Assignment 2: Final piece

I had to use a wide range of colours in this drawing to achieve separation between the flowers, the stems and the grass. I decided to go for hatching and layering techniques for the majority of the piece, with on/off pressure techniques for the flower petals and tick-and-flick applications for the foreground of grass. 

Composition

I'm really pleased with my chosen composition. The flowers are central in the drawing, with the tree acting as an enclosure/backbone, and the directional light coming down to the flowers. 

I worked from a photograph, which gave a better impression of directional light. This directional light drawn on does look a little artificial/photographic rather than natural, but I think I've made up for it in choosing coloured pencils. 

I like the little detail of branches at the top as it draws you in to the negative space of sky and then down to the flowers. I made the angle of the drawing slightly off horizontal to add more interest, so the tree goes slightly inwards as it goes up and the fence isn't quite horizontal, as I didn't want a 'boxed-in' effect. 

Overall, I'm pleased with my composition. I maybe could have made the fence slightly more angled to give it a bit more perspective, though. 

Form/Depth

The hardest subject to create form for was the tree. Because the back of the tree was shadowed by the directional light it was hard to create its cylindrical shape (where I would normally create darker edges with the foremost part highlighted lighter). The tree could have definitely been better with better planning and more time spent on it. Instead, I rushed it a bit but adding simple layers of tone and simple bark lines. Though, I did try to use the dark/light effect on the bark lines. 

I like the form of the pot, but being man-made it was the easiest thing to create form on.  The leaves, as a group have a sense of depth to them as I've detailed the foremost leaves and left the background ones simple. I spent a lot of time on the leaves with detail, trying to create form on each individual one. This is perhaps what makes the tree look much worse in quality!

The petals were much harder to create form for as I couldn't use a good range of tones, so I had to use the on/off pressure techniques to use the white paper as highlights. I added lines of orange to work against the white to create depth and form. 

Perspective

The shades of the grass needed a lot of control. For the background I needed to use much fainter markings with lighter tones. I then gradually made harder markings with gradual darker tones and adding more and more detail. I think this worked quite well. I didn't want to add every blade of grass and every section of detail so I randomly placed raised areas of grass with neighbouring highlights of white. I didn't use any detail for the trees in the background, either.

I think the branches at the top are massively effective in drawing the eye down. If they weren't there, the viewer would be drawn to the open space at the top and off the picture! They subtly point downwards to the flowers and directional light as well. 

Colour

I think the grey-blue tone used for the trees works well against the white/yellow directional light, and it complements the orange tones on the petals. The grass and petals were very hard to separate. I should have toned down the background green shades a lot more to separate the flowers from it. The tree is probably too dark and needs to remain a background subject. Because the flowers are struggling for attention against the green grass, the tree stands out too much. In all, I really like the colours chosen. The yellow is a cheerful colour working well with the sunset. The greens are luscious-looking and not too artificial. The blue-grey tree colour works well against all the bolder colours. And the browns from the tree, pot and fence all roughly match in tones, so as to not include too many colours to be distracting against the yellow petals.

It is really the dark/light tones that need more work in this picture to make the flowers stand out more, and to create more perspective and depth. 

Assignment 2: Plan

For the assignment, I decided I wanted to use flowers in a pot/vase in a natural setting with something man-made to contrast.

I started off looking for different themes and compositions doing some quick sketches. The first sketch doesn't have enough going on, although the contrasting textures would be interesting. I can also imagine after my previous A2 studies, that a whole A2 drawing filled with tree bark would be quite a tedious task! It would also end up being quite boring to look at. I then decided to go for a landscape scene with the flowers as a 'prop', but still the main subject. This was quite a difficult task to find a way to draw to the eye to the flowers, however. 

The third box was too open spaced. Too much negative space made the flowers look isolated and not as cheerful as they should be!

I quite liked the next sketch with the tractor, but found there was a balance/conflict between the tractor and flowers fighting for the viewer's attention, especially when the perspective makes the flowers and tractor look a similar size. The flowers were not the main subject and so I tried out new compositions without the tractor. 

I finally found a really good composition, which had strong directional light coming towards the flowers. (Sixth box; second down and third across). I added overlap between the tree and flowers for contrast in texture, for depth/perspective, and to lose negative space to add interest. The man-made fence in the background is good as it's subtle and not too distracting. The flowers really are the main focus in this composition. I liked the layers of trees in the background, too. However, I thought there might have been a bit too much space to the left of the flowers. I cropped this sketch (see the bottom image below) to make the flowers bigger in the picture, to make the directional light more centred and to get rid of the unwanted negative space. 

