Drawing 2 - Part 1 Project 3

The brief made me think of the work of Slinkachu and some of the mini people in other installations - take a look at  Public street art and Isaac Cordal  The idea of broccoli looking like a tree has been used by Carl Warner in his Foodscapes. Graphic designer Javier Perez adds little drawings to small objects

To get started I drew the detail of one of the bricks in my fireplace

which has lots of interesting cracks and fissures but probably can't be a conventional landscape. So I looked in my collection of interesting stones and shells and did some rough pencil sketches to get some inspiration.

the computer has given it the slight pink and yellow cast

I do like the way the stone and tap in the top left hand pile looks like a cow but ultimately preferred the corks at the bottom which look like lighthouses.

 Combined with the stones I have a harbour scene. I drew the line at the back to be a horizon. When cropped you have this;

or if further cropped, this;

which I don't think works as well although it is more ambiguous so may be more interesting for the viewer.

Looking for potential small worlds I drew the base of a hyacinth which looked like some sort of erupting volcano over a terracotta cliff face.

Then I returned individually to my stone collection to draw the stone which looks like some sort of alien face.

I've heard people raving about the Lamy Safari fountain pen so I bought one with my Christmas money which arrived today with a cartridge of blue ink. To test it I went back to the harbour scene and drew it a little larger on denim paper from the the Two Rivers Paper Mill at Frogmore then used coloured pencils to add depth.

I had intended to stick to white and blue but it was too dull so I added the golden brown and, randomly, madder carmine. The background needs something to stop it floating in space, the objects are arranged on a plain wooden surface so I need to make something up unless I crop it very closely.

or

I don't like cutting the top off the corks but it doesn't work to keep them in.

I drew lines across the background as a sort of stylised sea which I think helps to ground the scene without being too distracting.

 Which can be slightly cropped

 or more heavily cropped which I prefer

For completeness I added some flecks of white and blue but I'm starting to overdo things so I'm stopping here.

Reflection 

Do I feel differently about selecting subject matter? I find it impossible to predict what is good subject matter and what isn't. I'm drawn the ordinary and everyday and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't partly down to how long I spend on trying to make it work as an unpromising idea may turn into something good if you throw enough time and effort at it. Compositions I struggle with. "Found" setups are easier to see as good compositions but being in control and being able to manipulate my subjects doesn't always work for me. However I may be able to see where I went wrong after the event. I think the white pebbles in the arrangement  were a bit of a mistake but I was trying to avoid too many interesting objects all together. The picture needed a few boring objects to balance it but I don't think they were quite boring enough and they look like a very random addition without a purpose. It might have helped if I hadn't kept them white but I didn't want the picture to be all dull colours. 

After I'd finished I thought that illustrations for Mary Norton's The Borrowers might have some interesting approaches to small objects viewed differently This uncredited image has the feel of a stage set with it's cut out figures. It's a great illustration but doesn't fit the brief very well. I really like the atmospheric illustrations by Diana Stanley brilliant use of crosshatching to create areas of dark and light. Sadly I have been unable to find anything more about her work.