ASSIGNMENT 3: Observation in Nature

Saturday 21 November 2009



Course work: Started exploring the properties of my various colored media, working in my course sketchbook.



My first experiments utilized Derwent Coloursoft Pencils. I started off working in a 5 cm square, but quickly learned that I needed more space. I also learned that, surprisingly, slight dampening produces an effect quite similar to watercolor pencils. I sketched an orange, and worked at shading it, not very convincingly…it appears that sketchbook paper quickly takes up a maximum amount of pigment, and that adding more doesn’t produce very satisfactory blending. A tiny stylized tree was half-moistened, and half left dry, confirming that water does produce some blending and color intensification. An application of yellow over blue produced a green, but not a very strong green. Vertical stripes of yellow, orange, red, purple, and green were crossed with horizontal stripes of the same colors to assess opacity and miscibility: yellow, orange, and to a lesser extent red pick up significant amount of the underlying color. None of the colors is opaque enough to fully conceal the underlying different color. Color blending with a finger is not successful; rubbing with a paper stump produces a somewhat better effect.



A second series of experiments was carried out with Prismacolor colored markers. I have only the three primary and three secondary colors in these. The colors are very intense. Since these markers are solvent-based, they are water-resistant once applied. Application of one color over another does not yield very strong mixing; yellow over blue produces only a weak green. Mixing complements produces fairly strong neutrals (particularly strong with orange and blue). Use of a colorless blender results in some color mixture, but also lightens the underlying color, and produces a strong “bloom”. The back of the sketchbook page is worthless for further use, and at least two sheets of paper are needed beneath the “working” page in order to prevent marring of subsequent pages of the sketchbook with bleed-through. I understand that special paper is available for use with markers that minimizes some of these problems, but I don’t see these markers as being very useful to me: I’m glad I only bought a few to try.

Total time: 47 minutes