ONLINE ART COURSE – SELF-DIRECTED CHALLENGE IN THE INK PENS MODULE

As I mentioned in my previous post, as we approach the end of this module, the final project, as always, is a self-directed challenge, i.e. we are given something to draw, but are left entirely to our own devices as to how we tackle it! Phil gives us just one video, with suggestions, and then sits back and we are on our own. This is to stretch the knowledge we have gained throughout the module. This is such a good method of teaching. By this time we have grown in confidence working with that particular medium, and we are ready for the training wheels to come off.

I have a lot of experience with pen drawing over many years so I was really looking forward to this module. All my artwork in the past in this medium has been of a more stylised form of drawing, for example Zentangle, and I was interested to see how well I would do with “true to life” style drawing. I was not disappointed! Phil is such an excellent teacher, and however daunting any project appears on first encountering it, he breaks it down into easy steps and voila! Suddenly it is done, and as always, I am amazed that I actually drew this!

The final challenge in this module was to draw three small objects on a single page: a padlock, a vase of flowers and a teddy bear.

My hubby and I have been working together on this module and it’s been fascinating to see how our styles differ. He has not been doing it from the beginning, so has missed all the early stuff Phil taught us, and his experience has been with pen and wash, drawing in pen first and then working in watercolour. Each of his drawings has been very good, but in every case he has lacked courage with his dark values and they came out looking rather flat. Phil taught us so much about the importance of values early on in the course and my hubby has not had the benefit of this teaching. With my encouragement he has gone back in and darkened his shadows, and has agreed that in every case the result was better.

Having drawn our teddies, we moved on to the first of the three images, that of a padlock. For me, this presented the usual problems with proportions and angles. This time, I began my initial pencil sketch without the aid of the proportional divider, and I really didn’t do too badly! I checked it with the instrument and found one or two places where I was “off,” and at this pencil stage it was easy to correct these. Mid-way through, though, I encountered what I thought was a major error in my proportions but it turned out not to be too serious and I was able to correct it.

Here is the drawing after I had added the ink pen outlines and shading.

As I began to add the shading, I wondered whether to abandon it at this stage and simply add the black watercolour, but decided to continue. Once it was done I was quite pleased with it, and debated whether it actually needed any further work. This was how I felt at this stage with my teddy drawing, and as with that one, I decided to press on and complete it with the watercolour. As always, I took a photo of it before I added the watercolour so that I could compare later on.

Here it is with the added watercolour, and afterwards a little more pen work to add further detail and to darken certain areas.

I was so happy with my decision to proceed! The watercolour has given the drawing much more depth and realism!

Here is a montage with the two photos side by side for comparison. What a difference.

We now have a “rest week” before moving on to the next module. I am not sure if I am going to proceed with this – I am trying to do a little bit of drawing each day in my rough sketchbook (I don’t always succeed) and I am running a bit behind with the course, so I think I’ll have a look at what Phil has to say on the video for that, and then maybe move on straight away to the next module.

My hubby isn’t interested in working with any different medium so he will not be joining me in this. However, he did agree to my suggestion to sit in with me as I work, and do his own drawing and painting, so that we can continue to make art together. I have told him repeatedly what a difference it makes, doing it with him – so much more fun than doing it on my own, and so companionable! It is also encouraging him to continue with it – the last thing I want is for him to slip back into abandoning it for years as he has been doing before I began this course.