Exercise 1, Developing your studies
The biggest frustration and disappointment for me in the previous studies was my apparent inability to draw clouds that looked real and were not overdramatised. The darks were invariably overdone and the mid tones lacked enough variety and sensitivity. The edges of the clouds were very primitive. In light of this I decided to try and create a landscape with a dramatic sky, in monochrome (almost) as sensitively as I could with a broad range of mid tones. I decided, in light of Celim’s work to use graphite pencil.
I am currently reading a book by Juliette Aristides called ‘Classical Drawing Atelier’ and she talks about how a mid tone can ‘appear’ to be very different dependant upon what tones are around it:
This was a very powerful visual for me and prompted me to create my own greyscale as reference before I began tackling the artwork.
I began a rough in my sketchbook to see if this ambitious task was doable. I quickly learned that I had to lay all the light tones down first as the dark tones smudged very easily and it was hard to pull that back. The photo I have of this scene is amazing. It was taken on an iphone on a ski trip.
I love how it looks like a black and white photo, and yet the girls pink jacket in the lower right corner shows it is not.
In light of this initial experiment I decided to just lay a light tone all over which would allow me to lift out the white sunlight. I would then build up the background tones in layers, and try to avoid using the softer ‘B’ grade pencils. I hoped to be able to use some of the harder grades of pencil at the end, and make the marks darker for the foreground trees and characters to reduce unwanted smudging from softer graphite. Smooth white card was the base. I was aiming for a subtlety of tones using my tone scale as a reference.
I decided early on, compositionally, to just include two of the characters; the man by the tree, facing into the picture and the female on the right. I also wanted to keep her pink jacket. I felt the two characters could be part of a story, up on top of the mountain together in a beautiful dawn. His character also appears to lean towards her as the posture of standing in ski’s is liable to do.
Both the tree and the man were about a third of the way into the picture. And the emerging sun was in the top third of the picture, slightly off-centre. The distant mountains allowed for opportunities to demonstrate aerial perspective.
I spent a lot of time continually tweaking the relative tones in the sky, and only when I was totally happy with the background did I introduce the tree and the other character. I was pleased with the patterning and texture of the distant trees. The cloud in the valley has also proved effective.
Careful and intentional as I was, I still found creating a realistic sky very challenging. It is certainly an improvement on my earlier attempts, but even yet, I feel the transitions between clouds lack the finesse I was aiming for.
I am still pleased with the attempt. My tones are certainly a lot more subtle than my earlier skyscapes, but arguably they are too subtle now and the picture has lost a lot of the drama that the photograph had.
It has been a learning journey attempting this. I learned a lot about blending with the pencils and a torchon, and gentle, controlled use of a putty rubber. I also can see the value of using a tone scale when undertaking tonal drawings or paintings. I can also see, however, the importance of standing back and reflecting upon the tonal contrasts before taking the drawing to its conclusion. In this case, now that the dark tones in the foreground have been added I would not be happy to revisit and darken the tones in the mountains in the background for fear of the smudging that would cause.
Once again, I find myself in awe of Vija Celims magnificent skyscapes.
References
ARRISTIDES, Juliette, (2006), ‘Classical Drawing Atelier’, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, Location 1123 of 2638 (Kindle edition)
Ex 2, Foreground, middle ground, background
For this I had an image of a path through a forest, leading uphill to two trees in the mid ground and a further tree line in the background. I wanted to work in pastels and keep the image loose.
Working from a photo on a computer is very small scale and I find leads to me rendering quite tight work. I was keen to experiment with something bigger and bolder.
Using a projector, I projected a big image onto a wall and set up my easel and A2 board and paper beside it.
I created the background first and moved forward in the picture. This helped me to build up the relative tones as I worked towards the foreground. I used a selection of oil pastels (berol, craypas and neocolor). However, as the drawing grew I developed a distinct preference for the Neocolor pastels. I have a limited range of these, but will be adding more to my Christmas list. They went on the paper in a more satisfying way and blended well with each other.
I needed several sessions at this to reflect and decide what was working and what needed more attention. The foreground was more tricky with the variety of colours and tones required in the dappled sunlight, and my limited range of Neocolour crayons meant that a lot of overlaying different colours was necessary to achieve the effects I was after.
Starting at the background, the marks I made were very light and loose and ‘airy’.
