Assignment one: A personal still life

Brief:

Create a still life of objects which “have some meaning to for you; objects that interest you, and perhaps say something about you” using a variety of drawing media (Khatir, 2014).

I decided to start this assignment by doing a bit of research of still lives, perusing a cross-section on the internet. There are so many out there; yet so few really grab my attention. Most of them seem to lack originality and enough contrast to grab my attention. However, I did find two still lives that I particularly enjoyed. The one was Still life, Sanfrancisco, 1932 (see fig. 1) by the photographer Ansel Adams (Adams, 1932). Although this is a photograph and not a drawing, I really enjoy his use of contrasting metallic surfaces and the inclusion of items with patterned or textural interest.



Fig 1. Ansel Adams. Still life, San Francisco, 1932.
 

I also enjoyed the charcoal study, Still Life of Pears Halved, by Louise Hervieu (Hervieu, 1878-1954). Such a simple idea and yet the composition is dynamic by virtue of its use of lights and darks (see fig.2). It was interesting to learn from this website that she suffered from a severe hereditary disease, which resulted in her eventually resorting to charcoal as her medium. What I particularly enjoy about this work is the way that she overworked the initial charcoal work using a dark charcoal to add details and strokes which invigorate her picture plane.



Fig 2. Louise Hervieu. Still Life of Pears Halved . 

To come up with objects which would portray something of my personality, I created a brainstorm to see what ideas would spring to mind in the process. I then played with various arrangements of these objects using thumbnail sketches (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Brainstorm



Fig. 4. Thumbnail sketches of a variety of still life objects.

I would have liked to have drawn this assignment on a larger scale than A3, but as I have no access to larger white paper in Cotonou, Benin, I decided to settle for A3 rather than to do another drawing on blue paper stock, painted with a white base coat. It took me a while to get my format size figured in my head as I really do enjoy drawing on a larger scale. However, I was able to make the shift and actually enjoyed the intimacy of detail I was able to get by virtue of my having chosen the A3 format.

As a South African who has spent most of my adult life living on different continents, I have loved being back in Africa these past two years. The main objects I chose have connections to Africa. My friend gave me the teapot and teacup set after her trip to Hungary. It seemed ironic at the time that she gave me a set with a very African design, which she bought in Hungary, while I was living in Kazakhstan – a continent away from Africa. However, I love this little set and it has become one of my treasured items. I particularly like its finesse and designs in the saucer and on the sides of the teapot and teacup.

To accompany the tea set, I decided to juxtapose the very crude lost wax sculpture my husband bought in Abomey, Benin. Images of an African version of “The Thinker” are to be found throughout this country, carved out of wood. However, this was the only little sculpture that we have seen created from the lost wax process. He reminds me of the humble, emaciated figure of the elderly gentleman who helps us with odd jobs around the house. He has such an endearing and cheerful disposition, despite being homeless and poor.

When I realized that I had such a large white space inside the teacup, I decided to place one of my South African, wire chameleons into this negative space to create interesting shadows and reflections within the space (see figure 5).



Fig. 5. Still life arrangement of dining room table.



A quick gesture drawing helped me to check my composition (see figure 6). As I wanted to capture the expressive quality of the figurine, I did a few blind contour studies of his pose. I also tried to study the contrast of light and dark playing against his form (see figure 7).




Fig. 6. Gesture drawing.



 

Fig. 7. Blind Contour Studies and Tonal Study

 

Reflections

I started at the top of the composition with the shadows of the chair back and then gradually worked downwards, from left to right, to avoid smudging. (This is an issue as I do not have charcoal or pencil fixative, due to its being unavailable in Cotonou – and I can’t fly into the country with aerosols.) I found the teapot relatively easy to shade, but it was the teacup – the most innocent looking item – that created a lot of perspective issues.

I encountered problems with the bowl shapes in my still life inside the drip tray, but diagonal aerial perspective of the teacup gave me a lot of problems. As first, I found myself getting very frustrated with my inability to draw what I could clearly perceive with my eyes. While trying to work with this frustration, I remember reading somewhere that drawing needs to be viewed as “research”, as a means to learn more. So I decided to try to shift gears and to view my block as a chance to research elliptical shapes and their intriguing dichotomy of being simple everyday objects we know so well, and yet are so hard to get right. I realized that the reason it was so challenging for me was precisely because I have grown up seeing these elliptical shapes everywhere I go. Therefore, when drawing the shape, I immediately know if it is inaccurately angled or curved. This forms a roadblock and creates a tension in me. I decided to try to adopt a more playful study of this teacup. I cut out various elliptical shapes by placing half of an ellipse over the one section of my drawing and then opening it up to duplicate the other side. I then used the negative and positive shapes where appropriate to skim down the rim of the cup, creating a more pleasing shape. It was only after I had made all of my alterations to my teacup shape that I realized I should have been documenting the changes. I had not thought of it as photographing my drawings has proved to be quite a lengthy process to get the right lighting and camera settings. I do have the ellipses I played with to try to correct the shape (see figure 8). I am still not totally happy with my teacup, but as my task is to create an expressive drawing, I decided that photo-realism was not the aim of this exercise.

The object I enjoyed drawing the most was actually the figurine. I just love his dejected pose and the rough texture of his unpolished surfaces. I positioned him with his back towards the other items to emphasize his isolations and sense of not being part of the society associated with the items.




