Success at Last

I have been struggling for weeks with the still life assignments. I have particularly been having trouble with the human-made objects (as opposed to natural shapes). I admit that, while I did make many sketches, I also was procrastinating. Last weekend, I made myself sit down and draw a slow, carefully detailed drawing. It took me 7 hours, but I am pleased with the results.




This is a still life using my Kitchenaide, bags of flour and sugar, and a measuring cup. I had been trying to stay away from what I considered 'difficult' shapes: smooth, shiny, surfaces; straight lines; lettering. So, I made myself get over it - and am I glad I did! I am very happy with this pencil drawing. I feel that the objects and the relationships between the objects are accurate. It is not perfect (the knob on the right end of the Kitchenaide is not at the appropriate angle, the bowl is not perfectly shaped, and neither is the measuring cup). I still seem to have trouble with the top edge of round objects. Getting that perspective is difficult.

I did several sketches of various still life set-ups before I did this final drawing.
The first was of a jewelry box and perfume bottles. It was too tight and forced. The shapes and relationships were off, and perspective was skewed. I was frustrated, so I tried the same still life in charcoal, to try to draw more fluidly and freely. I like it better, but it still has issues.






I then tried to draw some other still life set-ups. Here are three relatively quick sketches where I was just trying to get shape, form and relationship: Spindles; Salt and Pepper; Ink Bottles and Pins.









The ink bottles is the best of the three. I think the shapes and relationships between the bottles is successful, but it still didn't have the qualities I wanted in my final drawing.



I think that the final drawing of the Kitchenaide still life is successful for two reasons. First, because of the layout of the still life - using different shapes and textures and angles. Second, because of the slow process I used to work up the pencil tones. I began with a very light sketch which took some time to refine until I was happy with the shapes and relationships. Then, I spent several days going back to the drawing adding more tone until I was finally happy with the light and dark shapes in the objects themselves and in the shadows, and in the textures that were depicted.

Now, on to the natural object still life............

Drawings by Odilon Redon

Research Point: Find out about the nineteenth-century French artist Odilon Redon and his work.

He lived from 1840 to 1916. At the end of the 1800's he was working almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography and called his work "Les Noir". After 1900 he turned to pastels.

His "Les Noir" drawings are dark and represent his own inner visions and nightmares. "there were charcoal sketches which delved even deeper into the terrors of fever-ridden dreams." 1 In Redon's own words: "My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined."2

Here is "The Trees" © The Bridgeman Art Library - London, New York, Paris





This drawing is simple in content, but lush in detail. It reveals a dark, brooding quality due to the relatively consistent tone throughout the drawing, blending the trees from the foreground into the background. One tree leans away from the other as if trying to move away. There is an implied threat, anger.








Other images are more spooky and creepy (appropriate for today, Halloween).

Here is The Crying Spider and The Spirit of the Forest (images are both from Wikipedia)



The Crying Spider was apparently influenced by Gustave Moreau's The Cycle of Orphee. 3

Another influence on his work was Edgar Allan Poe.




These pictures did not fit into the drawings or art of the time. They were Redon's own personal nightmares and delusions. They are quite spectacular drawings. There is much darkness surrounding each subject. The spider, though, is even darker, details of the face being lost in the blackness, except for the single tear. I love the delicate little hairs on the spider's legs.

In the Spirit of the Forest, the spirit is lighter than the background and finely detailed, bringing it forward in the picture, as it stands on a slender tree branch with more branches appearing to grow from it's head. The drawing of the skeleton body, with shadows, makes it look so delicate and fragile.

Charcoal appears to be the perfect medium for these dark, macabre, drawings.



1. Huysmans, Joris-Karl (1998). Against Nature. Translated by Margaret Mauldon, Oxford University Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 0140440860.

2. Goldwater, Robert; Marco Treves, Marco (1945). Artists on Art. Pantheon. pp. 360. ISBN 0394709004.

3. http://www.odilonredon.net/biography.html

van Gogh Mark Making

In each section of this drawing course, there are assignments to research information about various well-known artists and how they use certain techniques.

Assignment: Find a vanGogh pen and ink drawing, preferably of an outdoor, natural scene. Look at the variety of mark-making used and the expressive way in which these marks are made.

This drawing is titled "Garden of Flowers" (© The Bridgeman Art Library - London, New York, Paris).



This is a stunning example of different types of mark making. Each object has it's own marks. Pale dots cover the sky whereas the gravel has more sharply detailed dots. The fences have either vertical (right, back) or horizontal (center, back), softly colored, parallel lines. The taller plants to the left have darker lines in front and softer, rounder lines in the back to look like the fronds are blowing in the breeze. The garden in the foreground is a jumble of light and dark circular shapes and straight, short lines. There is some order, but not complete order to the marks, as if the garden was carefully laid out when it was planted, but has since grown beyond it's bounds. There is strong movement at the lower left of the drawing which keeps pulling the eye back into the picture. I love the use of shape to suggest tiles on the roof. The drawing is so dynamic and busy, yet organized -- it keeps moving the eye of the viewer around the entire piece. Lovely.

I found a nice landscape drawing by New Zealander Frances Hodgkins, Landscape in the South of France done in black chalk. It has wonderful markings and looks to me like a landscape similar to Cezanne. Hodgkins' marks are varied in both tone, shape and size. The clear edges of each area of the landscape makes it look almost like puzzle pieces. The darker patches draw the eye into the landscape. It is interesting that there is just as much detail in the distance as there is close to the viewer - just as in the van Gogh drawing. I know traditionally, detail is in the foreground and more abstract in the background, but, both of these drawings work so well. The perspective is clear, even though there is detail in the mark-making in both foreground and background.

Each of these works inspires me to try making different types of marks in my drawings, in order to experiment with line, shape, texture and tone.