Part 2 Project 6 Exercise 5 Mixed Media

While working on the charcoal and conté drawing of my favorite corner chair, I decided to explore this interior setup further by developing it into my next mixed media project. As I am not experienced at collage work, when preparing myself for this exploratory mixed media composition, I looked at some of the work of Cameroonian artist Ginette Daleu (Fig.1). She gains much of her inspiration from the contrasting textures she finds in her urban environment and the “assortment of found objects” she incorporates into her collages. (Lecaille, 2014) I decided to try to explore the textures found in this enclave, along with the sharp lighting which falls across the chair, casting descriptive shadows across the entire area.


Fig. 1. Architextures Urbaines (2010). Ginette Daleu.


I decided to use the thickest paper I have to ensure that I could use collage. As it turned out, this paper stock proved to be awful: it expands radically when paint is applied and contracts noticably with glue. I was not to know this until I was almost finished my first section.

I did not fancy working too small, as I wanted to explore the surfaces of my subjects, so I divided the A2 sheet into two landscape-formatted sections. I drew the same interior corner from two slightly different angles. I drew the green chair scene whilst sitting on a mattress on the floor, and the blue scene was drawn from the corner of my bed. The slight difference in viewpoint particularly altered the appearance of the wing-backed chair. 

Initial sketch

What I love about this chair is that it nestles in the corner nook in our bedroom, in a spot where it catches the late afternoon sun. It is a cosy little spot, where I often curl up to read my Kindle. I decided to try to create this sense of warmth in my initial study. I also wanted to incorporate the quilt which drapes over this chair. This quilt was made for my daughter last year when she was hospitalized with a collapsed lung. Since we battled for six weeks to get her lung back to full capacity, this quilte now has nostalgic memories for me. As our apartment is on the third floor, we get to watch the changing skyline. For this reason, I chose a skyscape from a magazine to stick into the window of the lower portion.

Running with the ideas of Ginette Daleu, I decided to try to emulate varying textures in this diptych. I would have enjoyed incorporating even more found textures, but as I do not have canvas to work with, and was trying to stay with drawing related media, I decided rather to suggest textures through rubbings. As the scene has very rough crude bars on the windows, I wanted to create paper to emulate them. I used watercolor black crayons with a wash of brown ink to create an intense dark brown which was definitely textural in appearance. I used this paper to create the window frames, bars, and the wooden structure of the chair legs. I created a different rubbing using a straw mat to create circular patterns to adhere to the wing-backed chair upholstery. I used brown crayon with an ink wash to create this effect. Once the chair was stuck in place, I used oil pastels to suggest the shadows and light falling on the chair, and to emphasize its form. I also used oil pastels for the curtains behind the chair.

Sketchbook textural experiments.

The area where I experienced the most trouble was the wall under the window. As I have almost finished my white watercolor paint, I used some acrylic paint to augment the mix. This immediately curdled the mixture slightly, giving the surface a slightly rough texture. The biggest problem, however, was that I did not realize that it would be very difficult to use mixed media on top of the acrylic paint. When it came to painting the fern, I eventually had to mix wood glue into the ink and watercolor mix in order to make the paint adhere to the surface. As I don’t have other colors in acrylic, this was my best solution to this problem.

I found the floor quite hard to regulate the color. This time around, I used white wall­­­­­­ paint to add into the watercolor paints. Although the paint mixedd all right, in this hot, dry climate, the paint dries very quickly, making it hard to blend shades to create smooth transitions in hue and tone.

I enjoyed painting the cupboard. For this surface, I used watercolor crayons which I then blended with Bombay inks. The surface was easy to control with a paintbrush and created a rich, shiny mahogany which emulated the cupboard well.

For the basket, I used two different crayon rubbings covered with differing washes of watercolor. I did not want to overstate the basket, so left out a lot of the details of the weave work.

I experimented with applying glued paper towel in my sketchbook. I tried to add color to the paper towel but for the most part the results just looked messy. In the end, I found that the plain paper towel applied with lots of glue made an interesting drape effect. It does not really look like a quilt, but rather like a crocheted shawl. I really like the way the color of the chair shows through the applied paper towel, so left it the way it was.

Lower section of Quiet Closet Diptych.

As the brief suggested experimenting further, I decided to change the scene from being based around warm colors to being rather cool and stark in appearance. As we are facing yet another placement, somewhere in the world, I decided to use a map of flight paths to varying destinations in the window. I used strips from the Tower of London to fill in the standing lamp shaft and its base. This time around, I avoided using acrylic on the walls. For the one wall, I applied a section from our organization's newspaper. I treated this wall with colored chalks, applying oil pastel to bring out the light highlights. I used blue tones to paint in the palm, as well as for the tiles on the floor. I wanted to emphasize the starkness of the light on the floor, so drew in the tile lines with crayon before painting. This left most of the lines visible, but hardly noticeable.

