Thursday 31 December 2009




Course work: Reviewed work to date on “Drawing fruits and vegetables in colour.” Decided I could do better on the tomato, and added a fourth one to the original three(26 Dec09): I found this one more satisfactory. What I have learned so far in this exercise (and in related work): (1)colored pencil is a very slow medium to work with; (2) faster results can be obtained by doing a tonal drawing and applying color over that, or by applying the shaded areas with a complementary color, but neither method produces an optimal result; (3)best results are obtained by matching color and tone as closely as possible with a pencil of similar color and tone.



Reading:



Bernard Chaet The Art of Drawing (3rd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1983

Pp 42-78



Personal Sketchbook work: A drawing of a chambered nautilus, using Prismacolor Warm Grey pencils 30, 50, 70, and 90%, with powdered graphite for the shadow and a touch of white acrylic to accentuate the highlights.

Review of effort to date: This last day of the year seems a good time for an overview of work on the course so far. I started the course 134 days ago, and have worked on it to some extent on most days, averaging about 1 hour 55 minutes each day, for a total of almost 258 hours to date. A review of my earliest work on the course shows growing confidence and improved accuracy of form, as well as improved use of tone, though I still have a long way to go. My sketchbook work still needs improvement: I am still uncomfortable drawing people (or anything else) in public, and I recognize that my sketchbook work is often over precise (probably a personality trait). At present, less than halfway through Assignment Three, I would estimate that I am just over 1/3 through the course (based on the recommended times in the text or reasonable approximations based on comparison with other sections of the text). This would place my estimated date of course completion close to 1 September 2010, as opposed to the 7 June 2010 date originally estimated when I laid out my plan for the work in August, 2009.



Total time: 1 hour 53 minutes (53h41m)

Wednesday 30 December 2009




Course work: Drew three views of a bell pepper, using Prismacolor pencils. The three views were arranged to suggest a composition. One image was drawn with a red-orange and its complement, one with the same red-orange and grey, and one with colors matched to what I actually saw as closely as I could. The latter was the best of the three.

Reading:



Nick Meglin Drawing From Within

Warner Books, Inc., New York, 1999

Pp 119-158



Bernard Chaet The Art of Drawing (3rd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1983

Pp vii-viii, 1-41



Personal Sketchbook work: A pencil drawing of a compact fluorescent bulb. A quick sketch of one of the cats in my pocket sketchbook.

Total time: 2 hours 9 minutes (51h48m)

Tuesday 29 December 2009




Attended the funeral of a friend; didn’t feel like working today.

Monday 28 December 2009




Course work: Did one additional banana in colored pencil, using only four pencils and a hatching technique instead of several solid layers. While this is somewhat faster, it is much less convincing. It might prove more productive with colors stronger than yellow.

Drew three views of a pear, one worked from light to dark, one with color applied over a tonal drawing, and one with the native color applied over shadowing done with the complementary color.

Reading:



Nick Meglin Drawing From Within

Warner Books, Inc., New York, 1999

Pp 77-116



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

Celestial Arts Publishing, Berkeley, California, 1998

Pp 165-175



Personal Sketchbook work: Additional work on the colored pencil project referenced on 25 December.

Sunday 27 December 2009




Course work: Three colored pencil drawings of a pair of bananas, each using a different approach (light to dark vs. dark to light) or different sets of colors.

Reading:



Susan Dorothea White Draw Like Da Vinci

Cassell Illustrated, London, 2006

Pp 69-139

(This book, given to me as a Christmas gift, turned out to be interesting and useful. It provides an often-entertaining overview of da Vinci’s methods, guidelines to their performance with more modern media, and enough basic material on drawing to make it useful to users at almost any skill level. Lots of da Vinci drawings, and contemporary copies, near-copies, and derivative work by the author.)



Personal Sketchbook work: Additional work on the colored pencil project referenced on 25 December. A not-too-successful ballpoint pen drawing of a pear.

Weekly reflections on learning experience:



Holiday obligations, and some frustration with unclear instructions, made the earlier part of the week less than satisfactory. Although pastel and colored pencil are both unfamiliar media to me, I am finding the latter more to my taste, though very slow when compared to pastel. Learning to use both at least somewhat effectively remains a goal.



Total time: 3 hours 23 minutes

Saturday 26 December 2009




Course work: Arranged another setup of seashells and sketched it using colored pencils of approximately yellow ochre, burnt siena, and burnt umber colors, near enough the actual colors to work tonally without offending the eye by gross misrepresentation of color. I think at this point I have done enough work on this exercise, though I remain unsure I have met its objective.

Started work on the “Drawing fruit and vegetables in colour” exercise by drawing a tomato three times, using three different types of colored pencils.

Reading:



Nick Meglin Drawing From Within

Warner Books, Inc., New York, 1999

Pp 57-73



Personal Sketchbook work: Having become somewhat weary of “natural” subjects as a steady diet, I drew one of my manikins; I used colored pencil in order not to stray too far afield.

Still life check and log: I think my three monochromatic tonal drawings are far more successful than are the three I did in color. I had difficulty in using color as a tonal medium without consideration of local color. The drawing using primarily line was more immediately successful, in part because I had a far clearer idea of just what I was supposed to do to complete the exercise than I had with the tonal drawings.



I was able to achieve some sense of depth, most apparent in the monochromatic pieces. Overlapping, shading of each item, and shadows were the primary methods used. Neither atmospheric nor geometric perspective played any significant role in the tonal drawings, though perspective was of some use in the line drawing.



Being restricted to line makes it difficult to express shapes well: is that round object a sphere, a circle, or a flat disc? Tone without the use of line (except to represent areas of tone) is easier: my problem was with the instructions, as I have commented upon perhaps to excess.



Total time: 2 hours 3 minutes

Friday 25 December 2009




Course work: After a day of consideration, I decided that I had not met the objectives of the “Still Life” exercise to my satisfaction. I therefore made another setup, this one of seashells, and drew it with colored pencils, using black and two shades of grey.

Reading:



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

Celestial Arts Publishing, Berkeley, California, 1998

Pp 149-163



Susan Dorothea White Draw Like Da Vinci

Cassell Illustrated, London, 2006

Pp 6-67



Personal Sketchbook work: Started an exercise from a colored pencil workbook Colored Pencil Techniques (Bernard Poulin) F&W Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, 1989. This exercise will take me several sessions to complete, but should help my colored pencil handling. Also drew a tomato in graphite, in partial preparation for the upcoming fruit and vegetable work.

Total time: 3 hours 13 minutes