Kayleigh's Canvas. Life Drawing.: Part 1B - Worcester (Week 11 & Week 12 : Independent Drawing Assignments)

11/01/17

I spent the day in Worcester completing the second half of Drawing Reporter Part One. I walked around the city drawing parts that I thought contrasted with the drawings I did in Banbury, but maintaining the same style and colour, as the brief requested.

I found this task difficult to enjoy due to the weather. It was fairly windy and cold during the day and it made it difficult to draw. My favourite pieces are the inside of Worcester Cathedral, (4), and my evening drawing of The Sabrina Bridge, (8).

I really like (1). I found it difficult and would have liked to spend more time on it, but it was getting quite windy and my paper was flipping up as I drew. I feel like I chose a good medium to get across the dimensions and the detail but maybe could have gone with a more detailed approach to suit the building I was drawing. It is part of the city so thematically, it goes well with the task.

I am not a fan of (2). When I began with that medium and started my timer, I immediately made the decision to make it one of the pieces I spent less time on. In hindsight, I should have started again with a different medium and taken my time as I was inside and not affected by the weather.

(3) was an interesting one. Usually, I don't like working with pastels. I find it hard to create detail and rarely like the results I get after use but I feel it works well here. Using just the black and white made me focus more than I usually would with oil pastels. Although it is not my favourite piece, it was a lesson in using mediums you might not like, just in case a different subject is needed to bring it out.

A similar lesson was learnt with (4). I went inside The Worcester Cathedral to draw and chose to use charcoal. Usually, I really don't like charcoal. This is because it is messy and smudgy and I prefer something more controlled. However, I used my charcoal pencil carefully and really took my time in a quiet, inside environment and I really enjoyed it. The members of staff there were encouraging and happy for me to draw even through their daily service, I will definitely be going back to do more drawing.

Afterwards, for (5), I decided to draw the scaffolding on the outside of the cathedral. This is because I think it represents the theme of the big city against small city well, with regards to development and scale. I don't like this drawing very much. I found it difficult to get depth and lost confidence almost immediately when I began to draw, which I think made me not draw very well.

(6) was more successful. I feel like I exercised angles and proportions well here by trying to focus on the windows and where they were. I was also pleased with the composition I'd made with the scaffolding, it brings something to the piece as a whole.

I thought it would be good to include the apartments at city campus, (7), because I was close by and because they look very modern. It works well as a contrast to the older buildings in Banbury.

(8) is definitely my favourite piece. I love drawing the light on dark paper and using negative space to create a good drawing. There's so much more life in this drawing compared to the other pieces. This may be to do with enjoying it more.

I drew (9) because it is a hill I go down almost every day to walk to lectures. It is good in comparison to my drawing of the road near my house in Part 1A in that you can see the city skyline partly. Because of my position drawing, I chose to make it a quick draw, but unfortunately this left the quality lacking and so I feel the piece isn't great.

(10) was another piece where I regretted the medium I chose. In future I may plan my route and my locations better, choosing mediums before I go. This way I can avoid disliking pictures as much after I have painted/ drawn them.

In conclusion, this was a valuable and task where I learnt a lot but I did not enjoy it as much as previous tasks we've had. I enjoy drawing people and nature and so I can easily get into the flow of it. However, when drawing architecture I was hesitant in the sense that it was just less fun. What I did find interesting was that to contrast two places, you don't necessarily have to pick two places all that different from each other - just cherry pick what you draw. For instance, Banbury is a town; It has a train station, large flats and a high street. Worcester is a city and it has old buildings and local cafes. If I wanted to, I could do a comparative drawing task between them.

It was also a shame I didn't use any wet media in these pieces, although this was purely down to it being windy and thus impractical.