Part 2 Project 3 Exercise 3 Detail and tone

For this exercise I chose a ginger root as it has intriguing forms similar to driftwood, but was something I had accessible in my home. What was different was finding a way to present it in my composition that would be interesting, as it is a monochromatic form with very stubby self-contained extensions which do not interact with the negative space. To add a bit of interest, I decided to place it on a red and grey tray which has some geometric shapes on it. This created a contrasting color background with understated shapes in the background.
I used a variety of drawing pencils from HB through to 6B for the tonal values, along with watercolour pencils to give the colours needed. Building up the tonal values using only hatching and cross-hatching was indeed time consuming, as I found myself often tempted to just color in the areas instead. What I do like about using this technique was that it seems to emphasize the textural nature of the ginger roots.


Detail of root

A difficulty I encountered was in ensuring the details related spacial to the whole root. I would become fascinated by the detail of the surface texture of an area; only to find that once completed it did not related to the textural detail of the adjoining section. As explained in the brief, I had to go back and forth constantly to ensure that the darkest regions recieved equal dominance throughout the piece.

What I did enjoy was the weird designs that I observed in the root’s texture, allowing the imagination to make connections to morphic beings.
The background proved to be a bit of a challenge. I think the shading in the left-hand side of the painting works, but I am not totally satisfied with the brighter red on the right. I feel its brightness flattens out the composition rather than emphasize its spacial depth.


Ginger root using drawing pencils and pencil crayons