First I’d like to exclaim how pleased with how this piece turned out; I was quite hesitant about producing a drawing with charcoal depicting reflective surfaces. It’s something that I’ve never really tried, I assume because subconsciously I knew that I would find it difficult. I produced this piece in two sittings of just over an hour each at different times of the day; looking back at the piece, I can see that this is obvious to the trained eye. I will explain why. Looking at the position of the majority of shadows on and under the coffee maker, they fall directly below the item, very small and not elongated, alluding that the main light source came from above. The espresso cup on the other hand has a shadow that falls the left with a slightly longer shadow and more obvious gradation of tone in the shadow, which suggests the light was coming from the right hand side, around north-east position. There is also another shadow falling on the table in between the two items and the espresso saucer; (which is made by the coffee maker and the espresso cup handle) I believe this is the reason it is obvious that the shadows were added in different stages because of the way the light sources were playing on them at different times of the day. During the morning, the sunlight from the window acted on the items and cast a short shadow as it is summer, and the evening light, provided by a side lamp to the right, ensured that the length and position of the shadows were changed. I have learnt an awful lot from this situation because this has illustrated the importance of thinking about and looking at shadows, and to ensure that the shadows will fall in the same place if sitting for the piece at different times or with different light sources etc. I’ve also learnt that I can be quite extravagant with the darkest and lightest tones, ensuring that the mid-tones pull the drawing together and blend one to another. I started quite light and left a lot of the white of the paper showing. As I progressed with the drawing, I understood that the mid-tones were needed to meet the darkest and the lightest to ensure that the items were given depth and form; without the gradation of tone, achieve by cross-hatching, lines and dots, blending from one to another, I feel the items would not look as realistic and it would have a flatter appearance, not demonstrating the object’s forms.
However, looking back at this drawing and reflecting on it, I can see what I may have needed a little more observation on the handle of the coffee jug. It appears a little flat, possibly the dark, mid and light tones aren’t successfully worked together here so the eye doesn’t see a three dimensional form. If I revisited this drawing I would work on this item in closer observation and take the time to see how the tones work together.
Although, what also worked for me was taking the time to really observe the shadows but also the reflected light. The metallic, shiny property of the coffee maker looked like quite an advanced surface to depict, but really looking and observing which shadows and light sources were reflecting on it (this was also true of the espresso cup and saucer) I was able to start showing these reflected items in the surface with using the putty rubber to lift out the lighter tones and cross-hatch in the darker tones. I quite like the fact that I now saw more tones in the surface and I was able to produce this by variation of tone.
Here are my sources of inspiration and research that are available online. I share these to demonstrate how I have found pieces of information through the web that have helped develop me as an artist but also to show my reflection and perception of other practitioners work.
Here, I demonstrate how I effectively immerse myself into my studies and its wider context by engaging in conversations and topic-related activities with other students through the OCA online discussions or their blogs. I also provide my sources of inspiration and research into how other students perceive the course projects and interpret them. I understand that these are really beneficial ways to encourage me to gain a wider knowledge and experience of drawing and mark-making in it’s wider context and how varied the outcomes can be from other students and practitioners.
WordPress Blogs – OCA Students on Drawing 1
My initial comment to Steve. I loved his journey so far on the Drawing 1 course, his humour was really relatable and refreshing and I understood his summary that this exercise was to discover other ways of drawing than a realistic approach.
My reply to SteveAtOCA
Reaching out to other students about my studies with experimenting with different media on the OCA coffee blog
Following on from a previous blogposts about learning to play/experiment with ideas and thought processes, this post is my response to exploring the possible outcomes and properties media and materials carry when used in different ways. I will be regularly updating with my findings and my thoughts on how the experiment went and what I will do with my findings, following my basic principle of: ‘plan, execute, review’. I have aimed to be quite free in my thinking and experimenting and not allowing myself to set restrictions (unless dangerous or offensive!) on what I use, how I use it and in what combination with other materials. I understand that this may mean some things I try may not be successful or work how I expect them to; I will try to remain open-minded about this and understand why/how the experiment didn’t work and take the findings forward to develop myself further.
Charcoal and/or pastel
Playing with thick and think willow charcoal, lying the sticks on their sides, using the points, rubbing, smearing, lifting with putty rubbers and an HB pencil eraser, discovering varied tonal shades, dragging the stick, varying pressure of stick.
Experimenting with mixing different media with charcoal. Layering, wiping, smudging, lifting. I especially like placing the masking tape over the charcoal and applying another layer on top and then when the tape was removed it left a sharp crisp line.
Accidental find – charcoal dust – In the previous image I blew away some charcoal dust from the paper and it left lovely marks that suggest movement and possibly energy for waves, fireworks, fire, wind etc. I explored this technique here with a simple explosion drawing with other coloured pastels. A good find!
A really exciting technique of depicting sharp, defined shapes with a charcoal stick. The punched holes enabled me to create circles where I can then leave them sharp or smudge them. The paper with the punched holes also gives an unusual visual effect which also feels unusual to the fingertips, reminds me of an industrial feel.