From recent exercises, I had decided to go for coloured pencils as my medium. I wanted to achieve a lot of detail and texture in this drawing and to use a natural selection of colours. The oil pastels may have been too bright and false looking, as would the felt-tip pens, and soft pastels wouldn't have created enough detail for me either. 

Check & Log: Drawing animals

Research point: George Stubbs

Exercise: Grabbing the chance

Quick Gesture Sketches
I really enjoyed this exercise of drawing animals, especially drawing my two dogs, Misty and Poppy. It was interesting trying to capture their gestures and character in the drawings.

I started off watching them for an hour or two and drawing some quick sketches every time they changed pose. I'm quite pleased with my attempts as the poses come across as what I intended, even the drawings on the bottom right of Poppy scratching! I think it was a good exercise for me to do as I try and draw things sometimes in too much detail, so it was good to be quicker and looser with the pencil. 

It was interesting trying to draw something I already knew well, in terms of character. Poppy (Springer Spaniel) has a very alert and 'on-the-ball' character, which really shows in the bottom drawings on the second picture with her upright back and right-angled, stiff head. Contrasting with that, Misty (Labrador/Retriever) is laid back and 'soft', which is shown with her poses consisting of more curves and relaxed lines. 

These quick sketches have really helped me in knowing how to start drawing a pose!

Gesture drawings of 'Misty' and 'Poppy', Labrador/Retriever and Springer Spaniel 

More gesture sketches of Misty and Poppy

Adding more detail

I then went on to add more detail to some sketches, using thicker pencils to add some shading. I found the pencil worked really well in producing enough dark/light contrasts and for creating the fur textures, so I stuck with it!

I used my previous techniques of hatching and drawing directional lines to add contours to the form of the dogs as I did with my still life drawings. I also used softer outlines for a more natural look, which worked especially well when I wanted to add stronger lines for shadow or darker areas to contrast. 

I tried drawing a black bear (from a photograph) using graphite pencils to experiment with the darks and highlights. The hatching is a bit messy in this and unfinished, but I'm pleased with the contrasts of highlights to dark shadows. The bear looks much stiffer than the sketches of the dogs. This could be because I had drawn it from a photograph and not from real life like the dogs, or maybe because I knew the dogs better?!

I also attempted a tiger using coloured pencil, intrigued by the patterns and different tones. Again, it was quite hard to capture the gesture, but it was a worthwhile experiment with the coloured pencils with the textures and tones of the fur!

Detailed sketch of Misty

Detailed sketch of Poppy

Detailed sketch of Misty

Black Bear using graphite pencil

Tiger using coloured pencils

Final drawing of Misty and Poppy
Of course, I decided on a drawing of the dogs, Misty and Poppy. This drawing took me two to three hours to complete, and surprisingly most of the time was spent on drawing the labrador! I chose pencil as my medium with a range of thicknesses, and I'm pleased with this decision as I really wanted to focus on the texture and detailed expressions of the dogs.

I think the composition could be improved as they seem too far apart, so maybe if I added some more background like leaves that might have connected them a bit more. I think I was frightened of drawing the attention away from the dogs with the busy background of Autumn leaves, so I left it quite minimal. 

The textures on the dogs was achieved by hatching, on/off pressures/fading techniques for the hairs, and by careful shading. The dark against light may be a bit much, especially for the shadowed area on Misty. But I'm quite pleased with the tones on Poppy's body, which ended up being a lot easier than with Misty as her hairs are longer and fold and protrude perhaps in a more interesting fashion. 

I think I've captured Misty's laid-back, softness in character and Poppy's alert look by their poses and by their eyes. I enjoyed drawing Poppy more, although she seemed to be more of a challenge at first. Her darker hair around her face really allowed me to show off that lovely expression full of thought! Because Misty had the sun on her face and is a much lighter colour, it was then harder to add a lot of detail to her expression, but as it is much softer than Poppy's it worked out ok. The only issue is the shadow on Misty's back behind the directional light of the sun looks quite out of place against her light colour and highlights of light. Adding shadow seems to be one of my weaknesses and something to work on! 

