Reflection
On the assignment for this part of the course
Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills
I think I should have used a bigger selection of materials. For this part of the course I have mainly used pen, pencil and markers. I should have used some oil pastels or conte crayons for more of the exercises so that the collection was more diverse. I think the assignment would have benefited from something extra, and think now that I shouldn't have just used markers.
I think my observation/visual awareness/design/compositional skills have improved, and I think they show in my assignment, apart from on one tile of the patio. One of the tiles on the patio, on the left, is slanted incorrectly. I was really annoyed at myself because this was a mistake - my hand slipped and then there was a pen line there and I didn't know what to do about it. I tried to even it back out so that it looked right but it still looks wrong now.
Looking at the exercises now, I am not sure if I misunderstood the angular perspective exercise. I think this is because I looked at the example student drawing on the exercise page and should have focused more on the diagram at the top. I hope what I have done is ok.
Quality of Outcome
I think the outcome is a bit rough and I should have worked in some extra details with another medium. Maybe coloured pencils. Another issue is that line I mentioned above and I think that ruins the picture. I think that the exercises on foreground/middleground/background and perspective really helped as I think that the techniques show in the assignment.
Demonstration of Creativity
I think the scene I chose for the assignment is quite pretty, but maybe not the most interesting. Again I think I played it safe with the markers because I had used them a lot throughout this part of the course. But they are my favourite medium and I think it suits the topic.
Context
I think that looking at the work of Turner and Claude Lorrain was really useful as it really helps seeing how you can separate the foreground and background. I really like their use of colour and wish I had a more beautiful scene to portray for the assignment. I think it would be good to look at the assignment and exercises again when the weather has improved and there are more flowers and fuller trees to draw. I think my assignment and the pieces for the other exercises all look too cold and blue, but there is potential for pinks/oranges/yellows/etc in spring and summer.
On this section of the course as a whole
I think that this part of the course has been the hardest so far. I do not think I have done very well at all on this part of the course, as the only pictures I am at all happy with are the ones in the Perspective and Townscapes chapters.
I have never done landscape drawing before but I think that I am getting the hang of it after completing this section of the course. I really enjoyed the townscapes part of this section. I liked doing the line drawings of the buildings, especially the study with a drawing pen. I also liked doing the larger study of the tree.
I really enjoyed the sketchbook walk, I thought the drawings I produced for that were very good practice, because I can see a lot of mistakes and where I have done something wrong I can see how I could improve. I think the outcome of those drawings was fairly successful.
But I could not produce anything that I liked for the 360 degree study. I only liked 1 of the drawings that I did for that exercise (the East drawing), and wish I had chosen a different subject. I think I chose a bad day to do that exercise, as it was so cold that I couldn't stand being outside for more than 5 minutes at a time and couldn't wait to get back inside. I stood in the middle of a field and looked in all directions, but the views were not very interesting, apart from the pergola.
The weather conditions have certainly not helped through this part of the course - I wanted to draw outside for a lot of these exercises but it was almost impossible to do this because the weather has been consistently bad for several weeks! I got around this by taking photographs for a lot of the exercises but I do not think this was ideal and in hindsight I wish I had deferred this part of the course until later. I think the experience of drawing outside would have been much nicer a bit later in the year. For the few drawings I actually did whilst sitting outside it was pretty unbearable because it was so cold and this was fairly demotivating. I think doing this part of the course later on would have also made my drawings more interesting, as there would be more flowers and leaves on the trees, but the scenes I have drawn have been quite bare and desolate.
I will try these exercises again when the weather is better as I am really keen to get better at drawing landscapes.
Monday 17 February 2014
Wednesday 12 February 2014
Part three - Learning Log
Research Points
Different artists' depictions of landscape
Most of Claude Lorrain's landscape paintings are vistas. The lighting is very atmospheric and the colours are bright but not unrealistic. Lorrain's landscapes usually have a few people working or pottering near the front.
My favourite painting is this one:
I like that the foreground is in shadow, with the background being brightly lit and colourful. I also like that the colour palette is more limited, as his other paintings consist of a wide range of colours. This one is limited to hints of yellows and blues and a bit of red on the outfit of one of the figures.
He also uses a limited palette in this painting:
The painting is predominantly red, and the contrasting red tones give a feeling of depth to the buildings and the port.
The paintings are beautiful and evoke emotion. Some are peaceful and some are moody.
In contrast, Lowry's work is very business-like.
