Part 1 Form and gesture

Project 2, Exercise 1

Groups of objects

There were some key details in the requirements of this exercise: to choose a group of three dimensional objects – cylinders, rectangles, cubes etc and the less regular for example a plastic bag, netting etc., firstly work large, be imaginative in the surface types and colours, use just one colour, fill the sheet with the drawing, imagine you can see through the objects and to try to evoke some kind of expression in the marks made and the relationships you create inside and around the edges of the objects/picture plane….a great deal to think about.

I started off very wooden….creating a large charcoal drawing on a white textured surface. The drawing worked well but was in my opinion not very creative.

My second drawing was very loose – using a purple oil pastel on newspaper print – I did not choose the newpaper sheet well and I believe I used a colour that did not suit the background – I actually used two similar colours. Whilst not a good drawing it helped me think differently about the subject.

From the exercise text I thought about how the objects would look transparent – as if I could see each of them without form – just lines – more abstract. I chose a tinted slightly textured background and a soft yellow pastel for the medium. Again I tried to work quickly and with more freedom.

I was extremely pleased with this drawing as it was more imaginative and could easily be developed further as a coloured drawing/painting. If the lines were tighter and more controlled and the textures more detailed/intricate …… maybe later on I will return to this image!

Next I thought I would use my fineline coloured markers deviating from the one colour requirement. After finishing the drawing – I did not like all the white open space so painted over the whole drawing with a pale yellow acrylic drawing ink which smudged the fineliner marks (better to paint background first in future!) Then I tried to recover the highlights with soft white pastel, then the darks and mid range colour with more fineline marks…..not very succesful overall and I was very displeased with the drawing. This is a selection of the stages of this experiment:

Finally I decided to loosen up again and return to the newspaper print – this time being more selective in the page/background used and the medium colour.

These are the two final images for this exercise:

In the green image – I tried to use a page with just print but this was the only page suitable – and the colo colo badge/dark square below destract the eye a little.

I used several shades of green (not strictly one colour?) and was pleased with the effect created and the change of format to portrait worked well.

In the final black and white image the darkish grey background worked well – using a light grey charcoal – very fast and loose and without leaving the surface when mark making….at last I was trying to give the image some expression. I then worked over the image with white and black to bring the drawing to life. The background worked well this time, the portrait format also worked and my main criticism is that in trying to work loose I think I lost control of the drawing and my initial grey structure.

I found the subject easy to draw, but struggled with the balance of working loose/creative to achieve a more satisfactory result. I need to work on this in future exercises and in my sketchbook.

• Coursework
• Observing shadow using blocks of tone
• Part 1
• Project 2