Blakemere Moss

Blakemere Moss
Watercolour on Paper
24cm x 34cm (9.5" x 13.5")

Blakemere Moss is in Delamere Forrest near Chester. This is a view on a sunny but cold spring morning.

The Moss was originally wetland. It was drained in the 19th century, planted with trees and subsequently re-flooded in the late 1990s (see Wikipedia - Delamere Forest). It is an attractive area and a bit otherworldly because there are trees and the remains of trees emerging from the lake.

This picture is my second painting based on the design ideas from a John Lovett workshop. (see Studio Workshop). My objective for this picture was to create depth by using soft edges in the background and hard edges in the foreground. I stuck to my resolution to use thumbnail sketches to explore the subject and compose the picture.


Blakemere Moss - Thumbnail Sketches

My first decision was whether to use a landscape or a portrait format. I then experimented with the position of the horizon, the size of the far bank, the position and angle of the floating logs and the height and spacing of the foreground trees.

I’ve never got on with thumbnails in the past, but now I find them useful and enjoy drawing them. This is a beneficial side effect of the Daily Composition exercise from the Natural Way to Draw (see Daily Composition). I used to be too tentative with thumbnails, but now I dash them off quickly – 203 scribbly daily compositions have made all the difference.

As well as helping with the composition, the thumbnails serve as a rehearsal for the real drawing. By the time I start the painting I have already drawn the main elements half a dozen times, which makes starting the drawing less daunting.

The Study of Drapery – Part 1

Long Study of Drapery - 1
6 January 2012
Graphite Pencil on Paper
46cm x 33cm (18" x 13")

I am two weeks into Section 11 of the Natural Way to Draw and on Friday, I finished the first long study of drapery - you are looking at 4 hours of drawing.

The instructions for the exercise result in a stylised representation. For each fold, you have to decide what is the top, what are the sides and what is the bottom. The top of each fold you leave white, the sides you shade light grey and the bottom you shade dark grey. Where one fold is underneath another, you shade the fabric a very dark grey where it emerges from under the other fold.

The objective of the exercise is to explore and understand the structures of the interacting folds – not to create an accurately rendered drawing. Without this understanding, it would be easy to fool yourself by creating a lovely shaded drawing that looks very attractive and detailed, but is really quite inaccurate.

I’m glad there are two long studies in Section 11. I’ve learnt a lot from this exercise and I am looking forward to starting a 6-hour drawing this week. The main change I will make to my approach is to spend more time drawing the shapes of the folds before starting to shade them. In the 4-hour drawing, I started shading too early because I was losing track of what was the top, side and bottom of the intricate folds at the top of the fabric. Next time I am going to fight the urge to shade and if necessary, write t, s and b on the drawing to help keep track of things. I am also going to take more care over shading the folds as they emerge from under each other.

The fabric I am using is probably too lightweight. Some of the folds it creates are very delicate – the tops are very thin.  Before I start the next exercise, I am going to try to obtain a heavier fabric, which should create more rounded folds.

The setup for the exercise provided a challenge for me. It might be a problem for anyone that doesn’t have a studio and doesn’t want to cover their house in holes. The instructions are to tack the fabric to the wall. There are two long studies and in parallel, you might do up to 50 short studies- that is a lot of tack holes. My solution is to use suction cup hooks and fold back clips. This works quite well as long as you stick the suction cups to glass. They only seem to stick for a couple of minutes on wood or plaster, but they stick like glue to glass - this arrangement in the window has been up for over two week.

My Drapery Setup

Farewell Modelled Drawing in Water Color

Dirty Nelson
Modelled Drawing - 18 December 2011
Watercolour on Paper
43cm x 35.5cm (17" x 14")

Happy New Year.

On Christmas Eve, I finished Section 10 of the Natural Way to Draw and said farewell to modelled drawing in water color (see Modelled Drawing in Water Color and The Return of Modelled Drawing in Water Color). Sadly, I am not sorry to see it go.

The drawings on this post are my best  – the rest are never going to see the light of day. The picture at the top of the post is Nelson (see the photo at the bottom of The Return of Modelled Drawing in Water Color).  The second picture is a papier-mâché piggy bank made by Jeff, Jack, William and Christopher for Elaine.

Modelled drawing in water color is a difficult exercise. There are watercolour techniques that would give beautiful modelling effects, but Kimon Nicolides stresses the importance of not using them because the point of the exercise is to draw with the brush as though it was a crayon.

