If you are interested in getting your sketchbook out and doing some drawing, the join a group of like-minded people, this Sunday, 8 February, at 10.30 am outside the National Gallery in Canberra. Hope to see you there!
Author / Leonie Andrews
Voyage around a loungeroom
In 1790 Xavier de Maistre took a journey around his bedroom, during which he locked his door, put on some pyjamas and examined his room in detail. Last week, without the pyjamas, I traveled to a house in a nearby suburb where, along with 11 other people, I undertook a big journey into a range of ideas about making art. We made our journey through reading and discussion and we even made some art!
One of the most interesting aspects of the week was the shared library. Everyone attending was asked to bring several books that were favourites. We ended up with two bookcases just about full. Those who couldn’t bring books from their own library borrowed books from the local public and university libraries. This allowed us to be inspired by a range of artists and writers who we may not have encountered before. Ruth Hadlow, the workshop convenor also suggested ways in which we could use these books for inspiration, and to help develop new ideas to use in our work.
One artist whose book of sketches is one I’ll be tracking down to add to my library is Kevin Connor. Connor says “when you are up against a brick wall or in doubt, draw!” – he also suggests that the best place to draw from is with your back to a wall, preferably in a friendly coffee shop or bar, so no one can look over your shoulder! Inspired by the intense lines in Connor’s drawings I took up my own pen to make this quick sketch of my coffee mug.
mug, ink with two feathers held together, 28 January 2015
I used a small piece of Japanese writing paper, which I’d already used to blot some other pieces of work. To make the marks I held the shafts of two feathers together and worked directly from my bottle of ink.
A few days later I decided to draw a piece of clothing, one of the items we’d been asked to bring to the workshop. To get a piece of paper large enough to work on I roughly glued two long narrow sheets together. Without giving it too much thought I grabbed a sheet of newspaper I’d been using to catch spills and tore it roughly into the shape of my garment. I slapped the newspaper onto the backing paper with a mix of PVA glue thinned with water. I didn’t know whether this would work or not, but I knew I had nothing to lose. Once again I took my feathers and started drawing. It was interesting to see the difference between the areas of paper that had glue on it and that without glue. I also used the soft end of one feather to make larger marks.
Different textures on paper with and without PVA. The ink blooms on contact with the untreated paper.
The completed work was really lively and suggests some interesting strategies for making future work.
The finished drawing, ink on newsprint and Japanese paper.
It is difficult to describe just exactly what I did during the past week. It was mentally exhausting, but I produced useful ideas for new work and had a ball making new drawings. What could be better than that!
Seeing Double
I’m spending more time with my double pencil drawings, I’ve even done some further cafe sketches because the lines seem fresh once more.
glass and cup, pencil and ballpoint pen, held together, 22 January 2015
With these drawing I drew focusing on working from the centre out, as the project method asks.
Plate and spoon, ball point pen and pencil, held together, 22 January 2015
Taking two lines for a walk
When I was at the library yesterday I found two drawing books that looked interesting. The one I want to touch on today is Drawing Projects: an exploration of the language of drawing, by Mick Maslen and Jack Southern (Black Dog Publishing 2011).
Drawing Projects by Mick Maslen and Jack Southern
A quick first look through the book had me very excited. The book covers a wide range of drawing styles and suggests a variety of approaches to developing your own drawing techniques. Between reading the introductory sections, looking at the artist profiles and trying out the suggested projects I know that I won’t be able to take it all in within the loan period, so I’ve ordered a copy of my own.
I was immediately inspired to try the first project, drawing with two pens. The idea is to bind two pencils (of different hardness) together and with them draw a single object/person/self-portrait. I admit that I went pretty much to my own version of the project rather than following the method precisely. This meant that I missed out on one of the prime aims of this project which is to get you making marks on the inside of the form and break the habit of “using line to draw the outer contour line first.” I did at least manage the other purpose of the exercise, to wit, making interesting and varied marks. My first drawing was made with my Lamy Safari pen and a ballpoint pen that was just lying around, bound together.
My Cat, pen and ink and ball point pen, bound together, 18cm x 14 cm, 19 January 2014
I’m mentioning the size of the drawings because the book suggests that you limit this project to something no bigger than 30 cm. My initial reaction is that I would like to use this technique on a much larger scale where I think that the lines would be very beautiful, while the technique would be less obvious from a distance away. At this smaller scale it seems to easy to lose sight of your subject.
I had so much fun with the first drawing that I decided to use the same approach when I was at the cafe this morning. This time I used my Copic Multiliner and a Pitt Artist pen (Sanguine 188), held together in my hand as I had nothing to bind them with.
Van, Copic Multiliner and Pitt artist pen, held together, 21 cm x 28 cm, 20 January 2015
What stands out for me in this drawing are the lovely loose lines in the body of the van. While I’ve achieved a good contrast between the van and the background, the background marks are all a bit same-y. It may have been a more interesting drawing if I varied those marks a bit more.
I couldn’t resist yet another drawing when, on my way home, I saw nearby Mt Tennant, with a cap of low cloud over it’s peak and the scar from the landslide in 2012, still visible. I chose to use two watercolour pencils held together. I varied the colours, between Faber-Castell Cold Grey V-234 and Cool Grey VI-235 with Derwent Watercolour Prussian Blue 35, Blue Grey 68 and Rexel Cumberland Derwent watercolour 17.
Mt Tennant under low cloud, watercolour pencils, held together, 24 cm x 32 cm on Canson Montval, 200gsm, watercolour block, 20 January 2015
I think this last drawing is the least successful of the three, perhaps because the marks I made were too similar in style and lacked the contrast of the previous drawings, where I used two different types of pens. See I’m learning already.
Trip, stumble and fall
“If you can’t be a good example, you’ll have to be a horrible warning”
So says crime writer Catherine Aird and last week’s sketch outing was a fine vindication of this thought. It started out well enough, we went to the newly completed Beijing Garden, a gift from Canberra’s sister city, in honour of Canberra’s centenary. The garden is located on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, behind the Hyatt Hotel. The garden packs in quite a bit of cultural and gardening history in a relatively small area. There are buildings, numerous sculptures and rocks, so there’s lots to draw.
I was intrigued by a view which I could see from the road, where the tea house is partly obscured by the sloping ground. I found a similar position closer to the tea house and started to put in my pencil guides. The fact that I took a while and several attempts to get this much should have indicated that I needed to re-consider what I included in the composition. But who am I to listen to common sense.
I ploughed on into the watercolours and started to make some headway into what I soon realised was a deceptively complex set of columns. By this stage my inner me was frantically signalling that I should perhaps quit while I was ahead, after all I’d done an OK job of getting those columns more or less in place. Why not consolidate what I’d already captured or move on to a new composition all together?
Where I probably should have stopped!, watercolour, 13 January 2015
Maybe next time I’ll listen to myself. But I couldn’t leave it alone and started in on the roof instead. Oh no, it soon dawned on me that I had all sorts of problems here, not the least of which was getting the angles and placement right. There was also the issue of colour. The very strong gold and emerald colours of the glazed tiles actually do sit very strangely with the exceptionally light grey colour of the stone columns. This is something I could have artistically bodged up, but by this stage I just couldn’t manage it.
Oh dear, if at first you don’t succeed! watercolour 13 January 2015.
At least the others had the sense to draw something else and were way more successful in their outcomes. The Beijing Garden is now definitely on the re-visit list and hopefully I will have learned something from this experience. If nothing else I did get a laugh from this sign.
Sign at the Beijing Garden
Next time I can manage some consolidation of my own.
leonieandrews 