A spontaneous and free-flowing exercise, this one really appealed to me. I’ve learnt through this course so far that the looser style line is something that speaks to me over the accurately detailed realistic drawings which Im starting to feel, although has it’s own time and place, comes across more clinical. I appreciate the beauty and synergy of the lines that create an image which the viewer perceives and builds the drawing together with their own views and ideas with their life experiences, memories and emotions.
I found a similar sense of aggression and weird feeling associated with this piece as with The Mother In Law, 1987. It is hard for me to get past the subject and context of the drawing to appreciate the comedy link with the title of the piece. I do however appreciate the set up of the interior study; there is little background information or tone apart from the red wine that lies on the floor, leaking its contents away because of the drunk who is incapacitated on the floor with the lady straddling him in a rude and invasive way. I notice the grounding of the figures to the plane, representing the floor in which she stands and he lies, yellow ochre and umber colours give clues to the foundations in which the scene is set upon. And in truth, because of the comedy value of the drunk and the simplicity of the humour, it makes perfect sense to keep the drawing simple without drama of the background so without the additional information of the background and a vast portion of blank negative space, the viewer focuses on the story and its humour within the drawing rather than the interior study.
Van Gogh
The National Gallery returned a result for ‘Van Gogh’s Chair’, 1888: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-van-goghs-chair. This painting presents a simple scene of a sturdy and handmade-looking chair with what appears to be a pipe and handkerchief resting on the seat. The interior scene uses a muted colour palette with contrasting blue walls and red floor tiles and distinctive contour-like lines that surround the perimeter of each form making up the structure of the chair. The background and floor are a little less obvious, perhaps this was the intent of Van Gogh, to create a still life interior scene but put emphasis on the single item itself by using darker lines to outline and the bring the item to the forefront of view and focus. I also notice with this painting that the source of the light is confusing; there doesn’t seem to be an ovbious point where the main source of light is coming from. The back slats of the chair indicate the light is coming from the right hand side of the drawing, but the front right leg of the chair is not rendered with tones that would agree with this. Another example would be that the bottom rung of the chair indicates light coming from above, but yet if the light was coming from this direction, the seat of the chair would also be illuminated but may possibly cause a cast shadow to appear on this rung as it is directly below the seat of the chair which could obstruct the light falling onto it. I questioned why there is no obvious light source in this drawing and how it effects the drawing; are the lighter tones representing light sources or reflected light or maybe they are placed for added interest to the drawing?
I also feel it important to observe that the perspective in this drawing seems slighty off. The box at the back left hand side that is shown to be placed on the floor seems a little higher than it should be if taking into consideration the viewpoint when looking at the tiles and chair positioning and perspectives. I’m not sure if this is intentional but it certainly adds character to the perspective and overall feel of the piece. With the style of rendering to the drawing with paints and the colours used, it does remind me of a more post-impressionist piece rather than realistic. It is interesting when researching into Van Gogh’s life how at the time this painting was completed, Van Gogh was living in Paris and his painting style had changed from using predominantly darker colours in his paintings such as The Potato Eaters, 1885, to lighter more uplifting colours. I assume from piecing together this information and storyline, that the colours of Van Gogh’s Chair, 1888, are within this transistion period of experimentation, which would explain why the colours are almost half way from dark and dull to bright and luminescent. It’s also evident to me after looking at the photos of his work, that the style in which he applies his media to his drawing had changed from soft and blended marks to short dabs, giving a different effect which I believe is the starting of his post-impressionist style. A snippet taken fromhttps://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/post-impressionism explains “Van Gogh painted from nature but developed highly personal use of colour and brushwork directly expressing emotional response to subject and his inner world.” and helps to clarify that it was more than experimentation of producing a simple still life, Van Gogh used his artistic voice and the people and environments he surrounded himself with at that time, to develop his work, producing pieces that embodied his emotions, preference for colour and style to describe his subjects. Further research suggests that Van Gogh took inspiration not just from artists in Paris but Japan too.https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/vincent-van-gogh-life-and-work/van-goghs-life-1853-1890/from-dark-to-light states “The influence of the bold outlines, cropping and colour contrasts in these prints showed through immediately in his own work.” This sentence is highly conducive to my thought process and analysis of Van Gogh’s Chair, 1888 discussed above.
Bedroom 2
Bedroom 2
Bedroom 1
Bedroom 1
Bathroom
Bathroom
Kitchen
Kitchen
Living Room
Living Room
Sketched over a couple of days, these quick observational drawings above capture scenes within my home. I felt right to stick to spontaneous and free lines, which in some drawings actually come across scruffy and brash, whilst others seem dynamic and intriguing with various interests created by a looser style line. I have noticed that other than the charcoal drawings, most of my sketches involve lines rather than tonal analysis. I think that when one of these drawings is taken further in the coming exercises, I would like to investigate the tonal variations in the still-life or scene before committing to a purely line-based drawing.
I have noticed that the drawings that felt more hard work than the others are somewhat less-inspiring to me. Because I didn’t feel as engaged, perhaps my creative and imaginative side of the brain wasn’t sparked, so my attitude towards these drawings is evident in the outcome of the drawing itself. I can relate this to playing music in that when playing my violin, thoughts and feelings, mood and energy comes across and can be heard within the delivery of the music, all transferred from me through the bow. We looked at this in the initial exercises where expressions and feelings can determine the style of art that is produced. Perhaps, it is also the case that some shapes and compositions (I had not moved anything into place – only ‘found’ the scenes to draw) appealed to me more and were more pleasing to my mind’s eye, thereby subconsciously creating and embodying a mood and feeling within myself before the drawing was even started with a mark.
I also see that the perspective and scale of the items of furniture suffer a bit here in these quick observational drawings. I made the decision not to use an eraser in these drawings as I felt it would take away from the spontaneity of the line and rather than the drawings being of quick observational noting, they would appear structured and thought about in depth.
You may notice that I have used a pink highlighter to draw attention to my favourite and least favourite drawing within each of the rooms. I did this to highlight the drawings that I thought would be the most and least inspiring for me to take forward and develop. There are some drawings in my sketchbook that I would like to take forward but maybe even use less line and create a piece utilising more of the negative space to ensure the lines do not become too heavy and busy, but still able to describe the shape and form of the objects.
Enjoying the looseness of line here on these two pages. I really liked the experiment of how much less line can be used for a drawing to still give definition and an idea of the subject matter (right side). I also am keen on the bottom left drawing that uses line but tonal variation to describe the form. R Kaupelis, Experimental Drawing, 1980, Watson-Guptill (Crown Publishing Group)Front Cover: R Kaupelis, Experimental Drawing, 1980, Watson-Guptill (Crown Publishing Group)
I have enjoyed researching into this style of drawing in my Experimental Drawing book by Robert Kaupelis. There are a few drawings here in this loose line style of drawing that I am quite drawn to. I have thought about I could use this technique in my drawings. I feel like there is a time and a place for me to deploy these particular methods in my drawings. I had a quick practise in my sketchbook after taking inspiration from these two pages above, especially the class experiment to start with five lines to represent the whole object and then gradually reducing the number of lines finally using only one line to represent the whole form.
Starting out this exercise with experimentation for monochromatic colour palettes with various types of medium. It’s clear to see from my findings that the watercolour media was my favourite and the one that gave me the broadest range of tonal values and effects from my technique and experience.
A quick couple of sketches in my sketchbook to test out the concept of a monochromatic colour palette. The top sketch has a pencil outline and the bottom two are predominantly tonal with a little contouring.
Researching various methods of utilising monchromatic colour palettes within art I found a very talented artist who has an unusual way of incorporating various tones through monochrome in her work. https://theartofeducation.edu/2019/01/28/10-mixed-media-artists-to-inspire-you-and-your-students/ (Various artists work is showcased here for all utilising the mixed media approach. I am taken with Lauren Collin’s work (http://www.laurencollin.com/) and how she creates added layers of paper, a completely monochromatic piece sometimes, but textured and layered, with tonal gradation appearing with the cast shadows from the cut paper layers. Of course, these shadows will appear differently in different light sources, adding a different feel to the piece if preferred. http://www.laurencollin.com/beast/vary4v1gom9zuwirdijr53joemqypf (The paper sculptures here, some using mixed media, are mesmerising)
My chosen subject was a corn on the cob in the kitchen. I wanted the feeling from the drawing/painting to represent that a process is yet to be completed; the viewer would subconsciously piece together the image and the process and think that the corn was yet to be removed from its husk and cooked. I quite like the idea of a story within a drawing. As you can see below, the angles I took photographs from and took thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook show a variety of ways in which I looked at studying my subject for my drawing. I really liked the contrast of the smooth, shiny pot and bumpy, plump sweetcorn kernels against the matte papery husk and wiry tufts out the top of the cob. There was so much interest in this drawing which I wanted to capture in a really dynamic and unusually cropped way. I didn’t want to look straight on at the pot on the stove, I wanted the corn to stand proud as the main focus of the drawing, possibly entering the frame from the corner with the round lip of the pot taking the eyes around the drawing.
As you can see from the photographs above and the one below, I felt the need include less of the pot in the drawing as it looked like it was overwhelming the picture, looking cumbersome and offensive. I found a viewpoint which I thought gave the impression of a full picture without being over-the-top whilst retaining interest and diversity in textures and tonal variation.
