Part Two: Project 5: Exercise 3 – Drawing with other coloured media with Check and Log

I would have much preferred to have chosen a different subject for this exercise, having spent the past week or so starting at huge rhododendrons.  However, I understood the importance of drawing the same object again so as to experiment with different media and ascertain what materials worked best and showed it in its best light.

Due to having quite stiff and overworked fingers from undertaking the large A2 drawing (this runs in the family…), I decided to take only one aspect of my subject – namely, the rhododendron blooms – and test different materials together, drawing only this part of the plant and on one A3 sketchbook page so that all my notes were together.  I worked intuitively, selecting different materials for their colour more than anything else.  The first drawing, on the left, has a light layer of coloured pencils that were then overlayed with thick impasto marks made by oil pastels.  The pink oil pastel especially was the perfect colour for the petals, and I wished I had had this colour of pencil when previously working on my large drawing.   I combined this colour with dashes of purple and red to suggest shadow and texture, and used the same technique on the leaves whereby I laid down the lighter colours i.e green, then another layer of dark colour i.e purple, to give a similar shadow effect as can be seen in my coloured pencil drawing.  Finally, to suggest a few finer details, I selected red, yellow and green felt tip pens and used these to roughly ‘scratch’ across the paper, trying carefully not to make the marks too thick and bold which could easily detract from the rest of the drawing.  The whole sketch took around five minutes – I worked rapidly around the drawing adding layers without planning in too much detail – and I really enjoyed the spontaneity of it.

The second sketch – on the right – once again took just under five minutes, but this time I felt brave and decided to use diluted Winsor and Newton inks combined with ballpoint pen and coloured pencils.  The rough outline of the rhododendron was drawn first with ballpoint pen, followed by very watered-down washes of ink applied with a water brush pen.  The paper buckled and bobbled somewhat, but I loved the fact that I could achieve pastel-like hues that aren’t normally seen in this plant.  I only had three colours of ink therefore my palette was a little restricted, but this was fine as I then proceeded to shade over the inks with coloured pencils to widen the palette slightly and to add depth and tone.  This sketch has a more illustrative appearance to it but I rather like the unique, ethereal effect that I have produced without having planned the sketch in detail beforehand.

I would consider using both of these techniques in future works, however the coloured ink and pencil combination is perhaps my favourite due to the stunning colour combinations that can be achieved.

 

Check and Log

• How will your experiments with negative space help your observational drawing in future?  I have certainly become more aware of negative space, and am conscious that I now compare these spaces to ascertain proportions in a drawing rather than just the shapes of the actual object.  I also feel it is a less fiddly, ‘precious’ way to draw as the focus is no longer on drawing every fiddly little detail of the main subject.  Essentially, it is drawing a series of interesting ‘shapes’ that form a whole, and I’d like to have the opportunity to do more negative space drawing.
• What techniques did you use to ensure you drew your plants in proportion?  My usual technique for this – especially when drawing on a large scale such as A2 – is to flick my eyes back and forwards, constantly measuring up one aspect of the subject with another.  I would compare a leaf with one nearby, but then also one further away to check that positioning and alignment as a whole was correct.
• How did you achieve an effect of three-dimensional space in your drawings?  To ensure I have the proper balance of light and tone, I use the ‘eyes half closed’ technique to ascertain where the lightest lights and darkest shadows are.  I continue to use this technique throughout the drawing, correcting as I go.  I will deepen the shadows by adding more layers of dark colour, and any areas that need to be lighter are picked out with a putty rubber.  Once the drawing is complete, I will go back over the entire piece and correct and imbalances.  Also, I try to keep objects in the foreground more detailed than those in the  background to add a sense of depth.

Part Two: Project 5: Exercise 2 – Plants and flowers in coloured pencil

I have to admit to feeling rather confused when reading the brief for this exercise, after having done so much loosening up and experimenting beforehand; A2 sheet, make the flowers look three-dimensional and not a pattern, draw in context to give depth and substance.  Wow.  I then went on to look at how other students had tackled the exercise and was a little less daunted, however still left wondering why this exercise called for more attention to detail, and on such a large scale.  Nevertheless, I was intrigued at the possible outcome and a little excited to use coloured pencils on such a grand scale – not something I’d done before.  I chose to draw a detail from my rhododendron bush, where the flowers still hadn’t unfurled from within their artichoke-shaped form.

First, I experimented with blending colour in my A3 sketchbook.  Just like mark-making exercise from earlier in the course, at times I found myself stopping and wondering what kind of effect I could produce next that would be different from all the others.  I tried a variety of hatching, smudging, burnishing and stippling, but found my favourite to be scumbling, whereby I would rapidly move the pencil in circles and increase depth and tone as I went.  I decided this was likely to be the method I would choose as it felt quite natural to me and in line with the subject I had chosen.