On a whole, I like the relaxed pose of the dogs that has been achieved and I'm glad I chose pencil for the detail it gave on their faces and for the wispy hair textures. The anatomy of the dogs looks convincing enough, too. But the things for me to work on are: composition, shadow and drawing a better background.

Final drawing of Misty and Poppy using pencils

Research point: Renaissance masters

Check & Log: Drawing plants and flowers

Exercise: Drawing with other coloured media

Exercise: Plants and flowers in coloured pencil

Before attempting the A2 drawing of flowers, I experimented with some detailed drawings of flowers with coloured pencils. 

Here, with this pink rose, I focussed on simplicity using dark shadow tones and light highlights. By placing the two next to each other (the dark red against white on the petals and dark green against yellow on the stem) it really worked well in creating depth, a dynamic look and simplicity. The red may have been a bit harsh, and perhaps a deep purple or pink would have been better. But overall I'm pleased with this.

Using different tones of pink to shade in between the dark red lines and white highlights worked well in creating the form of the flower, and adding depth in between the petals. The red is too harsh, but the overall colour of pink is still revealed. 

The stem used a lot of green blends and tones, which perhaps doesn't balance with the higher amount of highlights on the rose petals. So maybe if I had used more whites and light yellows/greens, the tonal structure would be balanced. 

Pink rose on cartridge paper, using coloured pencils

With this yellow flower, I decided to focus on techniques of the coloured pencils, such as the on/off pressure lines and fading to give white highlights. I think this worked really well, especially with the yellow as it isn't as bolder colour as other tones. Simple lines of orange added in really set it off, adding form and shadows. I kept the stem as just a simple black outline, which works well in drawing more attention to the flower and it's white highlights. 

Yellow flower on paper, using coloured pencils

For the final drawing, I decided to create a quicker, less detailed sketch, focussing on the dynamics of the colours and patterns. This created more expression in the drawing. 

I think the red against green worked really well, especially in emphasising the two and making them bolder. Being complementary colours, this made them really stand out from the detailed background of bricks.

I'm not overall very happy with this drawing. Because I didn't take my time on the detail, it really does look rushed, and I think this is emphasised with the medium of pencils and the shading of larger areas. I like the dynamics of colour and blending of colour on the flowers themselves, as they really stand out. The white flowers could have done with a bit more cream tones to give them their form. The stems also look quite scruffy and disconnected to the flowers. If I had taken more time on this and had given each individual stem in the foreground its form then it may have looked better. 

I think the best thing about this drawing is the use of colour. The black fire place encloses the dynamics of the reds and greens. The lighter tones of colour used on the bricks works well in bringing out the reds of the petals. And the blue-grey vase works well against the reds and greens, in not standing out too much, but being bold enough to balance. I'm not sure about the cream wall surrounding the fire place. It doesn't close off the picture as I would normally try to do, but at the same time it does keep you focussed on the flowers! 

Exercise: Negative space

I am really pleased with this drawing. I also found it a really good exercise to study negative space, helping to see the edges and shapes rather than draw what I think is there. 

I like the composition I have chosen as it's dynamic with a wild, fountain look of explosion and growth, which adds movement to the drawing rather than looking stiff and structured. I made the vase slightly off centre on the stool so as to be a little asymmetrical. 

I think the flowers are recognisable with the attached stems and shapes of the petals, especially as some are positioned so that they are isolated and not overlapping. 

The straight lines of the vase and stems contrast well with the interesting curves of the flowers and leaves. As do the directional lines contrast with the vase pointing inwards to the surface it's resting on and the flowers exploding everywhere! 

The only thing was that it became quite time consuming once I had drawn the outer black lines and was left with the job of colouring the rest of the negative space black using a felt-tip! But overall, black felt-tip was a good choice for accuracy and consistency, though some of the pencil markings have shown through! This was because some of the inside shapes of negative space were quite hard to make as they needed to be connected to a stem and to a flower, so I used a pencil for this. 

Flowers in a vase using black felt-tip and brush pens

Check & Log: Drawing fruit & vegetables in colour

Research point: Ben Nicholson

Exercise: Drawing using oil pastel

I used cartridge paper for this with a good range of colours of oil pastels. I tried to pick a variety of vegetables with different textures and colours. I used a fair bit of overlapping to create shadows as well. 

