Final two drawings for Assignment 5

Last weekend, I worked extensively on trying to complete both of my final drawings for Assignment 5. I found that working on two different drawings of the exact same subject lead me to explore varying means of expression. What I found inspiring about working on two works simultaneously is that it aided me in being able to sustain my enthusiasm and energy for the piece I was working on. When I grew frustrated or tired of the way things were working out in the one piece, I would switch gears and work on the other. This meant that I kept tweaking my approach and did not allow the artwork to become tired. When I reached saturation point with the one, I would work on the other. The new challenges presented by the mere differences in artworks helped to refresh my approach and speak into my drawing process. Once I had cleared my head and worked in a slightly different manner on the other piece, I was able to return to the previous piece, trying what I had learnt and explored on the other drawing.

I also enjoyed working on a larger format than I have previously worked during this course. This afforded me a greater surface area in which to build and develop layers and textures.

Fig 2. Left-hand side of Drawing 1

Fig. 3. Left-hand side of Drawing 2.

I started working in the negative space of the top left-hand corner of both of the drawings. I found that it was a lot easier to work on the lighter jungle green background of the first drawing, as opposed to the Lincoln green of the second drawing (fig. 1). What I tried to do in each drawing was to elude to there being many layers of vegetation beneath the leaves in the foreground. After working the areas, I purposefully applied layers of washes of ink of varying hues of green to help to unite the background and to make it less distracting. I deliberately started to work away from the natural hues of burnt amber and tan found in the photograph - trying to free the artwork from realism and to allow the colors to become exaggerated and more abstract (fig. 3). 

Once I had completed two-thirds of the top area of negative space, I started to work on the negative space in the lower two-thirds of the drawings. I found that the way in which I worked these two drawings was quite different. I had started working on the second drawing first. In this drawing there is a shape that I interpreted as a leaf shape, using lighter hues and shades of green to allow it to visually connect to the foreground leaves (fig.4). In the initial drawing, however, I decided to try to make this area less obvious and to draw it in as if it was part of the underlying vegetation (fig.5). The effect is that on the second drawing, the lighter leaf appears to frame the central leaf, emphasizing it; whereas, in the other drawing, the central leaf is held in check and position by the lighter background on the bottom right-hand side of the picture plane. The leaves in this drawing rest on what appears to be a crisscross of dried leaves or sticks.

Fig. 4. Bottom Left-hand Corner Drawing 2

Fig.5. Bottom left-hand corner drawing 1

When tackling the foreground leaves, I started on my initial drawing. I appreciated the fact that I had already laid down the bright yellow and mint green washes. What I did not anticipate was how hard it was going to be to work onto the maps in such a way that parts of the map could appear through the layers, but still appear buried in the drawing. Somehow when working in my sketchbook, this had seemed easier. I don't really know why, as I would have thought that the surface would not have been affected by the fact that the underlying paper had a different absorbency, but it seemed to be different.

I found that my application of acrylic paint often appeared cloddish and clumsy in my initial drawing. So, when I worked on the second drawing, I tried to work in lighter hues, with thinner layers, trying to preserve the underlying printed images more. I think that this was more effectively done in the second drawing.

Fig. 6. Foreshortening on drawing 1.

What I found difficult was creating the foreshortening effect of the two leaves that project towards the viewer. It was hard to make these leaves the focal point and to make the perspective convincing. In both drawings, I tried to emphasize the edge and the under surface of the spikey projection. In the initial drawing, I left the underside the light mint green hue (fig.6); whereas on the second drawing, I tried to darken the area (fig.7). I think this worked as the tonality of the leaves surrounding these projections were quite different from each other. The surrounding hues and tones in the initial drawing are darker, allowing the lighter underside to create a contrast; whereas the surrounding hues are lighter in the second drawing, allowing the darker underside to provide the necessary contrast.   

One of Marija Marsenic Vujovic's comments of my preliminary drawings was that she did not like my use of pure white and black. She explained that in nature one rarely sees pure white and black. By using them, I was deadening my artworks. She suggested that I ensure that I create my own blacks and add touches of hues to my whites to allow them to be less dominant. During the process of drawing in the white veins - the contrast of which first attracted me to these leaves - I struggled hard to emphasize these design elements, without making them too dominant. I often had to paint washes of ink over the lines to try to soften their stark contrast to the surrounding leaves. 

Fig. 7. Foreshortening on drawing 2

As I progressively moved across the picture plane, the right-hand side of each of my artworks remained relatively unworked. I had deliberately focused my work on the left-hand side as I wanted this to remain the dominant area of interest. The result of this was that I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the right-hand side. Should I work a lot more layers into these areas, or should I leave them relatively unresolved to ensure that I did not fall into the trap of becoming too illustrative - something that I had resolved not to do in this series of artworks?

