Trees

I was lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny autumn day for my first session of outdoor sketching. I went to my local park which has lots of beautiful old trees. I enjoyed slinging a bag on my shoulder and wandering round it looking properly at the trees. I have passed them so many times but never really focussed on them.

Basic shapes in outline or
shaded areas of foliage

 Exercise 1 Sketching individual trees

I picked a tree which was a little separate from the others, and that I could sit far enough away to see the whole thing (and be in the sun!). I was mindful of needing to sketch in a freer way after the exercises and effects in the previous stage, and in the later stages of using several pencils or other utensils to get a wider range of tone.

Simple outline with main branches
added

Simple outline

Shaded areas and texture of foliage

These exercises were simple and worked wonderfully to help me grasp the structure of the tree.

I learned that breaking it up into simple parts really works. I was pleased with how easy it seemed to draw the tree approaching it in this way.



Exercise 2 Larger observational study of an individual tree

I picked a small tree which was still next to the support it had when it was a sapling. I picked this one because I love oak trees, it had an acorn despite being so young and because the contrast of the trunk and the post was interesting. I wanted to show this contrast, and the shapes of the oak leaves in the sun in some detail so I picked a fine pen to draw it.

I started well but as has happened before I got caught up in the tiny details at the expense of the whole image. The result was that again I lost the full degree of contrast in the shapes and the final image is less defined than I would like. Also I'm thinking that I should have done the whole little tree rather than a chunk of its trunk. I often avoid doing the whole of something, perhaps because of worry about what I will do in the rest of the paper - how to sketch in the background?

Observational study of an individual tree

I had taken a rug and initially enjoyed sitting there in the open air on a warm day. I got up and stretched every now and then. After an hour and a half of this one drawing, my back was hurting too much from sitting on the ground and I had to give up. Time to admit that I need to take an easel with me, however cumbersome that might be.


Exercise 3 Study of several trees

I went to the woods near me intending to climb to the top of the hill in the hope that there would be a view down onto trees, like the Greenwich Park view in the course file for this exercise.

As I walked towards it I saw a view I thought might work, and did some composition sketches.

Sketches of some groups of trees to work out what to draw for this exercise

I decided I wanted a view with more interest for me, so carried on to the high ground.

When I got there what drew me was the tunnel of trees bending over the path, with light at the top and lovely enclosed darkness at the bottom, with pale leaves providing detail. I searched around for a while for the right place to put myself where I would be able to see these, and settled down to sketch it.

I did a couple of composition sketches to work out which parts to include and what to leave out. I used a viewfinder to help with this, and the tall thin shape worked best to include both the path and the lightness of the sky while making the tunnel effect over the path the emphasis of the drawing. Having some branches in the foreground would frame it nicely.

Abandoned first attempt

My first try was not working too well. I had got bogged down in the detail again, and forgotten the tone, which is supposed to be the main point of this sketch, so I started again.

Study of several trees in pencil on white paper

Well, I'm not so pleased with this. It took me a lot of tries to get the tone approximately right. I found it very hard to do approximate large tonal areas. It was as if I couldn't believe that I could leave out the detail and it would still look like trees. But there you are, it looks better now I've got closer to what I was aiming for. I think I might go back at some point and try again.

I definitely need to work out how to look at something and see the tones 'independently' of the details.

Project 5 Exercise 3: Live animals - using line and tone

I have been putting off this drawing for a long time. It's partly the drawing moving animals which is daunting, and partly that fish are intrinsically static, and I wasn't sure what to do with the background I did some composition sketches a long time ago, but I reckoned that they need something to contain them otherwise they are going to look as if they're floating on a flat surface.

The fish tank is a lovely cool pale green.

First study(on the left below):

Colour - pale green with green weed as background, and contrast between inside and outside the tank with shadows of fish

Composition: focus on the bottom of the tank, and line at edge of tank. Fish not very important in the composition

Texture: No

Second study (centre):

Colour/tone: This time I tried using the different colours (black, dark green and light green, and the colour of the paper, for their tones as much as for their hues. 

Composition: Still like the containment of the tank edges and particularly the way the surface of the water distorts the colour block.

Texture: There's some difference between the fish and the water textures but not enough.

and the fish don't stand out enough...

Third study (right):

Decided to remind myself what moving fish look like.

Nice and loose and moving. Not sure how this loose sketching translates into a drawing.

Studies for the fish drawing.
Left: Watercolour and conte crayon
Centre:pencil and conte
Right: conte on its own

 Fourth study:
I did this one on brown paper (the matt side with more bite) as the final drawing is supposed to be on coloured paper. I used conte crayon again, to draw the moving fish, tone and texture. The fins are coloured with pencil. I didn't think about the composition at the beginning of this sketch, and tried putting in some fish in the distance which are effective, and then some watercolour background, which of course was not successful.

