Highs :
- Have made it through to the first assignment - have done more drawing in the last few weeks than I've done in my lifetime .And lots of firsts - A2, charcoal, thumbnails, value.......
- Can see progress - though find the size daunting,,,thought A3 was an ask...then challenged by A2 and can only gasp at the thought of A1 - the ultimate manification of error.
- Have (sometimes) managed to relax and enjoy it
- Love the connection I feel when I come across something I've used for a drawing
- Beats.laser treatment - like having new eyes...powerful images, shapes and shadows everywhere
- Research exercises...loved looking up the different artists and their techniques...intrigued by the different ( and sometimes difficult) personalities
- Struggling with the basics... have bought some drawing manuals, but need lots of practice - eyes are well closed, but not a lot of singing going on...
- Assignment drawings...thought I was making progress, but found these really difficult...couldn't relax into them and found I was doing preliminary drawings because I should , rather than in an explorative or interpretative way - hope this will come with time
- Difficulty getting decent manuals- used on-line sites for the first few exercises but wanted something I could refer to over time and/ or write on. Had no luck with the local book shops, library and can't find the reading list on the OCA website
- Negativity - hard to be objective,,,easy to list the litany of misses, harder to pick out the positives and what's there to build on
- Keep it up..Practice more...not just the prescribed material
- Positive approach....find the learnings in the drawings
- Get good reference material / manuals and locate OCA reading list
- Work on drawing with colour
- Experiment more with different media - charcoal, pen, washes
- Get lessons?
PROJECT : MAKING MARKS
Enjoyed these exercises - especially using different holds, making a variety of marks and trying out the different media.
Found the doodling a bit strange at first - lots of loops and circles - but had some large flip chart sheets from a previous life, so didn't feel so guilty wasting paper.
Did find I tended to default back to the "writing" hold unless I made a conscious effort to try something else.
Check and Log- How I held the pen / pencil made a big difference not just to how I drew but also to how I felt. Loose hold felt great, less controlled and more expressive or intuitive. Tighter hold felt more controlled - like draughtsmanship. Liked doing the broad expressive strokes, though found it difficult at the beginning to let loose.
- Different tools suited different mark making : fine pens and felt tips were best for detail, hatching and stippling. Charcoal, pastel and conte crayons were best for broader looser strokes.
- Sharp stabbing marks with the harder materials evoked anger or impatience, while more flowing marks and softer materials combined with a looser hold evoked contentment or curiosity.
- Once colour came into it, the combination of colours became important. Also I tended to try and fill the squares whereas sometimes less is more. Tried some exercises with coloured pencil - learning that I've previously only used these to "colour in"...I'll need to learn how to use colour to create depth and expression
- Most interesting / rewarding for me - experimenting with the different marks using charcoal and trying out the different holds.
Struggled with each of the exercises: found drawing the basic shapes difficult and couldn't make the drawings look solid.
Also, perspective was wrong on the boxes and books , ellipses were a challenge in jars and jugs and my colour drawing was cartoon like.Check and Log
- Objects are pretty much the correct proportions in relation to each other, but in the Supermarket exercise I drew them all too small - as if colour made them shrink.
- Shapes between the objects looked ok in jars and jugs but found it harder to get this right when doing boxes / books.
- It's obvious that I'm trying to draw 3D objects, but they're not convincing - they don't look solid and there's no real feeling of depth in the drawings.
Really struggling at the moment, really feel the lack of basic drawing skills. Have tried using on-
line tutorials and while they help, I need a seriously good manual
Check and Log
- Found it easy enough to distinguish between light from primary source and reflected light, but found it difficult to execute...using too much shading
- I have done some exercises to practice using values to indicate form - concentrated on basic shapes - cylinders, cubes and spheres, which I find difficult to draw anyway.
PROJECT - REFLECTED LIGHT
Enjoyed these exercises, though for my first drawing, all the objects I used had reflective surfaces.
Loved the charcoal...was initially daunted by the thoughts of it and the A2 paper, but really loved using it and the putty rubber which was great for highlights - as I usually don't leave enough (or any) white for them.
Check and Log
- I think I understand that reflected light and shade are part of the form while cast shadow is something the form creates. Reflected light was easier to pick out, but sometimes the shadow cast by one object on another was harder to distinguish from shade.
- I followed the contours of the object when shading or erasing to depict reflected light or shadow
PROJECT - STILL LIFE
Found the first exercise very difficult: my thumbnails were too large and took me too long. Having problems with drawing basic shapes and getting proportion right. Was tired by the time I started the composition and produced a very boring piece of work.
Had a fresh start for the Natural Objects - my drawing manuals have come and I've done some practice.
This went much better and I really enjoyed it...time flew.Check and Log
- Found it harder to suggest 3D on manmade objects...I'm not great at the initial outlines of symmetrical shapes and find natural forms more forgiving.
- I used shading and some hatching to give a sense of solidity. This worked best in the Natural forms where I used texture, shadows, highlights, reflected light and different values for the different colours.
- Some compositions seem to bring the shapes out at you and have more energy - I used the composition from my 3rd thumbnail as It was livlier and more solid than the others.
- I tried different positions and picked the one with an interesting perspective and good shadows.
Was surprised to find the excercises difficult and wasn't happy with them, but the drawing came out better than expected.
Check and Log
- Need to experiment more to find new ways to depict surface and texture - I think I'm being too literal in trying to draw exactly what I see, rather than suggest shapes and vales which give an impression of the surface and texture.
- I've had little success implying form with little or no hatching - I seem to overdo the shading
- I enjoyed doing rubbings to get different frottage effects but didn't incorporate them yet into my drawings
- The larger pictures looked quite similar to the smaller version.
- While similar, the larger image is like a paler version of the smaller image, with no real focal point. I went from square to square - next time I might try picking out and emphasising the key features and fill in the other squares afterwards.
ASSIGNMENT ONE
While I found these challenging and can see a lot of development areas, I can also see the progress I've made. To have completed the assignments at all is an achievement : when I first read through the manual, I couldn't imagine how I'd ever have done enough drawing and observing to be able to tackle preliminary studies and large drawings.
Check and Log
- Peliminary work : I did a lot, but not to best effect. Spent too long on the preliminary studies, but not sure there was enough compositional development in them. Also, as I'm not comfortable with using colour, so the studies weren't very explorative as regards media.
- The drawings felt stilted - they seemed to have less energy than the preliminary drawings. Also I was drawing at a table that got direct sunlight in the mornings when I drew, but the shadows kept shifting as I drew, so I found depicting light and shade very difficult.
- For both drawings, I included too many objects - in the Natural Forms, the orange is being squashed off the plate, while in the Made Objects, there's no real focal point . In both cases, fewer pieces drawn with more energy and sensitivity would have been more effective.
- I think the drawings fitted well on the A2 sheets - not sure larger would have been any better unless I sorted out the problems in the points above.
- I'm still having problems with draing shapes, hatching and using colour. I'm hioping that by practising and doing the exercises in the drawing manuals I've bought that I'll be able to overcome these difficulties soon and enjoy myself more
TUTOR REPORT
