Final thoughts – Drawing plants and flowers (check and log)

How will your experiments with negative space help your observational drawing in the future?

I found the negative space exercise helped me to really concentrate and focus on drawing what I actually see rather than what I think I see. I feel this exercise will help me to be careful to observe and record things correctly.

What techniques did you use to ensure you drew your plants in proportion?

I drew the flowers in relation to one another. I would start with the first flower, normally the one at the front and work from that one. Each flower I then drew, I would draw a rough outline starting from the previous flower and then check if the size looked correct. If no changes were needed, I would then draw a more definite shape and fill in the detail.

How did you achieve an effect of three-dimensional space in your drawings?

The flowers were arranged behind one another with light from the side. When the flowers were drawn with the various light and dark tones, due to the light, this created a three-dimensional shape. I tried to use light and dark colours to create these tones. I also included background on one of the drawings which would have helped to create the intended effect. I am still struggling with still-life backgrounds, probably due to the plain wall behind my subjects where I choose to draw.

Drawing plants and flowers – Drawing with other colour media exercise

I thought I would use this opportunity to experiment a little and throw together combinations I have not used before. I choose to do one drawing with dip ink and coloured pencils and another drawing with a brush pen and oil pastels. I thought the former would turn out to be a more subtle drawing with second version being much bolder and brighter.

I wanted to use the dip inks again as my last attempt (drawing fruit and vegetables) was a bit of a disaster. I struggle to control the ink and ended up with a bit of a mess of blotches. This time I wanted to be more careful and used less ink. This worked well and I was able to draw the outlines in black ink and filled in the colour with the coloured inks. I finished by using the coloured pencils to shade over the coloured inks. I was very pleased with the result as I feel I am growing in confidence with using the inks. I was also able to let go of my obsession at times with detail and drew the flowers more spontaneously. The effect of this less detailed drawing in no way detracted I feel from the final drawing. This gave me confidence to be a bit freer in my last drawing using the brush pen and oil pastels.

Drawing of a vase of flowers using dip pen inks and coloured pencils

The second drawing was made using a brush pen. This necessitated a bold approach as mistakes are hard to rectify. Again, I had a problem with the right hand side of the vase and had to correct the shape. I layered the oil pastel shades on top of one another using a shading approach rather than crosshatching. I experimented with using other colours to represent the darker areas of the flowers. For example, I used red with pink and brown with yellow as this seemed to work in the earlier coloured pencil drawing. I think the bold colours of the oil pastels matched the thick black lines of the brush pen. Again, as mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I like bold, simple drawings and this one is beginning to go that way.

Drawing of a vase of flowers using brush pen and oil pastels

Drawing plants and flowers – Plants and flowers in coloured pencil exercise

This drawing was made using coloured pencils. I found this drawing a real challenge as the roses are quite detailed to draw and I had to be accurate. It was also difficult to find the right combination of colours to represent the flowers accurately. The roses were a vivid yellow and the carnations bright pink. My box of pencils were limited in colour and I was using watercolour pencils as I do not have a good set of ordinary coloured pencils (my ordinary set consists of about ten pencils). My challenge therefore was to produce different tonal shades of pink and yellow without actually using those colours. As can be seen, I settled on a mix of brown and orange to represent the darker parts of the rose. The greens were less problematic as I had several shades but I do think the lightest shade was too bright and should have been more subtle. Overall it was an interesting and challenging drawing to do and taught me how to improvise.

Drawing plants and flowers project – Negative space in a plant

Using A3 size paper, we had to draw the space around and within a plant. This exercise is intended to help focus on line, shape and space.

I did not have a potted plant so used a vase of flowers instead as I thought it would be very similar. I decided to use one of the suggested mediums, a medium graphite stick. Although I have used this in the mark-making exercises earlier in the course,  I have not used this in a drawing before. I thought this would be a good chance to experiment with something new.

It was easier using the graphite stick than I imagined and I was able to control it better than I thought. The result is quite pleasing as the shading has come out quite dark and the lines are fairly accurate. It was a challenge to focus only on the edges of the plant and ignore the details of the petals, etc. It necessitated a careful and accurate approach. I am still having problems with drawing curves as can be seen by the right hand edge of the vase.  I like the finished result as I am a fan of simple, bold drawings.

Negative space in a plant - graphite stick drawing of a vase of flowers