This took me a really long time experimenting with the different colours, blending the colours, and all the layering. Lots of layering and patience was needed with the oil pastels! But I later realised that 'less is more' and that I didn't need to over complicate it; I didn't need to create a photographic looking drawing. 

I followed the contours of the vegetables, using circular motions for the sprouts, arched lines for the parsnip and carrots, and so on. For the sprouts I discovered an interesting technique of holding the pastels upright to produce circular motions - I think these vegetables actually took the longest to produce! The red onion also needed a lot of layers for its many colours. This was quite hard to produce, and I think I could have made a better job on this with more practise in blending colours neatly. 

I used the method of choosing the areas to leave white, then choosing the darkest shadow areas and finally adding soft light tones and gradually building up the layers with darker tones. The final task was then to use the darkest tones to very slightly add the final details. The white space was very effective for texture and form. The white pastel was quite useful too for additional white areas of shine.

For the composition, I chose a brown paper bag for the vegetables to lay on. The rough, brown bag seemed to be a less distracting background. I'm quite pleased with the composition of the vegetables, with the negative space used around them, though I did have trouble with positioning the top carrot. 

The best things about this drawing are the light/dark contrasts, the textures, and the forms of the vegetables. I think they look three-dimensional with the shadows I've drawn on and the contours have really helped bring out the shapes. 

I read a really good colouring tip when researching the artist Eyvind Earle on his website:

"...And there are certain laws such as the law of duality. Everything has its opposite. If I want a bright light in a painting, I must have a dark shadow. If I want a colour to look very warm, I must also have a very cold colour, and so on and on forever. ..."

That concept has stayed with me and now every dark shadow line I use, I leave a white highlight next to/behind it. This is shown on the sprouts, for example, where there are overlaps of leaf. 

Things I could have improved on in this drawing were the composition, and more practise in blending the colours for a smoother effect, such as on the red onion!

Vegetables using oil pastels

Exercise: Using markers or dip pens

I find this drawing of fruit doesn't look as natural as the coloured pencil drawings, and looks quite 'pixelated'. Though, where the pen has blended quite well such as on the red apple it looks quite good.

I used quite a low angle for the directional light in this piece to go with the dynamic, bold colours achieved by the felt-tips. This made a really long shadow at the front, with my intention of drawing the viewer in to the fruit. I decided to use water to help fade the black pen outwards like the shadow, rather than a constant black. This worked reasonably well but could have been neater with a grey felt-tip, perhaps. 

The drawing was made on cartridge paper and so the texture on the orange looks good as I left a few specks of white. Now I've finished the drawing, I find the green apple quite stiff looking! Maybe the black outline creates this effect. I'm quite pleased with the top part of the apple but the middle band doesn't look quite as rounded or smooth as I had hoped. The shadow on the lemon was very hard to achieve; it wasn't the best colour to use. The texture looks good on it, though. I probably should have left more white highlights on the top of the lemon to leave the yellows for the shadow. But because of the texture of the lemon, it does not need as many highlights as the shiny apple. 

I think I should have picked more pieces of fruit for this drawing, as the composition isn't very interesting. I like the angle of directional light and the dynamic shadow with the bold colours. But because I've used an even number of fruit, four pieces, two being apples and then the lemon and orange being of similar texture and colour, it isn't as interesting as it could have been with more. This makes the drawing look too structured and stiff; so to make it better: more pieces of fruit, more overlapping, and a background surface to be drawn in. 

Fruit using felt-tips pens (and some water)

Exercise: Using hatching to create tone

Here, I experimented first with different media when drawing pieces of fruit. 

Hatching with felt-tip pens

I used the simple techniques of hatching, leaving more gaps for reflected light on its surface and less gaps for shadow, creating its form. Hatching made it quite easy to blend the tones of green for dark to light, which obviously cannot be achieved with just one colour with pen! The black outline actually worked quite well this time with the felt-tip pens to enclose it.

Wax crayons for the orange

The black outer line on this orange looks ridiculous! So ignoring that, the texture of the orange works quite well with the wax crayons. I had to use a lot of different shades of crayon for this to create the best natural look.

Coloured pencils for the banana and apple

I am really pleased with the tone effects of the coloured pencils in creating the banana. The stippling of the brown worked really well, using on/off pressure techniques and careful blending of brown to yellows and creams I could create a more natural looking banana. Softer hatching made it much less noticeable than with the pens. Making a few directional lines more prominent in hatching also helps to create form. The apple took a lot of work with all the blending of colour, the use of lines, toning and using a lot of different colours, ranging from yellow to red and green! Layering for the shadow didn't work very well so I should have applied the darker tones first. 

