Part 1 Exercise 4 Shadows and reflected light

Our current dining room table is perfect for a study on reflections and their impact on one another as the wood is dark and highly reflective. As I have always enjoyed the shapes of teapots and kettles, I decided to use our stainless steel teakettle and a white ceramic teapot. I initially played with the composition a little to see which positions would maximize the reflective influence of the one object on the other. I decided to combine composition # 2 and # 5 for my final placement of the two objects.

Preliminary Sketches

As I still have an issue finding white, or off-white paper, of the necessary quality, I used the dusky blue paper I bought last week. After watching a video on how to prepare a surface to maximize their absorption of charcoal, I decided to coat the paper in a layer of white paint, as I did in the previous exercise. This time around, I tried to apply finger paint onto a sheet with a brush and then acrylic white onto another sheet. I then compared the effect.

The acrylic was hard to apply evenly as the paint dried so fast that it became lumpy very easily. However, it gave a more even distribution of paint, than the finger paint. The surface seemed rather shiny and slick so I anticipated having trouble applying the charcoal to the surface. This turned out not to be an issue as the charcoal adhered readily to the surface. I did find, however, that you could only erase a certain amount, before it seemed to reach a threshold after which it would not erase at all. I also found that when I tried to do some touch ups today, it was very difficult to do so. I wondered if the shiny nature of the surface would be distracting, but as the project was all about reflective surfaces, I thought that a shiny background might add some interest.

I tried Odilon Redon’s technique of soaking his charcoals in oil to help increase their intensity and to create a slightly differently look (Odilon-Redon.org, 2015). As I did not have linseed oil, I tried olive oil. It worked really well and made the charcoal flow over the surface without much dust. I did not use this technique throughout, as I wanted to provide slight variations in texture.

I have always been captivated by the subtleties seen in reflective surfaces. I found that I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise. I started out approaching it as just another learning exercise, but the more I got absorbed in the drawing process, the more I just relished the chance to sit and draw. As I started the drawing around three o'clock in the afternoon, relying on light from the window to highlight the composition, I found that the lighting became richer and more dynamic as the sun started to sink down, flooding my composition with natural light.

Stainless steel kettle and ceramic teapot

One thing I did notice is how incredibly precisely lined up the reflections were to their original source. I had a spot of trouble getting the kettle’s reflection right and as the surface resistant to total overhauls, had to settle with just smaller adjustments on the right-hand side to make it appear lined up. My putty rubber was a great asset and helped immensely to create the necessary highlights and alterations. Occasionally I used white chalk or conté to help highlight areas which had already had repeated erasings.

What I do love about creating a background layer before applying charcoal, is that the surface is textural and richer than if it had been flat plain white paper. As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention!" I would never have tried this had I not had problems finding white paper. You can see the effects of the textural quality in my close-ups.

Close-up to show textural nature of the charcoal applied to the painted background

The blue paper peaking through the background provides visual interest to the background

Learning Points

·       A lighter object placed on the shadowed side of a highly reflective stainless steel object shows the reflections of the lighter object more clearly than when the lighter object is placed towards the lighter area of the kettle. The greater the contrast between dark and the lighter object the greater the observance of reflected light in its surface.
·       Reflections on a curved surface show interesting distortions and need careful attention to their details and shape. If the reflection is distorted, the object itself will appear distorted.
·       Reflections on a flat mirror-like surface will completely invert the image with mathematical precision.
·       Working on a textural surface with charcoal and contés is difficult as it is hard to create a smooth glass-like surface, but it allows for textural interest to what could be a dull artwork.
·       I have never enjoyed drawing with charcoal and contés as much as I did in this exercise. What was really rewarding was that the charcoals and contés adhered to the surface with very little dust.
·       Charcoal soaked in olive oil makes a great graphic drawing tool.

 

Works Cited

Odilon-Redon.org, 2015. Odilon Redon. [Online]
Available at: http://www.odilon-redon.org/
[Accessed 16 May 2015].