Whilst researching ‘charcoal’ I found a lovely piece by an artist named Dennis Creffield. A charcoal drawing of his ‘Durham: The Central Tower’, 1987, caught my eye as I browsing his work at Tate.org.uk, originally I thought that there was a blurred black and white photo behind the charcoal lines (perhaps this a technique that I can visit at some point: overlaying media on top of photographs/images). Looking closer I can see I quickly made this decision based on the tonal gradation in conjunction with the angular charcoal lines in thick, thin, light and dark markings. Amongst these strong lines are also smudged varying tones of charcoal, possibly white chalk and/or putty rubber to lift off and create highlights and interest, which help to define light and dark areas of the tower. The strong angular lines make a statement and this is what is obvious at first, almost like the skeleton of the building is on the outside, reminds me of scaffolding. The word support comes to mind here. I really like that you can clearly see short, sharp and systematic lines, worked in alongside soft, sweeping smudges. I feel like there is an atmosphere of gloom and mourning in this photo, I don’t really know why, maybe it’s the colour and tones of the piece, maybe (relating back to the first exercise in project 1) the emotions Creffield had inhabited set the atmosphere/feeling of the piece. Could he have been angry, frustrated or sad when he depicted the tower? https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/creffield-durham-the-central-tower-t05753
In this section I explore various techniques for creating marks with ink. During the first few exercises in Part One, I am really starting to enjoy the versatility of ink and how it can create a variety of marks when used by itself or in combination with other materials.
Sketchbook investigating into my daughters experiments and also ink runs, inspiration by Lucy Dean, OCA Student.
Further experiment with ink, starting to create work with putting into practise the ink run and bleed technique. I lifted out excess water with a dry brush and dropped drips of water into dark areas to add interest. The dark edge appears when these puddles dry to form a back run effect. I also found dropping ink into a wet line, the ink ran up and down the water line rather than just straight down.; this surprised me as I though gravity would pull the ink down. I also like the layering technique of applying wet ink over dry to create a definitive line and dark, strong area. I could possibly progress this idea and put this type of design over music sheets, either printed or blank, or even I could create the notes on the blank music sheet with ink, possibly creating the run effect there too!
Lucy Dean, student at OCA, gave me inspiration to experiment with ink runs and bleeding when I saw her piece at https://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/student-work-uncovered-lucy-dean. I was intrigued as to how she depicted the human form leaning against an item, with what looks like charcoal and ink. The charcoal provides the tonal variation for the large areas of the body and face and the ink looks to provide structure and dark shadows to distinguish between the creases and light and dark areas of the figure. I feel excited by her use of ink runs, I feel it adds dynamism to the piece, almost creating a 3D impression with interest.
Watercolour
Blowing bubbles and letting them fall and burst onto a watercolour wash background. Some bubbles landed and then burst on the paper (the right hand photo) and some burst above the paper and almost rained down onto the painted background (left hand photo).
Free play with various materials, focusing on creating texture on top of the paper with various materials.
PLAY TIME: garden twine, ink, watercolour paints, newspaper, printer paper, paintbrushes, drawing pens in 0.3 and 0.8 widths, bamboo skewers, aluminium foil, baking parchment, charcoal and masking tape.
The mindset of sitting down to play with the above project quite excited me. I had a simple set of aims:
Use materials that I haven’t considered as utilising in art pieces before, such as: baking parchment, foil, plain printer paper, newspaper, wooden sticks/skewers, string etc.
Experiment with the materials underneath and other the top of one another – how do they react? does one way work better than the other?
See which materials would be suitable for adhering to the foundation to work on top of, or which can be utilised as a vehicle for transferring the medium to the foundation.
See which effects I like and understand how these can be used in further projects (the butterfly)
Have fun with the materials and see if a natural flow of ideas stems from one particular experiment (see how the screwed up foil dipped in the ink near the middle-bottom of the page, I saw this as maybe leaves on the tree to the right)
Can I make mini drawings from my experiments? Do these pictured recall any memories or emotions that I can inspire to make a mini drawing? (see dog walking, butterfly, surfer, telephone ringing, yacht)
The above photo shows in a larger view of the area where I worked with Indian ink on baking parchment paper. I really enjoyed this technique, the resistance of the parchment meant that the ink stayed on top and was not absorbed. This ensured that when I laid it facing down onto the cartridge paper, the ink was able to be transferred in with a ‘bleeding’ as the paper slowly absorbed the ink pressed onto it. I found that the edges of this mark were soft and variable due to the pressure applied to the parchment; I thought that this would be ideal for other projects and ideas, as written on the bottom right of the photo, which then my idea progressed to quickly drawing a butterfly in pen ink and reproducing the parchment/ink technique again to lay over the butterfly wings. A really unusual effect and something that I would like to use again, possibly with different coloured inks and other media such as drawing pens/dip pen and ink, and maybe trying the technique on rougher paper to see if I can get the bleed to be rougher/more tonal gradation.
