Exercise 2 – Still life in tone, using colour
I struggled to fully understand the requirements of this exercise as the instructions seemed to be contradictory. I interpreted that it was asking that each facet of the objects I chose to draw should be a different colour and yet regard should also be given to reflect the relative tones in the composition. This seemed a little at odds with the requirement to add ‘layers of colours’. I found when I started adding ‘layers of colours’ it then became more like a conventional drawing, and this exercise brief opens with ‘You’ll work very differently in this second still life exercise…’
My first attempt was inspired by the collection of objects that were randomly left on the breakfast table one holiday morning. So, working from life, with the objects directly in front of me, I began trying to identify different tones in the fruit, using different colours of pencils for each. Whilst it was a ‘doable’ task, I was not happy with the effect that was being achieved as the picture grew. It felt overworked and contrived.
I am still very much getting used to working with coloured pencils as a medium, and these new Prismacolor pencils in particular. I often admire examples of artwork I see on line and have watched numerous videos talking about the importance of layering combinations of colours down to achieve the most effective tones.
However, when it came to representing more subtle tonal variation in the glasses and white ceramic bowl and plate, I began to recognise that I wanted to blend the colours in a more conventional way. The anaemic and relatively colourless nature of these objects made this exercise more challenging when being required to work in this particular manner.
Having to tidy away this still life arrangement before I had finished the artwork, I took a photo so I would be able to return to it. However, I think because I was not happy with the artwork, I was reluctant to return to it. When I did finally bring it out to continue it, I felt no inclination to keep working on it, and decided instead to try a smaller, cropped version of the same thing, eliminating some of the neutral coloured objects. I intended, as the brief suggested, to try to be ‘spontaneous and energetic’. I kept my initial drawing fluid and loose, but once I returned to thinking about using a different colour for each tone, the effort of processing that and identifying the tones from the photo, the spontaneity of the drawing disappeared.
Review of Exercise 1, Still Life Using Line and Exercise 2, Still Life in tone using colour
What aspects of each drawing were successful, and what did you have problems with?
For both of these exercises, I enjoyed reflecting on the composition beforehand and whether it would make an interesting still life. The ‘breakfast materials’ arrangement, although random, felt pleasing to me. I also wanted to try and draw something that had the randomness of just ‘existing’ without consideration given to arranging something and continuously exploring alternatives to see if one was better than another. This freedom was quite liberating.
The ‘drafting’ stage was quite different for each of these exercises. In the first, the drafting was the actual drawing itself, using an ink pen that required a commitment to consider each line and the inter-relationships before it was drawn. I enjoyed this ‘scariness’ and also felt that paradoxically it was quite liberating. I think the loose nature of the drawing medium and the style I chose also encouraged more freedom.
In the second exercise, I used a blue pencil to draft. I drew two preparatory grid lines to split both the photo and the drawing into 4 parts. The sketch lines were loose, sketchy and fluid and this was completed relatively quickly. I was pleased with this aspect of the artwork and felt the scale and how the objects related to each other were an accurate reflection of the still life.
Did you manage to get a sense of depth in your drawings? What elements of the drawings and still life groupings helped to create that sense?
In the first drawing which focussed on line and pattern, some objects were in front of others which helped create a sense of depth, but I did feel the need to hint at shadow to ground the objects. Without this tone, some of the objects felt like they were ‘floating’. Adding this hint of tone helped to unite the objects, and highlight the relationships between them more making the artwork stronger. Combining the pink and blue inks used in the drawing to get a light purple, a colour often associated with shadow, was effective.
I also recognised that varying the thickness of line, with stronger lines delineating nearby objects and fainter broken lines being used for objects further into the background.
For the second exercise, a sense of depth is created by objects clearly being in front of each other, and in places, reflections of nearby objects are suggested in the colour and tones used of other objects.
What difficulties were created by being restricted to line or tone?
I enjoy using line in my art, and continue building strategies to develop and improve my skills in this. Of course, choosing an appropriate medium for the task is very important when using just line.
I found the ‘tone’ exercise created more challenges, and still required ‘line’ to add form to some of the objects, especially to the neutral colour objects. Perhaps the selection of objects I chose were not the most suitable for this exercise. I think man-made, coloured objects would lend themselves more successfully to this.
How did using colour affect your working method?
I am happy to use colour in general but found the instructions for this exercise meant that I was caught up in processing the instructions with every colour I chose and it was not a natural way of working.
I am still a novice in using coloured pencils and need to further explore which ones are most suitable for what task and how to get the most from each type. The other consideration is what support I am drawing on and what works best for each purpose. I was more pleased with the effect of the coloured pencils with the beer bottle and lemon activity I did at the start of this unit than in this latter activity.
Learning ‘after the exercise’
Strangely I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment when I was visiting ‘The Cubist Cosmos’ Exhibition at the Kunstmuseum in Basel. It was when I saw ‘the Book’ by Juan Gris that I wondered if this was a style of painting that would fulfil the requirements of Exercise 2, Still life in Tone Using Colour, the concept of which I struggled with. Each facet or plane of the objects are exaggerated and effectively have a different colour or tone or varying tone.
Is it more achievable because there are no ‘natural’ objects in the picture? I struggled to represent the fruit in particular, but maybe if I had exaggerated and stylized the planes this might have more achievable for me too?
Cathy's OCA Drawing 1 Blog 