Assignment 1: Still Life

Assignment 1: Still Life - Joy

For this assignment I chose objects that bring me joy. They are all objects that have a deep meaning to me as they are for the most part the ones I take with me as I live around the world.
At the back is a frame with a picture of myself and my grown children, in front of it a small porcelain cup which I got here in China and I love to drink tea out of. to the left a small New Testament and a Cross which make up my identity and to the right my small sketchbook that travels with me. The flowers are symbolic for the joy that nature brings me as I seek it out wherever I go. Lastly the small mandarin is a symbol of being nurtured by all these things.

I used a 4B Graphite Pencil, a black Oil Pastel, Black Ink applied with a chopstick and Willow Charcoal to make marks.

I enjoyed the drawing and I hope that the joy that these objects bring me came through. I had to have a few go s at combining the various materials and realised that the ink had to be put down first as it would not stick on the charcoal! I felt that the composition is good and that I manged to capture tone and reflections rather well, also I tried to keep the photo in the frame vague so as to push it slightly more into the background.

For the most part I am pleased with the result except for the cross which I feel I might have placed slightly more to the left.

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Section 2: DETAILED OBSERVATIONS OF NATURAL OBJECTS: Exercise 1: DETAIL AND TONE

Fallen Leaves Study. For this the subject is 3 dried leaves which I found during my walk, all three in varying stages of decay. I used colored pencils and oil pastels. I left the majority of the page white as I wished to capture the intense light and the lovely colorful shadows that the leaves cast on the crisp white paper that they were perched on. I enjoyed the success that I achieved with the papery delicate feel of the leaves and it was only till I had layered the oil pastel on top that the drawing "popped". What i learnt here was not to be "precious" with your work. Detail 1. Detail 2. And then I cropped it. I think that the composition is better here. There is less negative space and the longer format works better with the length of the leaves and the horizontal lines that they present. Some practice - Lemons in conte crayon

Project 2: Exercise 3: Creating Shadows with lines and marks.

Did a lot of practice here before I attempted the exercise. What I learnt here is that implied lines are enough and by not outlining the objects a looser, softer and yet "more real" effect is obtained. This is interesting to me - is it because the brain completes the picture and is therefor more involved in the process and is then more invested in being interested in the painting?! This was 4B pencil. This is some of the practice. Got bored so the bottom 2 ain't great...

Section 3: COMPOSITION. Exercise 1.

Composite drawing from sketches and photographs. This exercise excited me as I looked at the elements that interested me in the landscape around me and drew from previous work. I realised that a work didn't need to be constructed from only the visual information in front of me but could be drawn from elements in previous sketches and pieced together. I looked through the work I had done: Sketchbook for Exercise 1. and did some sketches: And decided to put together 2 works... the park sketch in charcoal that I did on the Sketchbook Walk exercise: And a 360 sketch of the view over a small stadium and the eastern part of the city. so as to combine the feeling of the concrete jungle and to reflect more fully the sanity of the park spaces in this mega city. This then the final work: I used a number of techniques and materials: Dipping pen with ink and wash, powder charcoal and green Japanese brush pen. On reflection I am pleased with this

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