Looking back to the warm-up and start of unit activities

(This post was originally written part way through the first unit of the course: 'Part one - Marks and lines'.) It occurred to me that I've sort of blundered forward a bit, churning out drawings without being very conscious about making use of some of the learning points from earlier in the unit and from … Continue reading Looking back to the warm-up and start of unit activities →

Choices

So, I think I've got a number of choices for making drawings, that is in terms of what I have ready access to. I am sure there are many more choices (e.g. collage). I've listed what these are below. Materials PencilPen (and ink)CharcoalPastels Scale A5A4A3A1 I suppose I could do A2 too. Just looking at … Continue reading Choices →

Charcoal drawing

I drew my first charcoal drawing of still life below. It's the same corner of the room I did in the previous pencil drawing. I did this one in charcoal over two days. It is on an A1 sheet of white paper and I used charcoal sticks and a putty rubber. I did briefly apply … Continue reading Charcoal drawing →

Another corner

This is another drawing of a room corner I completed today. It's another more careful drawing where I tried to get the level of tone right across the drawing. I realised for something like this that it was best to complete the drawing in one sitting otherwise the light inevitably changes (not to mention thoughtlessly … Continue reading Another corner →

Drawing large scale

Thinking about oil pastels again and colour I was struck by the contrast of the bright orange of a shaving foam tube against the bright blue cap of a plastic bottle in the corner of our bathroom. I thought these glossy man-made objects might come across quite well in the bright colours of oil pastels. … Continue reading Drawing large scale →

Hands

I like drawing hands - they're interesting. I pulled off some okay drawings of static hands about a month back - but there was something a bit staged and even dead about them - my favourites from that time adopted unusual gestures or views (e.g. upraised fist or open palm) or tried to incorporate some … Continue reading Hands →

Reading

Ossian Ward (2014) 'Ways of Looking - How to experience contemporary art', Lawrence King, London Michael Archer (2015) 'Art since 1960', Third Edition, Thames Hudson, London I have finished Ossian Ward's 'Ways of Looking'. That provides a short, pretty engaging overview of some key themes in contemporary art, illustrated with a number of examples. The … Continue reading Reading →

Oil pastels again

I've just finished drawing that same bowl of fruit, this time in oil pastels. Here is the picture: Bowl of fruit in oil pastels I think it's worth contrasting this to the original one I did with chalky pastels, so here is that one again: Bowl of fruit in chalky pastels I prefer the colours … Continue reading Oil pastels again →

Pen and ink

I tried using drawing pens and Indian ink applied with a brush this morning. I always liked the look of a water colour type effect combined with ink line drawing and wanted to have a go myself. Well this is a first attempt - a bit of a mess, but what did I learn from … Continue reading Pen and ink →

More corners

Here are a couple more sketches focusing on corners which I completed over the last few days. Again, I focused a lot on building up varying levels of tone. Maybe I'll try more line drawing or even contour drawing in the next few sketches.