Ex 2.3

Project 2 – Basic Shapes and Fundamental Forms

2.5.19

Part 1, Project 2, Exercise 3, Section 1 – Creating shadow using lines and marks

1. Pottery, part glazed jug

The first image was created with wet and dry charcoal powder, applied with a brush on a paper base with glued and ripped tissue paper to add texture to the background. I was not able to achieve fine lines, or much hatching to create any tone, the shading is largely in blocks.

However, my focus was to try and recognise the areas of dark, medium and light tone and not be distracted by the colour. There was so much variation in the glaze colour that it was hard, at times to work out what was tone caused just by light and shadow.

The second image used a fine pen on a similarly textured background. This had been prepared with newsprint, brown paper, tissue paper and graphite powder. The fine nib of the pen allowed for more subtleties of tones and hatching to create form and tone.

I was curious about what would show as light and dark in a black and white photograph, having completed the drawings. It was good to do this extension having done the drawings to compare what I could see with what is shown in a toned photograph. I was relatively pleased that I did see and try to capture many of the tones.

The third drawing was with a dip ink pen and drawing ink. I was able to get lots of examples of hatching and cross hatching to build up tone. It was, of course harder to undo mistakes, and I had to keep working with what I had once the initial marks were made. The jug is too fat, and not very symmetrical . By contrast, the pencil version is a little too thin. I did want the drawing to be raw and instinctive and resisted any urges to rub out. I tried to work at speed. There is a greater ability to get more tones as the pencil can be used lightly and heavily in a way that ink pen did not allow.

The fifth version was on a textured background using charcoal. The lines are bold and chunky, but the proportions have worked well, as has the suggestion of form. The texture adds visual interest.

In all these drawings, recognising subtle variations of tone and shadow was challenging. I think familiarity with the shape of the vessel did mean that I gradually became more conscious of the light and shade on the 3D form.

The final version was with graphite sticks. This is the most pleasing drawing of the jug. The composition is interesting and almost defies gravity with its bottom in the air! The range of tones is effective. the shading helps ground the object.

b. Small wooden box

For this I used a wooden-drawing-lead-holder and two tones of brown creatacolor leads. I was able to get shading with hatching, but I did then blend some of the marks with a stub.

It was a small object and drawing and the marks made by the tool were relatively large. I was surprised at how the tone changed even on one plane.

Again I was curious about how the tone would look on a photograph of the object. The photograph was taken from a slightly different angle, so the perspective is not quite the same as the drawing.

For the second exercise I was keen to ‘try out’ conte crayons as I had not used them before for drawings like this, only on larger scale, life drawing classes. I used a black, and two browns. although I could ‘see’ the tone more easily on this one colour box it was still challenging to represent, particularly with such a chunky tool. I think I will try this again with a pen, perhaps a biro.

On reflection I think for this exercise I should not have done that, but left the raw marks.

Exercise repeated with fine black drawing pen. With this version I was able to use hatching to achieve tone and variations in tone much more successfully.

Reflections

Value of Exercise?

• Permission to draw just one object and look really closely.
• Not worrying about making an ‘interesting’ composition.
• Separating tone from colour.
• Repeated drawing of an object leads to a greater understanding of its form.

What did I learn?

• About the wide variety of tones that can be found on one plane.
• The softer drawing tools like charcoal and conte crayons did not lend themselves to hatching on small scale drawings
• To not ‘fuss’ and accept that what I draw is ok. This is a learning journey and I do not need to strive for perfection.

Future ideas and wonderings

• Enjoying the excitement of ‘just drawing’ and not worrying what happens.
• Experiment with developing a looser, more instinctive response

17.5.19

Part 1, Project 2, Exercise 3, Section 2

Drawing a small collection of objects, using the skills built up from the previous series of exercises, using lines and marks to create form.

I chose this dip pen and drawing ink medium as I knew it would force me to be more decisive about my mark marking using hatching and cross-hatching to create and suggest form and make the objects more believable as 3D shapes.

I was conscious to try and minimize the drawn outlines where possible, and did try to vary the pressure and in places just suggest edges of shapes by the direction of tone lines. However, where the shape really stood out from its background (ie. the pestle) the lines were stronger and bolder.

I chose items with a range of textures and that would reflect and absorb light differently.

Reflections

Value of Exercise?

• To choose a suitable media and explore the effects of creating shadow using lines and marks.
• To demonstrate prior learnings about creating tone, in a composition with more than one object at a time.
• To show the relationship between objects, considering composition, negative and positive shapes and how the objects, light and shadow relate to and impact upon each other.

What did I learn?

• Again I am surprised by the range of tones in the shadows, and the reflected light within the shadows too.
• I enjoy using pen and ink as a drawing medium.
• This was a quick drawing to do, and although I drew a framework for it in pencil, it was rendered without fussing about perfection, readily in ink.

Future ideas and wonderings

• Try using white ink on black paper.
• Might I be able to use black paper and white ink as a part of my assessment for this unit?
• Continue to explore how to create form without necessarily using outlines everywhere.

Review of Exercise 2 – Observing shadow using blocks of tone and Exercise 3 – Creating shadow using lines and marks

Question: How difficult did you find it to distinguish between light from the primary light source and secondary reflected light? How has this awareness of tone affected your depiction of form?

Identifying light from the primary light source on the object was relatively straightforward and obvious to see. I used light from a window and a lamp on each compositon, both coming from the same direction. In some of the forms the windows can be seen, but the lamp cannot, although it is evident where the light is shining. When I squinted at the objects it was easier to determine the areas of light and shade created from the primary light sources.

In exercise 3 – creating shadow using lines and marks, the shading was at times quite primitive, lacking subtlety. Arguably that has a quality of its own, and we were encouraged to work at speed and respond more instinctively. The materials I used to create these comparatively small sketches were relatively chunky. However, in exercise 2 the drawings were no longer A5 or A4 size, but a much bigger A2 size. In terms of relative size of the media this meant that there was more scope to create subtle tones with more variation. Having a toned background allowed for charcoal to be lifted to create more emphasis on the lighter tones.

The reflected light was more challenging to identify and render. Squinting at my objects to try and find the variations caused by secondary reflected light was less effective as the tones were often more subtle. The reflected light often curved around forms and was also in shadows creating a variety of lightness and darkness, sometimes in quite unexpected places, and it was also affected by how reflective the forms themselves were. It was perhaps even more noticeable where there was more than one object in the composition. I had to forget what I expected to see, or thought I knew and really observe and try to record subtleties in tone where I could see them, even if I could not always explain why it was there.

Rendering this reflected light seemed to have a more noticeable effect in creating the form of the object. It gave it a greater dimensionality, making it look more 3 dimensional. It often gave the drawing more life, and helped it stand apart as an observed drawing rather than something that might have been created from imagination.

The significance and impact of identifying and rendering the reflected light was something I became increasing aware of as I progressed with my drawings.