Page 1: Positive and negative space with natural objects (onion and champignons)
I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice getting the shapes of the champignons correctly, which I found difficult in the natural objects composition. I chose the same objects, 2 onions and 5 champignons, and placed them at the edge of the table, so that they would create an interesting upper and lower silhouette. I decided to use a 6B pencil and grey paper.
I did not find it difficult to get the shapes and proportions correctly. My major difficulty was to get back to the same level for the table line between the objects. After having drawn upper and lower silhouette, I tried to include some details of the objeccts’ insides. This was firstly their shapes, but also some stains and brown areas on their surfaces. I used fine lines and marks for these. I also drew the cast shadows, this time trying to make their contours less prominent. I made the lines somewhat darker where I saw stronger contrasts, and I applied hatching for the darker areas.
There is an unresolved issue with this: Sometimes, shading is used to indicate darker colour, and sometimes it is used to indicate shaded areas. I do not master this yet. For example, the onions were middle brown, and I should have given them a darker base colour than the broken white champignons. Also I still tend to exaggerate the mark making. My champignons are recognizable where the stem is visible, but otherwise they rather look like potatoes with their stainy surface.
On a more positive note, I like the composition of this study which suggests a very wide landscape format. Also, I think I have learned in the natural objects drawing that some fine lines can help to characterize an object, and this worked again in this drawing.
The pencil permits to have grey tones which works better with my (rather non-existent) hatching techniques. Had I done the study with a deep black pen or fineliner, I guess the same problem of too dark areas would have had appeared. Definitely an aspect to work on.
To improve, I have two ideas for now: One is to look at drawings or etchings which apply hatching techniques, and to see how other artists have mastered these problems. The second is to practice – finding my own way of doing it, but maybe also trying out different styles, using the inspirations from other artists.
Pages 2 and 3: Positive and negative space with made objects (mugs and bowl)
The second part of the task was to draw upper and lower silhouettes without taking the pen off the paper. I wanted to practice with a different arrangement and decided on two mugs and a bowl. I chose charcoal and the A3 sketchbook with natural white, medium grain paper. I repeated the first part of the exercise and drew upper and lower silhouette, then what was inside the objects. This worked quite well and I proceeded to the second part on a new page.
I found it difficult to find a visual reason for the charcoal to remain on the paper. My solution was to use some of the surface shading patterns to cross objects, or to draw a line for a second time. I liked the somewhat raw and unfinished character of the resulting drawing and resisted the temptation to correct errors, because I liked the somewhat peculiar character. Also, I did not continue to draw patterns of shade and light, because I thought this was not central to the focus on positive and negative space.
I felt surprisingly comfortable with this exercise – surprising because I had to draw defining lines with a deep black medium. I’d have expected more hesitations because in earlier drawings, I tended to begin with searching lines and it took me quite some time to find the defining contours.
Overall, this project (still life) made me realize that I need to work on my hatching technique. I think this came up because the topic demanded to depict objects realistically. I guess that a sensitive hatching technique should support the objects and be almost “invisible”, i.e. the observer doesn’t think about the hatching because his attention is on the objects themselves. By contrasts, a less-developed hatching technique and errors seem to divert attention, they are immediately prominent by the way they disturb the visual experience.
The second aspect I take away from this project is a developing interest in pastel drawing. The book by Bill Creevy has arrived this afternoon, and I’m looking forward to learning something about pastel techniques.