EDAM Week 6 : Drawing Space and Light (3)

  In the  3rd and final session with Anne Teahan  on drawing  space and light   we were putting together  what we'd learnt  in the previous 2 classes in 1 large sustained drawing.   

 As a bit of homework  I'd done a quick trial   comparing  the usual   City Lit  heavyweight cartridge paper ( which is actually very good, it comes  from R K Burt ) with some Clairfontaine watercolour paper . I was wanting something with a bit more 'tooth ' to  hold the  charcoal  and liked the effect of the back  of the watercolour paper ( channeling my inner Seurat!)   But I found  a whole A1 sheet  was too stiff to roll up  for the class  so City Lit cartridge it was. 

The  easels  were already set up around a selection  of still life objects ( to which we contributed some items - spot my pewter pot!) , lit from 1 side to cast strong shadows. 

 The aim was to  build up a background  of space   with depth made up of many  ghostly layers of charcoal   marks  ( or with chalk fingerpints on black paper ) and then integrate  the objects and shadows. I'd liked how the organic lines had worked in the first week's drawing  ( above)  so wanted to do something similar . 

I got rather obsessed with my charcoaly hands and fingers last week  so decided to work again from my 'inky digit' photo,    drawing lines, rubbing them out,  until I had about 10  layers of marks.  Great fun!     

 I struggled  however with the drawing of the objects and shadows. When Anne came to  talk to me ,  she pointed out how static  and safe my observational drawing was  in comparison to the energy of the background  and suggested  I return to the drawings I'd done in the first week  based on Antony Gormley's 'Feeling Material' (below) 

 Much more satisfactory, using the overlapping spirals to describe the form, matching the marks in the background  and actually more of a 3D quality 

Then the  shadows changed with light pouring in from a window  and the paper just wouldn't take any more charcoal  and my  eraser was making no impression  introducing lights. Time to call a halt. 

 When we running out of steam , we looked through some slides of Ben Nicolson   works ( similar to those  below)   to get some ideas of how to integrate  backgrounds and objects  to create a cohesive whole. Some way to go in that regard! 

 At the end of the session when Anne looked  at my final piece  she said she'd hesitated whether to tell me to consider changing the way I was drawing  but I'm so glad she did!  It must  be difficult  for tutors who don't know the students that well  to gauge  whether a student is open to  taking on board criticism.  

 Sub-consciously, observational drawing  for me is  bound up with botanical/scientific  drawing as part of my job,  doing it  accurately , 'properly'.  Recognising the energy, liveliness   in my  process of 'just' mark -making, I feel like Anne has given me permission to apply that  to observational drawing too. I was a scientist but now I'm an artist.