For this task we had to pair up with something who is very different to ourselves, whether that be in race, age, gender or any other difference. Then we had to show our partner 3 objects of ours that have sentimental value to us and discuss why they are significant to us. We also asked each other a series of other questions to help get to know each other better. My partner for this was Jiayun so I responded to our discussion with some sketches of her sentimental objects. I used different sketching styles and focuses to fully explore the objects.
All my sketches where done through observation, this greatly helped me capture to true forms of the objects.
The first way that I studied the objects was using a drawing style called negative space, where you only draw the outside shapes of the object and its surroundings. This made me really focus of the shapes and forms to avoid unconscious preconceptions of a subject. It helped me to make clear observations about the subjects.More negative space sketches.
Next I experimented with looking at the whole subject and all its details. I attempted to sketch the object, in this case a watch, without looking at the page. These blind contour drawings helped me to focus on what I can see, not what thought I could see. I found this style of sketch challenging as I prefer a more controlled and refined style but it was good to experiment and helped me understand my subject.
After that I moved onto building up images of the subjects by drawing the simple shapes that I could see. Breaking down a subject into simple shapes made it easier to sketch as the composition became much easier to understand. For example, I was able to sketch the watch from two circles and 2 rectangles, even with this simplified approach I was still able to convey what the subject was.After using the three techniques above, I had built up a greater understanding of my subjects so was able to more doing more detailed drawings, making sure to still pay close attention to the objects in order to get accurate observational drawings. Sketches primarily focusing on shapes, with minimal shading.I further explored tone using a graphic style of shading, with the black marker to represent the darkest parts, pink to represent the highlights and leaving the mid tones white. Using two different colours to represent the shadows and highlights meant I had to really focus and observe the differences in tone.I then explored the texture of the teddy. First I cut out a stencil of the shape used black paint on a rough sponge to convey the fluffy texture of the teddy. Different parts of the teddy had different textures so I represented this by how densely I applied the ink to each part.I expanded to my sketches looking at tone by drawing the watch at different angles on black paper, only using the highlights. This further improved my observational skills. This is a form of sculpting with shadows and highlights.For this sketch I used two shades of blue and white on paper to show the varying levels of tone on the teddy. This combined many of the elements of my previous sketches together. This page has some little transactions of Jiayun’s sketches to reflect some of what we discussed. Also it has three continuous line sketches from different angles of the teddy. This was another way to develop my observational skills as it required a lot of concentration in order to create the form of the object without taking the pencil off the page.The next three sketches are using experimenting using different chalks and charcoal. For the black one i used the charcoal to block in the darkest parts of the watch.This image and the next are both done using coloured chalks to show the golden colour if the watch. I used the flat side of the chalk to convey the tones and the sharp point to add structure to the different forms of the watch. I was very pleased with these as I think I was able to show both the forms and tones by manipulating a medium in two different ways. Same style sketch but from a different angel.
Using all these different drawing techniques and styles I was able to study and really understand the subject and create accurate sketches from observation.
Samuel Green Illustration 