The viewpoint to work my drawing from
The thumbnail sketches above give evidence of my quick observation drawing from different viewpoints to see how the drawing would feel under my fingers and when drawn within a frame.
Above I experiment with the colours that I thought would look effective in this piece. As the task was to produce a drawing with a monochromatic colours scheme, I could only use one, but I could black and white to the true colour to create tones and shades to produce a greater range of tones which I could utilise in my drawing. I experimented with this and watercolour paint in the initial trials at the beginning of this exercise. I selected watercolours mainly due to its versatility in blending and producing a broad range of tones.
Piece for Exercise 4
In summary, I am reasonably happy with the outcome of this piece, although if I’m honest, a little disappointed too. the negatives are that I feel it looks overworked, flat and the textures are not contrasting enough to my liking. Also the structure of the tiles, the lines and perspective looks warped, I felt that although I have studied this on the course already. the focus on the negative space got a little lost here. The focus slipped for culminating all of the learnt techniques and methods, and became more out of want and need to create an interesting piece whilst trying to describe tones and detail with a monochromatic colour palette. I Find this interesting however, it is not lost on me how the exercise may read relatively simple, but executing a well thought out drawing with this technique is actually quite hard. I feel through my inexperience that I have underestimated the level of planning and practise it may take to get the drawing accurate and portray the feeling that I wanted to. A question to ask myself going forward when setting out to create a piece with intent to describe a ‘feeling’, is to ask myself how I propose I will do this; which methods I will use to create that effect etc.
In my sketchbook, pictured above, I actually prefer the look of the corn on the cob here rather than the final piece for the exercise. The texture between the corn kernels and the dry, rough and matte papery husk is a good contrast. I achieved this by using wet on dry for the corn kernels, giving a feel of roundness and shine and a dry brush technique for the leaves of the husk, which gives the impression of a dry and scratchy surface. This wasn’t successful in the final piece because I didn’t follow this technique. It has become apparent that if I exercise with media to try to reach a certain aim, I must document or annotate how I got to that place because then there is a learning trail to follow for when I wish to recreate this effect again. I’d say these learning outcomes outweigh the unsuccessful outcome of my drawing.
I do quite like the colour I have chosen and used with the final piece but because it reached an overworked stage. some of the purity got lost with the mixing of the tonal variations. Something I need to work on and know when to stop. I think if I were to try again with this piece, I would take it slower and try to observe there to the greatest contrast of tones are first, before adding in the detail, hence why I feel that some of the tonal variation is lost in my drawing. I did find by using a monochromatic colour palette that it was more difficult (maybe due to my inexperience) to describe the tonal variations to create a feeling of depth. Maybe some prior practise and experimentation with tonal variation in this medium would have benefitted my drawing here.
Overall, I am liking the freshness and simplicity of the background but also the looseness and fun way I have approached the drawing in itself. I didn’t want to go too loose with the line but also wasn’t aiming for a real accurate description with life-like drawing. As for my learning that I have experienced in this piece,, it’s safe to say I have a lot to work on here, reflecting and carrying forward in my drawings, to ensure these techniques and methods are grounded with solid foundations to ensure my drawing and further artwork is competent with an in-depth knowledge of application; I am keen to make the most of my learning throughout these exercises and be mindful not to miss a learning opportunity.
It’s been a week since I last worked on this exercise; I have been taking time off to think about how I wanted to progress, Occasionally I will hit a block and need time away to reflect and gather ideas before continuing with a piece of art work. I experimented with the mixed media in my sketchbook, as demonstrated below, to get a feel for how the mediums work together; what properties and tendencies they had when laid down and applied to different surfaces etc. I quickly discovered a set of three chisel and point permanent pens in three shades of green, which gave a huge amount of versatility. Using experience from the previous exercise with the line drawing, I used this method again here as I really liked the spontaneity of the line and the expressiveness which is what I hope to utilise in this drawing to show a bit of drama with my still life to compliment the mixed media effect.
It quickly became apparent that I felt my way towards using a gel pen with black ink to describe the line and using the chisel nib of the green markers to describe blocks of tone, (much like the recent previous exercise) defining smaller areas of darker tone with the pointed nib where appropriate. Initially I did want to keep this piece relatively simple and use textured paper as the plane with very little background detail. I drew my still life onto a rough brown textured A4 paper plane and really liked the outcome. To follow simon’s advice about possibly adding a wash, I tried this in my sketchbook and liked the look and feel of it as a shadow, so I also applied this to my final drawing.
This was my final piece. Yes I was happy with it, no, I couldn’t put my finger on why I didn’t think it was finished. I described the line and the tones, rooting my subjects to the foundation. Why was it still feeling incomplete? Here is where the week away from working on this drawing occurred.
After some research at looking at other OCA student’s blog and re-reading my course notes, I finally understood that I was missing some creativity and drama in my drawing, and although I was confident with my subjects and how I had drawn them, they and the background were missing that certain something. I decided I wanted texture, or at least the feel and idea of it. Something that would inspire the viewer to feel like they were at the place my drawing had occurred. I undertook some experimenting in my sketchbook and found that an idea popped into my head; frottage, why not utilise this technique here to describe sand? Acknowledging the texture of the paper and knowing that a pastel would be cut by the tooth of the paper, I instantly made the connection to apply broad strokes with the side of my pastel pencil (sepia hue) whilst the paper lay on a wooden surface, to pick up the grain of the wood to give the idea of waves leaving their mark on the sand on which the objects lay.
Adding pastel to the ink wash shadows to give more depth
Could I introduce these lines as grass growing around my still life?
Applying more shading in the form of cross-hatching with the gel pen; the ink wash wasn’t enough
The final stop on developing my drawing was adding the grass and sand details to the final drawing and applying a little more depth with the pastel pencil to the fir cone and a few stones. I found with the still life using tone (exercise 2) that I didn’t add enough tone so I have implied more here and it looks more effective, in my opinion.
I find myself very happy that I have waited, reflected and not rushed on with the drawing, instead drawing on the recent experiences and new-learned techniques to use in developing my drawing and although they may not enhance the drawing to some, I have learnt how various techniques and mediums can be combined to create an artistic impression of a still life using alternative tools and materials to describe tone and line too.
Final drawing for Ex. 3 (part 1 – before reflection!)
I found that this drawing has changed its since the initial conception, it started quite simple and light, with little detail. The focus then changed to adding a scene with the still life, this occurred as the drawing progressed, I almost found this happening rather than consciously deciding this, which is a new experience for me. I question how the visual perception os this drawing would be changed with a more detailed and realistic line drawing or even a change of colour palette. I found that with the pen nibs being a chisel and point, it gave me great broad strokes of colours which almost gave quite a stubby contemporary feel, which actually complements the loose line I have adopted to describe the outline of the shapes of the objects. Perhaps I could develop this drawing’s texture and mixed media feel with applying some sand to the paper to really push the boundaries with this drawing’s theme?
21/07/2019
I decided to go ahead and take a risk; I’ve applied sand and dried seaweed to my final mixed media still life drawing and I am pleased with the results. To ensure I have stayed true to the exercise’s guidelines, I have taken the exercise as it is entitled ‘Experiment with mixed media’. Previously, I felt that I had experimented with mixed media, but upon reflection and after really finishing the mixed media drawing for good this time, I’ve found there was so much more to give and I’m glad I have taken the time to reflect on the exercises for a little while after I have completed them. This has enabled me to deepen my understanding of what I have achieved, or not achieved, and put it into context within my artistic style and voice, but also in amongst other artists and their voices too. It has enriched my learning and imprinted the experiences into my mind from which I can recall and utilise when moving forward throughout this course and my learning journey. Taking the time to think about each individual task, experiment or challenge has also enabled me to reflect more effectively each time, by asking myself questions that will ensure that I have learnt and understood the opportunities to be gained from each challenge. I’ve also learnt by putting into practise, that it is perfectly acceptable to take a risk and feel enlightened by the reflection period after, when asking myself questions why it did or didn’t work and what I can do about it; an important life skill not just reserved for art! Because of this period of reflection on my drawing above, I was able to develop just that little bit further to create a more interesting, textured and dynamic piece of artwork which captures the essence of me wanting to reach out and really ‘feel’ the work.
The final mixed media drawing
Above, you can see that this piece is the final mixed media still life experimental drawing that I will be submitting for marking. The sand and seaweed has been added, which I believe adds further interest to my drawing. Perhaps, it may seem ‘childish’ and naïve because of the crudeness of the seaweed and straight edges of the adhesive where the sand is held. I do understand and am aware of these points. I also feel that the seaweed does a look a little cumbersome and out of proportion with the scale of the still life objects drawn. Feathering the edges of the adhesive to ensure the sand blends away rather than leaving a straight edge may have given more subtlety to this addition. Although, because of the darker colour of the sand, I did try to reserve it for the areas where the tone would be darker because of the shadows cast by the objects. I wanted my mixed media drawing to embrace the roughness of the coastal scene, which the loose and expressive lines compliment. I also wished for people who saw this piece to want to reach out and touch it and really feel it. I’ve found so far in my journey that I am drawn to artwork that inspires the viewer to recollect memories and emotions (for example, when I looked at the Totes Meer painting in a previous exercise and delved into the psychological effects of the piece). I enjoy the thought of people reminiscing of a time they experienced the beach; the sand between their toes, the smell of salt in the air, the sound of the waves crashing. I am intrigued as to how artwork can stir up activity cognitively. An all-senses stimulating art, if you will. This is something that I would like to explore more, how can I include other senses into my artwork, taking the viewer on a journey of discovery. I wish my artwork to be more than a feast for the eyes…
I find it truly fascinating that through developing my reflecting techniques, I have been led further into my journey of discovery and really reap the rewards of research and reflection. Below are websites I have studied and further knowledge I have gained due to this exercise.