I then created a few sketches of compositions for my final drawing using the orange, banana and apples.  

Experimenting with different coloured media, drawing fruit

In my final piece below, I chose coloured pencil for the medium and a spaced out composition. The coloured pencils worked really well in hatching and blending all the colours, especially on the apples. I found it hard to choose suitable colours for the shadows on the pieces of fruit, however. So I ended up blending the main colours of the fruits with dark brown tones, which worked quite well, though not as convincing as I would have liked. 

Again, I'm really pleased with the banana, but this may because it had no shadows on it! I like the grooves and shape of the orange, by adding the dark browns against the light yellows, it has made the bulges of shape really show well on top of the orange. Because of my limited pallet of colours, the green apple looks a little too false. So my next job is to purchase a better selection of coloured pencils!

I think the shadows are my weakest points of these drawings as the form is not as apparent. Though, the highlights of light against the tones of colour have helped. But maybe more light/dark contrast would have made it more interesting?

I like the composition of slight overlap. Each piece of fruit looks naturally placed, as using four pieces is a hard number to create an interesting composition without looking too symmetrical! But the banana works well in closing off the other pieces of fruit, stopping the eye drifting off the page.

Fruit composition using coloured pencils

Check & Log: Still Life

Exercise: Still life group in tone

In this drawing I used soft pastels and a range of vegetables, varying in texture and colour. As well as curves and interesting lines, colour also creates energy in a drawing, so I chose a lot of bold tones; the purples and reds of the onion, greens of the cauliflower and leeks, and red and orange from the carrot and onions. 

This drawing took me a long time with all the layering of the soft pastels and smudging, and then trying to achieve some detail! So I found it quite hard in knowing when to stop working on this piece. 

As before, the outside line may be a little too prominent, though at the time it felt essential in clarifying each vegetable. 

Form
The cauliflower looks a little flat, but I am pleased with the detailing of the florets and lines for the stalks as this gives it its overall depth. I think the light and darks of the carrot have worked really well to create its form, as with the onions. The onions took a long time but seem to be worth the effort of the soft pastels, with their shiny surface with lots of lines and blends of colour. 

Background
I chose yellow as the background as the chopping board is already a natural colour blending in with the vegetables, and my thinking was that the lights would stand out more with a yellow background. Now I look at it finished, I don't think yellow was the best colour, as it makes the carrots and cauliflower look yellow rather than cream and orange! I think blue may have been the best colour to choose as it is the complementary colour of orange and would have helped the carrot, onions and red onion to really stand out. 

Composition
The angle could have been lowered a bit more for a more interesting composition with more overlap, perspective and depth. But otherwise, I'm quite pleased with the placing of the vegetables and the knife pointing towards them. Without the knife, there would have been too much negative space, so I added the knife to guide the eye to the vegetables! The carrot may have been better positioned away from the other orange tones of the onions. 

Vegetables using soft pastels

Exercise: Still life group using line

I chose all root vegetables for this drawing, so in setting it up I decided to focus on separating the vegetables by using different line patterns to achieve different textures. Sometimes a thicker line was needed to separate them completely, however. 

Composition
Overall, I am pleased with the composition, as no tangents were made in overlapping the vegetables to make a more interesting composition. The composition of the vegetables themselves could have been better maybe by spacing them out more, but I think I managed to separate them from each other quite well using different lines and also by separating similar looking vegetables. For example, I kept the carrots at the back and the parsnips at the front and not touching - as well as facing opposite directions for balance in the composition. It is also quite clear as to what each vegetable each one is, not only from the different textures, but because I've tried to leave enough shape visible when overlapping them. I placed a few onions off the side below the carrot tops over hanging for some negative space. I could have angled the parsnips a bit better so that they're not as parallel to the leeks, though. 

Form
For the form, I used directional lines on the textures of each vegetable. On the onion, the lines get closer towards the top and bottom, giving the spherical shape.

