Friday 22 January 2010
Hay transport and storage compromised my drawing time today.
Course work: Some further work on the colored pencil drawing. Still less than half through with this major exercise.
Total time: 35 minutes
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Thursday 21 January 2010
Course work: Continued work on the drawing of a flowering plant. I have a long way yet to go.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 80-103
Personal Sketchbook work: A sketch of an American red cedar tree in a growth spurt: the odd-looking outgrowths typically appear when favorable growing conditions return after a long period of unfavorable conditions. If all goes well, the tree will “fill in” about the outgrowths and resume a generally conical shape for several more years before developing a more mature branching pattern. This tree is about 20 feet (about six meters) and should have a mature size of 40-50 feet (12-15 meters).
Total time: 2 hours 47 minutes
Course work: Continued work on the drawing of a flowering plant. I have a long way yet to go.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 80-103
Personal Sketchbook work: A sketch of an American red cedar tree in a growth spurt: the odd-looking outgrowths typically appear when favorable growing conditions return after a long period of unfavorable conditions. If all goes well, the tree will “fill in” about the outgrowths and resume a generally conical shape for several more years before developing a more mature branching pattern. This tree is about 20 feet (about six meters) and should have a mature size of 40-50 feet (12-15 meters).
Total time: 2 hours 47 minutes
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Course work: Continued work on the flowering plant drawing in colored pencil.
Reading:
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art
Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978
Pp 442-475
Personal Sketchbook work: Sketched the undulating patterns of a single large limb on an elderly oak visible about 200 meters away, drawn mostly with the aid of binoculars. On this overcast day most of the terminal branching pattern is indistinct and many of those I have drawn are hypothetical.
Total time: 2 hours 51 minutes
Course work: Continued work on the flowering plant drawing in colored pencil.
Reading:
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art
Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978
Pp 442-475
Personal Sketchbook work: Sketched the undulating patterns of a single large limb on an elderly oak visible about 200 meters away, drawn mostly with the aid of binoculars. On this overcast day most of the terminal branching pattern is indistinct and many of those I have drawn are hypothetical.
Total time: 2 hours 51 minutes
Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday 18 January 2010
Course work: I have been thinking about the colored pencil floral drawing for several days, and have looked at my plant with a view-finder from a number of perspectives and against several backgrounds. My conclusion was affected by the requirement to do a second drawing of this plant in a different medium. I therefore decided to do the colored pencil drawing concentrating on the flowers. I rearranged the flowers on the page to provide what I hope is a better-balanced composition than the actual plant. Lighting was from above and slightly to the left. I got a light layout down, then started with the slow process of applying color.
Reading:
Gemma Guasch & Josep Asunción Line
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., Hauppage, New York, USA, 2006
Pp 7-151
(One would assume from the title that this is a book about line. It is, in fact, a book about the creative uses of different media, and at times, one has to search very diligently indeed to detect any suggestion of a line. With far more illustrations than text, this is a fast read, and it is worth the time. There are three companion volumes, titled Color, Form, and Space that I plan to reread as time and interest permit.
Personal Sketchbook work: Tried yet again to sketch one of the horses: as soon as he spotted me at the fence, he came over to see if I had anything interesting in my pocket. Another failed effort.
Total time: 3 hours 19 minutes
Course work: I have been thinking about the colored pencil floral drawing for several days, and have looked at my plant with a view-finder from a number of perspectives and against several backgrounds. My conclusion was affected by the requirement to do a second drawing of this plant in a different medium. I therefore decided to do the colored pencil drawing concentrating on the flowers. I rearranged the flowers on the page to provide what I hope is a better-balanced composition than the actual plant. Lighting was from above and slightly to the left. I got a light layout down, then started with the slow process of applying color.
Reading:
Gemma Guasch & Josep Asunción Line
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., Hauppage, New York, USA, 2006
Pp 7-151
(One would assume from the title that this is a book about line. It is, in fact, a book about the creative uses of different media, and at times, one has to search very diligently indeed to detect any suggestion of a line. With far more illustrations than text, this is a fast read, and it is worth the time. There are three companion volumes, titled Color, Form, and Space that I plan to reread as time and interest permit.
Personal Sketchbook work: Tried yet again to sketch one of the horses: as soon as he spotted me at the fence, he came over to see if I had anything interesting in my pocket. Another failed effort.
Total time: 3 hours 19 minutes
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sunday 17 January 2010
Course work: Completed the negative space plant drawing. It did not take as long as I had anticipated, but before I finished I was seeing aggregations of short pencil marks in my dreams. I would be better pleased with the result had I done it with pen and ink.