A warm up exercise to get a feel of cross-hatching and dots for shading; I wanted to know how my materials would handle when being used in this way
The above photo illustrates my self-led learning on using my materials for this exercise; I wanted to warm up my cross-hatching and line making skills. I enjoyed playing around with the different materials and found that they each gave their own uniqueness to this technique of mark-making. I also notice that by moving the lines closer together at one end and either keeping straight or curving the lines, it gives an impression of form, that something is getting smaller, rounder, more dense etc.
The below photo shows four quadrants depicting a candle in a glass jar with a lid, with natural light in the room, coming from a window to the left of the jar.
From top left, clockwise: Dip pen and Indian ink, HB graphite pencil, fine-liner pen and Ball point pen.
I have composed these four pictures with cross-hatching, lines and dots to demonstrate the tonal shading that the light created on the objects to produce shadows in varying strengths. I found that the HB pencil have a softness to the cross-hatching and so the tonal gradation seemed smoother.
Cross-hatch, line and dot tonal drawing in technical drawing pen 5mm
The geometric vase, alongside a candle jar and pencil, makes another appearance but this time for tonal drawing using a variety of mark-making such as cross-hatching, lines and dots. I really loved applying the aforementioned techniques for represent the tones in the drawing and found that it demonstrates how the use of other techniques than drawing solid, obvious lines, can describe a shape as 3D. I also like the way that cross-hatching can be built up to show tonal gradation, and that it can also give form to an object by using curved lines. I practised this above in the self-led research with my materials; using them to experiment how they can produce this type of mark-making. I find it really interesting how the tones make up the objects and as a whole, they appear to to show a 3D object, when in reality, it’s only a drawing on a flat plane of paper. This makes me laugh as I write it because I actually tried to move the drawn pencil out of the way a couple of times as I thought I had left one on the paper when I was cross-hatching the geometric vase. This isn’t a boast to say how realistic the pencil is, rather that my visual system saw from my blurred peripheral, the tones of the pencil and pieced the information together and relayed as “there is a pencil in your way, you might want to move it”. I then found my fingers brushing across the paper to move the ‘pencil’ that wasn’t physically there… I believe there is more to this and it made me reflect upon why that had happened? If I hadn’t drawn the detail of the pencil in obvious and recognisable lines, why did I still see the shape of a pencil? And if we don’t always see the detail first, how does this reflect on our initial reactions when we view a piece of artwork for the first time? Are we looking for recognisable shapes and patterns or depth in tones with light and shade? If I were to attempt this again, I think I would have liked to have put more thought into the cross-hatching to denote the table the objects stood on and also the wall behind. The artwork below by Giorgio Morandi shows a great level of development into creating this composition with interesting texture and pattern to the wall and supporting surface under the objects.
I have found an artist online who specifically produced a piece of artwork with only these cross-hatching and line mark-making techniques to provide definition to the objects whilst giving depth and a three dimensional appearance. I really appreciate how much time and planning this piece must have taken, especially as Morandi has used the lightest tone available (the paper itself) to represent highlights and reflection. The different directions of the cross-hatching in the background give an interesting appeal to the wall; could it be patterned wallpaper? I think the cross-hatching also gives a feeling of texture which is a great way to illustrating materials too; something I could use in my further research of the cross-hatching technique. It’s clear to me that the light source is coming from the right hand side because of the lay of the shadows, which are cleverly represented with an element of transparency which shows that table underneath. Morandi has also used curved lines in this cross-hatching to demonstrate the softness and fluidity of the material in the foreground, a really good technique which I would like to adopt in my next study with tonal cross-hatching. Lastly, I appreciate that the receptacle on the far right has been depicted with a sharp line running around the bottom, showing the angle of the base. I like how there is no solid line drawn but the cross-hatching has been produced to give the impression of the form by changing the tone from the upper adjacent tone and using it to define the edge.
At this research point, I would like to investigate the atmospheric work of Redon, entitled Two Trees, c. 1875. (Charcoal on paper)
Odilon Redon, Two Trees, c.1875 (charcoal on paper)
The above work demonstrates beautifully how different tones can be represented with a series of dashes, lines, dots and smudges, similarly, I have been trying to create these effects in this project. I particularly like seeing the techniques as a composition; it creates an atmosphere in this ‘woody’ scene. The tones range from very dark in the shadows, where a thick solid expanse of charcoal has been utilised, through to very thin lines on the tree trunks that give texture and direction of growth. I am interested that the paper is not white, I believe this helps give the piece an atmospheric quality because the paper plane colour is showing through, as the lightest tone, which almost resembles sun light first thing at sun rise or sun set. Another piece by Redon which demonstrates this atmospheric scene with the techniques discussed above is Pegasus and Bellorophon, c1888.