Sketchbook experiments #2

To create a different atmosphere in the chair I used just two differently toned papers I created using rubbings. I tried to emphasize the harsh lighting falling across the chair, creating the definite highlights and shadows. The chair legs I simplified into a single cutout shape, which I cut from a watercolor crayon and ink rubbing.

I tried to unify the diptych slightly by doing similar window treatments, the same colors in the curtains, and the same technique of painting in the cupboard. Obviously, the actual subject matter also serves to unify the two artworks. I also suggested a drape hanging over the chair in the top picture, but I tried to understate it by just creating it from a papercut. This helps to provide a center of interest in the lower section. This helps to balance the artwork as the yellows and oranges in the top panel tend to draw your attention due to their stark contrast with the blue of the the rest of the artwork. So, I think having more textural appeal in the bottom section helps to unify it further.


Upper section of Quiet Closet Diptych

It is interesting how the artworks, when photographed seperately, have a totally dfferent atmospheric feeling to when you view them as I created them, together. I called this artwork Quiet Closet, as this is the area where I often closet myself to quiet my racing thoughts.


Quiet Closet Diptych

Although I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with various materials, I think that in future I will need to use cardstock, as the surface crinkled horribly. This was disappointing as the exercise took a long time to execute and the final result is not quite what I was expecting.

Works Cited

Daleu, G., 2010. Achitextures Urbaines (2010). [Art].

Lecaille, E., 2014. Ginette Daleu, Une Artiste Au Feu Sacre. Intense Art Magazine (IAM), Autumn/Winter(#01), pp. 38, 39.

Part 2 Project 6 At Home Exercise 4 Line and Wash

As I liked the viewpoint of my kitchen sink taken from sitting on top of the stove, I decided to use this vantage point for this exercise. As it so happened, the power in our house went out on the particular day I did the drawings; I had an extended period of drawing available to me.

I started with a crayon continuous line drawing which had quite a lot of freedom to it. I then moved on to drawing the scene in oil pastel, and finally with ink and brush. I found that the warm-up exercises did help me to analyse the compositional lines. They also gave me the idea that it was probably wise to start the drawing with items closer to my viewpoint, such as the tap, in order to figure out the placement of the items in the background, rather than with the green jug, as I had been doing. 


Oil pastel continuous line study

Crayon contour line study

Ink and brush contour line study

I decided to emphasize the lime green on the jug, with its complementary color contrast of fuschia, found in the curtain patterns. Our water piping is rather obnoxiously crude, being in a bright green, which I changed slightly to have a similar shade to the jug. I also changed the color of the hand wash on the windowsill from turquoise to the same green shades. This helped to create a triangular visual link spanning the composition.

Sketchbook trials

I enjoyed working on the green jug and the tap as I used crayon resist to highlight the reflective quality of the surfaces. I used washes of watercolor paint and Bombay ink over the crayon to create the layered effects of the reflections. Initially, I used watercolor crayons to create the patterns in the fabric, but they ended up in looking too scruffy and ill-defined. I then brushed over the designs with Bombay ink and was pleased with the overall result.

One area I might go back and work is the area of the sink. I think if I colored the sink in cream – the same as the curtain, it might help the foreground to gain a bit more definition.

I think the directional forces created by the dark windowsill and window frame, the shadows along the sink, and the vertical dark strip created by the cover of the electrical cabling help to hold the focus of the composition on the back right-hand corner. I did not intend for the green jug to be slightly cut-off at the right-hand side of the picture plane, but I think it works as it means that your eye is lead back into the artwork, instead of coming to rest on it as a restive focal point. The pink on the bottle cap and slight reflections on the surface of the tap spout, also create a triangular movement within the central area of the composition.

I added some oil pastel shading as my final touches to emphasize the shadows and to help to visually link some of the disparate sections, such as the back tiling and the details on the tap.

Final mixed media study of kitchen sink

Research Point

I studied the various works of Philip Pearstein. As my next project is working an interior scene in tones, I found his charcoal study of shoes and a scarf draped over a stool suited the brief with its strong contrasts (see fig.1). (Anon., 2014) He has created a sense of rhythm in the placement of his two stool, one behind the other, which are then further emphasized by a dark column behind the last stool. The focal point of this artwork seems to be the white scarf which drapes next to what appears to be a woolen cap, nestled on a medium dark coat. The diagonal of the one section of the light scarf is repeated in the placement of a light colored book on the stool behind.