This is probably the most difficult exercise I have undertaken so far on the course and I have really struggled with the concept of disregarding the use of line in this composition that focuses on tone. I have to add that the Exercise instructions were a little ambiguous; was I only supposed to use three colours or more? As the following photographs show, my journey with this exercise has been experimental, and I have learnt an awful lot about tone in it’s stand alone use without line.
1st Attempt on A3
2nd Attempt on A3
I understood with the previous exercise that line can be used as a boundary and to describe form by using various techniques. The problem I had here, was there was no line to contain my tonal shading to begin with. Indeed I sketched in the initial dark tones, but I noticed that the perspective of my drawing had become distorted, when this is something I was trying to improve from my previous work and reflection on the blog. On the 1st and 2nd attempt on A3 paper, I seem to have lost some of the spontaneity that the initial sketchbook drawing (very top) held, with the quick sketching of tonal areas for dark, medium and light tones. I also persevered with three colours in this sketchbook drawing, as the course notes suggest, but then changed this when drawing on the A3 paper. I thought this addition of extra colours would bring a better description of tone, which I think has worked in the shells and stones to some extent but not with the large rock and fir cone. They have become flat and scribbly, which was not the look I was after.
2nd attempt with colouring pencils on A3
Using line was easier for me to describe the outline of the shape and if truth be told, using the cross-hatching and the hatchuring, I found it easier to describe form than with blocks of colour for tone in this exercise. Perhaps because my observation of where the light fell in the composition wasn’t as specific as the line drawing composition? Perhaps I haven’t worked solely with tone before, so was not competent as using tone to describe form without line? I think I successfully describe tone with colour in my final piece, and I am quite pleased I went back to restricting myself to a few colours as then my focus turned from making the still-life drawing realistic, to drawing with a pure focus on seeking those tonal areas and describing them, intentionally obvious, to create the drawing that I have below.
Final drawing for Exercise 3 – Still life in tone using colour
I chose the three colours; dark grey (darkest tone), blue (x 2 shades – mid tones) and sand (lightest tone) to give the range of tonal variations in this drawing. Potentially, this drawing could be enhanced further to a more realistic drawing and one way could have been to utilise a wider range of pastel colours and spend time experimenting with how to build up tone, as I have practised with this exercise. I think with my lack of experience in using colouring pencils and pastels to build up tone without line, it would be good for me to spend time investigating how to do this so I am more comfortable in executing this technique further into my artistic journey. To some extent, I feel the focus of this exercise quickly turned into trying to select the right colour rather than competently describing the tones accurately and reflecting on my words above, I can see how easy it was for me to become focused on the colour application rather than the tonal variation and paying particular attention to the shadows and reflected light which could have developed this drawing even further. Possibly without the line, I struggled to place the tonal variation within the composition, maybe I placed too much significance on relying on the line rather than feeling free with observing the tones. I also did get quite frustrated and upset at the state of the pieces I produced in the build up to the final one. I did have to come away and have another go after a good night’s sleep. I’m not sure why I let the spontaneity of the form and lack of order effect me so much, I didn’t enjoy not having a line to work from, however, I now appreciate the learning opportunity from this exercise and feel more confident of the techniques I can adopt and the experiences I learn from not relying heavily on contour lines for a drawing.
Something that I think was a positive change for the last attempt from the previous attempts was my choice to change my chosen type of media to work with, I started with colouring pencils, and then chose to move to pastel pencils. I found that the pastel pencils gave me a softer more even surface area when using the side for broad strokes such as the large stone at the back of the composition. This felt like a nicer texture to work with and I could render larger areas of mid tone that blended nicely into the darker and lighter tones. The depth of the tone was created by varying the pressure of the pencil marks made, which some where made by using the side of the pencil or the point for thinner more precise areas of tone. Looking at the drawing again, I feel I could have applied even more pressure to the dark-mid tone areas on the fir cone especially as the bottom right could be darker to show the shadows that were acting on it and the table on which it rests. I noticed that I had a tendency to get carried away by drawing lines rather than areas of tone, but trying to refrain from the use of line compared to focusing on the tone, I understand that the drawing does not look as detailed as a line-dependent drawing would. The depth was also described by curving the dark tones up the side of the objects and creating shadows using different tones to show where the light was falling. Following Simon’s feedback from Assignment 1, I decided to the leave the paper plane white on this occasion to help the objects in my composition stand out. I can see how (as simon explained) the objects seem rooted down by their shadows, so description of further tone may be unnecessary. I can see how this may not work for every drawing but it certainly is an element of the drawing that I will consider in more depth from now on, due to the way in which it can effect the entire drawing.
Overall, I see how using colour can complicate but ensure character and spontaneity within a still life drawing when observing tone without line. I believe through trial and error, I have successfully drawing a still life composition describing tone with a limited colour palette. There are a few areas I would change when reflecting on my still life piece, which may be, choosing a different or more varied colour palette to work with, observing the areas of varying tones more carefully or spending a longer time on the drawing to get a more accurate drawing (if that is the effect intended) and finally possibly used a paper plane with a smoother surface so the difference in tone on the surface of the objects could be made more obvious without the flecks of colour coming through and disturbing the outline.
Embarking on this project, I understood that I needed to identify my starting point, which would become clear when I knew how I wanted to draw the lines that would describe the forms in my still life composition. I know from experience that different types of line can actually radically change the feel, atmosphere, appearance and dynamism of a drawing, so this research into types of line drawing was not underestimated on my part.
Sketchbook experimentation: looking at Cézanne’s Pot Of Ginger And Fruits On A Table, 1890. Thinking about how my quick sketch of a landscape scene in Surrey could look with Cézannes method of lightly working in the lines with pencil and then rendering a little with colour to show light, tone and form. I am quite impressed how simple this technique is and how it stimulates the brain and imagination to fill in the rest of the drawing with the colour and tones that have been gently described for a small percentage of the drawing. I feel that careful consideration is needed when applying the colour to the pencil drawing as if applied without much care or consideration, the drawing could brash, unfinished and viewers may feel unsure of the intended outcome of the piece.
I created a still life from various pieces of fruit; the pieces I have picked are abundant with texture and form which I thought would be fun to try to describe in my line drawing. What a challenge: how to describe the texture and patterns within the shapes of the fruits whilst maintaining focus on the line itself. Below are the photos from different perspectives to try to get a feel of how my still life composition would look from different angles. Here I tried a home made viewfinder to see what if any cropping would need to be done to achieve an interesting perspective of my still life. This preparation (along with the thumbnail sketches later) provided me with a great insight into how my drawing would come across, ideas of how to tackle the concept practically and also how interesting I could make my drawing by adjusting some pieces of fruit to produce interesting positive and negative areas. I thought that positioning the fruit on my table with the serving hatch door open, table and chair would be a nice and easy background that would relate to the still life easily without causing a distraction; the serving hatch relates to the food being prepared and delivered through it to the table, almost like a process which had come to an end, a nice story within my drawing.
Standing up looking down
From the left hand side, slightly cropping
Bird’s Eye View
Sat down looking from the right – this is my favourite view so far, I like how the cherry stalks flow right off the page. I also feel the composition looks less fussy without the slice of melon on the far right of the group, I’ve removed this item to retain balance and freshness
Beginning sketches in my sketchbook, I found that my lines naturally flowed around the page with my pencil, the pieces of fruit moved my eye and pencil to move from the melon, round the bananas on the left, round the fruit in the centre and flowing off the page with the cherries and their stalks. I really loved the effect of cropping this perspective to ensure that the stalks ran off the edge of the drawing, it adds a little interest and uniqueness that I want to capture in my drawing. I decided to be brave, and following my tutor’s advice: “be true to your creative self”, I wanted to carry the style of loose, dynamic and variable line in my drawing. I didn’t feel that this piece would fit the style of a very detailed, accurate and technical drawing with my creative take on how I wanted to portray this composition. After the initial sketch in pencil, I then progressed onto the trying which media would give me these spontaneous line results which could also be sharp and manipulated to give varying thicknesses of line and agility when describing the texture of the fruit surfaces, which I found to be the indian ink and a dip pen. I did have some concern on the shape of the line however, after a little experimentation with the types of nib in the dip pen, I selected the rounded nib which would eliminate the angular lines when turning/ changing direction. Although I wanted a sharpness to the boundary of the line itself, I still wanted the shape of the line to be soft, which it wasn’t with the flat nib. I also found that I wasn’t keen on the pointed nib as it scratched the paper surface and caused quite a bit of friction when trying to change direction, which I wanted complete freedom to move the mark making material any way I chose to ensure that the line felt free and easy on the paper. I also took inspiration here from the course notes by using a black plane and white medium to draw with (page 43 – artwork by student Carol Smith, Driftwood,white ink on black paper) I don’t feel this worked well for me this time, it was too moody and really clashed with my idea of a fresh and light composition to reflect the properties of the food on the table. I also don’t think that psychologically, people like to see the colour black (or green) with fruit associated with food as it can bring on negative feels with regards to food spoilage and decay. I did experiment with laying down a colour and compose my lines on top of this coloured background to see if a different colour would give a good effect. Still, I didn’t like this, although, Simon did offer some advice in my Assignment 1 feedback, where I could have experimented with a diluted ink wash in my drawing to describe tone. I hadn’t known this was a possibility (I believe this is referred to as ‘unconscious incompetence’ – whereby the person is unaware of the technique to adopt in the appropriate place/time resulting in incompetence. I read about this when reading about how develop myself and my learning to ensure success when undertaking challenges: http://frederikbisbjerg.com/blog/unconscious-incompetent-people) so I trialled it and have to say, it positively added to my drawing and does indeed bring an element of form and interest, I would like to keep this technique in my still life using line.
