Exercise (1) Using Markers Or Dip Pens. Project (3) Detailed Observation of Natural Objects.

Brief sketch of a small branch off a ornamental cherry tree.

Don't like it, I think it wasn't very successful. It doesn't look right, I think I wasn't using the pens to great effect.

Shame...because it was a nice subject, I just didn't think enough about it and the way I placed it on the page wasn't very good either. 

Here is another go at the same topic, I simplified it a good bit. And I did this after looking at more "Pop art".

 I took photos throughout the creation of this drawing.

Starting off with a quick pencil sketch.

Then going over the pencil with a greyish black pen, this, with hindsight, I see was a mistake, I thought (stupidly) that it would work as a sort of under-painting....but it didn't.  

Adding in more blocks of colour now.

Finish colouring in all the fruit and starting to try to put in tones and shadows.

Completed drawing...well completed-ish.

Having stuck in some background and some more definition on the objects.

On this one, I worked a bit longer, and I think the all-green apple in the centre isn't too bad on this one, it has a bit more of a three-dimensional quality to it.

I had a go at seeing what it looked like in a round shape.

quite like it.

And the roundness of the last drawing led me to my "Found Support" drawing, on a disposable paper plate.

Using marker pens I found very hard, I was dissatisfied with the end results and didn't even enjoy the drawing part very much. 

Mostly, I am used to getting variation in tones by how hard and how fast I apply the material, these markers  didn't seem to do this. 

Because it goes a shade darker when I went over the same area, creating a unpleasant stripy affect, 

I had to try to sort of put it down in layers (almost like watercolours). 

Unless I had had a lot of different tones of the same colour I can't see how I could get a smooth transition from light to dark, so it comes out sort of harsh and contrasting. Which worked quite well with the cast-shadow, though. 

I  also tried adding water to blend the different colours together like Shirley Ann Leslie seems to have done in the example in my course book...it didn't work....it may have been ink she was using.

I wish now, I had either broken down the shapes into simpler forms and coloured the plains (a bit harder with round objects like an apples) but I think the most effective fruits are the strawberry, because of their irregular shape, 

or I should have tried dots, sort of impressionist-like.