Project 4
Exercise 2
For this exercise we were asked to look at the composition of an interior, including the angles, areas, viewpoints, and the format of sketch.
I chose to work on an area in my bedroom where I have an assortment of jars, candles and plants on top of the radiator. This radiator is rarely used for heating purposes so it’s predominantly used as a shelf.
To begin with, I took an assortment of pictures of this area. I shot from different distances and viewpoints to give myself a range to choose from and a scope to compare. I also find taking photos of the area I’m sketching useful so that, if needed, I can return back to them at a later date or use them for comparison.
After this, I chose my favourite of the four and sectioned an A3 sheet of paper in my sketchbook into quarters. It was interesting to see that even just shifting viewpoint of the camera changes the image completely, especially with the plant. From each angle, the leaves looked completely different, which was interesting. I think in my head I had decided that the things that I would sketch would look the exact same, only from different angles.
I chose to create these images in HB pencils. I know this is a simple material to use, but I felt most comfortable and happy with a pencil. It also felt nice to work in pencil again, after working with charcoal, pastels and paints.
One of my biggest YES! moments came during this task, as I realised that my structure and shape of curved items and their ellipses was improving.
I am super happy with how these sketches turned out. I took some inspiration from the previous exercise and made a conscious decision not to pay so much attention to perfecting my sketch. I loosely created the sketch and found that I was far more satisfied with the outcome. It looks way more natural and smooth, which is something I’ve found tricky to achieve in the past.
I love all of these views, but if I were to choose, I think I would go for the top-left view. Looking towards the items from slightly above and to the left. It was really interesting to experiment with different viewpoints, as, again, this isn’t something that I’ve focused on much in the past! Usually I would just approach the items head-on, but, I’m now seeing that it makes a piece so much more interesting if you mix things up a bit! Although I didn’t practice all of the different features of composition, I can now see how these features contribute to a piece.
I can now see that the distance between myself and the subjects doesn’t always need to be a comfortable distance. It can be distortedly close up, or even far away, with a large amount of surrounding negative space. A viewpoint can literally be from anywhere you decide, as its YOUR viewpoint and your work, so it’s completely your call where you approach the sketch from.
Jesy Gilkes 