The final task in this assignment is to create a body of work utilising the skills I have learned during the previous tasks. This body of work will consist of “corners” of interest, with a focus on observation, line work and mark making.
1) Living-room Corner
This is drawn in my A5 sketch pad using graphite pencils.
In this piece, I utilised bold confident lines and paid close attention to observing the angles of those lines to produce a reasonably accurate linework drawing of my front room.
I chose this particular area as my focus because it is a particularly “corner laden” spot in my house. I like all the different angles and I thought it would prove an interesting challenge to try and accurately depict using unbroken lines.
I am particularly pleased with the lamp and kallax unit turned out. Trying to draw the wallpaper though was really hard, so it ended up a bit impressionistic, but I did try to keep the shapes in approximately the right place.
2) Radiator
This is drawn in my A5 sketchbook with compressed and willow charcoal
I wanted to construct a piece using dramatic marks and subtractive tones using charcoals and a putty rubber. The corner I chose was various shades of white/cream/beige which I thought would lend itself well to picking out highlights and shadow in this manner.
Doing this style of mark making and lifting was really tricky on A5 paper, I wish I had chosen to go bigger.
Despite the difficulty, I was particularly pleased with the tones and line work of the radiator. I had to roll my putty rubber to a fine point to lift out the highlights and use willow charcoal to bring back the sharpness of the shadows. I also liked how I was able to convey the perspective changes to the grating at the top of the radiator, as the negative space between the grates became less visible as it stretched to the vanishing point.
I also like the grainy texture of the adjoining walls. For some reason the corner seemed to be highlighted, to to emphasise that, I used contrasting charcoal strokes for each wall.
3) Corner Light
This piece was created using felt tips and water. I did this in my A4 sketchbook.
I wanted to return to the ink and water washes that I tried for the first time in one of the previous exercises. For this piece however, I wanted to break away from the monochromatic catalogue of work I’ve created thus far and use colours instead.
I hadn’t used felt tips and water before so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. The pen marks bled out much further than I initially expected which warped the observed perspective a little bit. I had considered going back into the work with a black ink pen, but decided against it as I had purposely chosen not to have any black ink in this piece, despite the lamp actually being black in real life. I wanted to use light and dark colours to emulate the highlights and shadow, rather than using tone.
Corner Light [reworked]
So, after going away and then revisiting the piece, I decided it did need a rework. However, I decided black was the wrong choice. It needed more colour.
I didn’t like the blue lines defining the wall/ceiling corner, so I loaded the page with more colour from the felt tips and got it to run down the page, in the direction of the perspective. I feel much happier seeing the colours of each segment intermingle at the edges rather than the blue, which was just out of place.
I also layered more colour up on the lampshade to help distinguish between the shadows and highlights. I also played with the water drips to try and help depict the curve of the lampshade.
The piece not only feels like a more accurate depiction but it now feels like it had life and presence, which the first version lacked.
Corner light [Monochrome]
I can’t seem to leave this piece alone. I decided I wanted to see how well the colours I had chosen translated to tone when in monochrome. I have to say, I was quite surprised at how gritty and moody the piece became. I really like the almost “film noir” feeling it portrays. I was really pleased that the colours I had picked seemed to be tonally appropriate.
4) Birdcage Lamps
This was created using a drying out marker pen on a page in my A4 sketchbook.
This is another corner of my livingroom. This is my back wall that is home to a host to our dangly lights and a wall full of pictures, art and interesting things.
I chose this angle as it’s not one I observe very often and I liked the perspective.
I enjoyed the challenge of working with the drying out pen as it produced different tones, but I was never sure when it might run dry or find a bit more life. I had a couple of instances where I was expecting a faded line, but the pen had a bit of a second life and came out darker. I think it makes for an interesting and textured image.
I think the mark making worked particularly well for the fabric patterned flying ducks on the wall, as well as the impressions of the artwork in the frames and their shading.
My main issue with it was the fact it felt a bit flat and lifeless. I wanted to make more of a statement of the lights.
Birdcage lamps [reworked]
This is my reworked version where I used acrylic markers to help draw the eye to the lamps.
I think it makes the work a bit easier to read in terms of the perspective as it’s clear to see the size of the lamps shrink in line with the vanishing point.
5) Leafy Pinks
A4 sketch pad
felt tips, permanent fine liner, fountain pen, water.
I discovered this corner in the cafe at Jupiter Artland near Edinburgh and thought it would be an interesting addition to my other work. I hadn’t tried drawing any plants so I decided to give myself the challenge.
I utilised the blind drawing technique for the foliage and layered up the leaves using different pens. I like how the overlapping line work almost makes it look like it’s swaying in a breeze. It gives it a sense of movement.
I then worked over the layers of pen with a water loaded brush to let the felt tips and fountain pen lines blend together whilst they fineliner held its position on the page. I also blended the felt pen marks in the background whilst the fine liner held the original forms.
6) Evening by the fireplace
I decided I wanted to have another go at charcoals but this time using my A4 sketchpad. I found I much easier to manipulate the charcoal at to use subtractive tone with my putty rubber using the larger size of paper.
This was a cozy corner I found at a hotel we stayed at. We sat in the hotel lounge for a late night drink before heading to bed. I really liked how the lamps caused the highlights on the dark wall and how the light picked out the window panels and the sculpting of the fireplace.
Although I found it hard to produce accurate straight lines with the willow charcoal, I really like the textual element that working with charcoal produces. I enjoyed smudging, lifting and reworking the charcoal to emphasise the highlights and shadows. I think it has produced a dramatic yet comforting image which fits well with the contrasting feeling of coziness within the grandiose setting.
Comments