 

Next, I decided I would experiment with layering colours that would depict some of the main elements of my subject.  In daylight, the bush has many strong shadows so therefore I tried overlaying different greens with a purple to create a deep shadow that wasn’t flat and black.  This was rather successful, and gave me an ideal way to depict the shadows.  I once again tried different ways of blending colour, with just green and purple this time, but still found scumbling to be my favourite technique.  I also studied the structure of the flower and its subtle blend of pink and red tones, and also did a couple of rough composition studies.  I settled on No. 1 due to the interest added in the top half by the tendrils of the bush and the shadow of the bush on the fence behind it.

 

I made a start with an unobtrusive light brown pencil, roughing in all of the shapes while simultaneously glancing at my subject and then across the piece to make sure scale was correct and everything was where it should be.  I made a couple of mistakes along the way i.e. one leaf overlapped another when it shouldn’t have done, but I saw these as ‘happy’ mistakes and didn’t try to correct them.

 

 

I decided I wanted to start with the shadows first, to give me a strong colour to work against when I started developing the foliage.  I used a light blue first, then on top of this scumbled a lilac hue before finally a darker purple.  I found this added real depth and also a kind of luminosity to the shadow, rather than just applying one flat colour.

 

Next was the wooden detail of the fence, which was rather bleached out by the strong sunlight.  For this, I simply combined light grey and mid brown and roughly suggested the coarse detailing.  I then began with the foliage at the top right and worked my way across and down.  For the parts of the plant bathed in sunlight, I used a lime green with mid yellow, scumbled over with a mid green and with more pressure in places that were darker.  In places of shadow, the purple was added to give a sense of three-dimensionality.  I was aware of spending too much time fiddling with such detail like the veins of the leaves, so just like the fence, I roughly suggested this with colour and tone instead.

 

 

I continued to work my way down the piece, careful not to smudge as there were areas that were quite dense with overlayed colour.  When I arrived at the flower,  I was intrigued at how translucent it looked against the luscious foliage around it.  I was surprised at the colours I found on this part, possibly being reflected from other parts of the plant; I used lime green, mid yellow, pink, light blue and purple on the leaves within the artichoke-shaped structure, and the petals were a mix of pink and mid red, with purple scumbled over the red to suggest the sharp shadows.  I didn’t want to lose the delicacy of this part of the drawing and have it ‘heavy’ like the surrounding foliage, therefore the pressure applied to the pencils here was extremely light and only slightly less so in areas of subtle shadow.

 

 

Once I reached the bottom third of the drawing, I decided that I had already spent too much time on it at this point so therefore looked at ways to speed up my work.  I started to pick out areas of the same colour i.e. the dark shadows, and filled these in before moving onto the next group of similar parts.  I was quite aware at this point also that rather than just scumbling, I was also adding other marks to my drawing, such as squiggles and dashes, to create tone and texture.  I wasn’t too keen on doing painstaking work on the large leaves, so perhaps that is why.  At this point, I had also noticed I had missed a few details in the background that were cast in shadow, so I went back and added these in.

 

The large leaf in the centre of the bottom third has clearly become quite a focal point, as it is here that I turned the pencil on its side and applied pressure with my thumb to cover more paper in the least amount of time.  This created a textured effect this was quite surprising, considering I was working on smooth cartridge paper.  I carried on with this however, and added the reflected pink from the flower in the same manner, building up depth with dark purple.  I then went back and darkened some of the shadows within the foliage and also the shadow cast on the fence, as I felt it didn’t have enough impact.  Once I had finished, I noticed that I had managed to include some complementary colour schemes without meaning to; the yellow of the leaves against the purple shadows, and the general greens featured throughout against the pink of the petals.

In total, I would guesstimate this took me around 6 hours to complete – not least because of the multiple layers of colours!  Working on this scale was a very liberating experience and I enjoyed picking out ‘hidden’ colours and subtly blending them into the piece.

 

Finished drawing, A2, coloured pencils

Part Two: Project 5: Exercise 1- Negative space in a plant

I admit, I cheated a little here; the course book suggested I use a large potted plant, but due to financial constraints at the moment, I instead made use of what was around me.  I ventured into the garden and found some trimmings underneath my magnolia tree, some small, flowering branches.  I was careful to pick some bare branches/twigs as well as ones with flowers still attached, to offer a varied silhouette.

The pieces of magnolia tree were slotted into a tall glass vase, but in this instance I decided to crop it out and concentrate solely on the leaves, flowers and twigs.  I selected a 3B pencil and rather than plan carefully where I would start to draw on my A3 paper, I leapt straight in with spontaneity, beginning with the dip in the middle of the flower silhouette at the very top of the page.  I worked my way out from here, measuring each negative space up with another nearby so as to place it in the right position.  I noticed my pencil getting blunt rather quick so had to sharpen quite often to retain the crisp, sharp edges of the negative spaces.

I worked from the middle at the top, then clockwise down and around the rest of the composition before going over the central mass and adding the smaller, more concentrated spaces.  The exercise took around an hour and a half in one sitting, and I found it utterly therapeutic as I filled in the negative spaces with a layer of soft pencil and witnessed the object emerging.  I enjoyed this exercise so much, in fact, that I have convinced myself I must produce a whole series of drawings/paintings based on it.  Time permitting, of course…