Playing with Mark Making

I have been having fun during the last two weeks playing with various drawing implements and with different examples of mark making. I have made many sketches using diverse grades of graphite pencils, colored pencils, colored markers, Micron and Pitt pens, pen and ink, Conte Crayon, brown pencil, water soluble crayons and both hard and soft charcoal. I have held these implements in various ways and have tried stippling, hatching, blending and erasing to create a range of effects.

I enjoyed working with pen more than I thought I might. I am more used to pencil and shading in a graduated fashion. Using the different pens was a challenge and turned out to be very enjoyable. I particularly liked an experiment I did on the Metro train coming home from work one day. I held the pen gently touching the paper and let it mark the paper according to the movement of the train. See the last two examples of the photo below:



















To test out different drawing methods and materials, I sketched a garlic bulb. See the image below:
















I then experimented with charcoal. I wanted to see the range of light and dark tones I could achieve. I let myself draw in a larger format than my other sketches. This freed my movement and enabled me to play with the material. It has been several years since I have worked with charcoal and I am enjoying it more than ever.



I look forward to completing more of my assignments and beginning my still life drawings.

--Anne