Monochrome
After some reflection, I decided that colour would indicate the subjects I was going to choose. I decided I would like to work with red tones, mostly because it is one of my favourite colours, and I also thought that there would be quite a broad range of ‘colours’ that would lend themselves to a red theme… eg, orangey-red, purple-red, brown-red etc.
With that as my starting point I continued to think about what objects might lend themselves to this brief. I chose some lovely, shiny cherry tomatoes and was excited about using half a pomegranate, perhaps making a feature of those shiny, red, juicy jewels within glinting in the light. I found a little earthenware bowl and a red pottery lid to serve as a plate for the pomegranate. However, on cutting open the pomegranate I was really disappointed to find that it had pale seeds, and browning paperlike inner skins. It looked quite ‘out-of-season’ and unappetising. This impacted how I explored setting up my arrangement.
My first composition included everything I had gathered. The arrangement felt, as first ones so often do, a little too predictable. Something needed to ‘fall out of the frame and I needed to experiment with the horizontal background line.
I wanted to try a similar arrangement in a portrait frame.
The slightly diagonal background was more interesting, but the composition felt very ‘busy’, like everything had been squeezed in..
The next arrangement quick sketch proved more interesting with a gap between the front object and the bowl of tomatoes. I like the diagonal composition, and the pomegranate disappearing in the back. Perhaps if I adjusted the lighting, this could ‘disappear even’ more. My reluctance with this composition was the poor condition of my pomegranate.
For the next set up I lowered the light conditions to explore how that would affect the still life.
Whilst it was ok to work on thumbnails in these conditions I knew creating more detailed work would necessitate me taking photographs. That would allow the light conditions to remain the same, and for me to see enough to capture the colour and tonal range. I was excited by these lower light still lifes.
I also decided to remove some of the objects and make it simpler. These inital explorations felt more ‘regal’ in their simplicity, and reminded me of some of the still-lifes I had seen with the dark backgrounds when I was researching the genre. In this thumbnail I felt the ‘pot’, the thing I was least interested in, dominated the image. Again the composition was very central.
Using my viewfinder, I explored different viewpoints and arrangements with just these two objects (the tomatoes in the bowl counting as one).
This arrangement focussed on what was important to me, the light and shadow on the tomatoes and the pomegranate receeding into the distance.
The next consideration was, what media to use.
I tried a small sketch with Faber Castell Polychromos, but am quite frustrated again that I can not seem to build up dark darks.
The Derwent Inktense and Staedtler karat aquarell pencils created a lovely image and worked well together giving a good range of tones. The Staedtler helps to moderate the sometimes ‘garish’ Inktense. I do like how you can lay a wash down and then colour on top of it to build up the layers.
In doing these exercises, I became really curious to find out if the arrangement would work tonally with a blue biro, and two tombow watercolour pens. I introduced a hint of red in one of the tomatoes. . It feels like a more ‘abstract drawing’ as the items are largely recognisable by their colour. Denying them that created more wonder perhaps. An enjoyable diversion.
None of these media seemed appropriate for this task.
I was conscious that I haven’t really used chalk pastels in my work yet, and I wanted to explore how these might work. I also have some wonderful carbothello chalk pencils which I have enjoyed using in the past which work well with them. I like that I can lay down large areas of colour with the pastels, add fine detail with the pencils, build up colours and also smudge and remove colours when necessary. They give me lots of scope for exploration.
I decided to give them a try. Starting out with a large piece of dark purple coloured paper with a tooth, to hold the chalk, I decided that this would be my next experiment, and if it went well, then maybe it would be my submission for this exercise, and if not, then it would be a ‘learning experience’.
I used my viewfinder to help me accurately draw up the arrangement, and chose a light coloured chalk pencil.
I built up blocks of base colour for each part of the composition, then began to add other colours and highlights on top.
I really enjoyed this exercise and am pleased with the resulting picture. It feels like it has a luxurious, comforting atmosphere. I think the essence of warm reds creates this comfort and perhaps the draped fabric in the background, reminiscent of heavy drapes adds to this atmosphere. The viewpoint ensures that the fruit is the focus of this exercise, and yet we see enough of the little bowl and the pattern to add some visual interest and contrast to the rounded, glossy forms of the fruits.
Value of exercise
To appreciate that an interesting and atmospheric image can be created with a very limited, or monochrome palette.
What did I learn?
- I was amazed at how effective a piece of artwork can be using one colour as the focus.
- I began to appreciate just how many ‘reds’ there are and how many colours can be blended in with reds to still create the image of red overall.
- I was delighted with the range of tones I was able to achieve.
- I enjoyed exploring lighting conditions as well as different viewpoints in my composition.
- I experimented further with set ups: different backgrounds, using a suitable fabric material, and a cardboard box, together with directional lighting to create the atmosphere I was after.
- Sometimes, really simple arrangements are most effective.
- Making use of what you have around the house, even if it means a bit of ‘rummaging’, creative thinking and repurposing objects and props.
- The media I chose was very effective for this still life. The pastels allowed me to cover large areas quickly and details were achievable with the pencils. These two media work very well together.
- On typing this up, I realise that I also really like the long, thin initial composition study where it is like a horizontal slice of the subject.
Wonderings and Implications for subsequent work
- To give more regard to further exploring lighting as an aspect of my compositions.
- Consider using reduced colour palettes
- Consider a long, thin, landscape version (as in the coloured rough), of this composition as a possible future exercise.
Cathy's OCA Drawing 1 Blog 