A few years ago, I had a wonderful selection of bones. Our school was located on the outskirts of Almaty in farmlands. Whenever we held a community cleanup, my students would come running to me with an assortment of awfully odorous skulls and back bones. I would then boil them up in bleach and try to eradicate some of the stench. They would then form the subject of numerous studies.
Unfortunately, those days are gone, and I now sit in a city apartment with no access to bones. However, I do have two trusty shells! So, once again I took to studying the same shell that featured in a previous drawing. I placed it on an interesting matting of driftwood palm bark. Well, that is what I think it is. I found it one of our walks outside of Cotonou. Its intricate designs make a very intriguing background. Ever since picking it up, I have fancied drawing as it has such delightful design qualities to it.
For this drawing, I used a woodless medium grain charcoal pencil, a white fine art pastel pencil, and a number 5 extra hard Cretacolor pencil. I ensured that it was side lit - initially from the window, then from a side lamp, and then once again from the window. This took way longer than the two hours a constant light suggested by the course outline. This project took probably a good eight hours. Once it had sucked me in, there was no letting go. I became thoroughly absorbed!
I found trying to balance up the attention to patterns and the overarching tonality of the form of the shell, as well as the lattice matt, difficult to get right. Both items had exquisite surface detail, but to understand their form I had to try to overlay highlights and shadows to bring these out. I found that I became lost in the details of the matting. At times I had to use artistic license to span areas where I had run out of structures or had included too many. I think the balance I achieved between the empty negative space and the business of the two subjects works.
Unfortunately, those days are gone, and I now sit in a city apartment with no access to bones. However, I do have two trusty shells! So, once again I took to studying the same shell that featured in a previous drawing. I placed it on an interesting matting of driftwood palm bark. Well, that is what I think it is. I found it one of our walks outside of Cotonou. Its intricate designs make a very intriguing background. Ever since picking it up, I have fancied drawing as it has such delightful design qualities to it.
For this drawing, I used a woodless medium grain charcoal pencil, a white fine art pastel pencil, and a number 5 extra hard Cretacolor pencil. I ensured that it was side lit - initially from the window, then from a side lamp, and then once again from the window. This took way longer than the two hours a constant light suggested by the course outline. This project took probably a good eight hours. Once it had sucked me in, there was no letting go. I became thoroughly absorbed!
I found trying to balance up the attention to patterns and the overarching tonality of the form of the shell, as well as the lattice matt, difficult to get right. Both items had exquisite surface detail, but to understand their form I had to try to overlay highlights and shadows to bring these out. I found that I became lost in the details of the matting. At times I had to use artistic license to span areas where I had run out of structures or had included too many. I think the balance I achieved between the empty negative space and the business of the two subjects works.
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| Spartacus shell on driftwood palm bark |
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