Movement and texture sketch for fish drawing

Fish in the tank
Conte crayon, coloured pencil and oil pastel on coloured paper

For the tank/ outside contrast I was thinking about whether to use collage of one coloured paper on a paler one, or using watercolour behind the water part. However, I found this regularly textured green paper which had been sun-faded at one edge, so I used the edge of that faded area to represent the edge of the tank.

When I focussed on the tone of what I was seeing, I could see that the floor of the tank and the triangles on the fish were about the same dark tone, with variations due to the sun falling on them. I tried to show the light effects by doing stripes on the ground, changes in texture, and the use of pale blue for the brightest areas.

I tried to use the shapes at the bottom and the pale reflections in the side to show some depth. This wasn't very successful and I think if I did this again I would make more of the other edges of the tank and the distortions through the glass.

Using a mid tone background made me have to think more about how to show the light.

At Home - Tonal study

Exercise 3

My tonal study for exercise 3 using conte crayon

Pets and other animals Project 5 Exercise 1, and some preparatory work for Exercise 3

Exercise 1: Animal line study

First off, I don't have any pets other than small tropical fish, so I went to the park.

The ducks looked good to me, particularly the texture of the female mallard feathers, and the sinuous shapes of the necks.

There are the feathers I mean, and the contrast between the strong textural feel of them, and the clear contrasting shapes and colours and intensity of the blue stripes.



The male colours may be more striking because of their iridescence, but I find them less interesting myself. I like the texture of the females.

This little guy has some strong shapes and contrasts himself.

I like the way the variation in tone in the background gives away the direction of movement.






The texture of the legs is really different, and characteristic.
I enjoyed drawing them.

This Canada goose has texture, strong shape and contrast, and even a nice strong shadow to make him look more 3D.

See how the pattern in the water and the pattern on the back reflect each other.

Drawing this made me want to do a watercolour pencil study of the back of a female mallard.
There were a few drops of rain while I was doing this so got a bit messy...

It was more difficult than I thought to capture the pattern of the feathers,
especially while the duck moved! I found it worked better to represent the way it looked
when I didn't try to be so detailed, but was more loose with my movements.

So I picked one that was asleep and used a fine marker instead.

After expecting to use ducks for exercise 1, there were a couple of weeks when events and the weather conspired to keep me from the park. So I had a go at drawing the fish moving instead...

Once I got used to it, I found it much easier than I expected to draw moving fish. You just have to not be in a hurry, and the fish will come back to the position they were in. Doing this showed me how they came back into their characteristic shapes repeatedly, and also that some 'fish shapes' that I see regularly are actually more symbolic than realistic. Also helped me understand why some of those Japanese cod drawings are so great - they really capture the flow and shapes of real fish.

Fish in tank
Pastels on coloured paper

Fish with background
Graphite

I did some sketches of the fish with some background details.

It is difficult to capture the presence of the water. I tried to do it by using coloured paper. Pastels were not delicate enough.

Scales/ texture frottage 

Fish with weed
Sharpie

This one has more of the delicate quality of the little moving fish, and the strands of weed they are moving through. I think there is a lot more I could do to make the background work better. 

The drawings below are a series of sketches of different ideas I had for the final moving fish piece.

Initially I thought that a vertical oblong would be good, reflecting the subject being so common in Japanese and Chinese art and often in that shape.

My sketches for moving animal study

I also noticed that one of the fish (the blue one) spends a lot of time staring out through the glass, and it is an unusual shape and looks rather grumpy head on, so thought it would be a nice subject just on its own. Perhaps amusing in a way (although not much movement!)

Then I noticed how the tank looked when the sun shone on it strongly from the side, casting fish shadows which are shorter than the fish on the wall behind. It looked interesting and could make a good drawing.

Finally, in my textiles sketchbook I had drawn a sketch of the regular rhythm/ pattern the black shapes make when the little fish all align as they like to do, and imagined some things I could do with this in textile. I realised that there is nothing to say I couldn't do that for the drawing as well. In fact, in order to make the textile, it would make sense to do a drawing first, before trying out textile samples.

My textile ideas sketchbook, showing approximately regular patterns of the black shapes of harlequin fish in a shoal, and my ideas about how to use it to design a textile.
The background is only touched in, in the form of a broken line of green for the weed.

Reflecting on the course so far

I have been thinking about how I have been working on this course (or not, as for the last few weeks). I have stalled in the middle of sketching my fish. I think I have got caught up in the idea that there is a drawing way to do things that is different and mysterious to me. I have been finding it difficult to use my sketchbook freely for experimentation, in the way I used to when I was doing a textile course. I think this is because I was trying to use it in the way I thought a drawing person would use it, rather than in my usual naturally-following-my-own-path way. This obviously hasn't been working for me, and with good reason - I'm doing this course to explore my interest and inspiration not anyone else's!

I remember my tutor telling me to do exactly that at the beginning, but it's only now that I have tried bending my process to the way I thought it should be and failed, that I get it.

So now I'm back using my sketchbook the way it works for me, relieved and excited again. And starting again on the animals project, using ducks because I find their texture and shapes and characters so much more inspiring than my little fish.