It’s funny what a change in circumstance can effect; trying to remain focused and functional during the pandemic lockdown is a challenge. Working through these exercises has been a consistently swinging emotional rollercoaster. From joy and excitement to fear and drudgery, I have run the full gambit of emotions over the last month or so. Some days I’m right there, present and full of metaphorical beans, and others, the simple act of getting out of bed and getting dressed seems a physical challenge. I tackled this exercise in a down swing, and as such, I feel I may have neglected it in comparison to some of the others.
In previous exercises, I have spend time sketching and thinking and working things out before committing to a final piece. My brain wasn’t capable of that, so I had to come up with a way to complete the exercise. Baby steps, that’s what was needed. Job number one, pick a colour. That’s easy enough right? Blue?…..No, that’s stupid, err…….Green? Nah, everything will look like a broccoli…..Yellow? Come on, Ian, get a grip, yellow is the worst colour ever. There’s no actual evidence, but it is scientific fact, honest. Red it is then. Job number two, what medium should I use? To decide I collected together everything I had that would leave a red mark. Pens, pencils, pastels, chalks, paints, inks, a random red stone thing I found. I stopped short of raiding the fridge and larder, maybe I should have. It was swatch o’clock and I set to work checking out my options. The conclusion was that I’d use my collection of alcohol ink markers and then use coloured pencils to fine tune my shading. This decision dictated my choice of surface — the markers are really unforgiving if used on inappropriate paper. It was either marker paper or Bristol Board. Marker paper is great, and does a the job of holding up to the aggressive ink in the markers. But it is really thin (usually between 60-80gsm) and not so great for archival purposes. Instead, I used the biggest sheet of Bristol I had in my stash, which was A3. The simple part was done, now for the hard bit. Picking the subject and doing the drawing itself.
There’s been a lot of still life up to this point and finding new and interesting subjects is getting increasingly difficult. I know that’s not true really, but when you’re not at your creative best, everything looks a bit dull and uninteresting. I spent quite awhile not really achieving anything and knew this task would need to be revisited after a bit of a break. I watched a documentary about the history of still life and this inspired me to hit the fruit basket. Granted ,my choice was a bit limited due to the lockdown. It was either a single apple or a slightly mouldy punnet of blueberries. I threw the blueberries away and settled on the apple. I put the piece of fruit in a glass dish and began.
I spent a few minutes working out in my head how I wanted to depict the subject. Reflecting on my previous work, I was determined to create a composition that was more dynamic than before. I started by using light tones, blocking out shapes and areas of tone. I built up layer after layer of tone, working from the lightest tones I had, all the way up to the darkest. At this point, I came to the conclusion I would need to use black and white pens as well as the reds to add highlights and extreme shadows. The piece was taking shape and it was now time to add some details. Using coloured pencils and a few fine tipped pens, I added abstract lines and shapes to help bring the drawing together.
Once I’d finished the drawing, I walked away unhappy with the image. As I’ve often do, I hung the piece up so I could look at it for a few days. I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. I found that the distance the work is viewed from had a dramatic effect on how much I liked it. Up close the abstract nature of the shapes make it a bit confused, but viewing it from a few paces away, allows it come together as an image.
Another exercise down and onward we go.
Happy scribbling
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