Sunday 24 November 2013

Why Can’t Plants Keep Still?

Orchid
Watercolour on Paper
14cm x 18cm (5.5" x 7")

Elaine bought an orchid to be the subject of some exercises from Composition by Arthur Wesley Dow (see Line Drawing, Opposition and Transition). Her friend Nicola kindly donated an abundance of holly for the same purpose.

Holly - Extended Gesture Study
Graphite Pencil on Paper
28cm x 16.5cm (11" x 6.5")

I am using the first two steps from the Sustained Study from the Natural Way to Draw (see Section 13)  to prepare line drawings for use in the composition exercises.

Holly - Contour Study
Graphite Pencil on Tracing Paper
28cm x 16.5cm (11" x 6.5")

I start by drawing an extended gesture study and then put a piece of tracing paper over the gesture drawing and draw a contour study.

Orchid - Extended Gesture Study
Graphite Pencil on Paper
14cm x 18cm (5.5" x 7")

For both subjects I drew the gesture study on one evening and the contour study the next. You would have thought a plant could keep still for one day, but they wriggle and fidget as though you have sprayed them with itching powder - half the buds on the orchid opened overnight and all the leaves on the holly decided to change which spikes they were poking forwards and which ones they were poking backwards. You might as well draw cats and dogs.

Orchid - Contour Study
Graphite Pencil on Tracing Paper
14cm x 18cm (5.5" x 7")

When I drew the contour studies, I had to decide whether to keep the position of the plant from the gesture study or to start again with the new position of the plant. For both the orchid and the holly, I stuck with the pose from the gesture study. In future, I plan to draw the extended gesture study and the contour study in a single session - I've learnt this lesson.

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