Lines/Texture
Wispy lines against heavier lines worked well; as did white space against detail and hatching. I tried to keep things quite simple in terms of leaving more white space and repetition/pattern in the lines. The white space on the leeks, carrots, parsnips, and onions worked well against the detail of the vegetables tops and dirty potatoes, so as to not look too cluttered. Giving the odd grooves and markings on the carrots and parsnips gave enough impression of their texture without overdoing it. The onions have achieved a shiny look with the simple curved lines and white space. The potatoes look grubby with more lines added, but this has made it more difficult to see its form, though I did try to leave some space around the middle band. 

I like the scattered and wild looking carrot tops conflicting against the neater lines of the vegetables. They also add more interesting negative space below and above the vegetables. 

One problem with the drawing is that I was too dependent on the thicker outside lines of the vegetables to separate them. I should have had more confidence in varying the textures. It's also hard to distinguish between the foreground and the background with no fading light/tone or toned down detail. Again, maybe less outlines towards the back would have worked. But overall, I am quite pleased with the lines I have achieved in this to create textures.

Root vegetables using a fine-tip black pen

Check & Log: Detailed observation

Research point: tight, rigorous work to sketchy and expressive

Exercise: Stipples and dots

Exercise: Getting tone & depth in detail

This drawing took a really long time with all the separate areas of hatching and toning. I tried to layer the hatching a lot for a realistic look. I am pleased with the end result, but I found all the shading with the repetitive spikes became very tedious. 

The dark/light contrasts make it much more interesting and help to create the overall form as I used more highlights on the protruding right-hand side and darker shadings on the left. The size of the spikes was important as well in creating the perspective/form. However, I could have made this dark/light contrast more prominent to create form. The curving shape does help to create the overall form, as well as the underneath shadow position. 

One self-criticism for this drawing is that I've used too much line for the outlines to defy each spike. This probably makes the cone flatter and less realistic. 

This drawing was very controlled and I think this comes across and makes it less interesting, so it may be a good idea to try another drawing with looser lines and concentrating more on dark to light tones. 

The graphite pencil worked really well for dark areas, and the thicker pencils were good for softness and creating lighter shades. 

Cone using varied thicknesses of pencil and graphite pencil

Exercise: Line Drawing Detail

Here, I've created two drawings, both with continuous, flowing lines, but the tomato being my first and more detailed attempt with a fine-tip pen, and the sprout with a looser drawing style using a thicker brush pen. 

Detailed tomato drawing

It was quite hard to make a neat circle with the pen when trying to make the line continuous! This may be because I'm so used to using a faint pencil line to start a drawing, so I need to be more confident with a pen. The tomato had a consistent thickness of line, which could have made the drawing look really flat, but the big empty areas of space against cluttered detailed lines worked quite well in creating its form. 

Without being able to use shading, tone, or colour, I had to make up for this in other ways. I found repetition of pattern was a good tool for keeping things recognisable, helping to group certain sections of the tomato, i.e. the seeds or flowing lines for the liquid. The space also suggested smoothness and a shiny surface on the exterior of the tomato. So then the smaller wavy lines inside the tomato suggested liquid flowing rather than something rough (if the lines were straighter).

I tried to make a good composition by angling the tomatoes so that they draw you in to all the detail inside, which is the focal point of the tomato. This angle also helped to show the form of the tomato by using perspective, especially on the right slice of tomato. The composition isn't symmetrical either so that helped in making it more interesting. The white empty space can look quite flat, but because of its shape and the detail it encloses with the perspective lines, the form is then apparent. The detail creates depth in the tomato, too. 

By doing this exercise I found that flowing lines helps to guide the eye around the drawing. I also enjoyed it, to my surprise! It's a good, quick way of sketching something. 

Detailed drawing of a tomato

Loose sprout drawing
I then decided to create a looser drawing with a more textured exterior for a challenge. This was quite hard with the thicker pen, as detail wasn't as achievable, but using a brush pen I found I could vary the thickness. This drawing only took around five minutes, as I wanted to go for simplicity rather than detail. 

Again, the white space created the round form (on the right, the sprout exterior), with more detail towards the bottom as it curves round. 

The inside of the sprout (on the left) was meant to be flat, so I tried repeating the same messy, curvy lined pattern to create flatness rather than depth, which worked quite well. The white spaces are not enclosed in shadow or darker lines, which also helped to make it look flat. 

Loose drawing of a sprout

Overall, I prefer the tomato drawing as it looks more recognisable and sophisticated than the sprout drawing. Though the sprout was probably more fun to do! 

