Naomi's Drawing Venture

Research Point - The still life genre  To approach such a huge area of research, I have decided to study a painting from each century and note down my observations on medium, style, application and the mood of each piece.  Pieter Aertsen 'A meat stall' 1551. Oil on canvas:  This painting offers a scene of abundance. A stall full of meat, of food. Outside of the doorway I can see many people going about their business, picking up supplies. In the immediate scene I can see fish and sausages, birds and ham and of course the most striking element, the head in the centre.  The oils are used here with such precision and skill. The colour is exact, so truthful. The scene has been depicted exactly as it would be caught on a camera in this modern age. There is no room here for an untruth. It is a photograph of the stall. A stark reality.  The shadows have been painted in so accurately on the white cloth just right of the head. In shade a pale grey. ...

Research Point: Unusual, multiple viewpoints Anthony Green - 'Mrs Madeleine Jocelyne with her Son' 1987 What is most striking about this piece are the angles and peculiar perspectives.  I see a living room, one that appears comfortable and rich. I see a middle class home. Full and pleasurable.  The mixture of pencil, watercolour and pastel is also a dream like combination. I cannot see where each medium begins and ends, it all flows like a picture book opening up.  The first this I see in this piece is the red figure sat in the arm chair, however very quickly my eye is drawn to the red in the walls, very similar in shade to the red figure. This makes me believe the figure is in her home setting, she blends into the room. This is her place.  Each corner of the room is different and so interesting. I have to look 3 or 4 times to spot the detail. Each angle so irregular. There are lamps and plants, side boards holding a collection of items, most of them pro...

Project 4:  Exercise 3 - Material Differences  I used an A1 white sheet of paper and a HB pencil to map out the composition of my drawing. I was careful to use all of the picture space on my sheet:  Once I was was sure of my placement, I went over my lines with a black fine line. Here I was careful to include details that I hadn't really noticed in previous exercises, such as the reflection of the chest of drawers in the mirror and all of the objects along the window sill. I looked had at each item and before committing to the black line, I looked again at how objects sat along/around each other in terms of shape and size:  Now to add colour. As there are so many objects in the view. I didn't want to use a heavy medium in fear of losing each piece. I opted for watercolour and went about colouring in each piece. I was careful here to include the worn, old, light pink walls. The room is darkest in the very corner where the light doesn't quite hit. ...

Project 4: Exercise 2 -  Composition - An interior  I have chosen to use my bedroom for this exercise. Initially I ruled this room out of my house sketches as it is old, without decoration and rough. However as I woke up this morning, for the fist time I looked at the old pink colour of the walls in the morning light and I thought that perhaps there is something to be found here.  I started with a quick sketch of the room. This exercise has asked that I look at angles, so I concentrated on the line of the walls to gage where the angels were:  I then moved onto studies of the room in both portrait and landscape. I worked quickly with each sketch and used the far right corner angle as a starting point. I took a seated position and adjusted my position slightly each time.  I looked at the angles of the items in my viewpoint, the size and corners of the large chest of drawers. I struggled here, certainly in the first sketch as I felt ...

Project 4: Exercise 1 -  Quick sketches around the house Sketch 1&2: Two different viewpoints of my living room space. The left hand drawing shows the fire place with a log burner. The right hand drawing is the window.  Note: The window really caught my imagination. It is full of vases, crammed together. it is such a small window however when I studied it, each piece together created its own character in a way. Full and lively.  Sketch 2 &3: Another two angles of the living room. The left hand drawing is the patio window. The right hand drawing looks straight ahead to the sofa.  Note: These two my least enjoyable sketches. There wasn't anything of great interest here. I found both of these viewpoints rather stale, however I didn't realise this until I was busy sketching them.  Sketch 4 & 5 : The left is the hallway looking straight towards the font door. The right drawing is my view into the kitchen whilst stood in...

Project 3: Exercise 4 - Monochrome  For this exercise I wanted to combine a natural object, ripe plums with a man made object, a plate. I was drawn to the plums because of their colour, so dense and deep. I placed the plums on a red plate and looked at the colour, shape and form.  For my first sketch, having enjoyed the freedom of working on brown parcel paper, I decided to work again using this material. I used a purple biro to sketch out the shape of the plums. I used red and purple watercolour to block in the colour. When I squinted my eyes, I placed white paint where I could see the reflection of light on the fruits. I quite enjoyed how this bought the light and the white polka dots or the plate together.  I left this sketch to dry. When I returned to it I felt concerned the colour of the paper was too close in tone to the fruits and plate. The colours on the page look unintentionally  muddy and unclear. This drawing is missing clarity:  ...

Project 3: Exercise 3 -  Experiment with mixed media  For this exercise I have chosen to draw the pink roses in my kitchen windowsill and a coconut. With ink I mapped out this composition onto brown paper:  I then used a variety of mediums to block in the colour. I used white acrylic for the window. Watercolour for the roses and coconuts and pastel and chalk for the vase:  Reflections:  Unfortunately the final drawing appears muddy and messy.  Using a variety of materials is certainly out of my comfort zone. I did feel daunted by this exercise and so not to worry unnecessarily, as with a number of exercises so far, I just went for it!  The shadows are most certainly too dark, I used black here which on reflection was a mistake . I also wanted to put a shade on the glass of the window, on this occasion I used a grey watercolour. Again, this appears muddy and subdued.  When I look back at this drawing I can see that I...

Project 3: Exercise 2 -  Still life in tone using colour For this exercise I chose to use logs of wood, chosen for their differences in tone and texture:  I placed the 3 logs together and started by creating a simple line sketch of their shape using a brown pencil crayon:  With pencil crayons I looked hard at the texture of each log, I  specifically wanted to take note of the direction of the lines in the logs. I used a different colour for each tone that I saw: I then began to fill in blocks of tone with my coloured pencils. I wanted to try and stay true to the directions of the lines in the wood. As suggested, I worked quickly and spontaneously:  With the sketch above, I was concerned that I had not emphasized light against dark effectively. I felt that the contrast in tone just wasn't enough. As much as I felt the lines of the word had been captured, I was unsure that the difference in tone had been.  I drew again in the sam...

Research point:  Positive and negative space Gary Hume:  'The Teacher', 'Cerith 1998' & 'The Water Painting 1999' Here Hume's use of block colour is really very effective in differentiating negative space.  Only one colour has been used in the background. There is no detail there, just a solid block. I feel this works in a way that it helps fill the pieces and does cover, in all of these pieces a considerable area. However whilst one colour covers such a large space, it does not take my eye of the main area of each painting. My attention remains on the figures.  'The Teacher' - When I slightly close my eyes I can see that two shades of darker blue have been cleverly placed on the left had paining as positive space. They are far more noticeable, they are striking and interesting. The sit together with a number of bricks that I don't notice so much, the negative space - The are pale in colour and although two different colours have ...

Project 3: Exercise 1 - Still life using line For this exercise I worked with a smooth green vintage beer bottle, a daffodil in contrast with a flowering cactus in a small round brass vase.  I find these objects interesting as the shape and size of both the living blooms and the items I have positioned them in are the opposite of each other. A daffodil is so smooth, long and delicate. The cactus is small and wide, the extreme opposite in texture with its long and harmful needles. The glass bottle is transparent and smooth in texture. The brass bowl is small and textured, opaque. Together I enjoy their differences.  I started by thinking about viewpoint:  Viewpoint thumbnails :  I worked with Indian ink and a dipping pen. I used A3 brown parcel paper.  I focused on the lines of each item and tried to work an accurate line drawing. However here you will see that as I was working I didn't allow enough room at the bottom o...