Thursday 21 May 2015

Develop your drawing 3 : Tone and composition

 Another week , another still life- getting rather familiar with some of the objects like that quirky wooden spoon!
 The warm up exercises this time to follow the outline of all the shapes while not looking , like city skyscapes. Then using  broad side of the charcoal to find the main shapes and explore composition using a viewfinder
 The final sustained drawing involved covering the A1 sized piece of paper with charcoal and rubbing it around to give a mid tone. Then to use erasers to carve out the white areas and charcoal to add the darkest. I got a bit carried away with a painterly range of tones which was not as effective as where others had stuck to the brief of just black white and 1 grey. Pleased with the spoon though! A bit frustrated  with the limited range of marks possible with an eraser. I like charcoal better now I'm wearing  nitrile gloves and not getting so messy but do lose some sensitivity of mark.
I   chose the colander for the positive/ effects of white holes on a dark background and dark holes on white ( and the interesting shadows ) but didn't have the tools to achieve that ( and we were supposed to be looking at the larger shapes rather the detail). I was really flagging by the end of the session despite coffee and Portuguese custard tart, it's hard work standing at an easel for 3 hours  but revived at the thought of playing with my collagraph plates .

1 comment:

Linda B. said...

Leaving aside the pure envy I feel for being part of this exercise I love what you have achieved. Because I can't compare your results with those who did as they were told (Hurrah Mags for doing otherwise!) I can only admire your results.