The viewpoint adds to the directness of this piece as we are viewing it from an oblique angle above the stool. Hence, we can see the spread of the clothing items on the stool, as well as the insides of the dark shiny shoes at the base, but we still see the paneling of the 'cupboard' as being vertically orientated. The orientation of the lines on the floor tiling, the angle of the right hand stretch of the scarf, the right shoe and the book all guide your eye to the less noticeable form of the trashcan in the top left hand corner. As this is a rather dead and uninteresting area, this creates a visual tension, causing the viewer to return to viewing the clothing items draped on the stool.


Fig. 1. Philip Pearlstein

While perusing the internet, I stumbled upon the intriguing installation work of Henrique Oliveira. Oliveira studies the interior of a specific site and then reinterprets the space. In the case of Xilonoma Chamusquius, 2010, he envisioned a wooden tumor bursting forth from the white surface of the studio walls. “Oliveira's twisted and coiled intestinal loops erupt from the wall like a malignant tumor.” (Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2011) This work was not in line with my interior studies, but I felt it to be quite compelling how he reinterprets interior spaces.

Looking through my artbook, Expressive Drawing by Steven Aimone, I found a colored pencil drawing called Kairos, 2005, by Pat Williams (fig.2). The discussion in Expressive Drawing points out that the picture plane is divided into three spaces which lock together in the corner. Within each of the three spaces, there is “one modified oval – the window on the upper left, the doorway to the right, and the cropped tabletop at the bottom.” (Aimone, 2009) Aimone goes on to point out that in each of the three spaces, a visual link is created in the placement of daisies and daisy petals which “take you on a delightful rhythmic movement that threads its way through the space.” (Aimone, 2009) I must admit that I found this artwork to be intriguing, but had not seen the underlying structure to its composition. I researched it further to find out that it was the study for a tapestry, which won the American Tapestry Alliance Award of Excellence in 2014. The idea behind the tapestry is that Kairos, which in Greek means “God’s time”, is qualitative and is a “moment of an undetermined period of time in which “something” special happens”. (Williams, 2014) This is presumably why the doors and windows appear to be going through a time warp, while the cat merely sits by without any indication of anxiety.



Fig 2. Kairos (2005). Pat Williams.

Another artist I encountered in Expressive Drawing was Mary Teichman. The artwork Aimone analyzes is Sewing Machine, 1979. He points out how strategically she placed her focal point in the upper-right quadrant, the area emphasized by the “weight of the dark value” of the three spherical shapes. The entire quadrant is then in turn “framed and supported by the large area of darkness underneath.” (Aimone, 2009) The eye is then directed by the horizontal placement of the body of the sewing machine towards the left, where the curtains drag your eye to follow the repetitive vertical lines which eventually meet a slight diagonal which slides our eye down towards the bottom of the artwork. Your eye gradually gluides over the pile of belongings towards the dark upright of the single column of the table’s base. This is really a well-executed drawing with an incredible amount of visual interest and clever application of tonal values to enhance the rhythmic movement of the eye across the picture plane. Unfortunately, I was not able to find this image on the internet.

Works Cited

Aimone, S., 2009. In: D. Morgenthal, ed. Expressive Drawing. New York: Lark Crafts , p. 207.

Aimone, S., 2009. Look at this Mary Treichman. In: D. Morgenthal, ed. Expressive Drawing. New York: Lark Crafts, pp. 184, 185.

Anon., 2014. Phillip Pearstein. [Online]
Available at: http://philippearlstein.com/
[Accessed 8 November 2015].

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2011. Henrique Oliveira. [Online]
Available at: http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/dialogue2/oliveira.html
[Accessed 8 November 2015].

Williams, P., 2014. Both Kairos and Sniffing win the American Tapestry Alliance Award of Excellence in 2014.. [Online]
Available at: http://www.patwilli.com/
[Accessed 8 November 2015]. 

Part 2 Project 6 Exercise 2 Composition - an interior

For these interior sketches, I decided to take the corner of my kitchen near the sink. At the time of drawing, it had a collection of water bottles, a jug, wooden bowl of bananas and an assortment of other vertically orientated containers.

I started out with a view taken from sitting on a cushion on the floor. I used a landscape-orientated format with the help of a viewfinder to orientate my lines and the boundaries of my chosen view. I found the linear perspective of the cupboard quite hard to get correct at this angle. What I did not like was that the large majority of the sketch was taken up with the lines of the cupboards and very little of the objects on the counter.

View from the floor.

From the same viewpoint, I shifted my viewfinder so that the sketch focused on the objects themselves. The problem with this approach was that in the end the sketch resembled a still life and not really an interior study.