Odilon Redon (French, Bordeaux 1840–1916 Paris)
Pegasus and Bellerophon, ca. 1888
Charcoal, charcoal with water wash, white chalk, and highlighting by erasure on buff papier bleuté, darkened. Conté crayon is also present, and accounts for the darkest blacks in the drawing [per Marjorie Shelley, 9/24/09]. ; 21 1/8 x 14 3/16 in. (53.7 x 36.1 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.686)
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/459400
Here, the lightest tones are achieved by allowing the coloured paper plane to be shown, and the darkest tone is achieved by dark, dense areas of charcoal. They depict extreme shadowing and almost a heavy weight or solidarity to the subject/object. Like the Two Tress artwork above, the tonal variation is quite extreme and this gradation is achieved in both by using the charcoal as a solid block (darkest tone) and the paper (lightest tone) as blocks for the two extremities which are quite a statement in both of these pieces of work almost like Redon is exclaiming that the trees and Pegasus are of great masses and stature. The way in which the dark tones add heavy shadow, the lightest tones add the highlights and reflective light and the mid-tones provide structure and detail (with the fine lines, cross-hatching, spots, dashes) is very appealing to me. I believe that both pieces have had some precise lifting out of charcoal to get sharp lines, such as the blades of grass in Two Trees and the hooves and nose of Pegasus. This is a great technique to show how light and shadows are playing on the objects in the artwork. I also notice that in both pieces, the bottom of the subjects are blended in with the charcoal. The tree on the right hand side more obviously with spots and dashes, and the figure and Pegasus are gently graded out at the bottom from detailed darker tones to match the mid tones of the bottom. Both of these pieces have a mystical/magical quality to them because of this. This technique is a great way of adding atmosphere to a piece because it adds depth and texture without being obvious as to what is there, typical of symbolism where the artwork can be dream-like and mysterious.
A charcoal drawing of a ceramic ribbed mug and butter dish, created using blocks of tone, light and dark, to give the impression of 3D objects.
There is much work gone into this piece; a strong and determined focus on using tone to depict where a single source of light falls on the objects and how the tone’s gradation can be adapted to show shadows and reflecting light. In this piece, I have also really looked at the shadows, not just where they are, but how they fall, and if reflecting light is bouncing off an object and lightening the shadows, causing a complicated mix of tones to form the various shadows. For example, the space between the bottom right of the mug and the butter dish, there are four grades of tone here. My first look at the set up showed me only one shadow to draw, but after looking closer, the other sources of natural light cast different strengths of shadows, lightening and adding layers to the cup’s shadow. Also, the butter dish and mug easily reflect light, I could have easily missed the reflection of each object on each other’s surface within the shadow on the right hand side of the mug and the left hand side of the butter dish. This meant that I had to pick out the tone, lifting some of it away with a kneadable eraser. I also used the eraser to add little touches of light where no tone was needed, the highlights were added by wiping sharp edges of the eraser in the charcoal where needed. This exercise has been incredibly useful in demonstrating how to build up the picture with large areas of tone, then focusing on the more detailed and ultimately the complex. It’s taught me to look and look again. I enjoyed seeing the objects ‘pop out’ and come into a 3D image on the flat paper by adding the gradations of tone. The exercise has shown me that some shadows/dark areas have a sharp line where the tone is completely different adjacent to each other, and other shadows are more complex with other light sources and reflection complicating them meaning the tone gradually changes to depict the form. From responding to this exercise, I can see that light will play on objects from not only the primary light source, but secondary light and reflected light sources. I noticed the reflection of the objects in each other’s surfaces too, which really helped to describe the way the light was playing on the objects in that particular situation. When trying to distinguish between primary and secondary light, I found it easier to look for the shadows and work backwards, seeing where the light was being obstructed by the object and creating the main areas of the darkest tones, I looked the other side [of the object] and found the primary source of light reflecting off of this, and then following this, seeing where the light could bounce off to again. It is helpful to remember that shiny surfaces will reflect more light, black matt tends to absorb light, and the reflection could be in other objects surfaces, including the foundation it stands/rest upon.
When drawing, I can’t say I have always given the negative shapes and areas within the picture my full attention, but after this exercise, I am sure to look closer and observe which tonal variations are present and why they are there. Questions that I now know to ask myself regarding tonal gradation could include: are there other light sources and reflections affecting upon the objects? What is the lightest and darkest tone present? Which material would be best suited to these types of tonal gradation; are they sharp or gradual changes?
This process of learning (in Exercises 2 and 3) of how tonal gradation works in relation to the light sources and the reflections helps build a better mental image for me on how to produce form. I’ve understood that shadows (although they can highly contrast with lighter tones depending on the light sources and positions) will always be attached to the object somehow, unless the object isn’t touching a surface, and will have a gradation in tone when the shadow meets the light again. Furthermore, by experimenting with tone (half closing my eyes and picking out the dark and light tones in a composition/object) I can see how to lay down the varying tonal gradations in a piece of work, to refrain from drawing a solid outline, and to look closely as the negative areas around the object(s) too. How do they relate to one another? Is the shadow curving around the form or in a straight line. If the primary light source is coming from the left hand side, where will the shadows fall on each surface of the form, and how will it’s position affect other objects and their reflective light and shadows.