At times if felt like I had my hands tied behind my back. In the end, I accepted the drawings are not going to be as pleasing as the ink and crayon drawings. If the result looks solid and 3 dimensional, I judge the drawing to be a success. More important is the experience of creating the drawing - Did I learn something? Did I feel as though I touched the object? Did I learn something about the subject that I didn’t know before I started the exercise?

Oi Piggy
Modelled Drawing - 21 December 2011
Watercolour on Paper
35.5cm x 33cm (14" x 13")

Elaine eventually found the Marie Prett cats she wanted for her birthday (see Angel Cat Thing). Joan bought them for her from Baxters in Dartmouth. 



Angel and Devil Cat
Sculptures by Marie Prett

Happy Christmas 2011



Happy Christmas 2011
Watercolour on Paper
13.5cm x 9cm (5.5" x 3.5")

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year.

All the best,

Mark

Snowy Lane

Snowy Lane
Watercolour on Paper
38cm x 27cm (15" x 10.5")

No - we haven’t had a dump of snow, but it feels like it might be on the way. I painted this scene at Tony Slater’s December workshop for the Shelford Group of Artists - the subject for the day was winter trees.

As with all of Tony’s workshops - I enjoyed working with a larger brush and at faster pace than normal. These workshops are definitely improving my brush control.

I’ve been travelling a lot recently and as a result I am a few days behind with my exercises for the Natural Way to Draw. I am going to make a determined effort to be back on schedule before Christmas and to be ahead of the plan for the start of the New Year.

Beach Huts

Beach Huts
Watercolour on Paper
24cm x 34cm (9.5" x 13.5")

A couple of weeks ago, I said that I wanted to spend more time working on composition (see Ye Old Dog & Partridge).

The next day John Lovett posted a description of his recent workshop, which focused on selecting subjects to paint and composing pictures (see http://splashingpaintblog.com/2011/11/28/studio-workshop-2/). It is an excellent post with a number of paintings to demonstrate the concepts he taught - it is a perfect study plan.

This picture uses the first technique from John’s post – it has a large simple foreground leading the eye in to the centre of interest.

Before starting the picture, I drew a number of thumbnails to explore the subject and decide on the composition. On the first page, I experimented with portrait and landscape formats and decided where to position the huts. This is the second page on which I refined the sizing and positioning of the huts.

Beach Huts - Thumbnails

This is the first time I've used thumbnails and the process was very helpful. I was working away from home during the week and drawing thumbnails was a useful and relaxing way to spend an evening in the hotel.

John is at least partly responsible for the existence of this blog. I nearly gave up on the idea of learning to paint until I found his book (Starting Watercolour) and DVD (Splashing Paint), (see http://www.johnlovett.com/).

The Return of Modelled Drawing in Water Color

The Comfy Chair Again
Modelled Drawing - 2 December 2011
Watercolour on Paper
35.5cm x 38cm (14" x 15")

Section 10 of The Natural Way to Draw features the return of the modelled drawing in water color. The basic instructions are the same (see Modelled Drawing in Water Color), but some of the drawings are completed over two sessions.  At the start of the second session, you use a damp brush to lighten some parts of the drawing and to prepare them to receive more paint.

This is a challenging exercise - Kimon Nicolaides suggests most people find the exercise difficult and experience with watercolour is more of a hindrance than a benefit. He stresses the objective is not to produce a painting, but to draw with the brush as though it were a crayon – easier said than done.

The chair at the top of the post appeared as a sketch in my first post (The Natural Way To Draw). I drew the original sketch just over a year ago. It provides a good opportunity to reflect on my progress and ask whether I am getting any benefit from the time I am spending on the course.

A quick comparison of the pictures suggests I am not seeing much improvement. The original sketch is more pleasing and in certain aspects more accurate and more detailed, but there are other things to consider.

When I drew the original sketch, I was thinking about the chair as though it were a 2 dimensional image trapped on a TV screen, which I was trying to reproduce on paper. It was all about relative angles and dimensions.

When I drew the modelled drawing I was thinking about the chair as though it were a soft comfortable 3 dimensional object that would be nice to sit on. This may sound a bit fanciful and the benefit may not be immediately obvious in this drawing, but it is important because you can’t draw comfy just by getting the dimensions right.

When I started the Natural Way to Draw, I wanted to be able to draw more accurately, with greater confidence and more speed. I am getting something different. I am looking at the world in a different way. The title of the blog is more appropriate than I ever imagined it would be.

The photo at the bottom of the post is a Joanne Cooke sculpture that Elaine bought with her birthday fund from the Rostra Gallery. Elaine says thank you to everyone that contributed to her present.

Nelson
Sculpture by Joanne Cooke