Sketches in my sketchbook, trying to get a feel for how to position the objects and trying to observe the negative spaces too
Trying a slightly different approach to cropping – I like the cherries going off the page but the whole composition feels too far over to the right and looks awkward. I’ll move the whole piece over to the left more, maybe stretch out the space between the fruits
Taking inspiration of using a black plane with white media for line – as in OCA Student course notes (Carol Smith, Driftwood) I don’t think my subject matter fits well for the moody, atmospheric feel that the black plane brings to this composition
Finding I like the effect of the dip pen and ink after experimentation, and choosing which style of nib to progress with after trialling the style of line produced by each nib.
Standing back and looking at the drawings from a distance. Is there a better view? Can I find more interesting ways to position the objects or should I leave as is? Is ink the right media to depict my composition?
Going ahead with indian ink and dip pen with rounded nib. Surprised myself that a naturally messy line is how I described the lines in this composition. This was completely instinctual and I felt it happen and went with it. I decided to do some research on different types of line at this point
Here I look through Robert Kaupelis’s ‘Experimental Drawing’, 1980, Watson-Guptill, book and I come across different lines producing drawings which capture my interest. Photo: 1 – pg. 27, Drawing by Jon Wells: Cross-contour study, I was intrigued at how this drawing looks like it is drawn with a continuous line which has a wave effect in that each line has influence on the one closest to it. I like how the portrait suggests form with simple yet effective bends/ curves, closeness in the lines 2 – pg. 71, Drawing by Katherine Helstrom: another drawing using cross-contouring lines, however the lines are looser as being made with graphite stick, in which the pressure could be increased and decreased to suggest form, which the properties of the graphite stick also look softer and less refined than the the ink drawing by Wells. The spaces between the lines are further than Well’s drawing which produces a more relaxed and suggestive drawing which is not as detailed, but still gives the idea of what the objects in the still life are. I like the tonal variation in this piece and understand the different methods adopted by Wells and Helstrom to achieve a suggestion of form. 3 – pg. 57, Drawing by Pablo Picasso: I was drawn to this drawing (lower half specifically) because although Picasso offers two variations on the same subject: the origin and more detailed drawing above and a heavily simplified drawing below constructed out of simple flat shapes. I really like the bottom simplified drawing in that the shapes all connect and add structure to the bull’s shape, although no form is suggested, other than maybe a little on the tail, all the shapes are contained within the bull’s frame which ensures that although the drawing is busy with lots of crossing lines, angular and rounded, that the drawing retains a clean and light feel to it. 4 – pg. 80, Drawing by Joseph Raffael, Scottish Bubbles, 1975, ink on paper: On a different method, this drawing is busy, fussy and dramatic, with lots of areas of interest. Not all the lines here touch or are continuous but the use of negative space is clever as it describes the texture of the smooth water that is not being disturbed like the other areas of the drawing suggest. I think this still would be far too busy for my liking, but I appreciate the different styles of line and suggestion of form here. This reminds me of my work experimenting with cross-hatching to describe tone in an earlier project on the course. 5 – Pg 148, Drawing by Kathy Albers: This drawing captured my eye purely because of the shape of the composition. It is in a circular shape which really alters the feel of the drawing. Kaupelis states “she also created an image that looks convincingly contemporary”, Kaupelis. R, Experimental Drawing, 1980, Watson-Guptill. I find it fascinating how the shape of the composition can drastically change the feel of the piece. Maybe this is something I can experiment with my still life drawing? 6 – pg. 36, Drawing by Giovanni Segantini, Male Torso: Another line drawing technique picked up on here: the lines are intentionally obvious and follow the form so tone is suggested by the closeness and overlaying of lines (similar to drawing 1 above by Wells), almost like cross hatching. This technique is called bracelet shading or hatchuring, which according to Kaupelis, was first developed by Dürer. I can see evidence of this in his drawing: Portrait of Agnes, c. 1494. 7 – Lastly, this drawing was purely chosen due to its interesting and expressive marks. I adore the use of positive and negative spaces here, and really like that the saw blade itself is almost like a hole in the paper (a bit like Patrick Caulfield produced in his Reserved Table, 2000) and theres is so much busyness and drama behind the saw, which is picked out by the sharpness of the white angular lines to describe the saw blade, This is a great contrast and adds a lot of impact into the drawing. Close observation shows a wealth of different lines and marks which even bleed over the saw blade’s surface which ensures that the background and the saw are still connected. There’s also softness in the drawing with the smudges created by the charcoal, I believe this is a great drawing showing mixed media usage successfully. I hope to take elements of this drawing through to my still life composition, perhaps I could use a variety of washes to suggest a little form within the drawing, whilst still focusing on the line as the main study of my drawing.
Experimenting with1 minute study with blind contour drawing
Experimenting with a 5 minute study with blind contour drawing and also cross-contouring
Sketchbook reflection
Sketchbook experimentation with effects with line and adding in the ink wash
Exercise 1 Outcome
‘Deconstructed Fruit Salad’ Final piece for Pt 2, Pr 3, Ex 1. Still life using line.
The drawing above is my final piece of work for this exercise which is shows the end product of my research and experimentation for drawings using line within this project so far.
Overall I am happy with the piece, but being critical, there is a lot that didn’t work for me that I would like to discuss.
The tone washes that I used, are a bit messy and I thought at the time and from looking at previous work that I experimented with, that this would look good in my final piece. I’m not sure whether I got a bit blasé with the wash and didn’t pay attention to the varying tones in the composition and light sources/shadows, but I feel they look clunky and could have been applied more intelligently to compliment the line rather than distract from it. The drawing below is my initial attempt at drawing the still life with line, in my sketchbook which I feel using the ink wash more sympathetically and gradually to not distract from the importance of the line. I was free and expressive with my lines, using much more ink than I did with my final piece which I think gives a contemporary and powerful impact when observing the contrast of the dark lines on the lighter paper.
I also found that the paper I produced my final drawing on was a creamer colour than the pure white plane of my sketchbook. I’m quite annoyed with myself that breezed over this aspect, however, it’s another note to add to my learning diary; check to make sure the colour of the plane is the same when moving from preliminary to final pieces. I’ve also learnt that the A3 paper was much bigger than the A5 sketchbook plane and I may have underestimated this when transferring the study from a little to big working space. The final drawing doesn’t look as close together or linked as the the sketchbook piece, perhaps the individual pieces of fruit could have been scaled up even more to show a more connected piece as a whole composition.
I also feel a few perspectives don’t quite work in my final piece either. The melon for example, I think it looks too open and tilted towards the viewer. In my feedback from my tutor for Assignment 1, Simon advises to work on my perspective skills , specifically ellipses. I received this feedback after I completed this final piece and upon analysing the perspective, I can agree with Simon wholeheartedly; I have some work to do as this weakness is evident across my drawing work across the course thus far. I have dug out my perspective drawing books which I had studied in my Interior Design course, completed a few years ago. For some reason, I haven’t quite made the connection between my technical drawing from previous, to my drawing within my art work currently. It would appear I categorise them differently at present, so I will be experimenting and practising with perspective drawing to improve my technique and combine my different styles for when it is appropriate.
I do feel that the drawing was successful in that I combined a few different line drawing techniques to produce an expressive and spontaneous drawing which is fresh and light. These were my aims when researching and experimenting in my sketchbook so therefore I feel that my chosen tool and medium of dip pen and ink was the right choice for my composition and it’s subject. Although this was specifically a line drawing, and I did use ink washes to describe tone to some degree, I tried to use my lines in a style that would describe tone by following the form of the pieces of fruit; much like the hatchuring and cross-contour techniques discovered above. I did find it difficult to stay true to the line drawing focus and after the previous exercises, of engaging with techniques to describe form by tonal gradations, I found it quite restrictive to not be tempted to use the tone washes to depict at the dark, mid and light tones within the composition. However, I believe I was successful in describing form with the line as described previously.
Detail And Tone provides an exercise where by I am challenged to produce a coloured drawing of a single object, varying the effects of form and depth with hatching and cross-hatching techniques. As suggested, I begun with identifying the tonal differences from dark to mid to light, and lightly suggested these on the cartridge paper with an HB pencil. It was quite difficult to resist the temptation to fill in the large areas of dark tones with the colouring pencil as a flat expanse shape of colour, however, I continued using hatching and cross-hatching to build up colours, blending them where appropriate. I thought I had started off quite heavy with the dark tone hues but as I introduced the mid tones I realised that I probably needed to apply a bit more pressure to get a stronger colour as there would not have been an effective contrast between the darkest and the lightest tones.
