Sketchbook: February 2019

Introduction

Developing on pictures drawn for the first chapter, this chapter involved adding tones to observational drawings. It has been a useful exercise in getting down to business with the pencil, always something I tend to shy away from. In truth though, maximum fun was had working on these images.

I took three images from the last post, editing one for closer detail, and worked on these; then added a new observational and tonal drawing.

Drawing 1: Detail of Apple Blossom

I returned to the first drawing I made of apple blossom and reduced the area to be worked on. I made a new observational drawing.

Then working around the page, starting with lower left, I started to add tone:

Drawing 2: Working on a more complex tonal image

I returned to the busier drawing of apple blossom and worked this into a tonal drawing. Starting as before in the lower left area of the picture and working my way around the page:

Although these two drawing were in some way quite complex I felt I was able to grasp the use of tone to clarify the image

Drawing 3: Returning to the tree roots from Tollymore forest park

This was altogether a more challenging drawing to work from as it relied much more on the use of tone to give depth and texture to the image:

Starting in the lower part of the observational drawing and trying to be very conscious of where the light hits the roots and also getting the circumference of the roots:

Drawing 4: Two types of seaweed

Every week I walk along the beach at Brancaster on the north Norfolk coast. It's a marvellous and unpolluted part of the country. I picked up lots of things I thought might be interested in drawing on the last visit.

I decided on drawing some seaweed. Although plant based like the first two images, this was however a complete challenge. I made a quick still life photo:

Converted and printed it in grey scale:

Made an observational drawing:

For some reason I found this a really tough tonal drawing to do. It was hard to make sense of the two seaweeds and hard to make the two clearly identifiable as two separate plants:

As you wrote in the notes, drawing is an exhausting task demanding total concentration and it took a great many breaks to complete these pictures.

Introduction

A slightly more challenging opening to Module 4 than looked at the outset. It was very tempting to start a fully tonal drawing rather than a straightforward observation of only the most important informational details of the image, and of course some images were much easier to draw in this way than others.

I looked at: apple blossom, trees and tree roots, a goldfinch that stopped on the terrace and some odd fleshy fungus. Bar the fungus I made two drawing per subject.

Apple Blossom

The most straightforward and unchallenging of the drawings

Drawing 1

Drawing 2

Trees

Two images, very different from one another. One is an image of trees receeding into the background, the second some mossy roots of trees growing on the banks of the River Shimna in Tollymore forest Park.

Drawing 1

I found it useful to use a number of different pencils 5h for distant trees, F for middle distant and 2b for closer trees:

Drawing 2:

This was a real challenge as the image relied on tonal differences. I will probably revisit this in the next chapter to see if I can improve on it:

First of course the sleeping beagle - it has been freezing this week and the dog has got in front of the fire, irritating but lovely!

Birds

Last year a goldfinch stopped on the terrace outside my workroom window and started to pick the seeds out of dandelion flowers. It was a beautiful creature and I was able to get some photos. So - birds! A bit of a challenge and not something I've ever drawn before:

Drawing 1: