Ex 2.1

Project 2 – Basic Shapes and Fundamental Forms

Part 1, Project 2, Exercise 1, Section 1 – Groups of objects

I selected store cupboard things that had a variety of shapes and textures, and were made from a range of different materials.

I drew some thumbnail sketches to experiment first with composition. The initial sketch overflowed the page. Whilst that can make an interesting composition at times, I felt for this exercise, I would lose too much information, such as in shadows, reflected light and form.

I tried a second time with a conte crayon and one again ran out of space. I decided to experiment with sitting back from the arrangement.

I decided to try sitting much further back from the arrangement hoping it would be easier to capture an overall sense of scale that fitted the paper I I was using. I also took a few moments before drawing to visually, with a pencil held at arms length, compare the width to the height of the arrangement, and then lightly drew quadrants into my initial sketch to help with the position on my paper. Until I did this, I hadn’t recognised that the composition was virtually a square… the same width wide as it was tall. Knowing the requirement of this task was to complete an A2 drawing I recognised that this format would not be suitable for that.

For this second viable arrangement I was focussing on the relationships between objects, negative spaces and directional lines and how they all related to each other. Again, drawing the quadrants to double check positions and relationships was the first step. This really helped ensure that the objects were in their correct relative positions. I have left these planning lines and errors in the drawing to show how the drawing evolved. Whilst all the objects are ‘in’ the frame, I am still not ‘filling’ it as much as I would choose to.

I used a monolith 4B drawing stick for this and liked the sharp point and the way I could ‘feel’ my way around the drawing with a light touch and yet still leave all the marks. I started at the centre of the composition, and worked clockwise from ‘12 o’clock’ at the top. I constantly rechecked the relationship of each item to those already drawn.

On reflection, I will try a different composition as I do not like the butter and the pasta simply ‘facing’ the viewer. I would like to see a greater variety of angles.

I liked this third arrangement, particularly the triangle of negative space in the middle of it, which allowed the pasta bag to have a diagonal lean. The drawing was made directly with an ink pen drawing ink and I enjoyed the experience of carefully thinking about each mark and where it should be in relation to all the others before I made it. I think that experience was more intense than simply sketching with pencil, as every mark counted. I think it also made for quite a lively final image.

Not being experienced with drawing using this media, I started at the centre and worked out to the left side and then the right. This meant as my hand lent on work I had just drawn, the ink smudged… a learning curve about how best to work with ink. Either I need to wait for ink to dry, or try a piece of blotting paper if necessary, and as much as possible, work from left to right in the drawing.

As the purpose of this line sketch was to find a pleasing composition prior to doing the A2 drawing, I did not spend any extra time adding in shadows. I was happy with this composition.

The final A2 drawing was done with a 1mm Edding pen and a fine black 0.5 edding washable pen. It was drawn on a large piece of cardboard. I wanted to experiment with a visually lower contrast than black ink on white paper, so used a buff colour background, and one that would take the pen well. I did lightly sand the cardboard first as it had a bit of a sheen and I wanted the pen to be absorbed into the cardboard. I was really pleased with the final result and liked the interplay between the two thicknesses of pens.

The forms work well and I think there are visual clues to help describe the form and texture of each of the objects. There is a hint of background  in the diagonal line behind the pasta that draws the eye in, and the objects are grounded with their shadows, although these do not overpower the composition. The bottle on the right just falls out of the page, but I feel it works in this composition.

The second part of this exercise was to redraw the objects as if you could see through the forms to the spaces inside. I tried to suggest the shapes at the back by using a lighter line, and the ones at the front with a bolder line.There are some interesting shapes created with the jar and bag of pasta in particular.

Reflection

Value of Exercise?

• To draw big
• To draw quickly
• Experimenting with compositional sketches
• Drawing in proportion
• relationship of objects to each other.
• Importance of negative space in composition
• Developing confidence with media

What did I learn?

• I had never done such a big still-life drawing before. I found it challenging, really enjoyed it and am pleased with the results.
• The importance of experimenting with composition through small, quick sketches before deciding on what works best whilst aligning with requirements of the task.
• Be adventurous with different surfaces on which to draw.
• Measuring relative proportions with a pencil at arms length before drawing.
• The advantage of using a loose quadrant grid to help with initial positioning.
• Standing and positioning easel carefully to maximise viewpoint

Future ideas and wonderings

• What aspects can I take from this exercise into my assessment for Part 1, Form and Gesture… perhaps using a variety of bases to draw on in one composition?