Working on the shadows, I pulled from my experience in Part One of the course, the technique of hatching and cross-hatching to build up depth with tonal gradation within the shadows, which when observing closely, I could see more than one shadow being cast by the orange due to the two separate lights acting on the orange causing two shadows that overlapped in the middle negative space between the orange halves.
I found picking out the highlights with the putty rubber quite difficult on the orange flesh as the highlights were so tiny but I found after some experimenting first in my sketch book that with the cross-hatching naturally leaving a lighter tone showing through the spaces in between the lines, I felt like little more was needed other than a few spots picked out to show the reflective wet surface of the inside that had been cut open.
Overall I feel like the piece I have produced (pictured below) is a good attempt at Project 2, Exercise 1 and I am pleased that I have learnt to routinely take a break and step back from my work to observe the overall drawing; in this particular piece it has shown me where the uneven tonal variations need to be amended and the shadows didn’t look quite right from a distance so I evened those up too. I also found that I needed to erase the initial outlines a few times as they were either too small or positioned in such a way that made the drawing look unnatural and unbalanced because of the negative space that was left around the positive when drawn in the first few attempts. Even though I am very happy with the outcome of this piece of work, building up the tonal variations with colour whilst executing cross-hatching and hatching methods, I still think that I could have made the orange halves even bigger on the paper plane and made them more of a focus. I think they are too small and there is an abundance of wasted negative space around the two orange halves, that if I had drawn them bigger, I could have got in some more detail and varied strokes with the building up of the layers of cross-hatching whilst ensuring that the orange remains the focus of the drawing and not the chopping board they sit on.
Recently I have been thinking about adding more expression into my drawings and paintings which is an idea that has come about since the seed was planted in Part One when I was asked to be expressive and take on emotions before I picked up the material that I was going to describe my expressions with.
To get a feel for how others would take to the challenge of being more expressive in their work, I wanted to experiment so I asked my son to complete an expressive task by drawing how he felt when listening to different genres of music. Below are two examples of his sketchbook after he undertook this activity.
This photo demonstrates two examples of expression work that my son produced whilst listening to music. The top page describes a Christmas song where he notes down “Jolly, Christmas, Excited, Happy”. The lines here are mainly heavy, twisting, turning, angular, sharp and flowing and round. The bottom page describes a relaxing lullaby where my son notes “calm, relaxing, gentle”. The words he uses accurately relate to his expressive drawings and I am pleased that I witnessed how easily another human being can take on certain feelings and emotions, especially when specific stimulus are influencing them, and obviously varied the pieces of work can be.
This experiment has excited me as I would like to look into the psychological effects of art and specific pieces on people. If my son has demonstrated that he can easily adopt the same style of art as I can when listening to the same style of music, then I wonder if he would have the same cognitive respsonses when viewing art rather than producing it. Does perception vary from person to person? Would everyone share the same response to a particular piece of art or will it vary based on individual perception, life experiences and maybe, as seen in Part One, current mood and emotions combine with stimulus?
I will try this experiment myself in my sketch book by listening to music when sketching, possibly I could sketch the same picture twice, with different stimulus each time to see the outcomes that they may generate. After researching contemporary still life in Part Two, Project 1, and the theory that some modern still-life artists allow the subject to generate as the painting progresses, I may even have a go at applying some expressive marks to the paper, and seeing how I could develop it into a familiar and recognisable form… possibly I could take this further and remove one or more of my senses (e.g. sight, hearing, touch) to apply the media to the paper to see how this may affect the outcome of the painting/drawing.
Below is a link to a video that demonstrates this method of being more expressive, which an artist wanted to move away from heavily illustrative art work. I found that I felt liberated and inspired after watching the video and would like to experiment using different body parts (feet, toes, elbows, fingers, arms etc.) or attach different tools to myself to apply the media to the paper/plane to make the marks.
The starting point of my research on Gary Hume led me to http://www.artnet.com/artists/gary-hume/ where he is quoted to have said “The edge is the only thing that matters,” he explained of his paintings. “I used to think of the areas of colour as tectonic plates meeting, so in the paintings it’s like there are these molten plates that would hit each other and dry. I find this fascinating; so far in my research, I have discovered artists who focus on depth and describing form. Here is an artist who prefers to think of masses of colour colliding with others and the containment of these masses are held together with the focus of his work: outlines. I think by looking at his artwork that there is real evidence that he brings the negative spaces of the piece into play by sacrificing the depth of the objects which offers quite a flat visual. The importance of his positive and negative spaces are of equal importance, Hume doesn’t allow one to become more important than the other as the lines are the focal point here, sometimes even giving preferential treatment to the negative spaces over the positive. This can be evidenced in the photograph provided above, entitled ‘Yellow Hair’. This painting shows that complete precedence is given to the negative space because of the title of the painting; the artist wanted to focus on the yellow hair and not the most obvious part which one would assume to be the subject’s face.
Another artist who works and focuses on playing with the positive and negative spaces in their work includes David Oxtoby. It’s clear in this painting, stylised in a negative photographic way, the artist wished to produce a painting where the negative spaces (white) were used intelligently to describe the attributes of the subject’s face, his features are surrounded by large flat white areas, but because the brain recognises a pattern and sees a face with the two white areas featuring eyeball areas, eye brows in a frown and the sides of the face and the nose, it cleverly suggests that it is indeed a face which the viewer is seeing. This suggests to me that the negative areas could be more important that the positive areas in this painting as they are the descriptive pieces.
Further examples of intelligent use of negative space are featured below.
I Love this style of positive/negative artwork by Tang Yau Hoong. This blended style cleverly changes perspective the further the eye travels down the picture. The negative space at first is the sky, a huge expanse of colour, but this ultimately changes into trees, leaving the negative space changing to the white expanse of the forest. Although the point of change isn’t obvious, the trick of the eye is very clever. http://tangyauhoong.com/portfolio/the-art-of-negative-space/Rowan Stocks Moore uses the effects of an optical illusion to create a clever graphic design product for the Disney film Snow White. Here the negative space is utilised to depict two silhouettes of Snow White and the Prince, but simultaneously describing the outline of the apple core. A similar technique to Ruben’s Vase. https://www.yardgallery.com/snow-white.html
After this research topic, I can understand why a successful painting may utilise both positive and negative space but in various different ways. I also believe they work in harmony together to represent an image for the viewer’s eyes and brain to make sense of and interpret however they should choose. I feel it is important to understand when creating a composition, how to plan and use negative space in the piece; without prior planning, a composition can look lost or unbalanced which can result in a drawing that doesn’t give the desired outcome of the artist. Reflecting on my composition for my Assignment 1 piece, I can now understand how much I underestimated the importance of the negative space around my chosen objects and how little time I dedicated to observing it before drawing the composition. Maybe this is why I felt that there may have been too much space to the top right hand corner of the paper where not objects occupied this negative space. However, I do argue that an artist or practitioner who chooses to utilise large areas of blank space intentionally, understands what impact and feel it will give to their work, as I do now.
26/06/2019
After a little while to reflect and finish up on my reading of the topic of positive and negative spaces in paintings and drawings, I felt the need to have an experiment of my own. Below are photographs of my journey in my sketch book. Some things didn’t work out as well as I wanted, but that’s ok with me present. The first email I received from Simon, my tutor, contained encouragement to experiment, make mistakes and correct them. The first three photos show my experimentation with coloured pencils for a small still life composition. I wanted to use the cross-hatching where appropriate here and see if I could create a still life in the style of the three main artists I looked at in my research Project 1: Kalf (1st photo), Cezanné (2nd photo), and lastly Picasso (3rd photo). I wanted to try and get a feel for how they might have used their materials and how they managed their thoughts to produce an outcome that successfully conveyed their aims for their drawings. The 4th photo, drawn in chalk pencils, is in the style of Patrick Caulfield who used flat shapes and blocks of colour in negative space as a focus in some of his drawings. I wanted to leave big white spaces on the paper plane to see how I would feel about it when stepping back and looking from another perspective. I am not keen on the flatness of the drawing, however, by trying to replicate the method of paying particular attention to negative space in a drawing, I am much more aware of it and how to use it effectively for future drawing projects coming up. The 5th drawing is rendered with oil pastels, my least favourite medium so far (but I am prepared to stick with it as I know I can improve and get to know oil pastels better!) but I felt somewhat freer than the pencils or chalk pencils. The lines were thicker, clumsier, less delicate but actually, for Picasso style drawing, I felt that these properties lent themselves quite well to this particular drawing. I really don’t like the flatness again, and the drawing looks scruffy and looks as if not much thought went into the composition and which perspectives to display (which is accurate as only spent a few minutes on this piece) but I do feel that it takes an awful lot of skill to draw and paint in the way the Picasso did, for example in Violin and Grapes, 1912, can look messy and possibly childish if the painting was quickly judged without more than a quick glance, but on closer inspection, great care has been given to the composition as whole, the colours balancing with one another, the different perspectives and the flow of the lines around the painting. There are many more to discuss, but my ambition was to try to draw in Picasso’s style, with broken and abstract areas in his drawing. It was surprisingly refreshing to not be confined to traditional drawing methods and techniques when drawing in this way. Perhaps this is how Picasso and other artists at this time felt when exploring Cubism. Photo 9 is a still life in the style of Cezanné, drawn for exactly the same reasons as The Picasso drawing just described; I wanted to get a feel for and see if I could replicate the techniques and methods that Cezanné utilised in his drawing of Still Life, 1878. I felt like once I had finished, that I could have taken the distorted outline and perspective to a bit more of an extreme to really get a feel for how Cezanné manipulated space and balance to solve his problems he encountered with playing with the components. It was fun to express myself with short, jabby marks (much like Cezanné applied in his still life drawing too). If I had more colours in my oil pastel range, I would have liked to add more tonal variation in my drawing, as Cezanné did focus on depth and form even though the outline was sometimes distorted, to show more depth in the colours to describe the forms to a more natural depiction.
