Week 11: KM & Monika

Drawing is seeing.

KM

KM has created a great study in Derwent pencils on 110gsm paper of a Letter Cone Shell from the Solomon Islands. She tells me this was her second attempt as she was not happy with the shape of her first. KM certainly has nailed the shape! As well she has detailed the surface striations and design beautifully. She has seen the shell corrected the shape into a very nice drawing.

'Letter Cone Shell' by KM

I do have one small suggestion for you KM. Although your shape and details are great, perhaps you need a bit more tonal shading to create more form. Where the light strikes the shell will be the brightest area and as the shell curves and recedes away there should be some tone. You have already done this toward the base of the shell, but I think you could push it a little more. Light circular fill with a Derwent light grey OR a graphite F will help to show your form - you don't need much. Something like this:

Adding extra tone (remember, this is a only quick 3Dpaint mock just to give an idea)

Monika

Monika has drawn her shell life-sized using Derwent pencils in a visual diary. The shell has been cut away to expose the second nacre layer as well as being inscribed with some deep scratches. Given to her by her mother she has had it for many years on a shelf sitting horizontally, as she has drawn it.

A good shape to this drawing with some nice attention to the striations and colouration. You can see the ridges spiraling to a point. As with KD's shell above I would like to see a little more tonal variation on the shell to create more form. But overall it is a nice study.

'Cut Shell' by Monkia

But now comes the fun part of Monikas drawing story. To create the deep scratches found in the shell Monika used a crochet needle as an indenting tool. She tells me it did not work as well as she had hoped - this suggests to me one of two things went wrong - not enough pressure when indenting and/or she did not put her paper on a hard surface but tried to indent with all the soft pages of the diary underneath. For indenting you need to create a deeper line - not so deep as to cut the paper, but deep enough to reject the pencil.

The fun part is this, disappointed that her indenting didn't work she began to inspect her shell, turning it around and wondering why it had such deep incisions and cuts and what had caused such damage.

Turning the shell vertically suddenly she discovered something she had never noticed in all these years - the cuts and scratches were done to create a bird shape in the shell!

'The Hidden Bird'

And that is the wonderful thing about drawing! When you draw, you can see things you never have noticed before. Drawing is always a new adventure and a new discovery.