Using different tools was very interesting and just playing around with them. Charcoal which I haven't used much in the past was fun and immediate. It helped me to work quickly and more freely, it also made me less worried about making mistakes and I tried copying a picture of William Heath Robison copied from a charcoal picture By Thomas Erye Macklin which just happened to be on the front cover on our local free magazine. It took me 15 mins and I was amazed how quickly I was able to work.
Stipling was quite intense and confined and not very effective with coloured pencil as not enough of the colour is deposited on the paper but great with pens and probably fun to do with paint.
I have played around with various tools and ways of using them and I will be referring back to these studies in the future.
Certain paper is better for some tools than others i.e. oil pastels which again I have not had much success in using in the past would sit well on a textured paper, pen and ink seems to be better in smooth paper. I also did a quick sketch of my husband again in charcoal at the computer and it was again very quick and easy to get the tones. I would probably use the charcoal when planning bigger pictures to get the feel of size and proportion.
I then went to basic shapes and fundermental form and was asked to draw books and boxes at different angles. I think that the boxes sit well together and I think I have got the perspective about right.
The next exercise was dealing with cylindrical objects. I began by drawing cylinders inside a box and concentrated on trying to get the elipses correct it was then repeated looking at the same objects but from a different angle. I enjoyed the exercise and it helped putting in the guide lines. Elipses are something I will really have to practise. I haven't quite got them right the pepper pot on the lower picture works.
I then used a number of objects to produce a still life in colour. I enjoyed using watercolour pencils which again is not something I am very familiar with. I found that once the pencil has been applied and water added the paint does not move around and and also deeper marks do not disappear and that could be useful to know when doing cross hatching and retaining the effect. I did not make a good job of the elipses and rushed them, so that was disappointing, but my drawing on the whole is improving as I am trying to sketch something everyday and the important thing I have found that I am tackling more complex objects with more confidence.
Tone and Form
This exercise has been quite challenging as I haven't done hatching in the past and I was asked to create tone using hatching in 5 cm boxes and then draw some simple objects usint hatching. I have continued to practice hatching in my sketches and it is becoming easier and it makes me really concentrate on the tone, where it is and how deep. I also tried a piece of fruit using watercolour pencils and it was for me a reasonably sucess. It is also important to know where the light source is coming from, I started one sketch in the morning and left if unfinished till the afternoon using natural light but of course by the time I got back to my sketch the light had moved and was coming from a different angle. Moral of this story complete what you start in one go when using natural light!
I found using strip lighting that the shadows were not so pronounced on a flat surface and it was harder to pick out the medium tones.
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