My husband suggested that I try to turn the paintings upside down, or on their sides to gain a different perspective on them.

I found it so interesting how totally different the artworks felt when tipped 90 degrees counter-clockwise. (Turning them 180 degrees made me feel quite nauseous, so I changed it back to 90 degrees.) When turning them off their regular axis, I realized that I really liked the way in which I had worked the central top section of the background of the first drawing. This area had a lot more depth and layers than on the second drawing. My husband talked about cutting this section out of the original and sticking it on to the second drawing. By this stage I felt quite attached to both drawings and did not feel like sacrificing the one for the other. So, instead, I studied what I had done in the first drawing, and tried to emulate it better in the second drawing. I was satisfied with the increased sense of depth and increased layers.

Fig. 8. Right-hand corner final drawing 2

Before turning my drawings around, I discussed with my husband that I really liked the bright sea green in the top right-hand corner of the second drawing, but I did not know how to integrate it better with the rest of the drawing. By changing the axis of the drawings, I got a sense that the bottom right-hand corner of the second drawing (the top left-hand corner when turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise) would be better if it was more detailed and not the light hues that I had. As a result, I worked more forms into the area with increased layers to allow this section to balance the composition better. I also decided to work some more layers into the sea green corner, allowing the linear elements to become more absorbed into the background. I also used washes of this sea green in the bottom left-hand corner to provide a visual link across the composition. I was pleased that the brighter blue-greens of previous washes in the foreground leaves also linked with this accent color (fig.8).

Lastly, I liked the appearance of the leaf that juts into the negative space in the upper mid-section of the original drawing. So I studied this leaf and tried to emulate the way in which I had worked this leaf in the first drawing.

On completing these drawings, I asked my husband if he felt that the edges of the leaves were too well defined. I felt as if they appeared to sharp, creating too strong of a contrast. My husband disagreed as he reminded me that this was the appeal of these leaves; they are extremely prickly and sharp by contrast to the surrounding foliage. Keeping the edges crisp helped to emulate the emotive appeal of the thistle leaves.

Fig. 9. Final Drawing 1

Fig. 10. Final Drawing 2

In retrospect, I wish I had a photographic journal of all of the changes I made. I did not take photographs as the lighting in the room I am working in is very uneven. It has windows with shutters to the right of my work space, which cause the photographs to bleach out, and when the lights are on, the lighting is distorted by the orange glow of the old light fixtures. I did not want to remove the artworks for photographing, as it had been hard to get everything to stay where it needed to be in the first place. I do, however, feel that in future I would like to keep a photo-journal of my process to get a better sense of the impact of the changes I made along the way. I feel that this would help to inform later artworks.

I really struggled to take photographs that depict the luminosity of the rich greens I was able to create with the Bombay inks. Unfortunately, the photographs make this work appear to be more illustrative than it actually is, due to the way that the colors are slightly muted and less dramatic. I am grateful that my works will be seen in person, as I think that this will help assessors to get a better idea of what it is I achieved in this drawing.

Critique

This afternoon, I was able to talk to Mirjana Marsenic Vujovic about her latest exhibition in Gallery 106 in Amsterdam which opened 24 November, 2016. She described how uplifting it was to be able to be surrounded by artists who asked questions about her artworks and were interested in her work. She said that they showed a genuine interest in her technique and inspiration. She found it humbling and yet energizing at the same time.

What I find inspiring about her is that she has been able to establish herself as internationally exhibited artist, and yet hold down a full-time teaching career. What I also appreciate about her artwork is her cheerful palette. Her colors reflect the vibrant splendor of the colours of the Montenegrin Fall and Summer countryside. This can be seen in the colours she used in her exhibition selection "A Journey through: the Forces of Nature."

As she had critiqued my original sketches and given me pointers before the commencement of this project, I showed her my two drawings. She was very encouraging in her critique of my two drawings. She felt that both of them could stand on their own as artworks, however, she strongly recommended that they had more of an impact as a pair. She suggested submitting them both together to show the different approaches to the same subject and the exploration of the subject matter. I will need to discuss this with my tutor.

She went on to suggest that I could further explore this same subject, trying a different color scheme: perhaps oranges and browns. This would be very interesting to explore at a later date as I would imagine it would create a totally different effect.