The last few photos of drawings with the subject as the banana show my exploration into playing with negative spaces again. I used pastel pencils here and blended the colours softly to achieve a soft-lined drawing. I was focusing on the space around the banana, and wanted to know what would happen to the feel of the piece if I introduced different ideas to use the negative spaces differently. The photos show my findings. My research on Paul Caulfield helped me to see how negative space can be used effectively to create a sense of mood or produce feelings from the viewer and by introducing simple lines or shapes, it can completely alter the feel and balance of the piece.
01/07/2019
I was on my way to bed last night when I noticed this lovely effect the streetlight was playing on my bedroom wall and headboard. The light was blocked by the shutters in front of the window. This reminded me of Patrick Caulfield’s ‘Window at Night’ drawing above. I wanted to have a play with this concept, which I don’t think was successful in the first attempt but I would like to come back to this. I will need to be quite specific with the lines as some are very sharp and equally spaced; I think this is where I went wrong with this first attempt, a few lines didn’t match up. Also, closer attention to the tonal variation could have been paid, although simple in visual effect and colour, this drawing could be developed further by adding tonal variation on the forms that are lit. I love the starkness and blackness of the negative space combined with the sharp lit areas of the bed and wall behind. A great experiment and one that I am glad that didn’t pass me by.
Negative spaces – photo of my bedroom with the streetlight streaming through the window, broken by the window shutters
A quick pastel drawing on a black plane with yellow pastel
Still life, originating from the Dutch term ‘stilleven’, is a genre of painting that depicts objects that are still and not alive or were once alive; these could be man-made or natural materials. This genre begun around the 1500’s, becoming increasingly popular in the later end of the Renaissance period thanks to a wealth of talented dutch artists from the Netherlands where its growing success flourished in the 16th and 17th century. Some of the aims of still life artwork were and still are, to describe form, texture and colour in varying styles of composition and technique. The earliest known still life was produced in 1504 by an Italian painter; Jacopo de’Barbari, and is generally considered to be the first still life. A rise in the middle-class wishing to decorate their homes with art work and an increase in people wishing to buy art with non-religious links became more popular too during the Reformation period; I understand this may be due to the Netherlands splitting into Protestant and Catholic sections, perhaps the Northern half which were Protestant were more interested in these new, exciting still-life paintings, rather than the Southern part of the Netherlands which remained Catholic focused and were interested in religious studies of ecclesiastical portraiture still. At this time, in the Renaissance, the still-life paintings depicted everyday objects, represented in a realistic way, showing extremely close observation and attention detail in the style of the painting.
One of my research sources: Gombrich E.H, The Story of Art, 1984, Phaido Press Limited,
Whilst researching the Dutch style painters in the 16th and 17th centuries in my library book: Gombrich E. H, The Story of Art, 1984, Phaidon Press Limited, the artist Willem Kalf came to my attention. On page 339, Fig.278, ‘Still Life With The Drinking Horn Of The St Sebastian Archers’ Guild, Lobster And Glasses, 1653, is displayed and discussed. What I have observed when looking at this photo and other still life paintings in this time period is: – Kalf and his artist peers chose to utilise a very strong dark tone background giving the objects a sombre, dark and illuminating effect, making them stand out with the reflected light and light to mid tones and be a real focal point in the painting against the dark toned background. – The objects were painted as realistically as possible, the image or objects weren’t distorted (to the best of my observation) and the colours were extremely accurate. Texture is described beautifully, as in Kalf’s still life mentioned previously, the cloth on the right hand side of the composition looks soft and flowing. – The selection of objects for the compositions within this era are similar, they mostly contain objects displaying platters of food, vessels with drink, ceremonial items, skulls and even musical instruments of this time. It really is like a snapshot in history, a great way of documenting life back then as it is so realistic and shows objects related to life and it’s luxuries/enjoyment. These pieces of art would have suited many homes across the class system from middle-upper classes due to the style in which they were painted but also the subject matter, which would probably mean they were likely to sell well to a large market of potential clientele.
“Without knowing it themselves, these specialists began to demonstrate that the subject of a painting is much less important than might have been thought.”
Gombrich E. H, The Story of Art, 1984, Phaidon Press Limited
I absolutely adore this sentence found in the paragraph discussing the ‘Dutch masters’ of painting still life; I have quoted it above for a few reasons. The research that I have indulged in has shown me that prior to these ‘vanitas paintings’ by the Dutch in the 16th/17th centuries, the focus would most likely have been portraiture of important and/or religious figures to be admired and respected. Additionally, the person/people would have been the main subject of the painting. The quote from Gombrich shows he feels there was a dramatic change in the way paintings were painted by artists when the Dutch started with the still-life genre, there was a change happening; artists were starting to paint with their own choices for their compositions and describing the subject(s) how they wanted to portray them in a style that they chose. Furthermore, it was beginning to no longer be all about the subject but more of the feel and delivery of the outcome of the piece, even demonstrating familiar items can create masterpieces and evoke a range of feelings a reactions from the viewer.
Moving forward through history, it is evident that artists were beginning to ditch the traditional and academic ways of painting when producing still life paintings and drawings and to explore opportunities to develop different effects, experiment with describing form and produce pieces of work that were based on problem solving.
Paul Cezanné for example; two centuries later (19th century) still life paintings had moved on in terms of artists trying new ways of working with their materials and the methods in which they described form in their compositions etc. Cezanné was an Impressionist but “…abhorred messiness. Yet he did not want to return to the academic conventions of drawing and shading… ” (Gombrich. E. H. The Story Of Art, 1984) It appeared he was at a bit of a conflicting crossroads; how does he combine his Impressionist technique that conflicts with order and ‘correctness’ to retain depth and solidity? He was successful in that he was able to take still life drawing and adapt the drawing to suit his desire to explore artistic problems he wanted to solve and he did this by sacrificing the ‘correct way of drawing an outline’ so in that to describe the form of an object, he lost some of the true shape. Although, according to Gombrich, Cezanné was always aware of basic shapes as he advises Picasso to avoid a flat looking picture by referring to nature in terms of spheres, cones and cylinders.
Gombrich E. H, The Story of Art, 1984, Phaidon Press Limited
I also discovered that Cezanné was fascinated with the relation of colour to modelling, balanced design and achieving “a sense of depth without sacrificing the brightness of colours”, Gombrich, The Story of Art. If this was true, then Cezanné demonstrates these experiments with his still life beautifully on page 433, Fig. 357 entitled Still Life, 1878 (above). The fruit bowl described here doesn’t lack description of form but is wonky, slightly distorted to view, ensuring that the composition is balanced with not too much negative space on the left side of the composition. The table also looks like it has been adapted in view (angled forward towards the viewer) so the contents and their forms can be viewed and appreciated which Cezanné has implied by altering the perspective from its true origin from the angle of view. It seems to me that rather than the objects being the most significant subject, Cezanné wished for the viewer to appreciate the technique of how he described the forms and overall balance of the composition.
Comparing Cezanné and Kalf’s still life paintings, it is obvious that a significant amount of time has allowed painting styles to evolve with new ideas coming through. I can see that the techniques and aims for the outcome of the finished pieces were completely different, from the painting style they used, attention to detail and correct perspective in which they described each object. Kalf’s painting is soft and textured with great care taken over describing the objects surfaces, textures and physical placement amongst other objects in the composition. Cezanné on the other hand, although has also thought about a balanced composition, has sacrificed true to life perspective and outline to focus on depth, causing the outline to be distorted and the messiness of his Impressionist dabbing of the paint onto the surface seems crass and amateur when compared with Kalf’s still life. I have learnt however, from reading this wonderful book, that one should never judge a piece of artwork or its creator based on the piece’s true correctness to life-like form; there may be an idea or message behind the piece that the artist wanted to explore whilst making sacrifices to achieve such goals.
Picasso, Violin and Grapes, 1912. Photograph of page 457 in Gombrich E. H, The Story Of Art, 1984.