Loose drawing of selection of objects: charcoal, Indian ink and pastel pencil on a cardboard box.
The photo above (top left) demonstrates my attempt at Project 2, Exercise 1. Culminating in the lessons learned from the previous exercise, I have loosely described the objects in the photo (top right). I found the corrugated middle of the cardboard came out as a ripple effect when I brushed the charcoal over it; this was perfect for adding texture to the bubblewrap on the left hand side but not so good at describing hard and smooth edges and surfaces. I enjoyed making a composition with the techniques I have experienced in the previous exercises but found the cardboard too think to use frottage for the glass jar’s detail this time; the diluted ink didn’t hold much substance on the rugged and absorbent cardboard. If I did this again, I would use a smooth textured paper to allow me to use tone more accurately and not produce the effect of the corrugated card underneath, in the drawing.
Shapes in ink
Shapes in HB pencil
In these two photos of drawings completed, I have paid attention to the shape of the objects in the photograph of the collection of items. The left hand photo shows the drawing in ball point pen and is an attempt to see the items for the shapes they are; they are empty containers; transparent except for the shape perimeters. The right hand photo shows the same collection of items but depicted with a characterful HB drawing, it isn’t extremely precise, but this time I have given a little more definition to the form of the objects and the shapes; I have also ensured that the transparent jar in the foreground is showing the other items behind it to give reference to the material of the jar.
Experimentation with an HB pencil on shapes and tones
This approach of drawing the shapes without tone has given me fresh eyes, to see that realistic drawings can be started here, to see if the perspective and composition are satisfactory before the detail is added in. It is also a great way of seeing the very basic shape of an object, and a good learning curve that the form is related but not the same as shape.
Below is a photograph of my attempt for depicting textures using a variety of materials such as charcoal, Indian Ink (neat and diluted) and a flat paintbrush and a graphite HB pencil. The four materials I chose were bubblewrap, a ceramic geometric vase, a ball of garden twine and glass empty jam jar. These textures were chosen due to their variety in texture and material composition; smooth, rough, flat, bumpy, sharp and soft edges, solid/malleable all provide a playground for this exercise.
Experimenting with texture
Starting with the bubble wrap; this was my first attempt at drawing an object in a free and expressive way, using the materials to create a sense of texture, rather than only depicting what I would normally try, a 3d realistic drawing with accurate lines and shading. I am quite excited by the outcome and have surprised myself that a new technique has been acknowledged and can developed further, possibly producing visually and physically stimulating pieces of work. I would like to try painting the ink onto the bubblewrap and pressing this onto paper, wet and/or dry to see what outcome this would produce. What about different coloured inks? How would this look? I feel this piece looks almost like frogspawn; an interesting idea for a natural water-themed piece maybe?
The geometric ceramic vase; I actually thought this piece would be difficult to depict due to the intricacy of the sharp, angular geometric design. Because of this, I chose to not study the design too realistically and tried to focus on the light and shade elements of the piece. The light was coming from the left hand side and created beautiful triangular shadows on the right hand side of each diamond shape. I used charcoal only for this piece as I wanted to try different tonal shading with it, from harsh dark lines to a lighter shade representing the light reflecting. I used my fingers to smudge the charcoal to obtain this variety of shading and found it easy to see where the obvious differences of light and shade fell on the vase itself when I squinted at it so the form fell out of focus but and left the tonal shading as the most obvious aspect within my vision. Although I do feel this piece could be developed further by making it slightly bigger or using a thinner piece of charcoal as I would have liked to really distinguish the diamond shapes within the vase and use my fingers (or possibly a cotton bud if keeping the drawing smaller) to smudge the charcoal within the diamond areas to get a greater variety of tones, as this is evident when I look at the vase in the light, each of the four faces of each diamond shape on the vase carries a different tone because of the way the light falls upon it. There is almost a slight pineapple appearance tho this piece!
Ball of twine; rough, layered, stringy, wirey, solid. A few words that I held in my head while trying to depict this texture object. To feel in my hands, the ball of twine felt rough, heavy and solid, but to look at, it is but solid but delicate and intricate. This was a real challenge for me to think about how to represent this because it made me think about which media to use and how. I selected a mixed media approach because I felt I needed more than one material to describe the depth to the ball (the charcoal gave great depth with its ability for graduated tonal shading) and the intricacy of the layered twine (the Indian Ink gave me this by being able to accurately draw lines on top of the tonal base but also provide a scratchy feel with the chopstick to represent the wirey twine). By this drawing, I felt freer and less restricted with my materials and learnt, from Exercise 1 – the Joy emotion quadrant drawings – with Indian Ink, the techniques and methods I could deploy to achieve what I set out to with the ball of twine; fast but descriptive and the ability to add thicker lines by applying more surface area of the chopstick and ink. I wanted to take this piece further to explore as I felt inspired to see if I could develop my technique to add texture and tone further. Below are two examples of this further self-led exploration; the first photo demonstrated my keenness to add more depth with shading and tones from the charcoal I previously used in the initial drawing, which after reflection, I think I added too much and this created a smooth barrier so when I applied the ink, the roughness of the brown paper couldn’t be reached by the ink and chopstick to create the wirey and scratchy effect, it just sat on the surface of the charcoal barrier. I chose this paper specifically because I wanted the texture of it to react with the chopstick, ink and charcoal to add a scratchy effect, representing the texture of the twine itself.
