Thursday 7 January 2009




Course work: Did three more preliminary marker drawings for the marker drawing portion of the exercise. This time I chose only three items: a large mango, a small lime, and a pear that had seen its best days. Each of these (except the mango) was predominately of a single color, and I finally positioned it so that only a little green was visible. After some experimentation I discovered that colored pencil would apply very nicely over the marker color, and could be used for shading, reflections, and color accents. I then proceeded to the A4-size drawing, which used marker, a small amount of pen and ink, and colored pencil. Having purchased a marker-paper pad, hoping (in vain) that the colorless blender would work in it, I did a second drawing of an almost-identical setup; a slip of the marker required correction that did result in a rather hypertrophied mango. The colored pencil did not work as well on the marker paper, and the resultant work was less satisfactory than the first effort.

Of interest, although the marker paper seemed to be of little value for use with markers, the smooth surface shows promise for use with graphite pencil, which lays down smoothly, blends readily, and erases easily. I’ll test it with fixative when weather permits.



From my efforts with markers, I have learned the following:

(1) Select subjects either of uniform color or with a sharp border between unlike colors (2) Don’t expect to have much luck blending colors (though one can superimpose unlike colors and get a mixture, the resultant colors often seem to defy the rules of color mixing; smooth blending at the border of unlike colors does not seem doable)

(3) Colored pencil works well as a color modifier. Some small experiments on scrap paper indicated that soft pastel, hard pastel, and oil pastel could also be used in conjunction with markers.

(4) Although I dislike markers less now than following my experiments at the beginning of this assignment, I think it unlikely that they will ever be a major part of my armamentarium.



Reading:



Kenneth Leslie Oil Pastel

Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1990

Pp 46-81



Personal Sketchbook work: In my pocket sketchbook, a little sketch of some of the branches of a tall shrub. In my A4 sketchbook, a last look at the pear that has served me so faithfully since 27 December 2009, done lightly with graphite and very lightly overworked with colored pencil.

Total time: 2 hours 57 minutes (71 h33m)

Wednesday 6 January 2010




Course work: Finally finished (I think) the colored pencil drawing of fruits and vegetables, which is fairly satisfactory considering my limited experience with the medium. If I were going to do it again, I would transpose the red pepper and the reddish-purple pear, as the latter loses conspicuity in the shadow of the other items. A total of about seven hours of drawing time was required for this approximately A4 drawing: I dread the forthcoming colored pencil drawing on A2 paper.

Did three preliminary marker drawings for the next part of the exercise. Two included three yellowish pieces of fruit and one green one. I found that the limited number of colors I have available, and the inability to blend them on ordinary drawing paper made differentiating between the lemon, the pear, and the banana possible only by shape. I then switched to some more color-differentiated fruits with somewhat better results. Blending is still not successful.

Reading:



Bernard Chaet The Art of Drawing (3rd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1983

Pp 79-112



Personal Sketchbook work: Did a little more work on the seemingly-endless colored pencil project workbook project started on 25 December.



Total time: 1 hour 21 min

Tuesday 5 January 2010




Course work: Prepared a color chart of my limited number of Prismacolor markers (19 colors, 7 greyscale tones) in anticipation of upcoming work. Continued work on the colored pencil drawing of fruits and vegetables.



Total time: 1 hour 7 minutes

Monday 4 January 2010




Course work: Further work on the colored pencil drawing of fruits and vegetables.





Reading:



Bernard Chaet The Art of Drawing (3rd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1983

Pp 139-172



Personal Sketchbook work: A hasty sketch of one of the cats, who knows perfectly well she’s not allowed in that chair.

Total time: 2hrs 55 min

Sunday 3 January 2010




Course work: Started the colored pencil drawing of fruits and vegetables. Had to rearrange my setup a bit, as the bananas I had previously used had aged beyond usability. The setup includes two bananas, two pears, and a red bell pepper. I’m working on a 9 x12” (~23 x 30 cm) sheet of drawing paper, using Prismacolor colored pencils, trying to apply some of the things I’ve learned from my still-ongoing workbook project.



Reading:



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art

Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978

Pp 395-424



Personal Sketchbook work: A drawing of a thin piece of fabric, dropped into a patch of sunshine.

Total time: 4 hours 23 minutes

Saturday 2 January 2010




Course work: Using a pair of paper “L’s”, I drew a few rectangles of A4 proportion over yesterday’s preliminary sketches, looking for better compositions. One of the sketches yielded two additional possibilities, one only one, and one none. I then drew three more preliminary sketches using markers (one in tones of grey, two in approximate colors), to get a little more comfortable with them before the upcoming marker portions of the assignment, and again used the pair of paper “L’s” to seek improved compositions. Markers themselves are an unfamiliar-enough medium that I did rather poorly with this second set of sketches. However, I think that I have now arrived at a suitable composition for the next part of the exercise.

Reading:



Roberta Weir Leonardo’s Ink Bottle: The Artist’s Way of Seeing

Celestial Arts Publishing, Berkeley, California, 1998

Pp 176-217

(I didn’t get a great deal out of this book…from my viewpoint, it was very heavy on pseudospirituality and transcendence and extraordinarily light on useful information.)



Personal Sketchbook work: As a refresher, I did a small self-portrait. Just to make myself really wish I’d done something else, I did this one with a quill pen I cut from a wild turkey feather. It is clear that I have a good bit more to learn about using a pen-knife with skill, to say nothing of using the quill. I also did some additional work on the colored pencil project workbook project started on 25 December, which is proving a longer project than I had anticipated.

Total time: 2 hours 25 minutes

Friday 1 January 2010




Course work: Three preliminary sketches for a fruit and vegetable drawing, done in graphite pencil.

Reading:

Roy R. Behrens False Colors: Art Design, and Modern Camouflage

Bobolink Books, Dysart, Iowa, USA, 2002

(The book itself travels to some extent under false colors, as art theory, design theory, psychology, visual physiology, zoology, and philosophy are the major considerations. If one has a cluttered closet for a mind [as I do] this is a wonderfully entertaining read. If you are really interested in camouflage per se, there are better sources.)



Personal Sketchbook work: A sketch in my pocket sketchbook of one of the pair of donkeys that strayed onto our property yesterday. Donkeys are better subjects than horses…they are less curious, and thus stay still longer.

Total time: 2 hours 47 minutes