This leads me nicely onto comparing Picasso with the aforementioned artists. Picasso, known as a Cubist, had even more of a different style to Kalf. When I look at his still life, Violin And Grapes, 1912, I see an intelligent piece of work with methods to describe a violin and grapes in an abstract and almost broken-but-put-together way. He and Georges Braque produced pieces of work in the 20th Century that broke the subjects into fragments and pieced them together, sometimes from various perspectives to form pieces of work that caused many artists to open up and try new ways and methods of working to describe their subjects. Maybe Picasso thought that Cezanné’s method of changing the perspective of the objects to suit his own ideas and feelings could be developed further; as in his Violin And Grapes, only the most appealing perspectives would be displayed, such as the violin strings, scroll and F holes, which would not all be visible from these perspectives simultaneously. No longer was it necessary to be bound to describe form and depth of a composition by replicating a still life image by only utilising and executing traditional academic techniques to render paintings and drawings to depict a true life-like image of what the objects looked like. Abstract and imaginative art was being developed and I believe that Cezanné’s experiments in his work led to Picasso, Braque and many others, pushing new boundaries and developing new techniques to produce work that not only contained emotions and feelings from the artist, they also evoked reactions from the viewers and intrigued them by showing them what images and ideas were in the artist’s artistic mind.
The 16th/17th century ‘Dutch masters’ were highly superior in their attention to detail, but what interests me here is the changing reasons to why the paintings were painted in the way they were. Why did Kalf, Cezanné and Picasso vary so much? Why were they searching to break free of the previous traditions and fashions before them rather than carry them on? To some extent, I feel it relies on the artistic voice and mind of each individual artist, in the context of the era they lived their lives, the experiences they experienced and what was going on around them at the time to influence their decision making.
I’ve learnt from researching these artists and knowing a little more about their lifestyles, techniques and aims within art, how extremely beneficial it is to experiment with the materials you have, and not just manipulate them as you may have been shown, to see if the various outcomes can be further developed to enhance an artists skill set and variety of techniques.
I’ve really enjoyed researching the modern day contemporary artists too and I found myself a great starting point for research. As part of my wanting to go the extra mile in terms of self-led learning, I contacted the Head of the Arts department at my local senior school and asked whether I could observe some classes to give me more exposure to what young contemporary artists are exploring at present. I found some lovely pieces produced by young artists that were not yet complete but showed a real desire to include different methods of working, some including techniques and applications such as: printing, sculpting, animation/film, photographic and CGI etc. It seemed to me that the majority of students exploring self-led learning projects wanted to use mixed media in their still-life art work. There were even cartoony/2D/Japanese style still-life pieces, students were using the internet, some using books, to find influences and inspiration from other artists. During a conversation with the Art teacher, he mentioned an artist who produced a collection of still-life paintings focusing on simple, throw-away, disposable items, which one of his students had gone on to use as inspiration within her project. I was intrigued by why an artist would choose such irrelevant items to use as subjects for still life (this is massively different from the artists I had researched from history who would paint objects of significance and desirability), so after a bit of research, I am now fascinated and keep finding more comparisons against this particular artist’s collection and the 16th/17th century artists still-life pieces.
I discovered that the artist mentioned by the art teacher is Alex Hanna (https://www.alex-hanna.co.uk/paintings.html). I am intrigued by his collection of still-life oil on panel paintings featuring compositions of pill packets and radiators. These items are so far away from the subjects of Kalf’s still-life previously mentioned above. The items chosen by artists in the 16th-19th century that I have researched have widely-understood meaning to them; normally food or valuable items were described in the artists work which were generally recognisable, although Kalf’s items were true to life in their outline and form etc, and Picasso’s were broken and abstract with identifiable pieces, Hanna’s still life takes some work to identify the subject but with clues from the subject’s shape, tonal variation depicting shadows and the title of the painting, I began to understand the composition. Hanna has chosen items which are disposable, throw-away, valueless to some; these subjects would not usually be considered painting for pieces of art within a still-life but they work successfully in one because they still evoke emotions, questions and responses from the viewer. This lkeads me to believe that there is a link which is common between most still life paintings; the time period in which all of these artists painted, ensure the still-life paintings were and are appropriate for the generation of people that viewed them at the time they were produced; they were/are in context with the trends and lifestyles of the people viewing them. In my opinion, an artist’s paintings may be valuable and relevant to the generation now, but may hold no significance to the next generation who cannot grasp the message that is conveyed currently through his paintings, especially for Hanna with his study of the pill packets which I feel has become a huge topic of focus in modern medicine and the dependency on drugs for many people today. This is something ironic, how can something so disposable be so needed? I also noticed that Hanna’s still life lacks vivid colour in his work for these pieces, however I appreciate the muted tones of Hanna’s collections. However, these pale colours are different from the previous artists work that I have studied, which can be quite loud and garish. I am questioning why Hanna would do this? Was it because Hanna wished to focus on the items themselves in the composition without the distraction of colour? Did he choose to remove the varied colour use that could have been applied to make the subject matter more difficult for the viewer to work out? Or was it simply personal preference, whereby the artist makes a decision based on his/her likes and dislikes?
“These paintings of unnamable and reconfigured objects, defamiliarized objects in unfamiliar contexts, and objects generated out of the process of painting itself appear to be a particular feature of contemporary British painting of still life.“
During my research of Alex Hanna, I found his contact details through his website: https://www.alex-hanna.co.uk/paintings.htmland decided to send an email to see if I could find a response to my questions about his pill packet and radiator still-life collections. In the first instance in his reply, Hanna directs me initially to https://www.artrabbit.com/events/models-and-materialities-confabulation-and-the-contemporary-still-life of which the above quote and the rest of the description on this webpage for the exhibition held, explains why he and many other contemporary artists producing still-life pieces today, chose the subjects and describe them in the way they do. The text also explains that although contemporary still life is vastly different from but still connected to the artwork of the 16th century. I found the above quote also to bring up an interesting point: “objects generated out of the process of painting itself appear to be a particular feature of contemporary British painting of still life.“ To me, this reads that some contemporary artists decide what the subject of the painting will be as the painting process develops. This is different to the artists in history whereby the subject(s) will have been chosen before, but now it seems there is such freedom to allow the painting and its composition to develop as it happens, with spontaneity. This is an incredibly exciting prospect for me and it allows me to partially understand how the artists would have felt and what they were thinking as their work was in the process of developing and the objects were being generated. I will definitely try this method in the near future to explore this further.
Further in his email, Hanna also replies to my question on his motives for painting in this style, the messages he wanted to convey and if he wanted to evoke a specific reaction from the people viewing them: “The paintings can be seen as a meditation on the object within a shallow space. There is no narrative content. I am not creating any allegories. Tonal transition and ambiguous arrangements are part of the whole composition.” Hanna also explains that the colour palette chosen was because he likes to use it, as he has previously, although he does vary his working practices with traditional to alternative materials. Hanna’s email is refreshing and honest and I really enjoy the freedom and imagination that he and many other contemporary artists now utilise when using non-descript objects as the subjects of their still-life work. It seems there are no longer rules or expectations of what a still-life painting ‘should’ look like and free reign is given to exploring different techniques and methods when producing still-life art work.
However, not all contemporary still life works of art are in this loose and reconfigured style. This particular artist produces still life, aiming for the look and feel of 16th/17th Dutch art, bringing a contemporary feel to a historic genre. I really liked his piece ‘Last Meal on Death Row, Texas (Martin Vegas)’. I originally thought it was a painting in the style of the Dutch but after finding out a little more about it, I realised it was actually a photograph set like the Dutch original still-life paintings. This piece, by Mat Collishaw, is very similar to the original 16th/17thC Dutch still life because of the dark, atmospheric background and dimly lit subjects within the composition. The subject choices for the composition is similar to the original still-life paintings too, although there is a sinister message to this painting, the original still life items were observed and enjoyed as a luxury and caused happiness long term. The food and drink in this still life was the choice of a criminal who had his life taken shortly afterwards, so this piece of work is in the same style but the message is completely different in this generation. More work of Collishaw’s can be found at https://matcollishaw.com/works/last-meal-on-death-row-texas/. I feel that this style of working, (photographic still-life) is a great cross-over between painted still life and other media.
This is an artist who I think used inspiration from Cezanné and he is Cormac O’Leary. The still life he has produced here immediately reminded me of Cezannés work by the wonky-ness of the outline and the distorted images of the subjects (thought not too distorted in the way to remind me of the works by Picasso). The drawing isn’t labelled with what medium the artist used but from observation and the feeling of solidity and flatness to the shapes with the quick rendering, it looks like oil pastel to me. It looks like quite a fluid piece with lots of directional and short jabby markings, which is very much like Cezannés still life again. However, rather than this artist concentrating on describing the forms and depth, they have focused on the colours, solidity of each objects and its outline and arrangement of the objects within the composition. The thick black outlines to the bottles and table make me think back to the students work I saw in the senior school yesterday; it was cartoony/ animated/2D looking, not much tonal gradation in the mid, dark and light tones to describe form. It appears that contemporary art is still taking inspiration from previous generations, as Kalf did before him, but current artists are much more open to select a huge variety of techniques for inspiration from the wide range of influential artists before them, ensuring that still-life today is a varied platform for interpretation.
Lastly, I wanted to explore this artist, Wiktor Jedrzejak, who didn’t use traditional methods of painting onto linen or boards like Picasso or Kalf. He decided to utilise a piece of wood/ furniture to describe the still life painting. I think this is a very clever way of painting and certainly adds interest to the piece. I wonder what was the thought process of painting on wood; would this piece be reused in another piece of furniture or enjoyed purely as a interesting piece adding drama to the wall where it would be hung? I wonder whether the colour and the texture of the wood itself was important to this artist when deciding which plane to work the oils onto?