Ball of twine, charcoal and Indian ink, overworked and not happy with this
This is when I chose to try again with the third piece (second photo below). I’m happier with the colour and texture of the brown paper coming through, also the fewer ink lines portraying the twine seem to work better with the lighter shading of charcoal behind. I would like to see how this piece could be developed by dipping the twine in the Indian ink, possibly a range of dilutions, and laying or pulling this across the paper on top of the charcoal to see how this would look/feel.
Ball of twine, charcoal and Indian ink, less smudging and depth solid tonal shading with the charcoal behind the ink, less ink scratches on top of the charcoal, more of the original paper texture and colour coming through
The final piece is a depiction of a glass jar with raised decoration on the side. I feel this piece challenged me the most because of the aim to represent the solidity or the jar simultaneously with the delicacy of the raised glass detail but also the transparency of the material itself; how am I going to depict the texture whilst retaining some reference to its transparency? I did spend some time reflecting on this before going ahead with the drawing. After some time, I felt ready to progress with my chosen medium of Indian again but this time diluted to create a semi-transparent feel to it, which held a lightness but still defined an area of space. I then used a stronger application to dab on a representation of the raised glass detail that adorns the side of the jar. I didn’t really know how else to depict this; I suspect this could be a further avenue to explore and develop next. (See below for further research)
This experiment has taught me to relax and enjoy the free-flowing properties of the materials, be ‘in the moment’ and be conscious of the possible outcomes when using them, if they behave the way I expected, use it as a learning outcome and try another way to develop this technique further. I’ve also understood that the properties of the materials may seem exhaustive, but the outcome of using the materials either exclusively or in partnership with others, can produce endless possibilities when creating drawings, producing effects for texture as well as tone, shape and shading etc. Ive also understood that a practitioner can add depth and excitement for the senses when using this method of free-flow and representative expression and these techniques can also be learnt and developed further to be incorporated into the composition of a larger piece of artwork.
Frottage
The ‘Frottage’ element of this exercise was good fun; being an investigator to find various objects to capture in this form was quite enjoyable. There were a few pieces above which surprised me; the music stand (back rest), the stencil and the metal napkin holder were examples of Frottage over an object with holes or recesses that when shaded over, the pencil took detail out from the edges of the recess which created a stronger line. This effect was quite inspiring and I could see this being used in a piece of work where the focus is on negative spaces. I did learn that the pencil I used (6B to start and moved to HB for the last three) and the type/thickness of paper have a direct impact to the outcome of the Forttage technique. For a few of these rubbings, the paper was too thick and/or the pencil to soft. I found that I got a better result on the wooden desk surface with the HB on this cartridge paper and so chose to use this for the stencil and magazine spines. I also realised that some materials will not produce a Frottage effect because the object was too soft and the texture compressed and so couldn’t be recorded like the more solid objects; see the photo above for the towel and the bubblewrap, neither of these came out as I expected and although disappointing, I understand that if there is compression, the texture will not sit proud against the paper for Frottage to be successful. After carefully looking at the glass jar rubbing within this exercise, I have decided that it would be a really lovely experiment if I were to try this Frottage technique combined with the diluted ink (as attempted in the previous exercise above) to create a more developed piece. The photo of this exploration is below. Note that I have added a few strokes of HB graphite pencil marks around the screw top of the jar, around the middle ridge and base of the jar to give a little more detail; I knew that the pencil would blur a little when wiped with wet ink so wouldn’t be so obvious but still add a little detail, what I hadn’t expected was that it actually ‘muddied’ the ink which was a great outcome as I harnessed this to give a little shading to the right hand side and the thicker areas of glass around the screw top lid, the middle and base of the jar. What a great experience; I really enjoyed making this discovery after reflecting and experimenting further.
Further development of the glass jar with diluted ink, this time with the addition of the new Frottage technique
After a few days, I went back to this frottage technique and felt I could have a little fun with it; I envisaged the stencil work on a black school chalkboard. I also found a notebook in a draw and as I picked it up, I felt the texture of the spiral binding; I thought to myself “I could rub my pencil on this to get a great frottage technique!” This is really new to me and now I have explored and experienced this technique, I am finding ideas on how to use it in my drawings and ideas further than completing them in the exercises. This is really exciting to me; frottage has opened up a new avenue for me and developed my range of techniques as an artist.
