Pages

Thursday 28 January 2016

Shell drawing

Three weeks in to the new term of the drawing course, and we have had the challenge to choose an object, divide our paper in to 4 sections ( whichever way we wished, but with straight lines only) and then draw our object using only line in one part, only tone in another, texture in the next and form in the last section.  We could use any medium we wished, wet or dry, but the drawing had to be very large, on at least A1 size paper.

I chose a shell, blurry photo below

20160128_110108

and the result is

20160128_123449

Furthermost left was line, the top section was tone, the middle was texture and the lower right part was form.  I got totally confused with form until I eventually realised that this had to be a combination of line and tone.  i used 4 grades of pencil, and about 5 different sticks of charcoal, both willow and compressed.

I can see now how my brain deceived my eye in drawing the inner curves of the shell  - drawn curving to the right at the topped, when they are clearly curving to the left. I need to write out the tutor’s mantras and recite them to myself at the beginning of each class:

- draw what you see, not what you know

- the light is your friend

- note down the light direction

- your object is sitting on something - what is it?

- a rubber is as important as a pencil or charcoal

Off to sharpen my pencils!

Monday 18 January 2016

Partial new life

Due to changes to the flightpaths into and out of Heathrow, and the increased noise disturbance caused, my family and I are in partial retreat to Oxfordshire. Our new house is a compensation for leaving behind friends of many years.  New life beckons for us, and also in the overgrown wilderness, dominated by a yew tree, that is our new garden.

Snowdrop January