After looking at pictures online of her recent exhibition in Amsterdam, I feel encouraged that I have been able to interpret her homeland in a manner which is also uplifting and almost lyrical in the cheerful colour palette I used. I know that some of this happened as part of my "happy accident" when my yellow ink spilled and needed to be used constructively.

Large studies

It is always hard, after a week of working with 5 and 6-year-old children, in a core subject classroom, to get my mind back into art gear. Today I looked at the trace drawings of Sue Gilmore, whose drawing was selected for the Jerwood Drawing collection. (suegilmore3blog, 2015) Her drawings appear to be subtle in their soft layers, but I must admit that I find it hard to imagine how she goes about creating these charcoal explorations. Her forms are simple and yet at the same time enigmatically complex in their double exposure layers.

From her blogsite I was lead to the video of the residency of Katie Surridge - Observatory Artist in Residence. (KATIE SURRIDGE - Observatory Artist in Residence, 3 Sep 2015) Since commencing this course I have been intrigued by the notion of doing a residency. I found it interesting how Katie Surridge went about drawing inspiration from the environment of The Observatory, Lymington. I find her playfulness and inventive creativity quite inspirational. It leads me to wonder how I can include the bits and pieces that I pick up from my own environment into my artworks, allowing them to also speak of the environment which has inspired my pieces. I was particularly drawn to her use of the charring of oak strips to create sculptures. I love studying wood and the idea of modifying wood through charring, to create an artwork appeals to me.

Format

Over the past two weekends, I have worked on my two final large sketches for Assignment 5. They are on a larger format than my previous assignment submission, 73cm by 53cm. My friend and teaching colleague, Montenegrin artist, Mirjane Marsenić Vujović, suggested that I work simultaneously on two sketches. She explained that her drawing professor at Art School had recommended this approach to encourage her to be more playful and experimental in her approach to her drawings. I have found this approach to be very interesting.

I chose to work on a landscape format, as I wanted to create a connection between the subject matter and the greater panoramic landscape from which the dandelions originated.

I prepared a "studio" for myself in our spare bedroom by mounting two large sheets of cardboard against the wall and pinned my drawing paper to these sheets. This is the first time since commencing the course that I have worked on a vertical surface. At times this proved a challenge as I was often working with inks and watercolor, which tend to flow downwards creating streaming lines. I learnt that if you apply just the right amount of ink it will flow in accordance with the subtle layers of the inks which were previously applied. This often created interesting effects which increased the sense of weight on the lines drawn in.

Subject matter

I chose to continue my exploration of an area of dandelion leaves that my husband photographed while we were on the Panoramic Route hiking trail in the highlands overlooking Albania. This photograph was initially of a grasshopper on the leaves, but what appealed to me was rather the incredibly sharp contrasting design of the dandelion leaves against the surrounding foliage. Their color was saturated and fresh, flaunting a sense of proud survival in the rugged terrain of the rocky mountains. As I wrote in my brainstorm in my sketchbook, my feelings towards the thistles hark back to my underlying attachment to the rugged Scottish landscape. In the same way that the thistle displayed a joyfully defiant sense of survival despite the hardships, I like to imagine that my life has emulated some of these qualities. 

Media

Based on my preliminary studies in my textbook, and the fact that I had previously enjoyed working with a combination of Bombay inks, acrylics, watercolors, and graphic pencils of varying grades, I decided to continue to explore these media in my final works. For accent, I added touches of charcoal into the lines of folds of the leaves and rubbings of chalk pastel to alter the tonality of certain areas.

Color Palette

For these studies, I decided to create artworks based on a bright, rich harmonious color scheme. Inspired by some of the greens present in the dandelion leaves, I explored a full range of greens with touches of blue-green, bright yellow and rust browns. I tried to keep my color palette from becoming too muted and dull. At times this was hard to do as I was working with so many layers, which at times clouded one another out. What I found delightful about the paper I was working on was that I when I did not like what was developing, I could use water on the area, slowly lift off the offending pigments, and then build up fresh layers once again.

Focus

I used the grid copy technique to help me to get the proportions of the leaves correct. Because of the foreshortening of some of the leaves, I found this technique essential in getting the correct sense of the depth of field of the composition. It is interesting that although I tried to work very strictly according to the grid, both drawings turned out quite different. This is particularly noticeable when the drawings are turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise. In both cases. I tried to have the area where the two leaves crisscross each other, just above the midway line, about a fifth of the way from the left-hand edge, to be my focal point, although I wanted this focus to not be the dominant feature of the composition. 

