Week 13: Monika and Silke

 Here are the last two submissions for Week 13 Prompt: Ruin

Monika

This is a drawing of an old shed Monika spotted while on a drive through East Gippsland to Port Albert. She has drawn this image in her visual diary using a Artline fineliner 0.4.

 What you see here is her first attempt. It has a lovely freshness and unaffected joy to the linework and drawing. It has a cartoon quality about it that is joyful - remember, a good cartoon distills the visual down to the essentials and is a unique artform.  But Monika felt that the realism in the perspective and shading could be improved upon so she began again. In her second drawing she became so hassled trying to correct the perspective and shading that she lost all enjoyment in the work and gave up in frustration. Monika learned an important lesson - you need to enjoy your work as you do it. Yes, we can learn and improvements can always be made to a drawing but it is also possible to overwork and think too hard about something and take all the pleasure out of it.

This linear sketch is relaxed and fun. It is a shed, plain and simple, drawn without fuss and I love it.

Old Shed by Monika

Silke

Once again Silke has given us and interesting subject and drawing. This week she has drawn the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima. This was the only structure left standing where the first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945 and is now the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. She has used colour pencil, 0.1 and 0.3 Fineliner pens in her Stilman + Bern diary to create this arresting drawing.

I wondered if some of the perspective could be improved, especially the shape of the dome, but then on reflection I think this can't be a perfect architecturally drawn shape. Rather, the twisted framework enhances the drama and sadness of the building and what it means. 

Silke wondered if the colours were too bright, the red brick being too prominent - again, to me this reinforces the grief with that hint of blood red colour. The sky cracked open on that horrible day in August and Silke has subtley shown that with the way the overhanging branch frames and splits the sky. 

A drawing we can all think and reflect on.

Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima by Silke

Don't forget to start thinking and drawing for Week 14 announced below this post!