Project 1 Trees Exercise 3 Study of several trees

Although it has been weeks since I was able to really immerse myself in my art, I have been far more aware of trees since embarking on this section. Even today, on my way to the Artisan market I noticed a particularly robust and beautiful tree with lilac blossoms. This is one aspect of this course that I really love, being made more aware of what aesthetic beauty is around in even the bleakest of landscapes.

Creek in the Knysna Forest, South Africa.

Photograph by Craig Johnston, 2015

Having said this, I chose to base this two hour study on a gorgeous section of the Knysna forest, South Africa. This past vacation we were taken to have a picnic in these forests alongside this rippling stream. The scenery was truly amazing. Knowing that I needed a landscape with multiple trees, I asked my husband to take some photographs for me. The shot I chose was one of the idyllic shots he took during this time.

I really enjoyed this exercise! I cranked up my music high, and allowed myself to delight in the vagaries of this densely foliate scene. I wish I could have drawn on site, but this was not possible.

I experimented with a Sharpie pen as the tool to draw in the main focus, the palm leaning over the water. However, not matter what I tried to use to add foliage over the branches drawn, the pen always appeared to be sitting on top of the Sharpie. I eventually gave up with the Sharpie and tried using compressed charcoal. This did a lot better. I then tried applying charcoal over a layer of crayon or pastel. In my sketchbook, this technique worked well, allowing me to define the dark shadows and shapes between leaves. What I did not realize was that the paper I used for my actual sketch had a different tooth and therefor reacted quite differently.

Sketchbook study

After laying down my initial sketch, I started to work from the top left-hand corner to prevent smudging. It was not long into the project that I realized that the pastels could create some neat effects, but that it was not so easy to control, as the paper did not grip the pastel fully. In some ways I was able to work this to my benefit. For example, in the trees at the top I used my eraser to pull away layers of pastel, to create greyed tree trunks, with what appears to be shadows or fungus growing on the trunks.

When working on the riverbank on the left-hand side, I struggled to get a line to show up on my background pastel and crayon layer. I alternated between using charcoal, which worked in some areas, and watercolor pencil.

The river proved to be fun to draw as it has blurry reflections and ripples breaking its surface. I tried to keep the water around the palm relatively empty of detail to help to emphasize the shape of this particularly tree. I then went on to work the branch in the foreground which encloses the top right-hand corner. I used a layer of charcoal followed by layers of pastel. Once again this combination proved difficult to control as the oil based media and the charcoal did not blend together easily. I have included a shot of a close-up to try to indicate the thick impasto of the strokes in the foliage and river section.

Close-up of texture of left-hand side

For the foliage on the focal point palm I experimented with using watercolor pencils on top of small sections of pastel. I felt that this foliage needed slightly more definition than the rest because of its featured position. I then continued to use a combination of watercolor pencils and pastels to lay down the broad areas of the forest in the right-hand section, as well as the finer details of the main leaves that I picked out.

In order to differentiate between the different types of plants I tried to mimic an exaggerated contour of the leaves. I also used varying stroke directions and in the case of smaller leafed trees, stippling with thick oil pastels. 

The area where I struggled with the foliage was in the foreground on the right-hand side. Some of these leaves are too exaggerated and have lost the spontaneity of some of my other areas. By this stage I was tiring and I was aware that I was starting to go over my two hour limit. From the outset I had determined to force myself to keep a sketchy approach, so I did not feel like laboring over this corner.

Final two-hour mixed media sketch of Knysna river scene

On the whole, I think that I have been able to capture the essence of the scene in a fairly gestural manner. I might not have simplified the scene quite like the example given in our course materials, but I did stick to the two hour time frame, which did cause me to generalize and look for simplified shapes. I did learn that the tooth of the paper really has an impact on how the media reacts to one another. It would be interesting to repeat this exercise with a paper with a more pronounced tooth. The difference would probably be that the smearing effect I was able to feature in the water and riverbanks would be more difficult to achieve. But, I would probably have a better sense of control over the outcome of the artwork.