Assignment two 

For this assignment I have chosen to work with a still life scene. I have selected a newspaper, a mug of tea and an apple. An everyday moment. 

I started by considering the viewpoint of my scene. Really, I wanted to be as natural as possible as this was a genuine moment in time that I captured and felt inspired by. However, I did play with the position of the items: 

I felt especially inspired by how the shadows of each item work across the newspaper. 

My first step was a quick sketch of the still life scene. Here I work quickly with a fine line: 

Having decided on the position of these items, I used a HB pencil and a 6B pencil and a brown and yellow coloured pencil to study and produce a tonal drawing. I wanted to capture the direction of the shadows: 

I am very drawn to the lines of shadows of the glasses and how they appear as a second pair of glasses on the page. 

Whilst working with the pencils and a limited coloured pencil selection, I visited the illustration work of Akiko Miyakoshi. I adore they way Miyakoshi uses a small area of colour within a pencil drawing to draw the eye. What I also notice in her drawing are how full of lines and detail, light and shadow they are: 

I now start to experiment with colour and medium. For this colour drawing I use a combination of pastels, oil pastels and charcoal. What I realise here is reproducing the newspaper will be a challenge and unsuccessful in this drawing. 

However, I do love the red and deep yellow tone of the apple and how the colours meet. I can see definite indentations of bite marks in the apple. I am happy with the tea within the mug and how the pastels captured the two tones of the tea due to the shadow from the rim of the mug. 

I go again, this time with a thick black line, I study the scene again paying special attention to the shape and body of each item: 

I then add oil pastel to the line drawing and pencil to add shadow. 

I am happy with the lines of shadow here, but the drawing lacks the definition of the newspaper: 

The body of the apple and indentations are clear. 

The shape of the glasses are pleasing: 

Oil pastel and watercolour: 

I can see the newspaper is starting to come together here, yet I am still challenged: 

Having experimented with different mediums and contrasts of line and tone, I fear my drawings so far lack excitement and expression. They are perhaps flat a little stale and I am starting to feel uninspired. They lack energy and atmosphere on the whole, there are elements that I feel are a highlight, of which I have noted. However the overall feel of the drawings so far are unpleasing. 

The initial excitement I felt about these items together on a newspaper has dwindled. I feel it is due to the frustration of being unable to produce the newspaper effectively, this is proving difficult. 

I am also concerned that my drawings are a little muddy in my use of colour and perhaps I am confusing the space, with not enough definition between the positive and negative space. 

I take another look at my viewpoint, the starting point. I decide that I will try taking a look at my still life scene from a different angle and try again: 

To overcome the enormous challenge of successfully recreating the newspaper I decide to avoid the white paper this time. I want to get back to the energising quick sketches I so enjoyed in the previous exercises. Instead I decide to build a canvas of brown paper and old newspaper: 

A build a canvas of A3 size and use a mount this time to keep focus on the snapshot I'm eager to depict: 

I use a charcoal stick to loosely mark out the body of my items: 

Using soft pastels, I start to wok in some colour, focusing here on the apple: 

I then start to look at the shadows that run across the newspaper and I start working them in with a 8B pencil, using cross hatch lines at the very bottom of the mug which then merge into blocks of shade from a charcoal stick: 

In truth, I already feel so excited about what is happening on this page already. I am working quickly and intuitively to capture the excitement that I lost earlier on in this assignment: 

Final drawing: 

With the charcoal stick I drew in the outline of the newspaper to emphasise shape. I also added the bold and dark shadow that hits the top right hand corner of the photo. 

I use a white chalk to block in areas of light. 

I use a gold acrylic and a palette knife to roughly add the gold detail to the mug, 

Reflections: 

To achieve my final piece, I feel like I sacrificed fine detail for excitement and expression. I am unsure whether this was the right decision however I do know that I am far happier with how I feel about the energy of my final drawing in comparison to my previous drawings. I look forward to guidance on how I can achieve precision and interest in my mark making. 

Working on a canvas of brown paper and newspaper took away much of my fear. To use this canvas, I did overcome the challenge of creating a newspaper. 

To experiment with ideas, material and method, despite the challenges I have faced here has been a huge learning curve. Perseverance did lead to the creation of a still life I do find interesting. 

I do need to  work on my application of colour and with more use, I hope to obtain a clean application rather than the muddy colours that I was afraid in parts I had created. 

I have fallen in love with the illustrations by Akiko Miyakoshi and her use of pencil with moments of colour, a design angle I look forward to in my own work as I progress. The atmosphere and mood she creates in her work is immense and stunning and emotional. A story in each scene. 

The weakest part of my final piece I believe is the glasses. I took a moment to create a line study of them as a learning exercise: 

I went in search of a still life that excited me and I found this painting by Manet, 'Basket of Pears' in the Ashmoleon Museum in Oxford. Oil on canvas. An unfinished piece. Here there is such expression in application. I can see large marks, yet the pears are so distinguishable. It is untidy, rough yet perfect. This is what I am looking for...

References: 

Experimental Drawing by Robert Kaupelis 

Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford 

Works by Akiko Miyakoshi