Assignment One: Reflection

Did you do enough preliminary work before starting work on your final pieces?


I did as much work as I felt necessary in the sense that I explored all the different medias and techniques presented to me in this section of the course, as well as exploring a few of my own, and was able to take the logic steps to creating two pieces of work that I feel best represent the style I would like to have as an artist, namely that of an mild impressionist, by putting my own spin on reality.


Do your large drawings give an accurate interpretation of the still life groups? If not, what went wrong?


They are as accurate as they can possibly be considering that they are my impressions of them. My first drawing for example, I believe you can still see that it is a rose, even though I have chosen the complimentary  colour to what it's natural one should be. As for my second drawing I believe I have managed to maintain the correct proportions to the objects I've chosen.


Did you make a good selection of objects or did you try to include too much? Would you change the arrangements of the objects if you were to start again?


I certainly don't feel that I included too much, more likely that i didn't include enough objects in my pictures, but for the natural drawing, I want to shoe the many textures that just one object can hold and felt that my piece would stand out more if it was less cluttered. As for my second piece, by enlarging the image to just focus on the reflection in the bauble and the train which is close to it, I gained an unusual perspective of the object that would have been lost amongst other more complicated items. I would possibly try to place something unusual in the natural picture, like a dragon fruit to make it more interesting, but generally I am quite happy with how the work turned out.


Do your drawings work fit well on the paper or could they be improved by working on a larger sheet of paper?


I don't believe that a larger piece of paper would improve my drawing, but possibly a different shape of paper might. If I had sketched my natural piece on a round piece of paper, I would have shown more of the rose, and may have looked more interesting.


Did you have problems with drawing or find hatching too difficult?


I did encounter so problems, one of the major ones being that I have my pencil comfortably with a firmer grip than most to combat my shaking hands, and this meant that I had to work harder at building up the subtle tones to a drawing. Despite that though, I quite enjoyed hatching; it was stippling I had the most trouble with, mainly because I don't have the patience to build up an image one dot at a time. It could be that I was doing it wrong and need to research how to use this technique, but personally I would rather use hatching.

Assignment One: Second Drawing

Assignment One: First Drawing

Check and Blog Seven

How successful were you in copying the lines from the smaller squares to the larger squares?


Quite successful as I believe I've kept the drawing in proportion.


Are you satisfied with your larger replica of the image? What would you do differently another time?


I would make the squares smaller on the first image, say 1cm squares instead of 2cm ones, so on the larger image I can more accurately show the details of the objects.

Enlarging a simple flat image

Project: Enlarging an image

Exercise: Enlarging an existing drawing

Check and Blog Six

Have you discovered any new ways of using your drawing tools to depict surface and texture?


I tried doing a wax crayon rubbing and then scraping the wax off to show lines that form the image of a rose, however the tool I used (a scalpel) only partially worked because as I applied too much pressure in places, I tore holes in the drawing. Maybe if I were to use cardboard instead it may have a better effect.


How successful were you at implying form with little or no tonal hatching?


What are your impressions of frottage as a drawing technique?


I really like it. Its fun to do and gives instant texture. I think it may be limited to natural still life however as I can't see how it could be used in man-made compositions effectively.