Did the blending with colored pencils portion of the exercise and made notations of my observations in my course sketchbook.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 63-79
Personal Sketchbook work: Made an attempt at a brush drawing of a reproduction of the “Willendorf Venus.” I found it very difficult to control the line. After having done one and treated it as just a two-value piece, I did a second (slimmed a bit to fit on the page) with application of a little wash. I was quite dissatisfied with both.
Weekly reflections on learning experience: This was a week of struggling with oil pastels, and of transitioning to new exercises. I found the negative space exercise more interesting than the preceding oil pastel work, probably in part because I have encountered and worked with the concept of negative space in the past, and in part because negative space is a concept, rather than a technique, and concepts have always been easier for me to grasp. I also enjoyed the appearance of my two negative-space efforts far more than the appearance of most of my efforts in the “Fruits and Vegetables in Color” exercise.
Total time:1 hour 47 min
Course work: Completed the negative space plant drawing. It did not take as long as I had anticipated, but before I finished I was seeing aggregations of short pencil marks in my dreams. I would be better pleased with the result had I done it with pen and ink.
Did the blending with colored pencils portion of the exercise and made notations of my observations in my course sketchbook.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 63-79
Personal Sketchbook work: Made an attempt at a brush drawing of a reproduction of the “Willendorf Venus.” I found it very difficult to control the line. After having done one and treated it as just a two-value piece, I did a second (slimmed a bit to fit on the page) with application of a little wash. I was quite dissatisfied with both.
Weekly reflections on learning experience: This was a week of struggling with oil pastels, and of transitioning to new exercises. I found the negative space exercise more interesting than the preceding oil pastel work, probably in part because I have encountered and worked with the concept of negative space in the past, and in part because negative space is a concept, rather than a technique, and concepts have always been easier for me to grasp. I also enjoyed the appearance of my two negative-space efforts far more than the appearance of most of my efforts in the “Fruits and Vegetables in Color” exercise.
Total time:1 hour 47 min
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Saturday 16 January 2010
Course work: Made substantial progress on my negative-space drawing of a plant, although I wish now that I had chosen a medium other than graphite pencil.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 41-62
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art
Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978
Pp 425-441
Personal Sketchbook work: Out of interest in further depiction of a subject using negative space, I did a negative space drawing of the spaces around part of a small calla lily plant, and inked them in with a brush. The result was a strong graphic image, but my poor choice of viewpoint made it more abstract than representational. Nevertheless, I found it a useful and interesting exercise (and much faster than hatching in with a pencil).
Total time: 3 hours 15 min
Course work: Made substantial progress on my negative-space drawing of a plant, although I wish now that I had chosen a medium other than graphite pencil.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 41-62
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art
Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978
Pp 425-441
Personal Sketchbook work: Out of interest in further depiction of a subject using negative space, I did a negative space drawing of the spaces around part of a small calla lily plant, and inked them in with a brush. The result was a strong graphic image, but my poor choice of viewpoint made it more abstract than representational. Nevertheless, I found it a useful and interesting exercise (and much faster than hatching in with a pencil).
Total time: 3 hours 15 min
Friday, January 15, 2010
Friday 15 January 2009
Course work: I think the oil pastel drawing is complete now: I’ll look at it again in a day or so. Made a start on the negative space drawing of a plant.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 3-41
Research point: “Find out about Ben Nicholson. Why does he simplify still life forms and negative space and superimpose them on the Cornish landscape?”
Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was the son of a well-known painter. He abandoned training at the Slade after one term and traveled in Europe and later in the United States. He saw his first Picasso either in Paris or Pasadena, California (sources differ), and was strongly influenced thereby. Beginning in the 1920’s his work evolved from landscapes that appear to my eye to have been strongly influenced by Cezanne toward pure abstraction, culminating in his white abstract reliefs (denounced by his father as “awful lavatory seats”). Later he returned to a less-abstract style that often featured representations of still-life objects placed on a windowsill in his studio in St. Ives, Cornwall, and toward the end of his career he worked freely between abstraction and abstract realism. His wives appear to have influenced his work strongly over the years. Winifred Nicholson, a painter, contributed to his ideas about color, Barbara Hepworth, a sculptor, influenced his thinking about form. Perhaps we can assume that third wife Felicitas Vogler, a photographer, further contributed to his ideas concerning light. Another strong influence was primitive painter Alfred Wallis. Nicholson is now considered by many the leading exponent of British Modernism.
