Tuesday 2 February 2010




Course work: Three hasty sketches of one of the dogs, who, contrary to his usual behavior, would not stay still.

Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 110-125



Personal Sketchbook work: Some experimentation with Caran D’Ache Neocolor 2 water-soluble crayons: a group of three bananas. The colors are fairly light until water is applied, then they become much stronger: this striking difference would take a good bit of work to master. There is some tendency for the wet pigment to penetrate lightweight sketchbook paper, though this is much less pronounced than with markers or full-strength ink. As a quick sketching medium in the field, these may have merit, but I fear they might have a tendency to melt in the heat of our Georgia summers: this will require some testing in a few months.

I then did a quick sketch of a single banana, using Staedtler Karat Aquarell watercolor pencils. Again, color was quite light until water was applied, then it became moderately stronger. Here again, learning to adequately plan for this substantial change in appearance between dry and wet would take a good bit of practice and experience. These pencils would be unlikely to melt when exposed to the sun, but they cannot be applied nearly as quickly as can the water-soluble crayons, and there is a slightly greater tendency for persistence of the original marks even after water application.

Other activity: My painting group met today (time not included).



Total time: 1 hour 13 min

Sunday 31 January 2010




Course work: Several partial cat sketches in graphite pencil, several in pen, and a few in brush, the latter based on previously-done pencil sketches. (We have three cats, all of whom seem to be in profound coma until I try to draw them, at which time they invariably become hyperactive.)

Reading:



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

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

Pp 104-138



Weekly reflections on learning experience: I am happy to be finished with the large colored pencil drawing. I remain convinced that the A2 paper size required is too great for a student working with this medium, but perhaps this is a problem of my perception. (I certainly learned a good deal about colored pencils during the eleven days I worked on this drawing.) The effort to find a way to make the marker drawing acceptable was worthwhile, and I think that markers and colored pencils can make reasonable multimedia partners, though perhaps not in my hands. I continue to seek a good source of information on marker drawing, but have found little not aimed at architects, fashion designers, or comic-book illustrators. I confront the “Drawing Animals” exercise with some apprehension, as drawing moving subjects has always been a major weakness.



Total time: 1 hour 41 min

Saturday 30 January 2010




Course work: Applied some colored pencil over parts of the marker drawing I did yesterday, adding some highlights and details, and muting some of the more obnoxious colors, which improved it enough to, I hope, meet the objectives of the exercise.

Started the “Drawing Animals” exercise with a very hasty sketch (done through a telescope, in the rain) of a Canada goose on the pond. Black and grey markers were added later. Field marks are adequately captured, but the bird didn’t look this wooden…as I’ve drawn it, it looks like a decoy.

Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 74-109



Personal Sketchbook work: A simple brush drawing of a towel on a hook. Then I rehung the towel and did another. Brush drawing is something I would like to learn, but I find it about as forgiving as the tax collector.

Drawing plants and flowers: check and log:

Negative space is a useful tool for drawing, as it diverts one’s attention from preconceptions about the object drawn and focuses one on the adjacent negative shapes which delineate the object.



In order to get my plant drawings in proportion, I used negative space, measuring with a pencil, comparison with previously-drawn parts of the work, and in some cases modification of actual dimensions to alter the composition.



The plant drawings all had a relatively shallow depth of field, and superimposition and shadowing were the main tools available for suggesting three-dimensional space. Since the subjects themselves varied in size, reducing perceived size to suggest distance was not efficacious. Atmospheric perspective would have been of little use with a total field depth of only about 20 cm. I think that the large colored-pencil drawing was more successful in suggesting depth of field than the marker drawing, even though the former had a much shallower field.



Total time: 2 hours 9 minutes

Friday 29 January 2010




Course work: Corrections on the colored pencil drawing of calla lilies. A pencil sketch of a group of potted calla lilies, followed by a superimposed marker drawing, on 11 x 14” (279 x356mm) marker paper. Not happy with result, but I’ve never done anything with markers that I liked. I’ll try working over it with some colored pencil tomorrow.

Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 57-73





E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art

Phaidon press Limited, Oxford 1978

Pp 476-490

(This is a reasonably comprehensive and fairly readable book of art history. It deserves to be read slowly, as I have read it, in order to really appreciate it. One can find minor flaws, e.g. the author devotes three pages to Cezanne and less than one to the entire Pre-Raphaelite movement, but if I had to recommend to a serious, interested reader a single book on art history, it would be this one.)



Personal Sketchbook work: A poor partial drawing of a two-week-old donkey.

Total time: 2 hours 19 min

Thursday 28 January 2010




Course work: Further work on the colored pencil drawing of a flowering plant. I think that I have now reached the point of making minor corrections.



Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 57-73



Personal Sketchbook work: Several marker sketches of calla lilies, in preparation for the next part of the exercise. With my limited number of colors, and the inherent difficulty of using markers any way except very boldly, getting an acceptable result may be a challenge. I was certainly not pleased with several of the colors I tested, and made some notes on my sketchbook page.

Total time: 2 hours 5 minutes

Tuesday 26 January 2010




Course work: Ongoing work on the colored pencil drawing of a flowering plant.



Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 57-73



Personal Sketchbook work: A sketch of my slippered feet

Other activity: My painting group met today (time not included).



Total time: One hour 49 minutes

Monday 25 January 2010




Course work: Work continues on the colored pencil drawing of a flowering plant. I added two leaves from a different calla lily to improve the composition.



Reading:



Carol Strickland The Annotated Mona Lisa

Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 1992

Pp 42-56



Personal Sketchbook work: (This could fall just as well into course work) A stem and leaf study of part of my flowering plant, in preparation for further work on the colored pencil drawing, and in preparation for the following course drawing in another medium.

Total time: 2 hours 23 minutes