Frottage notebook and blackboard in HB graphite pencil.
What Next?
When reading back through my sketchbook, I’ve made a new note that asks me to look into texture further. What if texture wasn’t just described but also felt? What if the texture was made by using the material itself on top of the paper (rather than frottage where the texture is placed underneath) either by the marks the material leaves or by adhering the material to the paper itself; possibly dragging twine through ink to leave a mark, or sticking the twine onto the paper/foundation to work with further? I saw a tree made from string in my child’s school reception, children were stroking the ‘bark’ with their fingertips as they walked past. I will upload all research and reflection in the section of this blog entitled ‘Experimenting with Materials’; a documented journey with responses to ideas and thought process and of course, reflective notes on where I went further with these findings.
Below are my attempts for producing 16 emotive pieces for Project 1, Exercise 1. I completed these mark-making exercises in my home environment where I was able to really embody the emotions needed to feel this work.
To effectively demonstrate the difference in outcomes of style for each material used, I have deliberately used the same material in each quadrant of each sheet of cartridge paper. Starting top left and going clockwise: charcoal, black Indian Ink and wooden chopstick, black ball point pen and lastly, a black wax crayon.
Joy
Joy was a relatively quick emotion to recall for me; I’ve recently moved to Cyprus and there is so much to love here. Summer has just kicked in and the blue skies and beautiful flowers are abundant. The joy of feeling the breeze ripple through my hair like the waves on the blue Mediterranean ocean; watching my children greedily eat ice-cream along the promenade while it dribbles down their chin; the sound of the waves sloshing up on the sand while I dip my toes in and collect shells. These memories are completely blissful and bring me joy to relive. Perhaps this is why I feel my collection for the ‘joy’ feeling is akin to the waves bubbling up and the cyclical style of the movements is showing that these memories are forever coming to the forefront and back again. I found the Indian Ink and chopstick the most enjoyable to work because of the variety of styles I could obtain with it; some of the ways I expressed joy was by dabbing, flicking and dripping the ink onto the paper, like ice-cream dripping on a hot day, but also using the chopstick on it’s side gave a great effect, like the joy was radiating out from the centre. The friction of the wood and viscous ink on the paper made almost an angular radiator shape feature too! My keywords that I embraced while creating this collection are: fluid, movement, sparkle, weightless, upwards, floating, content, fresh, rounded, bubbles, happiness, soft, gentle, waves, circles, radiating, warmth, central.
Anger
Francis Bacon, ‘Pope Innocent X’, 1953, 153cm x 118.1cm Photograph of a photo printed in: Clark. J, (1992) ‘The Illustrated History of Art’, the Apple Press, London.
Anger; this collection was also easy to create as half an hour before, some words were exchanged in a heated family debate; we all know how those can end up… As the tension dissipated, I suddenly thought about harnessing the difficult emotions and using them to my advantage to work through this angry collection. My keywords for this collection are: pulsing, raging, spikey, hot, fast, angular, tight, scruffy, explosive, extrovert, erupt, tears, shaking, red, firework, stubborn, dangerous, hunting. I felt alive and pumped up when producing these four pieces for anger; as soon as I recalled the argument, it got me worked up again and out came the mark-making. In fact, I was so overcome with the strong, hot emotion of anger, I snapped and splintered my charcoal, spilt my ink and crossed the negative spaces created by the creases separating the boxes (at the time, I have to admit, I was angry and didn’t care if I was aggressive with my drawing and my focus was no longer on being mindful about the boundaries, I just wanted to release this emotion) and even ruin a ball point pen when it almost scratched through the paper. I even got my hands stuck in with the charcoal, aggressively scratching it and wiping it harshly, almost pushing it away and smearing it carelessly. However, although this was a difficult emotion to harness into creativity, I think over time, summoning and controlling this emotion could actually produce some really striking artwork. While reading my library book, I found a piece of art which I think demonstrates this beautifully: Francis Bacon, ‘Pope Innocent X’, 1953 (photo above right). The description is written to describe how anger and violence could have been the driving force to producing such a striking and emotive piece: “Francis Bacon’s obsessive and brutal vision is executed in correspondingly violent brushwork.” Clark. J, (1992) ‘The Illustrated History of Art’, the Apple Press, London. Even the descriptive language such as obsessive, executed, brutal and violent denote the tone of this painting. Interestingly, I believe that although producing artwork with such strong emotions as anger, resentment, frustration etc. may seem to some, a hazardous hobby for the mental wellbeing of the practitioner, I do feel they could actually benefit people psychologically by a way of therapeutic release and mindfulness techniques. I did a little research on this to see if I could evidence this with a credible source and found a great link to an article on ‘Art Therapy’ by Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/therapy-types/art-therapy
Love
“I hope my drawings demonstrate this oxymoron”
Laura Baker
What can I say about Love? It lifts me up, makes me feel complete, dizzy, full of life. The list in non-exhaustive and I embraced this collection of mark-making to ensure I produce pieces depicting real love, not lust. To me, love is strong but soft, stubborn but willing, simple but complex; I hope my drawings demonstrate this oxymoron. The lines are free but return and are intertwined with each other; always spontaneous in looking for a new direction in excitement which bubbles up from the core. Much like when you fall in love and your tummy feels like butterflies. I felt I wanted to show a whirlwind as it [love] can feel a bit turbulent at times, like you are swept up off your feet in a hurricane of mixed emotions and experiences. The complexity of feelings intertwined with love is depicted here but is different to the anger collection; it is softer, kinder and lighter in tone and pressure.; it is passionate but caring and kind. My keywords for this collection are: bound/tied, hurricane, intoxicating, togetherness, fizzy, fireworks, flicking, splashing, confusion, dance, spontaneous, go and return, waves, excitement, impulsive, anger, stubbornness, compromise, tummy tingle, journey, no matter what. I really enjoyed working with the ball point pen here because of the fluidity and detail that could be produced, it gave me a more detailed path that the ‘love’ feeling took me on. Although I think if I could mix it with the charcoal for the soft, tonal waves and the ink media, I would have a really detailed story of the journey I wanted to draw with a range of textures and tones which shows the complexity of love with depth.
