Monday 15 February 2010




Course work: Continued testing media combinations. Today tested water-soluble felt-tip pen with water-soluble colored pencil, dip pen with soft pastel, and (on a scrap of water-color paper) marker with oil pastel, lightly brushed over with solvent.

Reading:



Gemma Guasch and Josep Asunción Form

Barron’s Educational Series, Inc, Hauppage, New York, USA, 2004

Pp 40-133



Personal Sketchbook work: A small paper wasp nest. These are made from wood pulp produced by the wasps, and are typically varying shades of grey with some streaks of tan, depending on the source of the wood. The cells tend toward the hexagonal, but are much less regular in shape and size than are honeycomb cells, especially in a nest this small, which appears to have been overtaken by winter before any larvae were produced. A large nest may be 15 cm across, and have more than one level.

Total time: 2 hours 29 minutes

Sunday 14 February 2010




Course work: Commenced the initial work for the final Assignment Three drawing. In order to test media pairs, I quickly sketched four small still lifes including four very different objects: a plant, a lemon, a human skull, and a small painter’s manikin. I made no attempt at accurately depicting shape, only general form. I then used marker and colored pencil, ink and brush plus colored pencil, pen plus marker, and graphite pencil and sanguine chalk. The pen and marker, and the marker and colored pencil, show the most promise from this set. The combination of graphite and sanguine chalk allows some interesting effects, but I think it highly unlikely to be acceptable for this part of the assignment…it would have been useful in Assignment Two. I plan to do several more of these media combinations before narrowing my choices and trying some more leisurely studies.

Reading:



Michiel Plomp Rembrandt and His Circle: Drawings and Prints

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006

Pp 2-48 (A monograph work on Rembrandt, his students, and his followers, and the difficulty often encountered in separating their works.)



Personal Sketchbook work: A colored pencil sketch of the head of our orange tabby.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: A good week, with a feeling of accomplishment. Not having tried to draw fish since some of my zoology courses (50 yours ago!) I’m fairly pleased with my results. Other work went reasonably well, too.



Total time: 2 hours 12 minutes

Saturday 13 February 2010




Course work: Applied several more layers and details to the catfish on a plate drawing, with water-soluble crayon. Applied a few small details with water-soluble pencil. During the drying intervals on the first drawing, I started work on the second. Since no medium was specified for this drawing, I chose to use markers (perhaps my least favorite medium), and 11 x 14” (279 x 356mm) marker paper. I used a lighter set of tones on this drawing, and some initial and unsuccessful experimentation showed me that I should omit the subtle greenish tint. Nevertheless, it looks reasonably like a catfish; in fact, I prefer it to my first drawing.

Personal Sketchbook work: In my pocket sketchbook, I attempted a sketch of a snow-covered pine branch (a rare sight here). First, I blacked the page with a graphite pencil and tried lifting out the light parts with an eraser…this was not satisfactory. Then I tried white and very light blue colored pencil in the erased areas…this was not successful either. Then I dabbed white acrylic paint over the erased areas with a cotton-tipped swab…this was somewhat better, but still not satisfactory. The next step was to brush over the darker areas with black ink, and finally to add a bit more light blue colored pencil. What started as a quick sketch ended up as a multimedia exercise, still not entirely successful, but certainly a learning experience.

Drawing animals check and log: The most difficult part of the animal drawing exercises was getting the animals to stay still long enough to get something onto the paper. In a few cases (the wild animal drawings) I was forced to use photographs simply because of availability. I found the memory of my long-ago classes in comparative anatomy helpful with these exercises.



I still enjoy graphite pencil for drawing. Reasons include (1) familiarity, (2)easy correctability, (3) easy portability, (4) ability to depict a wide range of tones, (5) no cleanup required, (6) no unpleasant odors.



Zoos are reasonably good places to draw animals (in the past, I’ve drawn in two zoos). Difficulties include raging hordes of uncontrolled children, intrusive adults, and of course animals that insist on remaining out of sight. Farms are another good place to draw animals, though the variety is more limited. As I’ve noted before, drawing wild animals is pretty much a matter of chance, and a camera with a reasonable telephoto lens is essential.



Total time: 1 hour 58 min (142h13m)

12 February 2010




Course work: Fish are sluggish this time of year, but occasionally one finds a hungry one. A catfish having thus inadvertently volunteered to serve as my model, I started with four pencil sketches to familiarize myself with morphology and to provisionally select a pose. I followed this up with a color study done in water-soluble crayon, and was able to identify some problem areas, notably getting the reflection on the back to look right. (Catfish lack scales, so that they appear very smooth and shiny. Color varies widely, but is typically a slightly greenish black to black with a dirty grey-green to grey underside. Fins are usually dark, occasionally brownish, and the rays are not particularly prominent. The dorsal and pectoral fins each contain a sharp spine, as many a fisherman has learned to his sorrow.) Not having a source for the Bockingford paper suggested in the text, I substituted a quarter-sheet of Arches 300gsm cold-pressed paper, which is approximately A3 in size, did my light pencil sketch, and applied the first layer of Caran D’Ache Neocolor water-soluble crayon.

Reading:



Gemma Guasch and Josep Asunción Form

Barron’s Educational Series, Inc, Hauppage, New York, USA, 2004

Pp 7-39



Personal Sketchbook work: A sketch of my heavy work coat, really needed this afternoon as we had our first measurable snow of this century, about 10 cm.

Total time: 2 hours 20 min

Thursday 11 February 2010




Course work: Completed work on the king-snake drawing today. The snake looks more like a snake than the hand does a hand, but I’m not too displeased.

Reading:

Hajo Düchting Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 1989

Pp 170-216

(A beautifully-produced book with many high-quality reproductions. I found the text somewhat difficult: the author is more convinced of his ability to understand Cézanne’s mind than am I.)



Personal Sketchbook work: In my pocket sketchbook, which has been neglected because of unusually persistent winter weather, a colored-pencil sketch of a tiny flower (6 mm across), species unknown, that blooms here in February. Two drawings in my sketchbook, constructing ellipses in perspective, in preparation for the next part of the current exercise.

Total time: 1 hour 52 min

Wednesday 10 February 2010




Course work: Further work on the “snake-in-hand’ drawing, which is approaching completion.



Reading:



Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane Wakeham A Guide to Drawing (Fifth Edition)

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1995

Pp 151-173



Personal Sketchbook work: Some mushrooms awaiting preparation for supper.

Total time: 1 hour 38 minutes

Tuesday 9 February 2010




Course work: Started work on a colored pencil drawing of a king snake that I caught, photographed, and released last summer, on an 8 ½ x 11 inch (216 x 279 mm) sheet of smooth drawing paper. I managed to get this one properly placed on the sheet, and am progressing fairly well. (This project is being done as a temporary substitute while I seek a fish, so far unsuccessfully.)



Reading:



Hajo Düchting Cézanne

Taschen, Köln, 1989

Pp 152-169



Personal Sketchbook work: A sketch of a seabird skull (species unknown) that I picked up several years ago. Not too satisfactory: I’m not seeing something quite correctly.

Total time: 3 hours 14 minutes