Colour in Tone and Form

Here I have practised using colour to help show tone and form in an image. I am quite pleased with it, however I do feel I mainly used the colour pencils to highlight areas rather than using block colour. This is definitely something I want to develop into as I need to gain more confidence and experience in using colour. I did struggle to show the tone and form on the plant, but feel I did achieve it on the plant pot.

Tone & Form - Practise

I don't usually use pen as a medium, I like to be able to build my drawings through building layers and at the moment I prefer pencil or charcoal pencil. I know this is down to a confidence issue as I am still slightly scared of anything permanent such as pen and using colour. This is something I am gradually building on. However, I do appreciate the benefits of using pen for quick sketches and definition. Here I have practised tone and form and am actually quite pleased with the results. The first page I was having an off day and feeling rather unskilled and this is clearly reflected in the quality of my drawings. However I went back to basics on the second page and you can see some good achievements of tone and form there. I plan on practising tone and form some more through various sketches and will then move on to reflected light.

Exercise - Tone & Form

This is my best piece in the tone and form exercises section as the final drawing of the cup shows a really good representation of shadow and light. I started off with the apples drawing where the light source was coming from the top of the apples. Initially I struggled with this image as I think I was striving for too much detail, I found I had created too much depth and had to use the rubber to go back and create more light. I then used a drawing pen to create a more basic drawing of a spray can to try and create a more basic understanding of light and shadow. I feel this really helped as I then went through and highlighted the different aspects of the shadows and reflections. My final drawing of the cup is definitely my strongest piece in this section. It combines my learnings from this section of light, shadow and form. I particularly like the representation of the crossover of shadows underneath the cup.

Exercise: Observation of Light and Shadow

Here I am experimenting with creating the effect of light and shadow across a drawing. They are not perfect representations of the items themselves, however I feel the middle drawing of the onion is my best piece in this exercise as it creates a realistic representation of of shadow and light.

23/01/2011 - Basic Shapes Exercise

Here I have gathered a selection of items, 3 vases and a glass jar. I have tired to avoid drawing any detail and stuck to the basic shapes. Overall I am pleased with the finished image and feel it is a good representation of the basic shapes within every day items such as traingles, rectangles, ovals and circles. I used charcoal pencil on an A4 sketch pad.

22/01/2011 = Mediums Revisited

I have revisited experimenting with mediums todau following my ‘artists block’ yesterday. I think my problem was that I was not using the right medium to sketch the shapes and items as I was using a standard HB pencil, which was not creating the effect I was looking for. Following today’s experimentation with mediums, I definitely feel a charcoal pencil would be ideal for sketching the shapes in the basic shapes exercise. I am glad I revisited experimenting with mediums today as it has given me more confidence and has refocused me.

20/01/2011 - Exercise : Shapes

I am really struggling to do the shapes exercise of boxes and cylinders. I feel I definitely need to practise with a wider variety of mediums to build my confidence levels. Feeling slightly frustrated with this exercise!