Exercise 3 - Detail & tone

I chose a strange, holey rock which was in my garden when I moved to this house

it's difficult to do preliminary sketches with something so abstract

but to be interesting I had to show the holes so there were only a few angles that worked

The scan picks up the crosshatching more than you can see in real life if I zoom out a bit it is more representative

Although I worked on A3 paper I struggled as usual to make a picture larger than the object. In trying to make it bigger I got a bit lost in some of the details but I think it worked out in the end.
I wondered whether I should have chosen an object with a more definable structure to work on so I drew this fossil

layout sketches

and the final drawing

I think the rock is a better more interesting drawing and lends itself to a greater range of contrasts.

Which drawing media did you find most effective to use for which effects?

I do love the simplicity of working in pencil. It's also the medium I have had the most practice with and the one I find most versatile. The problem with it is that it's not always the most immediately attractive medium to the viewer. Biro is a good alternative in that I find it relatively easy to make a wide variety of marks and tones though it can be a bit unpredictable sometimes. I like the way it makes me more bold with my drawings it feels a bit daunting that it can't be rubbed out which is crazy as I rarely, if ever, use a rubber when I draw in pencil, I guess I like to feel that I could if I wanted to. Maybe what I really find difficult with biro and fineliners is that the marks they make are so dark and bold. Fineliners sometimes have a sharp edge which jars.

The markers were difficult to handle but give some nice effects especially when I want a block of colour which can take ages to build up with a pencil. I love working with dip pens which contradicts my feelings about fineliners, I can cope with the splodges and the unpredictability for the free flowing ink and the variability of the marks.

Look at the composition of the drawings you've done in this project. Make some sketches and notes about how you might make some more interesting compositions.
Composition is something I find really difficult, whether a layout works or not can be a bit random. I think my biggest fault is not leaving anything to the viewers imagination. Sketchy edges bits that fade or are only suggested all help to create interest.

Harking back to Cezanne's drawing of his wife she is incomplete and cropped by the top of the page. The Hortensia's are suggested too and there is a diagonal line that runs along her field of vision to the flowers which pulls the viewer from top right to the left of the page against their natural inclination (in the western world at least) to read from left to right

It's not good to plonk a picture dead centre on a page with an even amount of white paper around it. The two pictures in this exercise are definitely bad examples of composition but also maybe my boring veg could have been enlivened by not being all visible

or

and the biscuit cutters look more dramatic like this

In these pictures I think it helps that I drew the whole thing and then cropped it so that I've drawn right up to the edges but maybe fading out or the suggestion of other items at the edge could also be more interesting