Drawing Inspired by Elements: Making Structure
Drawing Inspired by Elements consists of four drawing exercises which are designed to help you to look again at some of our most elemental drawing materials and find inspiration in the elemental qualities of earth, water, and fire.
In contrast to the potential chaos of drawing moving water, in this exercise you are going to first build a structure, which you then draw. Just as you built your knowledge by observing the moving water before you began to draw, in this assignment you are going to build your knowledge of the structure by taking an active part in making it, before you put that knowledge to good use when you make your drawing.
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Benedicte Foo
September 30, 2012 @ 12:51 am
Hello
This was fun. Prunings of a pear and apple tree–anyway 2 different textured barks. I enjoyed the continuous line drawing. The charcoal seemed harder at first then I thought back to the first exercise and started taking off. Would have liked to have spent longer but ran out of time…
Benedicte Foo
September 30, 2012 @ 12:51 am
The second drawing
Benedicte Foo
September 30, 2012 @ 7:46 pm
Sorry, these images were upside down!
Benedicte
Paula Briggs
October 1, 2012 @ 11:03 am
Beautiful drawing Benedicte despite being upside down! I think you’ve caught the character of the twigs really well – I loved the knarledness of them!
I think the charcoal worked out well in the end – especially the difference between textures of the two types of wood? and the shadow to help convey the placement of the twigs leaving the ground and return in an arc. You should be really pleased with them. What size are these drawings? I can imagine the charcoal in particular getting bigger and feeling really monumental?
Benedicte Foo
October 2, 2012 @ 2:53 pm
Thank you, Paula. That’s very encouraging. And glad the texture differences came through. The drawings were A2. I’ve never used charcoal much before and feel excited by it. was thinking it might be fun to try drawing the spaces between the branches.
Glenis Goodman
October 6, 2012 @ 5:25 pm
This turned out very differently from expected. I used a bunch of twigs sitting on my desk which have been collected for drawing with ink. I also included a bamboo pen for a straighter edge among the more bendy twigs. The outline of the first drawing was drawn as a blind contour with a black fineliner and details were added afterwards. I had not noticed the resemblance to a fairy tale animal running away with a pen while looking a the twigs but that is what emerged on the page! The image appealed and so I repeated the process using a water-soluble blue fineliner. Background was added randomly shading in coloured pencil (more orange in the original than shows up in the scanned image) and the whole image was made a bit more cohesive using a dark blue pencil as cast shadows on and beneath the twigs. Thus the second image appears a bit more three dimensional – is this why it appears more like a pile of twigs than a creature?? Fun to do!
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 16, 2012 @ 9:09 pm
Glenis, I’m sorry these splendid drawings got missed! They really are stunning and I find they rather grab one’s attention – especially the coloured one. Both drawings have a bold sense of space and composition and a lovely quality of line. The fine-liner is evidently a perfect tool for you! In the coloured one, there seems to be a balance between contour, shading and detail with white paper coming through – which almost accentuates the form and stick likness. Interesting your experience of the first drawing taking a life of it’s own and becoming a ‘fairy tale animal’ – Did you like that? You may want to look at Angela Butler’s work in the AccessArt Tutorial Group (October) /?p=10839 – interesting how she works with juxtapositions which emerge from her drawing. The Tutorial Group is free for AccessArt members – so a good way to continue to get feedback as your work evolves. Yes – the shadow does weigh the sticks and give them the sense of being grounded – but I love your choice of colour and the way you have experimented with it (though appreciate colours are not true). Thanks very much for uploading images of your work. Best wishes, Sheila
Glenis Goodman
October 17, 2012 @ 11:15 am
Thank you for the feedback, Shiela. Am considering joining the tutorial group but tend to work in fits and starts depending on available time. Maybe should try to do less but more regularly. I guess that there is no pressure to be a regular contributor of work as long as feedback to others is given regularly?
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 17, 2012 @ 11:31 am
Hi Glenis, You don’t have to join the group but is free and easy to access (if you are an accessart full member). Just drop in now and again when you can both to give feedback and receive it. Simply go to the Tutorial Group link on the grey (main) navigation bar above and scroll down to October group – or whatever month – (may change name!). Hope to see you there!-) Fits and starts are fine and good – no pressure to be a regular contributor – just when you need it and want to share. Thanks Glenis, Sheila
Glenis Goodman
October 6, 2012 @ 5:27 pm
Here is the second image…
Benedicte Foo
October 22, 2012 @ 11:57 pm
Hi Glenis
I really like these 2 drawings–first one very gentle and thoughtful, second one very striking and 3 dimensional!
Benedicte
Trisha Goodwin
January 10, 2013 @ 3:57 pm
I quite enjoyed the process of the initial line drawing, the fact that it wasn’t possible to get it pictorally correct, felt freeing. I struggled with the second version, as I have no idea how to deal with shadows, contours and such. Instead, as usual I tried to concentrate on the feeling evoked by the movement and feeling of the twiggy bits. Showing my work like this is getting me over the embarressment of showing work to others though.