Calm
This collection for calm is peaceful and quiet; my calm is spacious without clutter and feels like soft, flowing waves that rise up and fall gently back down again. It also can feel systematic and in control with not too many layers. I tried to demonstrate this in the collection which I’ve noticed when comparing them all that this looks like the most basic, perhaps this is a true reflection of what my ‘calm’ looks like. Although, I could reflect that I had more of an exciting drawing with the previous feelings collections. I feel the wax crayon was the best here for my illustration of calm; the side of the crayon gave a smooth and consistent wave of colour without too much detail and fussiness. I found that the wiggle on the right hand side of the crayon drawing (and on the left of the top left charcoal drawing) gave a nice dark to light wave descending vertically towards the bottom right corner. This looks like it could be a boundary of some sort. The ink drawing produced a series of systematic dots with the chopstick; I feel in control and steady when I am calm, perhaps this is why the dots shown are not erratic. My key words for calm are: slow, steady, waves, continuous, up/down, upwards, curves, soft, free, soaring, flowing. I find it interesting that with the calm collection, it was easier to be mindful of the negative spaces and boundaries on the paper, perhaps this is because I was more conscious of the process and less wrapped up in the emotional state by stronger emotions previously in the exercise.
Overall, I understand that this exercise has brought a wealth of experience to my mark-making skills; I’ve learnt how emotions can physically and aesthetically alter the style and ‘feel’ of a piece; how the material’s properties can be manipulated to create different effects when used with a specific driving emotion (A reflective question: did I hold the materials any differently with each emotion of was it only the pressure and speed that changed? How can I test this to understand how the media I used looked different with different emotions?), how artists can embody these emotions to produce a piece of art to specifically convey a message (such as Francis Bacon) and that it will be evident in the materials and how they have been manipulated, i.e. soft and flowing or sharp and aggressive. I’ve also learnt how art can be created with non-objective images; I didn’t like art in this style before but now I have a more in-depth understanding of how and why it may have been created. I particularly liked this piece below by Sarah H Reynolds, which is expressive and fluid, I think it shows a trees and their roots with a tricking water source, in an atmospheric forest, possible with a boundary (barbed wired?) of angular scribbles with the charcoal on an off-white paper which I think gives an overall impression of sadness and emptiness in this piece.
Following on from a question in my ‘Enrolment – 10/05/19’ blog post, I discussed my course aims and ambitions. One of them; “I would like to understand art and painting within a wider context; currently, I do not hold extensive knowledge of the history of art or past and present practitioners” is quite a large ambition, as the history of art is complex and comprehensive, dating back thousands of years. I am reflecting on the time when cave-people were the first to produce marks on cave walls; how did they create these representations when their brains were so primitive? Did they practise the technique to improve? How did they get the idea to make marks with other materials to represent something they had experienced? Nether-the-less, this cave-age technique of mark-making has been developed, spanning many years until the present day, where we are in a world where art and mark-making is rich with various styles and techniques.
Independent research books from the library
To be able to fulfill my aim and understand the context in which art began and how it has progressed to where it is now, I went along to my local library in search of literature that would enlighten me, or at least point me in the right direction. I came across four books which captured my interest on this topic and the course topic of drawing/mark-making: – E.H. Gombrich, The Story Of Art, Phaidon Press Limited, 14th Edition 1984 (First published 1950) – G. Evans, An Introduction To Calligraphy, Apple Press Ltd. 1987 – J. Bays, Drawing Workbook, David & Charles, 1998 – J. Clark, The Illustrated History Of Art, The Apple Press, 1992
I look forward to reading and exploring these books and will return to write my experiences in the near future.
Laura Baker 522918 Learning Log - Drawing 1 