Still life group using line and tone

This exercise involved drawing objects using  line, with only minimal tone. I chose the logs in the log basket because they had some interesting textures and shapes.  I used A3 paper and a black roller tip pen.  I drew quickly and tried to fill the page, but it proved very difficult to give the drawing any depth as it was supposed to be about line and not tone. I must admit to putting in a little shading, just to try and make the drawing look right.

My next attempt at drawing was a little more successful.  This exercise was to draw a still life group in tone.  I arranged some sea shells on a plate and drew them in pastels on A3 paper.  As I was working in pastels I didn't manage to get in all the intricate detail of the objects but, the idea was to explore tone using only three colours.  I chose a dark brown for the deepest tones, rusty orange for the mid tones and a pale cream for the lightest tones.  I wasn't sure if I was allowed to blend the colours, but couldn't really help it as I was working in pastels.

Exercise- Getting tone and depth in detail

For this exercise I had to build up dark, medium and light tones.  The shells didn't come out too bad.  I did use black pen for some of them which didn't allow the same contrast of tone as the pencil drawings.

 The sheep horn in pencil worked quite well.  I used a putty rubber to highlight, and 3B and 6B pencils for the darker area, and this gave a greater variety of light to dark contrast.

 The starfish was an exercise in stipples and dots.  I used a black pen which was great at making quick dots and dashes, but when it came to building up tone and shadow, I found I had maybe been a bit heavy handed and got carried away with my dots. The lighter areas, which would have been on the top of the starfish, look a little dark and really I should have eased up and left some patches of white to contrast with the shadow.

Detailed observation

The next exercise was to do some line drawing, focusing on the detail of the object, but excluding shadow and tone. I started with half an orange and then drew an onion.  Drawing in pen really worked well for this exercise.

Observation in nature

I have now started on the second part of the course which is all to do with observing nature. 
The first project was to explore coloured media.  I used coloured pencils, pastels and also crayons.  The idea is just to experiment and do some mark-making.

Still life using made objects.

I have now finished the last two drawings, before I send them off for the first assignment.  I was determined not to spend days and days on drawing these.  I must admit the pencil drawing took a little longer than the colour one, but I had to call it a day at some time. 

The cotton reel caused me a huge headache, as did the tape measure.  I did begin to think I was completely mad to even think I could draw a tape measure, but it did seem to fit with the other items really well.  I wasn't convinced about the composition either, and as you can see from the colour drawing I did pull the items a little closer together to connect them a little better.

Finally........

I have finally updated my blog!  I finished these two drawings a few weeks ago, but since then time has just zoomed past me.  These will be some of the drawings I will send in for my first assignment.  This is for the still life using natural forms.  I am really pleased with them.

The first drawing is using pencil and a bit of charcoal for the shading.  As the paper was A2, charcoal worked really well for covering such a vast area.  I wasn't sure what to do for the background so I ended up just lightly shading the whole page.  It doesn't really show up on the photo.

The second picture was using coloured pencil and some pastels.  I was really nervous of doing this one, since I haven't ever used pastels before.  The colours were much brighter than the pencil, and since my subject was a bright orange pumpkin, the pastels were a better choice.  Again this is using A2 paper, which just seems a huge space to fill.  

Now I have started work on my next still life, but this time I am going for some buttons and needles and thread.  Thankfully, this time,  I won't have the problem of my still life decomposing before I get to draw it.

Working towards my still life of natural objects

These are the latest drawings I have done, working up to the assignment of a still life.  I tried several different compositions and then added a little colour.  I think I am just playing around at the moment trying to find an idea that actually works.  As it takes me so long to draw anything, I am constantly having to move my tray of rapidly fading vegetables around the house so they are not in the way. No two drawings are ever going to be the same. Oh, to have a study!