LizCoppock-Learning Blog: Drawing 1: Projects prior to Assignment 1

November 28th, 2011

I have just started the OCA Course, Drawing 1 and this is my Learning Log for recording my progress. I have done several art courses previously and I am hoping this course will consolidate my experience and help me to find new and more original ways of making art.

Project: Mark-making and Tone

Although I have been drawing for many years I had never really experimented much with holding the drawing tool in different ways. When I did this I found it made a difference in the emphasis of the mark. Holding it at the end or on it's side tended to make a looser, softer mark. The amount of pressure was the most important factor but many variations of marks can be achieved in other ways.

I enjoyed experimenting with different media: graphite pencil, pen, charcoal, oil and soft pastels, coloured pencils and combinations of all these. Charcoal makes a softer more sculptured look with big tonal contrast, pen is more dramatic and pencil is very versatile and can be used either aggressively or delicately. Colour adds another dimension which can divert attention from the form of the marks themselves to the play of colour. The subject matter would determine the best choice of style. When doing the doodles I found it helped to have an image or emotion in the back of my mind.

Different shading experiments

Charcoal

Mixed media experiments

Research Point: Van Gogh Drawing

I looked up Van Gogh on the Wikipaintings.org website and was enthralled by the number of drawings I found, most of which I hadn't see before. In all there were nearly 2000 works to see and looking at them in chronological order one could observe the development of his artwork. I was amazed at the number of works he produced in such a short span of time. He was very skilled in using different kinds of marks and lines to express the atmosphere of the subject matter.

Rocky Ground at Montmajour -Vincent van Gogh

Project: Basic shapes and fundamental form

I found the exercise of drawing a heap of books more difficult than I anticipated. Getting all the angles right needed careful observation. I went on to do the 'Jars and bottles' exercise, first carefully in pencil and then very quickly in felt pen. I did a coloured 'Supermarket shop' still life using soft pastel which I felt was successful. The proportions were right and the composition wasn't bad.

Books and box

Jars and Jugs

Quick sketch with felt tipped pen

Supermarket Shopping

Project: Tone and Form


Tonal Study in Pencil Research point - Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was a French artist who was best known for his symbolist paintings. Quoting from Wikipedia.... 'Redon described his work as ambiguous and undefinable. "My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined." He wanted to "place the visible at the service of the invisible". His process was explained best by himself when he said:"I have often, as an exercise and as a sustenance, painted before an object down to the smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an unsatiated thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of the forms and I was then reassured and appeased."' I personally like his work very much. Some of it is very grotesque and the stuff of nightmares, particularly his black and white drawings. Other work, mainly done in coloured pastels, is delicate with a pleasing use of colour. He produced some very fine flower paintings as well as symbolist genre works. The Mystical Knight - Odilon Redon The Laughing Spider - Odilon Redon Flight into Egypt - Odilon Redon Project Reflected Light Charcoal is good for producing the strong contrasts and highlights which make the drawings more interesting. It requires careful observation to delineate the many shades of light and dark. When drawing shadows and reflections it's necessary to think about where the light is coming from whether it's the primary source or reflected light. Exercise: Study of light reflected from one object to another. Exercise: Shadows and reflected light and shade Negative and Positive Space Research Point - Patrick Caulfield 1936-2005 Patrick Caulfield had a distinctive style using flat areas of colour and black lines to simplify his subject matter to it's most basic form. The style was much like a sign painter or illustrator. I like his clean crisp forms and find them mentally refreshing and clarifying. Still Life by Patrick Caulfield White Ware screen prints by Patrick Caulfield Drawings in the style of Caulfield's White Ware