Research Point - George Stubbs

Born in Liverpool, George Stubbs (1724-1806), had little formal training in art but developed a flair for portraiture and an interest in studying anatomy.  He rented a farmhouse in Lincolnshire and spent eighteen months dissecting horses before publishing his book Anatomy of the Horse in 1766.

  His life like paintings depicting horses and also sporting and racing scenes were considered more accurate than that of any previous painters. This was due to the many in-depth studies of musculature and movement he made before beginning to work.

 One of his most famous paintings is Whistlejacket, which now hangs in the National Gallery in London.

Another fish

A friend gave us some herring, following a fishing trip they had taken, and I couldn't resist trying to draw one.  Not a brilliant success, as I was trying to use layers of hatching to build up the tone, and the pencils being quite soft just ended up blending into one another.  I was trying to stop myself blending everything together, but on this occasion it didn't quite work.  Oh well on with the next drawing....

Fish on a plate

My  attempt at drawing a fish on a plate.  I  was quite pleased with the watercolour pencils, even though I did manage to draw a bright blue line right across my bass!  It was the first time I had used these pencils and I found the exercise really enjoyable.

Drawing animals

The idea behind this exercise was to grab the chance to draw some animals.  Having a garden full of chickens and other feathered creatures I had the ideal subjects.  Sadly, none of them would stand still, so I tried the rabbits and then eventually tried drawing some ponies. Here are my efforts. 

Negative space in a plant

This is my attempt at drawing the negative spaces surrounding a pot plant.  Admittedly the pansy did not have that much foliage, which made the drawing a little easier.  It was quite hard to keep concentrating and draw the spaces surrounding the plant, rather than the plant itself.

This next exercise was called, plants and flowers in coloured pencil.  I have just realised that I did my drawing in pastels instead.  So much for reading the instructions! 

This last drawing was an experiment using a dip pen and coloured ink.  The pansies were obviously not this dark, but I got a bit carried away with the black ink.

Using marker pens

This is my attempt at drawing a composition of fruit using marker pens.  They have a thin and thick nib to them and I found the thicker line easier to shade with.  As with the coloured pencils I may have used a little too many colours and overworked the drawing a bit, but this is all new to me.

The next drawing was an exercise in using oil pastels .  This is not one of my greatest successes, but it  was fun to do.  It did take a long time to try and build up the colours, and I found the white pastel really useful to blend the colours together.  I do like to blend...

Project- Drawing fruit and vegetables in colour

Exercise- Using hatching to create tone

For this drawing we had to start  by drawing individual pieces of fruit, paying attention to the shapes or planes that make up the outline. I used coloured pencil and drew a larger than life apple and pear.

We then had to make up a composition with two or three pieces, and using hatching show the different shapes and tonal values.

I was quite pleased with this drawing but I may have overworked the colours a bit.