1 October 2009




Course work: Completed the second drawing for the final exercise in Assignment One. Total drawing time for this one was about seven hours, again much over the estimate in the course material.



Reading:



Betty Edwards, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Penguin-Putnam, New York, 1999

Chapter 8 (pp 38-158)





Personal sketchbook work: Another try at the moccasins I drew so badly last night; only marginal improvement. An exercise from The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, (done in the companion workbook).



Assignment One (Check and Log): Upon review, I think that I chose the best of my studies to develop as a complete drawing. However, in retrospect, I could have made a better arrangement of the seashells used in the first drawing. I think that the large drawings do provide an accurate interpretation of the still-life groups. My selection for significance was made during the studies stage, and once I had decided what to include, I made no further changes: this may suggest a certain rigidity in approach of which I need to be aware. The drawing fit well on the A2 paper, as the studies had been done on paper of the same proportion. I would not have wanted to work on paper any larger, as completing drawings of this size was a larger task than I had anticipated. I do not think that I had major problems in drawing in these exercises.



Comments on Assignment One as a Whole: The initial mark-making exercises were interesting, and led me to use media I had used little or not at all before. The basic shapes exercises were less interesting, in part because the provided information was unclear in places. Tone and form was an interesting section. Reflected light was rather challenging, and I hope that I interpreted the instructions correctly. I enjoyed the still life section, though I thought the negative space exercise was a bit cursory. The exercise on using textures was interesting, although I found the exercise on page 28 to be unclear. I was comfortable with the exercises on enlarging an image. My tonal work has definitely improved. Overall, I found Assignment One usually interesting, occasionally confusing, and infrequently frustrating. The 108+ hours I spent on this assignment was time well-used.



Total time: About 1 ½ hours