In summary, I feel that still-life today is hugely different from where it began in the Netherlands. Artists now utilise generations worth of other artists experiments, methods and techniques. They now have an even wider range of objects to use as their still life subjects and I believe they are even freer to describe their subjects how they wish, whatever the subject may be, whether is is valuable or valueless. I also feel that still-life art today is still connected to the 16th century traditions; the focus is on a particular object or objects to form a composition that can be described in any way the artist chooses, that will evoke some sense of feeling or response from the viewer.
Getting started on assignment pieces can be a real challenge for me; I like to think of all these big lovely ideas and expect a wonderful outcome, quickly becoming overwhelmed. This course so far has taught me that planning and observation are just two skills that will ensure a successful outcome of a piece of work. The objects I initially chose for this assignment are below. They were picked to capture an essence of my creativity and passion for music and painting but also the books for the importance (to me) of self-led learning throughout life and Pooh Bear to symbolise family, children and playfulness. I was really excited to arrange these items into a composition, conscious of the tonal values created by the items with the light set up. In a previous project, I learnt that if the light sources change position then the shadows will too, so I set out early in the morning to make use of the long shadows. However, my work area was quite dark because of its position in relation to windows and the sunrise. To overcome the lack of light strength, I used an angled lamp and an overhead light which gave me a really nice variety of shadows, from the primary light source but also secondary with the reflected light.
It quickly became apparent from my trials of this composition with different materials that I really wasn’t happy with the composition layout. I tried a few ways of moving the objects, even removing some items, but I felt that the items were either unbalanced, or a little squashed to get everything in if I cropped the view, discarding the neck and scroll of the violin for example. I just couldn’t get the feel of the composition right; to communicate with the viewer in the way I wanted to. I eventually came to a decision, after getting a cup of tea and standing back with fresh eyes; there was too much going on. I only really needed a few key items to indicate my personal choices in this composition.
Too busy for my liking
I removed the painting book to give a clearer picture
Trying different perspectives, could I get the neck and scroll of the violin in view?
Trying the bow lying down to draw the eye into the composition
A cropped view?
Fitting everything in
This photo shows a collection of trials for the final composition, from top left clockwise: Watercolour and charcoal and ink, charcoal and ink, charcoal, watercolour and finally ink pen.
Sketching out the composition; still not happy with how it was looking on paper.
Removing the violin, Pooh Bear, the music and painting books and the ink and pen, I was left with the violin bow, the half-pan painting tin, a paintbrush and I added the rosin and watercolour paint tubes which I thought by closing the painting tin and using metallic reflective paint tubs, I would best be able to showcase what I have learnt with my mark-making depicting reflective objects.
Setting out in a different direction with my new composition and a few additional items; I felt as soon as I laid these items down, they were a better description of the representation and passion I wanted to produce. It wasn’t as busy, the pieces showed me that they would be drawn landscape because of the relaxed way the bow was lying across the paint tin (which gave a lovely shadow on the curves and bumps of the painting wells in the lid).
I really enjoy looking at artwork that isn’t immediately obvious as to what the representation/symbolism is for, a little like the Totes Meer, 1940-1 by Paul Nash https://laura522918drawing1.home.blog/2019/05/16/an-introduction-into-studying-in-he/. I wanted to capture an essence of my passions and this composition did that better than the first. Using just the violin bow and the rosin gives a clue that there is a music element here, but which instrument? The viewer has to work a little harder to understand what the item is and why it is there.
I knew from my previous experiments that I really wanted to work with ink pen (0.05, 0.2 and 0.5mm) and charcoal for this piece. The pen would give me the accuracy I craved to depict the cross-hatching and dots in the shadows and the charcoal would help the tonal gradation blend nicely to show the different sources of light. This is most evident underneath the heel of the bow (below photo, bottom right corner) where there is a lighter shadow above the lower darker one. Because of the previous projects and the guidance of observing and identifying how the light plays on the positive and negative areas and where the light, mid and dark tones are, I was able to notice these shadows, the gradations of their tone and also where the reflected light fell and if it acted on other objects in the composition. I feel I showed the reflected light well (in the final piece pictured below) in the metallic paint tin lid and the paint brush ferrule from the reflected light of the paint tubes. To get this effect with the paintbrush ferrule, I moved the paint brush (originally it was sat on the table by itself, almost a little lost) and by connecting it to the paint tubes by laying it on top, I felt like it rejoined the composition, drawing the eye around the piece in a smoother style.
Drawing 1 Assignment 1 A Passion For Music And Art
Final piece for submission. I entitled it simply: ‘A Passion For Music And Art’ Ink pen and charcoal.
Something that didn’t work well for me here; the use of shadows, I don’t think the lighting I chose was strong enough or at the right angle to cast longer shadows where I could really get into it and describe the tonal gradation of them. If I were to draw this composition again, I would use an angled light closer and to the side of the objects, rather than angled from above. Secondly, I felt that looking at the composition when finished, the top right of the paper looks a little sparse. I actually quite like the negative space around the items as it gives me peace and fluidity to explore and enjoy the items in the composition individually before my eyes travelling to the next object. However, to some, this piece might seem a bit unbalanced and that there should be something here, maybe a vertical surface depicting the elongated shadows of the objects and maybe reflecting light back onto them. I also wish that I hadn’t drawn a solid line on the top edge of the hair of the paintbrush. I feel it almost gives a ‘cartoony’ feel to the drawing that I wanted to avoid; perhaps I got carried away with the pen and should’ve utilised the charcoal here to adopt more tonal variation and describing the forms on the paper in general.
Overall, I am pleased with my drawing submission for Assignment One and I feel I have learnt an awful lot, for example: the use of light/mid/dark tones to describe forms, observing primary and secondary light sources and reflected light, experimental mark-making and how different materials can be used for various effects such as blending charcoal to gradual tones and cross hatching and dots to describe form and shadows. I look forward to hearing my tutor’s comments on my work and using them to move forward in developing myself and my artistic ability. Below is my reflective feedback of this assignment against the assessment criteria.
Assessment Criteria Review
1 Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills (35%)
I utilised pen ink and charcoal (which I experimented with previously to ensure they would be compatible for the feel I wanted to create) using a variety of cross hatching, blending, dots and strokes on a rough A3 surface. I tried to observe the light, mid and dark tones, describing them with cross hatching with the pen and blending dark to light with the charcoal to give further depth to the tones where needed. I also looked for how and where the shadows fell and if they had an effect on any other items in positive or negative space. The composition was designed to be intentionally light and spacious, with 5 areas for the eye to flow around. I chose a landscape composition due to the length of the bow and the balance of the other items to ensure there wasn’t too much negative space.
2 Quality of outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas (20%)
The quality of the application of knowledge I feel is acceptable, I have applied various techniques learnt through the coursework building up to the final assignment: cross hatching, lines, dots (for shading) observing shadows and reflected light and using charcoal to show the tonal gradations to describe form. (I still feel that much practise is needed in this area and I will continue to try to look for the light, mid and dark tones and the positive and negative spaces to help build a successful drawing) My thoughts came through in the drawing well, I wanted to create a really light (in tonal and emotional) drawing to express my passion for music and art (originally I wanted to create a family element here but the composition got too busy so I decided to edit the items I included to keep it fresh and balanced) and present it in a way that was care-free and almost as if the items appeared to be put down quickly in the middle of being used, so there was a feeling of life behind the stillness and that they wouldn’t be there for long. I would have liked to have seen more tonal gradations with the charcoal in the finished piece however, I don’t feel like the shadows were long enough and they could have been emphasised a bit more with more angled light)
3 Demonstration of creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice (25%)
The charcoal and ink pen worked well for me in this final piece, I wanted a detailed approach with a softness to show realism but gentle form. I struggled internally with refraining from adding every little detail with the technical ink pen, I notice this in the hair of the paintbrush where perhaps the top edge didn’t need a solid line. Overall, I feel that the composition looks exciting and it inspires my imagination to look at the paints and brush and feel like I want to pick them up and paint. Also the violin bow draws a sense of drama as it flows the visual route up and around the drawing which I quite liked. This wasn’t intended but when I sketched out initially, I picked up on this effect and decided to emphasise it and keep all of the bow in focus, showing dark tonal cross-hatching under the bow for shadows.
4 Context reflection – research, critical thinking (learning logs and [at second and third level] critical reviews and essays) (20%)
I believe my research has been quite useful in helping me end where I am with my assignment. I have learnt many techniques (such as close observation for reflected light, complicated shadows and tonal gradation in shadows) and I tried to experiment with these in my learning log sketch book to demonstrate my reaction to the new skills learnt and how I could apply them. The research in the library books that I have read has been conducive to me learning about emotions and driving forces behind creating artwork and how artists capture feelings in their work. Without experimenting with the various media (using solitary or in conjunction with others) I would not have been able to utilise the ink pen and charcoal and understand how to use them sympathetically to create a successful drawing that describes the forms on the paper. I have really enjoyed exploring putting together a composition and believe that the sketches prior to the final piece have helped me considerably in seeing how the finished work would look and feel as a whole.I would like to get better at deciding which items to put into a composition, how to place them and where to cast shadows to get the desired effects I want, this I am sure will come from practise and research of other artists.
Laura Baker 522918 Learning Log - Drawing 1 
