ONLINE ART COURSE – THE FINAL PROJECT – CHERRIES… AND MORE!
I’m feeling quite sad. This is the final directed challenge of the whole year-long course, and it’s hard to believe that it’s finished, apart from the self-directed challenge which will be anything you like – totally open ended!
I think Phil, our wonderful teacher, wanted to have a bit of fun with this project. To start with, it seemed like a normal sort of project, to draw and paint a couple of cherries in a loose sketchy style. He said he could imagine how relieved we’d feel, not being subjected to one of his usual 4-5-hour long tutorials but getting away with a simple little loose sketch of some cherries for our final project! However, once we’d done the cherries, he said we were back on the 4-5-hour trip again haha! It did seem a bit odd to place the cherries right over at the side of the paper – it definitely suggested that there was more to come. Initially there was just the one reference photo, of the actual cherries. He reserved the rest till we’d done that, so he could have his fun!
Cherries
This is the result of the first stage.
It was very quick to do, and for once I loved the sketchy style, with the deliberate splotches of paint outside the lines, and the finishing paint spatters.
The reference photo for the initial drawing of the cherries was taken at an oblique angle, which Phil said would be explained later. He instructed us to draw an irregular rectangle around it to form a border. We drew this with the graphite pencil and a ruler.
The fun begins!
Now we were allowed to download further reference photos. We were to surround the sketch of the cherries with illustrations of all the art materials used to create it! I like to think of this as a celebration of the whole course. It is always the actors who take the final curtain call in the theatre; the stage hands don’t get a look in, but without them there would be no show. In this course, it was always the drawings and paintings which were the stars of the show. The materials to create them were just a means to an end like the stage hands, but without them, none of it would have been possible. In this final project, they took centre stage and were able to receive the recognition they deserved.
This final project used nearly all the materials we’d used throughout the course, not just for this project – with the exception (thank goodness!) of charcoal! I can’t see myself using that messy stuff again, I can tell you! Watercolours, ink pens, pastel pencils, coloured pencils, basic graphite sketching pencils… and here they all were, gathered for the final curtain call, to say “Here we are! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to shine!”
Adding the art materials to the picture
These were done with an underpainting of watercolour and the addition of coloured pencil, and black and white pens for the detail work.
The paintbrush
In the first lesson, we began by making very rough outlines with a graphite pencil to indicate where each object would be placed. I didn’t photograph this as there wasn’t much to see. I decided I didn’t have enough room at the top of my picture to put the paintbrush, so I put it at the bottom instead. We worked on each item in turn, working our way from top to bottom.
This was a departure from Phil’s usually favoured sketchy style. We used a ruler to draw the straight outlines of the various pens and pencils etc., and used a very fine watercolour brush. Lots of fine detail, and close observation to capture the essence of the different materials – wood, shiny metal, painted surfaces, bristles etc. The addition of drop shadows made the objects look extremely three-dimenstional and realistic.
So much so, that after I’d finished my paintbrush at the bottom, when I was working on something else at the top, I was distracted by the paintbrush and literally tried to pick it up and put it on one side!!! I even fooled myself with the realism of my drawing! I laughed out loud at myself.
Here’s the paintbrush – the first star of the show. I had to photograph it at an odd angle in order to get it in and without including a lot of other stuff.
The paint pan
A half-pan of yellow watercolour paint.
Pencils
An HB graphite sketching pencil and a white pastel pencil. Lots of interesting differences in finish and texture.
Sakura Pigma Micron pen
We used these pens (or equivalent – I used my set of Staedtler ones) in many of the modules in the course. I’ve been using permanent ink pens like this for years for drawing. For this picture I made a montage, adding the lid which was placed away from the pen in the reference.
The paint tubes
This was Phil’s favourite part, and I can see why. They were quite a challenge to create, with the various creases, printed text, shading and highlights. I think I made that lid for the blue tube a bit on the big size.
I am always amazed at the effect that a little white highlighting does – the drawing springs to life and it looks really metallic and reflective! I am so pleased to be mastering this particular technique as it has always fascinated me, and the ability to achieve a truly realistic result has usually eluded me.
The completion of the project
When we had completed the various art materials, we added a drop shadow to the border around the sketch of the cherries, and it sprang into 3-D. The whole completed picture looked like a little sketch we’d just finished, surrounded by the materials. Such a fun idea.
Conclusion
Apart from the leaf studies at the beginning of this module, this particular project was my favourite of all the drawings on grey paper. It was imaginative and fun, and it took quite a lot of skill. I enjoyed doing every step immensely, and the result was so satisfying. It also involved two very distinct styles – loose and sketchy for the cherries, and fine and detailed for the art materials. It required the use of many different materials.
This made it a very fitting conclusion to the most amazing course – a course I stumbled across by accident a year ago, when I followed up on Phil’s YouTube ad and took his free hour-long tutorial. I was hooked, and the rest is history.
From the huge number of favourable comments, kind words, and words of encouragement along the way from fellow ArtKula forum members, and family and friends alike, I can safely say that I have benefitted hugely from this course, and grown in skill and confidence. Drawing was always my weak area, and while I still struggle with angles and proportions, my observation skills have improved no end. I now consider that if I put my mind to it, I can draw anything I want. It was also the most tremendous fun, and one of the greatest and most surprising benefits was that it got my hubby painting again! I’d been trying to persuade him for several years to take it up again, but it wasn’t until he saw me with my art materials in action, that he decided to join me. We did several of the projects together, which was more enjoyable than I can possibly express.
The self-directed challenge
All that remains now to complete the entire course is to make one final picture. This can be of any subject of our choice, using any medium (or media) we want – perhaps something which we discovered during the course to be a medium we loved, and would want to concentrate on in the future. Being so open-ended, it is going to be extremely difficult to decide what to do! I shall resist the temptation to go back to my previous more design-oriented mixed media stuff, and attempt something more fine-art in style. I shall need to sleep on this and give it serious thought, because being the grand finale of the year-long course, it has to be something special. It may take a while. Phil is keen for us all to post our final pieces on the forum so that we can all share what we have done – there may be a special page for this.
