Project 1
Exercise 1
For this exercise we were asked to drape a piece of material over a chair and re-creating what we could see in our sketchbooks in two 15-minute sketches; one of which should be created using line, the other using tone.
I chose to use a towel over the chair in our bedroom. I had thrown it onto the chair after using it and liked how it looked, so after rearranging it a little I got stuck into the task.
Line Sketch
On first approaching this task I really thought I’d prefer the outcome of my tone drawing of the fabric, however, I’m pleasantly surprised.
I used a 3B pencil for this sketch, beginning my generally mapping out the shape of the fabric around the chair. For the first minute or so I found that I was being fairly careful with my lines, but then I realised and thought I’d just go for it and began quickly working the folds of the towel, the way it has settled around the chair and all the areas of shadow. Sometimes I wasn’t even looking at the page; I often realised I was focusing on the subjects in front of me and moving my hand on the page without even glancing on it.
I think I’ve managed to accurately depict the positioning and my perspective towards the subjects, and, overall, portrayed what I could see fairly well – for a first attempt, anyway!
There are parts of this that, obviously, I would alter; some of the lines are quite severe and need to be subtler, and I think some work is needed on the overall proportion, but for now, I’m happy.
Tone Sketch
Whilst I’m not unhappy with this piece, I do believe it’s the less interesting of the two.
I thought that the movability and softness of the charcoal that I used would be perfect for this sort of exercise, and, even though it’s still a really useful material for the depiction of tone and shadow, I still much prefer the pencil drawing. Had I more than 15-minutes to create the drawing, maybe the outcome would be different?
Although I’m less satisfied with this piece, I do think I have managed to portray the folds and the range of tones across the towel. I wonder if maybe the piece were on a bigger scale, it might be more impactful. I found that I was very conscious not to go too far on this one; as it was a small sketch I was worried that the charcoal would be overpowering and you wouldn’t be able to see the actual subject of the drawing if I used too much or smudged it too much. I was using my fingertips to move the charcoal around, which is extremely satisfying and a very useful technique, but I feel that it would have been far better appearance and process-wise if the piece were larger.
The pencil lines were very fine and easy to manage, whereas, the charcoal feels very thick and chunky. With the lines it was simple to add a tiny little detail that I had missed out, however, with the charcoal, and working in a small scale, this is not so simple.
I’m looking forward to getting bigger and better in this area!
5-minute sketches
I found this part of the task interesting, but a little frustrating.
It’s funny, but when you’re working on a subject it’s fairly easy to depict what exactly it is you’re drawing, but when you zoom into a small area of it, that’s not so simple. I used the 3B pencil and the stick of charcoal to create these small areas of the towel. Again, I will admit that I much preferred the pencil in this task. I think it was far easier to create the folds and the shadows within the fabric, and due to this, it’s easier to recognise what exactly it is I am drawing and the different areas that I am focusing on.
That being said, I really like how abstract the last image looks. I used a thick piece of charcoal and used my fingers to move the charcoal around. Whilst it’s not clear what exactly I have drawn or, as you will already know, the area that I am focusing on, I think it looks really cool. If I were to use this technique for the whole subject, I think I could create something really unusual but really cool.
I discussed with my tutor the other day that things don’t exactly need to look realistic or exactly as you see them. I’ve made a conscious decision to put more of myself into my work.
I’m a fairly abstract person and I think it’ll be really important to reflect this in my art.
Jesy Gilkes 