Pt 2, Pro 3, Ex 1

Project 3, Ex 1. Still Life using line  

28.6.19

My initial thoughts were to draw a branch of the gorgeous pink roses we have in our garden using an ink pen. I also broke off a little hydrangea stem to add to the drawing. It was an instant composition and I just ‘went for it’. I hinted at shadow with some graphite powder to ground the objects a little more.

I didn’t particularly like the drawing once I had finished it, feeling it was unexciting. However, now, the next day, I can see that it is quite a sensitive, literal representation and I like it somewhat more. 

I decided to try another drawing, using a biro to draw a group of vegetables.

I was pleased with the variety and weight of lines, suggested textures and patterns, with the nearer items having a stronger line, and the objects at the rear receding into the background. I did feel the drawing was too crowded and there was not enough negative space in the picture. I wanted to revisit the composition and give a little more consideration to options beyond white paper and a black line.

Experimenting first with composition I quickly decided that a portrait composition seemed more dynamic. I also wanted to try a drawing that looked down on to my subject a little more. 

The leek being vertical did not work, but I continued to find a combination I liked that had cropped aspects and more interesting negative spaces.

I initially decided to use some coloured cartridge paper. However, when I tried to draw on it with an ink pen, it did not work well. The full wet nibs tore up the paper and clogged the nibs. 

Using some new Tombow coloured pens in the rough sketches, I liked the idea of doing an initial drawing in one colour and then using a stronger one to redraw with more accuracy on top of the original one. The orange and brown combination was interesting but the blue and pink really ‘zinged’ for me. 

I wanted to explore this with coloured inks and dip-pens and then experimented with what I could do to knock the white of the paper back. I would have liked a beige smooth paper, but not having that I tried some different strengths of thin washes of brusho ink on white card. I liked this, but wanted a background colour that wasn’t perfect, but rather distressed, to add to the lose style of drawing I was hoping to achieve. Knowing how messy and blobby ink can be to draw with I wanted to echo that in the background too.

I had acrylic inks and drawing inks in a couple of different possible colours. I decided to stick with the drawing inks as they flowed a little easier in the extreme heat of the day here in France.

The first drawing was in pink ink. 

Then, looking much closer at the objects in front of me and trying to be more aware of relative spaces I redrew on top of this with a blue ink.

The second, in blue. 

It is a lively drawing. At times, using the ink and pen was frustrating as it did not always flow as I wanted it. However, this in itself creates an interesting aspect to the pictures. Even when the redrawing was different from the first, it seems to add more of a sense of 3D to the image, or perhaps even create an ‘out-of-focus’ feel. 

Given that the exercise is about line, textures and pattern, it works well with that. 

To ground the objects I used a thin wash of purple ink… a mix of the pink and blue used to draw the picture.

Value of the exercise?

• To create a drawing that stands alone without tone, and still creates images of 3D shapes, highlighting shape, pattern and texture. 
• To relate the images to the background with limited use of tone?
• Carefully consider alternative viewpoints and compositions.
• Consider the impact of positive and negative space on the strength of the composition.

What did I learn?

• Vary line thickness and strength to create visual interest and differentiate between foreground and background, and areas of shadow and light.
• Consider alternatives to plain white paper as a base on which to draw.
• Drawing with ink pens can be really frustrating, although the effect can create a loose, lively drawing.
• It is ok to have blobs, ink runs and smudges sometimes. The imperfections can make a work interesting.
• Drawing on top of another drawing can be effective.
• I enjoyed being ‘freer’ with this work and was more ‘excited’ by it as it was created than I had been with the more conventional earlier drawings. I feel it is more expressive.
• I was more confident with the second blue ink drawing as there were already points of reference with the pink ink and the scale was established. I was then able to concentrate on refining the shapes as they were in front of me.

Wonderings for the future

• I drew here twice in the same media, maybe it would be good to explore drawing more than once in different media in the same picture. 
• Can I get a new dip ink-pen nib that flows more smoothly, consistently and is less frustrating that the ones I have?