Fig. 8. Final Drawing.

Assessment Criteria

Demonstrations of technical and visual skill

For this artwork, I chose to use A3 size paper with a mixture of media: charcoals; black and white conté; black narrow point ink pen; a black watercolor pencils and a variety of drawing pencils. I feel that I was able to get a wide range of tones and varying textures from these drawing materials. My shading is, I believe, convincing giving a sense of the shine on the ceramic tea set and the reflections on the table. I tried to vary my application of the media as can be seen in the application of ink pen over the shading of the wirework found in the chameleon.

Fig. 9. Figurine and its reflections

I definitely feel as if my piece speaks of visual awareness, especially when noting the attention I pay to the details of the reflections and shadows. I particularly enjoyed working with the bronze figurine and studying the reflections in the tabletop.
Where I did encounter visual problems was in representing the teacup. As I explained in my write up, I had a great deal of problem getting the perspective on the teacup right. I feel as if my struggles have alerted me to the importance of being able to observe elliptical shapes and record them with a steady hand. I must admit that the teacup still bothers me as I still feel as if it remains slightly unresolved.

As far as compositional skills are concerned, throughout this work I tried to increase the contrast of the composition by incorporating the dark sweeping curves of the shadows of the dining room chairs on the table behind the still life. I think this works, but as the curves of the shadows replicate the curves of the handles of the teapot and teacup, it might make the composition a bit ‘hyperactive’. It is as if the chair shadows want to grab the composition and hoist it in the air, but the solidity of the teapot and teacup, as well as the anchor-like counter curves of the figures bent legs, help to counteract this action. In so doing, I believe there is a bit of tension created of opposing forces around the curvature of the figurines back and the negative space created by the teapot and teacup. I tried to visualize this composition with just a regular swathe of black in the background to provide tonal contrast. I think this would have created a more peaceful and serene appearance. Visually this might have been more restful, but as this artwork is supposed to portray something of my character, I think the tension created by the counteracting curves is appropriate. Due to my nature, I rarely feel completely serene and at rest, so an artwork which has a feeling of visual tension is appropriate for me.

 

Quality of Outcome

I trust that my presentation, as seen above, reflects my process and presents it in a coherent manner. I did struggle with the formatting of Blogger. For some weird reason, for the last two photographs it would not allow me to add captions. Whenever I tried to do so, the images jumped to a different position in the document. No matter what I did, I could not stop this from happening. As I do not know HTML coding, I could not go into the formatting to try to correct this from happening. This was annoying, as I wanted to keep my captions following the same format as the beginning of the document. However, I found that I need to eliminate everything from the last photograph that allowed for correct captioning onwards, and then start that section again, copying from my backup Windows document. This sorted out the formatting, allowing my once again to add captions.

 

Demonstration of creativity

I tried very hard with this composition, and the items I chose, to allow this piece to show some experimentation and at the same time to provoke some thought. As I was mulling over the possible items I could have selected, I really liked the irony of the sophisticated and decorative teacup and teapot compendium, and the rough crude spindly shape of the lost wax figurine. By isolating him to the side in the area which remained predominantly white, I sought to emphasize his frailty and malnourished frame. The figures on the tea set, by contrast, depict couples holding hands and appear almost regal in their upright determined stance. They create a visual contrast with the dejected pose of the figurine. I feel my inclusion of the wire chameleon adds a quirky twist to a more somber theme.

Context Reflection

I found that the area where I used the most critical thinking was in trying to get the perspective right on the elliptical shapes. This process involved a lot of trial and error. It was extremely interesting to see how by using the eraser to pull off a think slither of a highlight here, or adding the minutest shadow in another area, could totally change the morphing of the teacup.

Once the tonal values had been drawn into the entire composition, I analyzed the result with my husband, who is also art trained. Together we decided that I needed to consider the artwork as its own identity by adding shadows and darkening areas to ensure that the play of lights and darks across the surface of the artwork served to direct the eye about the composition. I wanted to keep the area around the right side of the figurine essentially white, but this meant that the other areas of white within the composition needed to appear whiter. My teacup and teapot at that stage was a more neutral grey, this caused the white to be less noticeable. By strengthening the tonal values of the teapot and teacup exterior surfaces, the white appeared whiter, allowing the viewer’s eye to be drawn into the composition, and not to be directed off the right-hand side of the page. I think this worked as I feel that the composition holds together better with the rhythm of lights and darks across the surface of the picture plane.

List of Illustrations Requiring Citations

Figure 1. Adams, A., 1932. Still life, San Francisco, 1932. [Photograph] (Weston Gallery). At: http://www.westongallery.com/artists/Ansel_Adams/ansel_adams_ii.html (Accessed on 25.5.15)

Figure 2. Hervieu, L., 1878-1954. Still Life with Pears Halved. [Art: Charcoal] (Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art). At: http://fc-fineart.com/mp.php?rqs=394 (Accessed on 25.5.15)

Works Cited

Adams, A., 1932. Still life, San Francisco, 1932. [Art online] (Weston Gallery). (Accessed on 25.5.2015)

Hervieu, L., 1878-1954. Still Life with Pears Halved. [Art online] (Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art). (Accessed on 25.5.15)

Khatir, L., 2014. Drawing 1. Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.