Category: Assignment 2

The category containing all posts for assignment 2.

Assignment 2

I decided on working with a still life and was very influenced by the work of Elizabeth Barnett because my brother and I are very interested in herbology and nature. I enjoy picking wild flowers and pressing and preserving plants.

I decided to put a cutting of milk thistle and some lavender into a glass bottle I found while gardening. I chose milk thistle because while most people see it as a weed it is a herb that is very good for you and I personally find milk thistle flowers to be quite beautiful. I also chose lavender because it is one of my favorite flowers.

At first I had the lavender and milk thistle in two separate jars but decided to put a few lavender stalks into the jar with the milk thistle because it was more simplistic and not too busy.

I started off by sketching different angles in my sketch book to get a feel for the composition.

I knew I wanted loose flowing lines in my drawing but felt I needed to work on my colour so I switched to thicker paper.

With my first colour test I made the milk thistle with oil pastel and did the back ground with watercolour. I had hoped that the rich colour of the oil pastels would bring the milk thistle forward and that the watercolours would look more washed out. In addition I had hoped that using oil pastel would make painting the background easier since I could wash over the oil without ruining it.

In the end I didn’t really like the effect so I went on to the second colour test and used only watercolour. The first colour test had also been on A5 paper and i felt that the scale was too small to practice on so I used an A4 paper for the second colour test.

I was happy with the details I was able to make with the flowers but not with that of the leaves. I also struggled with the bottle. Although I was happy with the angle and so decided to use that in my final.

I also used the second colour test to see how I should go about with my ink mark making. I liked the idea of the marks coming from the black frame and used them to draw the viewers eyes across the piece. I found that I shouldn’t draw over any of the plants or main objects since it makes the composition flat loses the focal point.

  • first colour test
  • second colour test

One large challenge for me was the veins on the leaves. I also felt that I did not have a very strong light source and that made the general tone rather ambiguous.

One mistake I made in the final piece was making the cloth that the flowers sat one very dull and grey; it should have been a warmer colour like in my second colour test. I’m very happy with how mush detail I was able to capture in the milk thistle; although I feel that my lavender stems are rather uncertain and not very solid.

I struggled a bit when it came to grounding the jar since there was not clear shadow but tried to add a subtle one.

final piece

Reflection on feedback from tutor

I definitely need to work on my use of colour. I’ll be practicing using colour and creating the correct tones so that my artwork does not look flat. I will also be experimenting with different media, especially oil pastel.

I need to work on my depiction of man made objects and perspective. I also need to focus my composition, often my background does not suit my main object or is too distracting. I think I should rather have simple backgrounds and focus on putting a lot of detail in my focal points.

I also need to remember to add more self reflection in my posts.

Exercise 4: Monochrome

I decided on using blue because it is a calm colour and it is my favorite colour. The medium I used was watercolour because it is the one I am most familiar with. I wanted to try making different underlying colours in my different objects. But as you can see in my first prep drawing (i), I made those tones too strong. I was happy with the outcome of my second prep drawing and so immediately went on to my final.

  • i
  • ii

The skins of the fruit are shiny but not reflective. The bowl and the table are both reflective, the table more so, and so they reflect off of each other. I chose to use a table that is very reflective so as to make the artwork a but busier.

The fruit were lit up from behind and so they have a halo of light surrounding them which just separates them from the background. The bowl of fruit has the widest range of tones, giving them more detail and helping them to stand out as the main focus of the composition. In some areas of the apples I did not leave space for the lighter tones and so had to go back over with white paint, this shows a lack of planning.

The back ground has both light and dark tones but they are more muted and there is not a large variety.

I feel that the watercolour also worked tell because the smoothness and simplicity of the paint works well to portray the subjects which do not have very rough surface texture.

I did not do a very good job at keeping clean lines however and this is most evident in the background.

I preferred the texture of the apples in my first and second prep drawings. I was able to get a bit of the same texture in my final piece and I think it still came out good but it would have been better if i got the texture correct. The texture I preferred was that where the different tones did not blend together 100%. The apples in the front have a smoother gradient because started with them first and only got the hang of it when I got to the fruit in the back. This texture was about my preferred style of watercolour painting than about portraying the surface texture if the apples.

At the end of the day I am happy with what I made but perhaps I should have made a prep drawing in the same size paper that I would be working on in my final piece and should have then made more notes details how to get my desired style.

final piece