The composition seems less realistic. The view is much further, but it seems almost cartoony. The buildings and people are more abstract as they are mostly made up of one colour and tone.
Artists who worked in series with the landscape
I have chosen to look at Pissarro for this point as I really love his series of paintings of Montmartre.
By going to the same spot on many different occasions, Pissarro was able to capture the same scene in various different weather conditions and during different times of day in different lighting conditions, e.g. in daylight or in the evening.
The resulting paintings are so interesting as you can imagine exactly what it is like at different times of the year.
I particularly like the foggy morning depiction of the landscape...
...and the one where the streets are filled with morning sunlight and mist...
The layouts of the painting are almost identical; you can see the same trees lined up, and the route of the traffic, but due to the time of day there are varying numbers of people in the street, and the atmosphere is light and warm in one painting and cold and dark in another.
Claude Lorrain and Turner
In Lorrain;s paintings, there are usually people in the foreground, large trees and/or bodies of water in the middle and then a pale background, for example a mountain or the ocean. (Please see above in research point 1).
The compositions are very similar in the work of both artists, but I think Turner's landscapes are much less realistic than Lorrain's. The colours are more vivid, and the lighting is much more dramatic.
Lorrain's landscapes seem historical whereas Turner's feel like they have been taken out of a fantasy story.
For example, in this painting the foreground is in shadow but the moonlight reflects off of the animals' backs and eyes. In the middleground there is an ornate bridge and in the background there is a mysterious castle shrouded in mist.
Check & Log
Project: Landscapes
In what way did you simplify and select in your study? Were you able to focus on simple shapes and patterns amid all the visual information available to you?
I tried to use simple shapes to depict the background objects to avoid using too much detail. I also used simple shapes when constructing the trees because I wanted to draw them as accurately as possible. I used patterns in the foreground for the twigs and muddy ground.
How did you create a sense of distance and form in your sketches?
I used a lot of detail in the foreground and as the objects got further away I used less detail. In the background there is hardly any detail, and I have used pale colours that do not contrast with the sky. The hills blending into the sky creates a feel of distance I think.
How did you use light and shade? Was it successful?
There was a lot of shadow in the foreground of my picture because of all the trees. The background is the only part of the picture that is in a lot of light, so the background is very bright and the colours in the foreground are much darker. The only obvious cast shadows were from the log at the front on the right, as the shadows from the trees all merged together. I think it was successful in that it helps to differentiate between the middle and background.
What additional preliminary work would have been helpful towards the larger study?
I think studies of trees and branches would have been helpful. I found the shapes of the trees more difficult to draw than I expected. It was difficult to make them look three dimensional but not too straight or cylindrical.
Project: Perspective
What problems did you find in executing perspective drawings?
I found placing objects very confusing. For example in the Angular perspective drawing it took me awhile to figure out how to place the 'road narrowing' sign in the foreground without it just looking like a huge sign right next to a tiny car.
It was also difficult deciding how to start, e.g. deciding where to place the horizon, and how far in to place the walls of the building to the left.
However when I checked the perspective by seeing if the lines used met at one point, I was surprised by how close they were. They did not meet at exactly the same place, but they were a lot closer than I expected.
Make note on the merits of using, or not using, rules to guide you
Using a ruler is very helpful because you can draw the perspective lines more accurately, but it feels too mechanical. It feels like you are cheating.
Project: Townscapes
How did you use a limited colour palette to create a sense of depth?
Because of the weather conditions and the age of the buildings, my limited palette study was very grey, with just a bit of yellow in the buildings and a small green bush along the wall. So most of the depth was by using different greys. I used a pale grey in the background to depict the buildings in the distance and in the foreground. I used a darker grey for the middle ground.
Did your preliminary sketches give you enough information for your final pieces of work?
I think they did. I did not use a lot of detail in the buildings themselves but concentrated on the placement of buildings in relation to one another. I think that the perspective and composition are accurate because I plotted the studies in pencil first.
Would you approach this task differently another time?
I don't think I would. I think the drawings were quite successful and the only thing I would change is to add more detail to the buildings and possibly omit fewer objects. For example there were some road signs and traffic lights that I decided to exclude as I wanted to focus on the layout of the buildings. In future I will try to include more props.
Have you got the scale of the buildings right? Make notes on what worked and what didn't.
I think I have got the scale correct in the final pieces, but I had several attempts at placing a lot of the buildings in my drawings and erased and redrew until I was happy with the placement and size. I think the best way to figure out the scale of an object is to look at the objects adjacent to it and draw relative to those. It is not always obvious where something should be placed until you just draw it and see if it looks right.