Zoom in of view from the floor.

As a result of this development, for my third drawing, I placed my cushion on the stovetop and perched up there so that I was looking along the top of the draining board and double-sink, towards the arrangement of containers. This view allowed me to see more within my viewfinder, meaning that it became more of an interior scene, than a still life study. Once again, the perspective was rather interesting to get right, but allowed for a sense of deep space because of the objects which were up close versus those that were higher up the picture plane and resultantly seen as further away. I used a portrait format to enable me to get the impression of the length of the sink and counter.

I fancied climbing even higher and sitting on top of the fridge, but as I was alone at home, I did not think it too wise. Instead, I stood on a chair in front of the fridge. I liked the angle of the perspective, and the landscape format worked fairly well in this case. However, I felt that it would be hard to draw standing on a chair for any length of time, with an A2 or A1 size piece of paper.

View drawn while standing on a chair.
 

 

Part 2 Project 6 Exercise 1 Quick Sketches around the house

One of the first things I encountered was that when studying geometric forms like tables, bookcases etc., none of the lines looked straight. I struggled with this in my drawings until I realized that I had forgotten that I wear multi-focal glasses. Because of the curvature of the lenses, it was making everything appear curved. Even when I traded them in for regular shortsighted glasses, I have viginetting occuring on the periphery of my vision. Your mind gets used to this in normal everyday life, but when trying to do an accurately depicted drawing, it really plays with the perspective.

As our house is a rather small apartment, I found that I would start with an item in my viewing frame, start drawing it, but within a few strokes, I would have totally honed in on that item. This meant that the picture became more about the lamp and table, for example, and not about the corner of the room. It was only after a few different views and many attempts that I started to be able to take in more of the corner with my sketch. 

 

 

 

 

I struggled to get my perspective looking correct. To help me, I read through a few articles on the internet that discussed various types of perspective. I found some helpful tips on Drawing + Hand (The Coraline Theme, 2013). I watched a number of tutorials posted on Drawing and Illustration (WonderHowTo.com, 2010) and studied some architectural drawings by a Kiev designer (2-B-2 Architecture, 2015). I particularly like the various drawings on this site. The detail of the restaurant interior design helped to soften the look of the drawing from being your typical interior design blue print.

Using some of the tips I gained from the online search, I tried to strengthen the perspective on my following sketches. I find two-point perspective particularly difficult as invariably the two points of your perspective in an interior shot are extending right off of your page. So, you don’t have an easy mathematical reference point. You have to try to imagine where the two points are. The dresser with the mirror leaning on top of it was particularly hard to draw as the dresser and the mirror interacted with one another and yet had differing angles. I was looking down on it too, which was adding to the three-point perspective feeling.

 

Our dining room chairs are particularly hard to draw as they have these weird curly designs at the top of them and their backs have a curve. When two or more chairs are seen together at varying angles, it is extremely hard to get the designs at the top of the chairs to look in perspective. The mirror was also not wide enough to include all that was actually reflected in it. This dresser, with all of its reflections could make a challenging drawing, but would require me to get the perspective to look completely authentic.

Drawing around our apartment made me realize how complex our furniture is. It is not our choice of furniture as it is what came with our housing arrangement in Cotonou, but it certainly is a challenge to draw.

 

 

 

 

The item that was the most complex to sketch was the display cabinet. I decided to draw it from close-up as we have a large diningroom table which would otherwise obscure my view. What I realized while drawing this cabinet was that the is a conflict that happens between drawing using eye-balled perspective and proportions, and trying to get the angles right using two-point perspective. Using two-point perspective techniques helped me to work out the angles of the shelves and cupboard edges etc., but halfway through I realized that my cabinet was probably not quite tall enough in my drawing. This meant that the middle shelf should have been viewed from slightly below the middled glass shelf, whereas in my drawing, in order to get the proportions to look right, I had to draw it from slightly above. What was also interesting was how complex the reflections in the mirror and side panels are. The leaves of the palm seemed to be reflected in numerous panes across its surface.

 
Works Cited
2-B-2 Architecture, 2015. Sketchbook. [Online]
Available at: http://www.coroflot.com/bondarenko/Sketchbook
[Accessed 30 October 2015].

The Coraline Theme, 2013. Sketching to Generate Ideas. [Online]
Available at: http://sippdrawing.com/category/perspective-drawing/
[Accessed 30 October 2015].

WonderHowTo.com, 2010. How to Draw a building and stairwell with complex levels. [Online]
Available at: http://drawing.wonderhowto.com/how-to/draw-building-and-stairwell-with-complex-levels-375211/
[Accessed 30 October 2015].