Exercise 3.1

FAST

Pick one of the three options, model making, continuous line drawing, or candid photography.

Continuous line drawing

Make a drawing without taking your drawing tool off the paper until the drawing is complete. Draw your subject from the moment you see it, your gaze needs to switch from subject to paper in quick succession, to create a near continuous movement.

Each drawing should take 2-3 minutes each, and your subject is a person, either from real life or from a photograph.

Reflect in your log and answer these questions:-

What did you find most challenging?

Is this material that you have worked with before?

Would you attempt this again and, if so, how would you change or develop your approach?

So I decided to pick ‘Continuous line drawing’ I want to practise my drawing skills more, especially people and faces, so I thought this option would benefit me the most.

I started by think about what materials to use, I wanted to try some different mediums than I would usually pick, I thought this was a good time to try them and be more experimental.

I chose Water soluble wax pastels, willow charcoal and neon acrylic paint straight from the bottle.

I chose to work in my sketchbook, these will be messy so I wanted to keep them in a space that didn’t matter so much.

I had a look at Pablo Picasso’s line art work for reference and inspiration, I found his little sparrow bird really charming, it has so much character for something so simple.

I started by getting all my materials together:-

I then started with the water soluble wax pastels, I gave myself a few minutes on a timer, and found a portrait on google of a person I had never met before from stock photos.

It was harder than I expected, this only took literally 1 minute, but I guess for my first go it was ok.

I tried again in a different colour pastel, it was hard to get any direct resemblance to the person, but the shapes are good and the outline is pretty near to the photo.

I tried again in another colour, this time I would try and make it longer, to see if I could add any more detail. This one actually didn’t go that well, I think I started off in the wrong place, on her hair on the right side, then It got a bit tight in the middle.

I gave the wax pastels one last go in another colour again, trying to add more detail again, which I think I did with the blouse neckline. but it’s still tight on the face. Maybe a smaller, thinner medium would suit better, so I’ll try the willow charcoal next.

This lady actually had a really lovely face, kind and happy, but here she looks angry! But I think here the simple thinner lines work better, and I worked slightly larger on the page, which I think helped the illustration breathe.

I had another go with the willow charcoal, this time I thought I would try a full length person. This again was harder than I thought it would be, trying to get all the lines in wasn’t easy.

I then went on to try a different pose, this was a lady with a head scarf on, looking to my left, again I found it easier when you simplify the lines more, and not add too much detail.

I then started with the acrylic paint straight from the tube, I knew this would be tricky to control, but was looking forward to seeing the results!

As I expected it was hard to control the flow and the line of the paint, plus I didn’t take into account the spread of the paint after it had settled. I squeezed the bottle from a height to get a thinner line, but once it hit the paper the line spread so it was thicker than I wanted.

This next one made me laugh, because it doesn’t look anything like the lady’s photo. Here the spread went too far, and one of her eyes disappeared through the spread of the paint, and again I felt I started in the wrong place, so it was harder to get all the details in.

I tried once more, this time I wanted to add some curly hair to the man to see if I could get details using this medium in this way?

I think you can just about see it might be curly hair, there was some spread to the paint so it was lost a bit. I also lost one ear to the paint as well, but felt this was the best one out of the three.

Reflection

What did you find most challenging?

I found that the bigger the medium size (wax pastels) the less definition you get, and this was challenging. I found that the place you start on the drawing determines how well the drawing goes, and the spread of the paint (acrylic) was out of my control, which was very challenging.

Is this material that you have worked with before?

I have worked with all three mediums before, but obviously not in this way. I have used the wax pastel for craft project or just messaging about with in my sketchbook.

The willow charcoal I used for a course I did in painting.

The acrylic paint I have used to paint on large canvases, but not straight from the bottle, I used a paint brush.

Would you attempt this again and, if so, how would you change or develop your approach?

I would attempt this again, I would think more about the medium I would use, probably a black fine line or coloured pen would be the best, I think something thin and easy to control like a pen would suit this style of drawing.

I would try not to add too much detail, I think less is more in this case. Try to think of the person or portrait more abstractly, like shapes, would suit this style of drawing better, with a better outcome.

Overall I think it was good exercise and experiment, it was fun and interesting to see the results.