MP
I am really loving all the different interpretations of 'Wet' people have been coming up with. This drawing of MP's is one of my favourite compositions so far. It depicts an idylic day at the beach with her daughter and grandson. There is a lovely connection shown between the two subjects - the mother looking at her child, hand ready to reach out to him if needed, and the son gazing into the distance in wonder, sand shovel waving in his hand. You can feel the sense of independance beginning in the child and the mother's watchful gaze, ready to let him go but standing by to help.
The figures are well drawn, with good attention to proportions and how the fabrics fall over the form. Compositionally it works well, a nice balance of negative and positive areas. MP has used Art Spectrum 300gsm cold press paper and a 2B pencil to create this work.
I think the ocean needs a little more work, and the sky and sand could also use a tweak. Basically, the ocean needs a darker horizon line - MP could raise that line by a centimeter so it doesn't detract from the mother's head - and the pencil tone should be gradiated down from that dark horizon. The clouds could be a little darker, smudged with your paper stump, then white lifted out with an eraser. We did this exercise in class Monika, refer to your notes if you were there that week. And I think the sand could be more evenly toned darker. I found a good video that demonstrates these suggestions reasonalbly well- link below.
Overall I think this work has a lot going for it. A little bit of tweaking will improve it. And if you do work further on it Monika, I hope you send it to me so I can show everyone what you do!
'Looking out to Sea' by MP
This video from Circle Line Art School has some interesting tips - although he uses his finger for smudging (!NO! - use a paper stump please) and 3 pencil grades, it illustrates how to create the dark horizon and sand fairly well. Watch HERE.
KM
KM has drawn a dripping tap for us on 210gsm paper with a variety of pencils. Most of the drawing was done in a 3B, but she used a F pencil over the top to blend then sharpened up the dark lines with a 5B and added some bright white with a white pastel pencil. She has really caught the shine of the metallic surface well in this drawing. The dark lines and white highlights make a very believable aluminum surface. The drops are okay - I think the shapes are good however maybe they should be a little further apart and each one needs a bright white highlight added to the top.
KM was worried about the puddle below the drops. I think you need to think of the puddle as one big flat drop KM. I found another video by TutoDraw who has used similar pencils to you drawing her drops - you might find it interesting: HERE.
This is good work KM. I like what you are doing here and how you have created your tones and contrast. The shape if the tap is pretty good overall - but the oval of the opening is a bit too wide and should be a flatter oval to match the perspective of the join above. But you are doing very well and keep up the good work!
'Dripping Wet' by KM
Monika
This week Monika has used an open sourced image of the Victorian National Gallery's Waterwall as the inspiration for her work. I hope Monika doesn't mind, but I will quote her explanation of her work process as it is interesting:
'I used a 4B Staedler pencil in my visual diary, with some smudging of shaved lead underneath to get more of a grey background. That started to look a bit grubby so I didn't pursue it, even though the water wall looks much darker than my version. At the end I tried lifting some colour out with an eraser (even though I then filled it in again because the result looked too stark). I did most of it copying directly from the photograph, and then turned the image upside down so that it would lose the structured look I had unintentionally imposed.'
This has created an interesting, almost abstract drawing with a lot of movement to it. The composition is nice and the figures merging in and out of the water engage us. I think some of the water could use more dark and light highlight linework. Although she says she 'copied' from the photo, she did so freehand and also interpreted quite a lot of the forms and wash of water in a distinctive style. The horizontal format works well - but the waterwall is actually quite tall and I think Monika could have extended it a bit further. But that really depends on what her intention was - here she has shown the figures in stark black and white as distorted by the running water - the figures are her main interest. If she had extended the height of the drawing it would have changed the emphasis somewhat to the fall of the water and how the figures interact with it, become part of it.
What I am trying to suggest is to expand on the photo reference, build up from it and create from it. Don't let yourself be limited by what a photo tells you.
That being said this is still an intriguing drawing that I really enjoy looking at. Well done.
'Waterwall' by MP
NOTICE:
Evening classes at The Victorian Artists Society will resume July 13. Information HERE
Evening classes at Mentone Mordialloc Art Group will resume July 16. Information HERE
I will no longer be taking any classes during the daytime for the foreseeable future.
Workshops will be announced here on this blog and on my website.
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