where the hand was allowed to wander freely across the paper in order to express ones subconcious; Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí were hugely influenced by this and used the technique in their painting.
It is believed that Masson forced himself to work under strict conditions – such as after long periods without food or sleep, or after taking drugs – so that this may come across somehow in his drawings. This is most certainly true of the drawings featured here. Automatic Drawing 06, for example, seems almost an unidentifiable combination of lines at first but then certain aspects begin to emerge, such as the bird in flight and what seem to be a flight of stairs, several hands and some bare breasts. One can only guess that he began a drawing without knowing fully what the result may be, and then simply let his imagination run wild when the pen hit the paper.
Although his work must be almost exclusively imaginative, there is an element of observation and subject knowledge there, for example in the bird whose proportions are almost spot on, and the perspective employed when drawing stairs.
References:
http://www.dzimirsky.com
My BA (Hons) Creative Arts Journey with the OCA 