The colours throughout the artwork were not simply large blocks of solid colours. It was not a conscious decision to use these broken marks, it just happened as the drawing grew, and I liked the effect. As the mid and foreground developed I was keen to continue in this manner. Fortunately, the buff colour of the background paper permitted this image to be more successful, so much so that I believe any other background colour would not have worked with this technique.
The mark making became even more distinctive in the foreground. It also creates a sense of movement in the dappled light of the sun shining between the trees. This diminishing ‘patterning’ adds to the sense of depth in the picture. The mid ground recedes into smaller marks, and then into the blended light green field in the distance.
A predominance of blues, and cool greens were used in the shadowy foreground, moving to paler, but brighter greens as the sense of distance deepens, and then muted blue-greens in the background.
I feel this is a vibrant and animated sketch which is best viewed from a distance rather than close-up. I had to persevere to work through my doubts as I worked, about how effective it was going to be. It was a challenging and exciting exercise.
Reflections:
In response to my tutors comments:
TUTOR: Looking at composition, the picture I find most successful is the larger drawing of the tree and pathway in Foreground ,Middle-ground and Distance, The marks made for the trees and ground area are particularly good and I like your reference to Seurat. However, the insistent green of the distant field comes forward too much and should be broken up more in line with the rest of the picture. To create more distance according to Arial perspective, the darkest areas should be at the bottom of the picture and tonally the picture would decrease as it moves towards the distance.
MY RESPONSE: I will look at this and can try mute the brightness of the field to ‘push it backwards’, visually. I was really pleased with the mark making in this picture and the use of short broken lines rather than blocks of colour. It was a new way of working for me, and proved effective for this subject and reinforced the idea of dappled light through the trees on a brisk Autumnal morning.
I have since moderated the vibrant green of the distant field and also added some cooler blue and purple hues to the distant trees to emphasize how far away they are. The field colour is more gently and less attention-grabbing, and helps pull the image together holistically.
Fortunately, the buff colour of the background paper permitted this image to be more successful , so much so that I believe any other background colour would not have worked with this technique.
Reflections on Ex. 1, Developing your studies, and Ex. 2, Foreground, middle ground and background (p70)
How did you simplify and select? Were you able to focus on simple shapes and patterns amid all the visual information available to you?
For the snow picture much of the simplification was achieved by creating a sense of things, like the trees, through texture with gaps to break up the tones and create an allusion of distant forests. Similarly the texture of the foreground is hinted at with very fine mark making, smudged into the foreground and by lifting out ski tracks with a putty rubber. In this composition I wanted to create the notion of a story with two characters, one of whom is clearly a female. For this purpose, the other figures in the photograph were eliminated.
In the second picture, the suggestion of leaf shapes, trees, branches, puddles etc are created through layered small, almost impressionistic marks on the paper. The near trees and foliage are not clear individual trees, and hopefully the volume, colour and apparent texturing will create the image of a thickly wooded copse. The distant trees are more literal.
How did you create a sense of distance and form?
In both these pictures, the tone lightens over distance. In the second picture, the use of colour is another tool to suggest distance. The bolder colours are in the foreground, and they get lighter in colour and depth and vibrancy as they recede.
In the first, the mist hanging in the valley divides the foreground and background. The mid ground is represented by a paler version of the tree that features in the foreground, and is also positioned as if over the slope of the hill.
Were you able to use light and shade successfully?
Light plays a significant role in both pictures and serves to create and define shapes and forms, whether by highlighting, silhouetting or shining through branches.
In the first, the radiating suns’ rays lead the eye to the character, almost silhouetted on the edge of the slope. The light seeps through all the clouds, and illuminates the whiteness of the sleepy mist in the valley.
What additional preliminary work would have been helpful toward the larger study?
I feel I did substantial ‘preliminary work’ for the ski picture with the series of sky pictures completed in previous exercises. It was in light of these attempts that I found so unsuccessful, and seeing how beautiful Celim’s skyscapes are, that I was inspired to try again and be much more subtle with the tones. In hindsight, I think perhaps the range of tones does not have enough contrast over the whole picture, the foreground in particular.
The second picture was an experiment in itself that I was prepared to use as preliminary work if it hadn’t worked as I hoped. However, I was pleased that it did work out, and I learned a lot about the effectiveness of using broken bits of colour to create an overall impact of more solid colours. I think I was somewhat inspired by having looked at Seurat’s black and white toned drawings on heavily textured paper, which gave the effect of broken blocks of colour on closer inspection.
Cathy's OCA Drawing 1 Blog 