The second part of the question is factually unanswerable. Why does any artist choose to do what he does? For many, the answer is “To make a living.” For many others, the answer is “This is what I am moved to do at this particular moment.” For some, the answer would be “What would happen if I did this?” Quite often even the artist does not know why he or she chooses to follow a particular path, on paint a specific painting. I find the efforts of critics and art historians to retrospectively find motivations for or deep meanings in an artist’s work often humorous, and sometimes ludicrous; nearly always such investigations tell me more about the mind of the person writing than about the mind of the artist (imagine what Rembrandt would have thought had he known of the generations of art scholars his works would engender!). The best answer I can give to the question posed is my uneducated opinion: Ben Nicholson painted the way he did because that is what he wanted to do.
Drawing fruits and vegetables: check and log
I would guesstimate that my negative space in the oil pastel drawing is about 1/3, in the two marker drawings about half, and in the colored pencil drawing about ¼. In the process of attempting to draw the details of fruits and vegetables I have learned that one’s success is very strongly medium-dependent, and also strongly related to one’s attitude toward a specific medium. I found working with markers the most challenging and frustrating part of the exercise from the viewpoint of my inability to get them to do what I wanted to do. Colored pencils were challenging, because accuracy in form or color can be obtained only at the expense of a great deal of time. Oil pastels are a very imprecise medium, difficult to correct and almost impossible to apply in a uniform manner using hatching. Perhaps my greatest challenge about this section was in doing work that I thought was adequate: the final colored pencil drawing was about the only one I really felt I had done reasonably well. My dissatisfaction with my work in this section is best reflected in the fact that it took me about 38 hours of effort for this nominally eight-hour exercise.
Total time: 1 hour 57 minutes
Course work: I think the oil pastel drawing is complete now: I’ll look at it again in a day or so. Made a start on the negative space drawing of a plant.
Reading:
Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995
Pp 3-41
Research point: “Find out about Ben Nicholson. Why does he simplify still life forms and negative space and superimpose them on the Cornish landscape?”
Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was the son of a well-known painter. He abandoned training at the Slade after one term and traveled in Europe and later in the United States. He saw his first Picasso either in Paris or Pasadena, California (sources differ), and was strongly influenced thereby. Beginning in the 1920’s his work evolved from landscapes that appear to my eye to have been strongly influenced by Cezanne toward pure abstraction, culminating in his white abstract reliefs (denounced by his father as “awful lavatory seats”). Later he returned to a less-abstract style that often featured representations of still-life objects placed on a windowsill in his studio in St. Ives, Cornwall, and toward the end of his career he worked freely between abstraction and abstract realism. His wives appear to have influenced his work strongly over the years. Winifred Nicholson, a painter, contributed to his ideas about color, Barbara Hepworth, a sculptor, influenced his thinking about form. Perhaps we can assume that third wife Felicitas Vogler, a photographer, further contributed to his ideas concerning light. Another strong influence was primitive painter Alfred Wallis. Nicholson is now considered by many the leading exponent of British Modernism.
The second part of the question is factually unanswerable. Why does any artist choose to do what he does? For many, the answer is “To make a living.” For many others, the answer is “This is what I am moved to do at this particular moment.” For some, the answer would be “What would happen if I did this?” Quite often even the artist does not know why he or she chooses to follow a particular path, on paint a specific painting. I find the efforts of critics and art historians to retrospectively find motivations for or deep meanings in an artist’s work often humorous, and sometimes ludicrous; nearly always such investigations tell me more about the mind of the person writing than about the mind of the artist (imagine what Rembrandt would have thought had he known of the generations of art scholars his works would engender!). The best answer I can give to the question posed is my uneducated opinion: Ben Nicholson painted the way he did because that is what he wanted to do.
Drawing fruits and vegetables: check and log
I would guesstimate that my negative space in the oil pastel drawing is about 1/3, in the two marker drawings about half, and in the colored pencil drawing about ¼. In the process of attempting to draw the details of fruits and vegetables I have learned that one’s success is very strongly medium-dependent, and also strongly related to one’s attitude toward a specific medium. I found working with markers the most challenging and frustrating part of the exercise from the viewpoint of my inability to get them to do what I wanted to do. Colored pencils were challenging, because accuracy in form or color can be obtained only at the expense of a great deal of time. Oil pastels are a very imprecise medium, difficult to correct and almost impossible to apply in a uniform manner using hatching. Perhaps my greatest challenge about this section was in doing work that I thought was adequate: the final colored pencil drawing was about the only one I really felt I had done reasonably well. My dissatisfaction with my work in this section is best reflected in the fact that it took me about 38 hours of effort for this nominally eight-hour exercise.
Total time: 1 hour 57 minutes
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