Red Cabbage using line and stippling

Used fine liners in purple red green and black.  Made a light sketch in pencil first.  Then put in key pattern lines with pen.  Added some hatching to cover darker areas and then used dots/stippling to give impression of colour bleeding from dark areas of the cabbage to the lighter areas.

Line drawing detail

Not easy as you have to try get it right straight off but I like drawing in pen. Difficult to know where to put lines to show detail as some lines in the subject were very subtle and its difficult to be subtle with pen. It was a case of using less pressure for subtle lines and reinforcing more dominant lines. I think it may be a case of 'less is more' with pen drawing and its important to consider each line and its importance. To overdo the lines can be a problem and there is no rubbing out with pen.
 

Research about two artists who exemplify mastery of detailed drawing

Modern - I came across the work of Spanish born artist Juan Francisco Cases.  Still a young artist but very accomplished.  His 'photo-like' drawings done only using a blue Bic pen are amazing and on close inspection you can see he uses the hatching technique with an extremely light touch, building up layer upon layer.   See below :




WILLIAM BARTRAM (1739-1823)

An American naturalist drawing botanical and ornithological subjects.  Bartram was born in Pennsylvania and as a boy accompanied his father (a renowned botanist) on many of his travels.  From his mid teens, Bartram was noted for the quality of his botanic and ornithological drawings. He himself undertook extensive travelling expeditions to draw and make notes on native flora and fauna. In the late 1780s he completed the book for which he became most famous Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country etc.  It was considered at the time to be one of hte formost books on American natural history.
Source: Wikipedia

This is one image of a drawing by Bartram that shows use of mark-making to give tone and form.  Lines, stippling, different types of marks to depict different areas of plant.  Very deliberate marks and work on achieving the correct tone.

Exploring coloured media - check and log

Having explored the range of coloured media available to me, I would say that watercolour pencils and coloured pencils lend themselves more to very detailed work.  This is because you have a lot of control and a large range of colour with coloured pencils; you can mix the colours by hatching and they can also be rubbed out to a degree - allowing for correction of error.  The watercolour pencils can enable also be mixed by overlaying one on another.  They can also become washes of colour and tone when a smooth effect is needed- though as yet I haven't done a project where I have used them and then added water.   Coloured pencils can also be used in addition to other media eg pastel, to add definition and impression of texture.   However I feel that using coloured pencils can inhibit the freer type of expression that say oil pastels allow - just by their very nature of being hard and having to apply them in a fine and systematic way.

I think using ink fine-liners at the end of a drawing can add a strong but still delicate definition if needed.

I think that oil pastels are the medium that lends itself to more expressive work.  The colours are vibrant, they can only be applied in a bold manner, though as I decided to explore in my final work there is scope to introduce detail into work by scraping off the oil pastel.  However they could be used where fine detailed work is required.

Felt tip, pastel, fine liners

 

Felt tip – worked well for stippling and could merge colours to give shading effects and to increase depth of tone. Can also hatch to blend colours and give impression of texture.  The downside is that it is indelible so mistakes are hard to rectify.

Pastel – working from light to dark, can layer up pastel with hatching effect and it works well as a way to blend colours and give depth/shade/tone and also impression of texture.  It isn’t easy to use pastel for very detailed accurate work or small scale stippling.

Fine liners – limited in that I only have a limited colour range, but as discovered before can be useful to add definition to a drawing where have largely used another medium such as coloured pencil or pastel.

Coloured pencils/watercolour pencils

Coloured Pencil – good for shading and tone. Lends itself to hatching well and can combine colours eg working with hatching technique using different colours, using variety of light to darker colours, combining colours to achieve colour variation and depth of tone and impression of texture              

Watercolour pencils/Aquatone – Just the same as coloured pencil with added benefit of being able to add water which will give a much smoother blended effect.  Coloured pencils/watercolour pencils give a soft effect and so would be suited to the task if that is the effect you want!

Oil pastels and crayons

Oil Pastel – I find the idea of graffito (ie applying then scraping off colour) very interesting and would like to explore this more


























 

 

Crayons – I liked using these as I like the fact they are so accessible and often seen as a childish colouring medium. I liked layering them up and the blobby effect that can happen when trying to hatch with them and they don’t go on smoothly but blob! I think they would be good for larger works as somehow they seem more suited to drawing ‘big’ , not so easy to use for accurate work.