Artistic Visions - Up Close and Personal

Having some difficulty today staying with the topic ‘up close and personal’ using my earlier, self-taught sketches and have finally decided on the two included here today.

I've selected these to demonstrate my exploration of different art mediums.  The first one was done using conte stick. I parked myself at a local antique store and asked if they would let me sit and sketch. They were delighted to let me do so. I selected an old wooden dresser, an antique lamp with broken shade and a glass goblet. Using the conte stick was such fun as I tried to articulate the different textures of the objects.

Unfortunately, the art of translating the glass goblet went slightly amiss and looks like a silver goblet. Drawing glass took many more attempts after this. You will also notice the areas with reflected light look rather smudged. I was too heavy with the conte in the areas of light – actually poor planning on my part. I should have identified the light areas at the onset of sketching.

In order to correct this I tried using a white conte stick to indicate the light areas and then rubbed with a paper stub.

I learned what a mistake this was; rather than rubbing with a paper stub the light areas would have worked better if I had incorporated light strokes into the darker conte at the time of drawing . At the time I was patting myself on the back thinking I had honestly completed a fine drawing. Amazing what we learn as we follow the journey that is art. I have since learned to handle the medium a little more successfully than this sketch. I do love working with conte.

The second sketch includes an attempt to include colour into the sketch. I gathered autumn leaves selecting different types and floated them in a shallow bowl …. thinking I would capture leaves floating on a stream. Well, the stream part went by the wayside but I did manage to capture some of the colours of autumn leaves.
I erased all pencil marks from the original drawing....I have since learned that 'you don't do this'.  Pencil marks should be retained as they are considered spontaneous inclusions in the finished product!  Who would have thought!

Actually looking back at these I feel I have come a long way in my artistic journey, have learned much; but maybe lost a bit of the original, uninitiated freshness of exploration..



Hope you enjoy.