Drawings: OCA Part 3: Assignment 3

Assignment Three - Drawing Outdoors Final Piece

Graphite and Chalk on Coloured Paper

 

First off I have to say that this assignment was hard, or more specifically finding the right view to work from was the hard part. I needed a view from a window or doorway that included natural objects (i.e. plants, trees etc) had a sense of depth to demonstrate some perspective as well as some straight-lined objects. I found looking out of any window covered a couple of these criteria but they all seemed a bit, well, bland. So when I finally found this view I knew that this was the one I was going to work from, it had a linear perspective in the buildings and some trees in the foreground and the church gave an interesting background.

 

So, having found my chosen view I set about playing around with the composition and decided on a portrait format that I felt showed the depth of the drawing well. I then experimented with the perspective of the buildings to ensure that I had it all right. After this I decided to eliminate one of the background buildings and I am glad I did this as it helps the church to be more dominant in the background.

I experimented with a watercolour and pen drawing that I decided not to pursue, it did not feel like the right media for the piece; I wanted to work with something that showed off the setting better. After a bit more exploration I decided I really liked the way chalk and graphite worked against each other, especially on the coloured paper as a mid-tone. The media manages to capture something of the feel of the place quite well.

I ended up spending a couple of hours creating the final piece and I am really satisfied with the result. My only concerns are that I may have lost some of the depth in the final drawing and that I should have explored some more choices of media that may have showed certain elements off better.

Experimenting with Composition

Biro on Paper

 

Pencil Sketch (left) and Working out Perspective (right)

Watercolour and Pen Piece (left) and Charcoal Sketch of the Same Tree (right)

 

First try with Chalk and Graphite on Coloured Paper

Drawings: OCA Part 3: Landscape Drawing III - Drawing Cloud Formations

  Drawing Cloud Formations - Calm day

Blue Ink and Wash - A4

 

I produced a number of these sketches in between other drawings over several days to capture the clouds in several different formations. It was definitely most interesting when it was stormy; the clouds seemed to roll on and on dramatically covering the landscape. Representing this on paper was no easy task but I made a few attempts with a couple of fiascos but also some that managed to show some of that drama.

 Drawing Cloud Formations - Cirrus Clouds

Charcoal and Chalk - A4

 

Drawing Cloud Formations - Low Storm Clouds

Charcoal and Chalk - A4

Drawings: OCA Project - Reflected Light

Study of light reflected from one object to another.

Charcoal and Chalk on A3 Sugar Paper.

Shadows and reflected light and shade.

Charcoal on A2 Paper.

What are the difficulties in separating cast shadow from reflected light and shade?

When using both charcoal and chalk in the first drawing, it was difficult using both these tonally opposite mediums and still trying to create a range of tones without the whole drawing just turning into a smudgy grey mess. I attempted to get over this problem by using the blue of the paper as a mid-tone thus separating the two. The cast shadow had much more solidity and a much harder quality to it so I used just charcoal when trying to portray these bits, most noticeably in the shading on the surface upon which the objects are standing.

The reflected shadow and light follows the contours of the objects. How have you shown this in your drawing?

When applying the charcoal or chalk I followed the shape of the object, allowing the contours to show and define themselves. Like ont he bowel in the first picture and especially on the pepper grinder in the second picture.