As I was not happy with my mixed media still life picture, which is in my previous blog notes. Here it is.
I have decided to create a new piece of work. So I set up a table still life with some new objects and did some artist research into William Scott (1913-89). Scott was a British artist well know for his still life and abstract painting. I love the way he conveys still life in a broad abstract perspective, with great humour too. I understand that his paintings are very large and colourful. In my sketch book I put a charcoal drawing image of his, which is a table with household cooking utensils, but I just love the simplicity of line and light shading too. His work feels like he has been playing around with composition like it’s a game.
This is my still life on my art table and I drew different views in my sketch book using a very soft 6 B pencil.
Here are a few of my sketches, I drew quite quickly to get the gist of the objects. Drawing with an open line moving over the paper.
Then I shaded in light and dark areas to make form and shape.
As I drew the next sketch, but I was making lots of placement errors so I kept rubbing out my lines and drawing on top of the old ones. So my drawing had lots of interesting smudges and ghost marks. I really liked this as it was so accidental. I also changed my view point from a partial side view to looking down onto the objects. I sat on the back of a high chair to do this, but it was so uncomfortable I was moving a lot, hence my drawing is rather quirky. I am not sure if the proportions are right, but I was trying to look at the spaces between the objects and get the circles to be in the right places. I think I need to revisit foreshortening. But I still like it as a drawing.
Finally I decided to draw the objects again, but in a simple abstract way, as I want to paint this on a canvas with some mixed media elements.
I know this is not mixed media picture in the traditional sense, but I felt that my drawing would suit a lino cut print. So I traced my sketch from my original drawing, drew it onto my lino then cut it out. Once finished I rolled ink on the plate and made a print.
Here is my print on collage and coloured papers.
I have to say I am finding mixed media frustrating and I am trying lots of approaches to get that feeling where everything falls into place and you get that ‘art buzz’. But I am not ‘feeling it’. So I am still trying, and I decided to created some mono prints (a mono print is a drawing printed from roller ink on a plate) So I would consider it drawing on the back of my paper, but printing it on my prepared grounds. Here are my results.
Ann Marie Varnam Drawing 1 Blog 