Have you captured the colour and atmosphere in your studies? How did you do this?
Unfortunately the weather was very poor when I was doing all of these studies, and how grey the drawings are is quite accurate. I think I could have captured the atmosphere more with the strokes/marks I used but I am quite happy with the results of the colour drawings.
Project: Trees
How many different tree types have you drawn?
I have drawn 3 different tree types, however I do not know their names. I have drawn tall thin ones with not many branches, a larger one that had a lot of damage but had very thick branches and and a big trunk, and another which was quite thin but had a large spread of branches.
What techniques did you use to distinguish each type?
I used bulky shapes for the larger tree and use single lines for the branches of the tree with large spread.
What did you do to convey the mass of foliage?
There was not a lot of foliage because of the time of year, however there was some ivy on one of the thinner trees, which I conveyed with a circular pattern.
How did you handle light on the trees? Was it successful?
I found it very hard to depict the light on the tree I drew in the initial individual tree study. There were so many branches that it became confusing trying to find the branch I had just drawn and where the light had fallen on that branch. It was difficult to see which branches were casting shadow on others because there were so many branches.
Did you manage to select and simplify? Look at your drawings and make notes on how you did this, and what could you do better?
I did select and simplify. I did not draw every single branch as it would be too complicated trying to distinguish between the branches on the page when looking at the actual tree. I ignore the smaller branches for the most part and concentrated on the biggest of the small branches.
I think in future I will start with the trunk and a circular outline of the spread of the tree. Then I will branch out from there, keeping the bigger branches within the circle and then extending up to the circle and slightly outside (if necessary) with the smaller branches.
Different artists' depictions of landscape
Most of Claude Lorrain's landscape paintings are vistas. The lighting is very atmospheric and the colours are bright but not unrealistic. Lorrain's landscapes usually have a few people working or pottering near the front.
from here
My favourite painting is this one:
from here
I like that the foreground is in shadow, with the background being brightly lit and colourful. I also like that the colour palette is more limited, as his other paintings consist of a wide range of colours. This one is limited to hints of yellows and blues and a bit of red on the outfit of one of the figures.
He also uses a limited palette in this painting:
from here
The painting is predominantly red, and the contrasting red tones give a feeling of depth to the buildings and the port.
The paintings are beautiful and evoke emotion. Some are peaceful and some are moody.
In contrast, Lowry's work is very business-like.
from here
The composition seems less realistic. The view is much further, but it seems almost cartoony. The buildings and people are more abstract as they are mostly made up of one colour and tone.
from here
There is slightly more realism in this one, where the buildings all tend towards a vaaishing point, but the overall feel is still abstract.
Artists who worked in series with the landscape
I have chosen to look at Pissarro for this point as I really love his series of paintings of Montmartre.
By going to the same spot on many different occasions, Pissarro was able to capture the same scene in various different weather conditions and during different times of day in different lighting conditions, e.g. in daylight or in the evening.
The resulting paintings are so interesting as you can imagine exactly what it is like at different times of the year.
I particularly like the foggy morning depiction of the landscape...
from here
...and the one where the streets are filled with morning sunlight and mist...
from here
The layouts of the painting are almost identical; you can see the same trees lined up, and the route of the traffic, but due to the time of day there are varying numbers of people in the street, and the atmosphere is light and warm in one painting and cold and dark in another.
Claude Lorrain and Turner
In Lorrain;s paintings, there are usually people in the foreground, large trees and/or bodies of water in the middle and then a pale background, for example a mountain or the ocean. (Please see above in research point 1).
The compositions are very similar in the work of both artists, but I think Turner's landscapes are much less realistic than Lorrain's. The colours are more vivid, and the lighting is much more dramatic.
from here
Lorrain's landscapes seem historical whereas Turner's feel like they have been taken out of a fantasy story.
For example, in this painting the foreground is in shadow but the moonlight reflects off of the animals' backs and eyes. In the middleground there is an ornate bridge and in the background there is a mysterious castle shrouded in mist.
from here
Check & Log
Project: Landscapes
In what way did you simplify and select in your study? Were you able to focus on simple shapes and patterns amid all the visual information available to you?
I tried to use simple shapes to depict the background objects to avoid using too much detail. I also used simple shapes when constructing the trees because I wanted to draw them as accurately as possible. I used patterns in the foreground for the twigs and muddy ground.