Preparation of background

Although you can clearly see that the two artworks are of the same area of the vegetation, my interpretation of this varies considerably creating a very different appeal. Initially when I filled in my background colors for my first sketch, I chose a very bright cadmium green in large areas of the background. I decided to change this in my second drawing and opted for a dark cyan - lime green, with light fern green washes over the main plants in the foreground. Both lower right portions were in a light sea green. I thought that working on the darker background would prove to be easier and more conducive to a sense of deep space. Interestingly, this did not prove to be so. I had to work the surface of the second sketch a lot more than the first sketch in order to create a sense of deep space.

As part of the background, I stuck a large map of the Panoramic Route that we took which initially got me interested in drawing thistles. The position of each map on the two different artworks was slightly different. On the first one, I placed the map towards the left-hand side, whereas on the second drawing, I allowed it to be more centrally placed. In

I also stuck a layer of tissue paper down with the words Champion on it. This tissue paper came from the walking shoes I bought, which inadvertently enabled me to walk the paths that got me interested in the vegetation and flora of Montenegro. I positioned the tissue paper in differing positions, which also altered the dynamism of the pieces. In the first artwork, I placed the tissue paper at a diagonal from a central top position down towards the right hand corner. For the second drawing, I placed the tissue paper from the left hand bottom corner, extending upwards towards the centre.

This afternoon, December 3, 2016, I sought inspiration by reading the latest OCA Weekender article Favoring the Bold by Emma. (Emma, 2016) She discusses the manner in which children are able to approach the manipulation of their media in a bold manner which displays " idiosyncrasies of deliveries which seem to reveal essential structures of conception." (Emma, 2016) She points out that the categories by which children's art was assessed for the recent Texco Bank Art Competition are similar to the criteria used by the assessment team for undergraduate work.

Reading her article made me once again aware of the necessity to seek a bolder, more inventive approach to my drawings. I need to endeavor to ensure that my work maintains an innovative and fresh approach to my subject matter, and that the work does not become overworked and lacking in vitality.

Fig. 1. David Hockney. Garrowby Hill, 1998  

oil on canvas, 60x76 in.

I also spent some time looking, once again, at works of David Hockney. What appeals to me most about his work is the fact that he does not try to imitate colors exactly as he sees them. His colors in a sense becomes a dynamic part of the subject of his works. One image that I found particular delightful in the light of our recent travels in the countryside of Montenegro, is his painting Garrowby Hill. His striking color palette and unusual perspective give this painting a jovial, lilting sense of movement and excitement.

For each of the artworks, I started working the background in the top left-hand corner. It was interesting to see how the paper I was using responded quite differently to the paper of the sketchbook. This paper was less absorbent and allowed a greater time period in which you could work with the wet media. At times this was helpful, in that it allowed you to tweak the hues and tones slightly before they dried.

As I worked on these two larger works I kept alternating between the two and trying what I had gained from working on the one, on the other drawing to a slightly different effect. I found that the map had crinkled quite considerably on the second drawing. The glue had caused the paper to expand and dry with crinkles. At first I thought this might add to the drawing, but while working on it, it became a distraction and did not seem to add to the texture of the artwork. So, I got my emery board and tackled it with sandpaper to try to file the surface flat. This felt like a bold move, as I have never done this to an artwork before. I know that I would never have tried it if I had not had two drawings on the go at the same time. Somehow, having the second as a backup allowed me to be more courageous and bold in my experimentation than I would normally have allowed myself to be. I think that this has helped to free these artworks from a sheer copyist approach. What I found difficult was to know when to stop work on a surface, to allow the underneath layers to show through, and when to work many layers on top of the background.

Towards the end of my drawing session, I spilt a whole lot of my yellow Bombay ink onto one of the Panoramic Route maps that I was using as a drop cloth. Fortunately, the paper is not absorbent, so I quickly mopped up the ink with my large brush and brushed yellow strokes into areas which I thought might use yellow ink. I did not want to waste my yellow ink as I have no idea if I can replace it here in Montenegro. I applied yellow ink to both drawings in a very quick loose, almost haphazard fashion. This proved to be one of the "happy accidents" of this drawing project. As I worked on my pieces in later sessions, I delighted in the fact that I had these bright touches of yellow to give the drawing a lift and a splash of incidental color.

Works Cited

KATIE SURRIDGE - Observatory Artist in Residence. 3 Sep 2015. [Film] Directed by Spud. s.l.: The Observatory.

suegilmore3blog, 2015. Exhibition- Jerwood Drawing Prize 2015- talk and tour with Paul Thomas., s.l.: s.n.

Emma, 2016. Favoring the Bold. [Online]
Available at: https://weareoca.com/fine-art/favouring-the-bold
[Accessed 3 December 2016