Check and Log: Exploring Coloured Media

Research point: two artists exemplifying mastery of detailed drawings

Exercise: Exploring Coloured Media

I started off with these experiments a while back, categorising each medium and experimenting with them in a very structured way (the first image). I later re-did the experiments in an attempt to become more abstract with my movements and variations (the second and third images).

Felt-tip Pens

I found the felt-tips the most daunting of all the mediums. You've got to have a confident approach when using these. In the second picture I experimenting with a lot of different lines, though I was limited with not being able to vary pressure and thickness of the line. The tick and flick approach worked well giving a concentrated bottom and fading line, excellent for grass and hair, etc. As I felt quite limited in terms of technique after stippling, drawing lines and shading, I decided to make a very basic colour wheel to see what colours stand out more against others, and what mixing/blending of colour I could achieve. I found the complementary colours, opposite on the colour wheel (red - green, yellow - purple, blue - orange), and experimented in stippling with blending yellow with purple and yellow with green. I found the yellow and green blended very well, so much so that neither colour really stood out, so this would work well for a background mix on a composition. The purple really stood out against the yellow, as did the yellow against the purple, so this would work well for a foreground subject. I repeated this exercise in hatching with red and green, and then red and purple; and then in shading with blue and orange, and blue and green. 

The felt-tips are good at blending only if you layer the colours well, i.e. without using too many different shades on top of each other or it'll appear too dark. I really need a greater selection of colours to create a more detailed blend of tones. I think they would work better on cartridge paper, too. 

Water Based Dye Ink Pens

I then used some water based dye ink pens, which I preferred for their variation in application. The tick-and-flick technique worked really well with these, giving a very concentrated root and fading in a more dynamic way than felt-tips. They were also better at layering, as a base colour was able to show through, rather than appear too dark like with the felt-tips. Blending worked well after a lot of layering and choosing the right tones, creating a watery mix. 

Wax Crayons

This would be the hardest medium to choose for a detailed drawing, although great for adding a lot of texture and form. The application was quite hard to control as it produced a very blotchy, uneven look. Using the side of the crayon to create a thinner line doesn't last long enough to create anything very detailed. But that does help in creating a lively and dynamic line! Stippling doesn't work very well as it's too faint, so that ended up as dashes. I don't think blending works too well with this medium because of its blotchy style, instead it seems easier to blend very gradually with similar tones rather than blend straight from orange to purple, for example. 

Coloured Pencils

These were great in every way except for standing out like the other mediums! The best detail can be achieved with these, although they are very time consuming on a large composition. Blending worked really well as light applications can be used to layer the tones. On/off pressure techniques work excellently for a natural look. I used a twisting application where I held the pencils from the top for less control, using on/off pressure techniques (see the third picture with the blue and purple lines). This technique would be great for any natural looking lines like thin twigs on a tree, or for hatching an area. I tried a several shading techniques, using concentrated pressure down to shading on the side of the pencil very lightly. Stippling wasn't quite strong enough for anything to stand out, but would probably be great for an area in the background of a composition. The only thing with these is that they don't stand out as much as other mediums, but then again, this would be more suitable for a natural effect. I think creating a large area of one colour may also prove difficult!

Soft Pastels

These were great for blending, though very messy, so planning ahead would be essential with these. Again, as with crayons, detail would be hard to achieve. But on a larger composition, because they are so easy to use to create dynamic tone, a good drawing could be achieved with a natural blending of colour. 

Oil Pastels

I think these will take a lot of work to use on an image because of all the layering that needs to be done. But I have realised from the experiments that simple can be better, so I need to get myself out of the detailed line drawing frame of mind, and concentrate on colour and tone more. Blending worked really well, and this medium seems to be the best for layering from drawing a line on top of a shaded area. I began to really like this medium after experimenting because of its vibrant colour, the control I can have with layers - a thin top layer line is independent of the bottom layer, which is great for the final layer of detail. Then, by using the oil pastel upright in circular motions, a blended layer can also be achieved. I didn't like the hatching method, as it looks too messy compared with circular layers. Stippling was bold, but thick. I tried the twisting method again as with the coloured pencils and this worked really well to create lots of texture and tones (the blue wave like pattern on the third drawing).

Exploring Coloured Media, first attempt

Exploring Coloured Media, felt-tip pens and crayons

Exploring Coloured Media, pencils, soft pastels, and oil pastels