Drawing
In week one, we investigated observation methods to place objects in space onto a 2-dimensional surface using line and comparative positional measurement. We further observed dark Areas of still-life objects to define them in space, and finally, we made light areas to inform the viewer of the space on a 2-dimensional surface.
Drawing week 1
Exercises in the first week of drawing introduced line and edges, light and shadow. In exercise one, we observed shapes and marked dark areas on still life objects to define form. I drew a cozy bedroom scene. I used this to help me with my resolved work number 1, The Royal Hotel, Queanbeyan 1927. In the following exercise, we experimented with two perspective drawings. I then read the recommended views of three artists on realistic drawing: Julian Meagre, Susan Kester, and Alexandre Granger. I used this advice to help with my perspective drawing. I am very interested in the focus as I strive to be a realistic painter. My art is realistic but still has a painterly feel. My art does not look like a photograph but with a connection to the object that a photo cannot capture. I spend a lot of time and observation on drawing an object’s detailed rendering, which is derived from contemporary figurative art. I use photographic images as a reference source, which I use to create detailed drawings and a more definitive style that is unlike photo realism but has an emotive narrative in its rendering. The exercises from this week helped me focus on drawing perspective and an interior space. As you can see from the photo of a bedroom scene from the illustration, I used lots of blending. I was happy with most of the drawing, except the chair, which appears to be floating. I think if I added a line where the wall and floor join, that this would anchor the chair in position.
These exercises were landscape-based. We were to draw in plein-air. I chose the view from my porch. It is a beautiful spot with lots of shrubbery and a bridge. I like the combination of nature surrounding a man-made object, the bridge. This compositional experiment. This activity was about moving away from realism into abstract art. It is more about the expression of the reproduction of the image. Experimenting with blocks of colour, which created a flat image, to create a dimension on a 2-dimensional surface. The first few exercises were to observe the shifting shadows of natural and manmade. I completed three basic sketches, spending just five minutes on each. I looked at the shapes of the objects. I find this step in my brain from imagining what the tree looks like, freeing it to observe from nature, not from memory. The exercises made us look at the foreground, middle ground, and background. They encouraged us to look at the view at different times of the day and observe the depth of the shadow. We also used portrait-style paper to complete this landscape and mark the highest point of the scene. I only marked in the shapes, not drawing what I thought was there, but breaking the image into shapes. Once I had completed the basic shapes in my resolved work number 2, I looked at the dark and shadow in more detail and added more ink.
Exercises week 4: Drawing Portraiture.
Week four exercises concentrated on drawing a portrait. Again, the use of mathematics in art to help with proportion and placing features appealed to my drawing style. I spent a lot of time drawing various faces using the facial guide lines and proportions:
- Eyes are halfway down the face.
- The face is 5 eye widths across.
- The underside of the nose sits halfway down from the eyes and chin.
- The inside of the eye runs in line with the edges of the nose.
- The pupils run in line with the outside edges of a relaxed mouth.
In addition to these instructions, I did further research using Realistic Portraits in Coloured Pencil by Karen Hull,2019, Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc. I observed facial changes from different ages and drew quick sketches. The face fascinates me, the multitude of expressions. I drew quick sketches of facial features. I observed facial changes from different ages, from infants to old age. I scrutinised the smooth skin of youth to the changes in collagen as the skin ages and begins to sag. As you can see from the resolved portrait, this has turned into a passion, and I was thoroughly captivated by the stages of age. I also learned a valuable lesson about why it was essential to fix the graphite before closing pages. I used these calculations to inform my consolidated drawing number 3.
Painting
Still life, painting from observation. I set up two objects for the week 2 exercises. A clear glass bottle and an opaque plastic bottle. The first exercise uses continuous line drawing with tones of black and white. I did the piece very quickly to capture the moment of the light hitting the objects of that moment in time. As there was one continuous line for each object, they were slightly off, creating a rough effect. The following exercise again used continuous line painting in solid blocks of colour straight from the tube with no blending. The two images overlap and create interesting shapes. The lines overlap and move inside and outside of each other. The fourth exercise involves negative shapes. This helped me to relate one object to another and to draw challenging results more easily. I found this quite an instinctive way of painting, just following the shapes, not acknowledging it as an object; this was useful for my resolved painting number one.
For this exercise, we looked at harmonious colours, complementary colours, warm and cool colours
We also explored the components of colour: factual—the colour in isolation, actual—where it sits next to the other colours and the relationship formed and personal – how the individual perceives the colour (perception of the colour).
Number 3 is of interest to me as I am colour blind. I know, crazy for an artist. I struggle to tell the difference between certain blues and greens, and when they are at a specific wavelength, the colour strobes between green and blue. I have learnt to just call it turquoise and move on. I enjoyed completing the colour wheels, choosing warm and cool colours, especially with the naturally warmer colours, like red and orange, and this exercise allowed me to see that a warm colour can also have cool tendencies. Exciting in these exercises was the phenomenon of colours when surrounded by another colour. In the two-colour squares, the placement of the two colours makes the other middle colours really pop and stand out from the page, whilst others seem to recede. This fascinated and excited me as I thought of all the areas I could manipulate with this process.
Exercise weeks 5 and 6. Abstract art.
I do not understand abstract art, so I was excited about doing these exercises. I was hopeful they would help me appreciate what I saw; I am a realist painter. I struggled with the apparent randomness of week five, but the inverting exercise allowed me to add more realism to an abstract painting and I learned a lot. The exercises have helped me develop a sense of composition and a greater understanding of colour and light and how to create depth and dimension. The masking technique in exercise one was advantageous. I have used masking tape in my watercolour art (e.g. horizon line for a seascape and creating a neat frame around the surface). So, using PVA or acrylic medium to seal the tape was an excellent tool for me. I find the exercise in the middle quite threatening, with its short stabbing strokes, and the painting is split in two, with the blue side being peaceful and the red side chaotic. I like this painting better than the resolved artwork number three.