How did you create a sense of distance and form in your sketches?
I used a lot of detail in the foreground and as the objects got further away I used less detail. In the background there is hardly any detail, and I have used pale colours that do not contrast with the sky. The hills blending into the sky creates a feel of distance I think.
How did you use light and shade? Was it successful?
There was a lot of shadow in the foreground of my picture because of all the trees. The background is the only part of the picture that is in a lot of light, so the background is very bright and the colours in the foreground are much darker. The only obvious cast shadows were from the log at the front on the right, as the shadows from the trees all merged together. I think it was successful in that it helps to differentiate between the middle and background.
What additional preliminary work would have been helpful towards the larger study?
I think studies of trees and branches would have been helpful. I found the shapes of the trees more difficult to draw than I expected. It was difficult to make them look three dimensional but not too straight or cylindrical.
Project: Perspective
What problems did you find in executing perspective drawings?
I found placing objects very confusing. For example in the Angular perspective drawing it took me awhile to figure out how to place the 'road narrowing' sign in the foreground without it just looking like a huge sign right next to a tiny car.
It was also difficult deciding how to start, e.g. deciding where to place the horizon, and how far in to place the walls of the building to the left.
However when I checked the perspective by seeing if the lines used met at one point, I was surprised by how close they were. They did not meet at exactly the same place, but they were a lot closer than I expected.
Make note on the merits of using, or not using, rules to guide you
Using a ruler is very helpful because you can draw the perspective lines more accurately, but it feels too mechanical. It feels like you are cheating.
Project: Townscapes
How did you use a limited colour palette to create a sense of depth?
Because of the weather conditions and the age of the buildings, my limited palette study was very grey, with just a bit of yellow in the buildings and a small green bush along the wall. So most of the depth was by using different greys. I used a pale grey in the background to depict the buildings in the distance and in the foreground. I used a darker grey for the middle ground.
Did your preliminary sketches give you enough information for your final pieces of work?
I think they did. I did not use a lot of detail in the buildings themselves but concentrated on the placement of buildings in relation to one another. I think that the perspective and composition are accurate because I plotted the studies in pencil first.
Would you approach this task differently another time?
I don't think I would. I think the drawings were quite successful and the only thing I would change is to add more detail to the buildings and possibly omit fewer objects. For example there were some road signs and traffic lights that I decided to exclude as I wanted to focus on the layout of the buildings. In future I will try to include more props.
Have you got the scale of the buildings right? Make notes on what worked and what didn't.
I think I have got the scale correct in the final pieces, but I had several attempts at placing a lot of the buildings in my drawings and erased and redrew until I was happy with the placement and size. I think the best way to figure out the scale of an object is to look at the objects adjacent to it and draw relative to those. It is not always obvious where something should be placed until you just draw it and see if it looks right.
Have you captured the colour and atmosphere in your studies? How did you do this?
Unfortunately the weather was very poor when I was doing all of these studies, and how grey the drawings are is quite accurate. I think I could have captured the atmosphere more with the strokes/marks I used but I am quite happy with the results of the colour drawings.
Project: Trees
How many different tree types have you drawn?
I have drawn 3 different tree types, however I do not know their names. I have drawn tall thin ones with not many branches, a larger one that had a lot of damage but had very thick branches and and a big trunk, and another which was quite thin but had a large spread of branches.
What techniques did you use to distinguish each type?
I used bulky shapes for the larger tree and use single lines for the branches of the tree with large spread.
What did you do to convey the mass of foliage?
There was not a lot of foliage because of the time of year, however there was some ivy on one of the thinner trees, which I conveyed with a circular pattern.
How did you handle light on the trees? Was it successful?
I found it very hard to depict the light on the tree I drew in the initial individual tree study. There were so many branches that it became confusing trying to find the branch I had just drawn and where the light had fallen on that branch. It was difficult to see which branches were casting shadow on others because there were so many branches.
Did you manage to select and simplify? Look at your drawings and make notes on how you did this, and what could you do better?
I did select and simplify. I did not draw every single branch as it would be too complicated trying to distinguish between the branches on the page when looking at the actual tree. I ignore the smaller branches for the most part and concentrated on the biggest of the small branches.
I think in future I will start with the trunk and a circular outline of the spread of the tree. Then I will branch out from there, keeping the bigger branches within the circle and then extending up to the circle and slightly outside (if necessary) with the smaller branches.
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