Observational Drawings

   For the observational drawing i had a piece of white coral. I didn't particularly like this as it had no simple shape, but to begin with i tried it.

For my first piece i looked at one side of the coral that had a cave like dip in. Using charcoal i roughly drew this out then ripped up an interesting headline from a newspaper and glued it underneath. I felt the words "agony" and "guilt" brought an interesting concept. Using a cotton ball, i smudged the charcoal around the page then used a q tip and rubbed it against the charcoal piece and drew out the coral features on top. The q tip didn't add much density as it only left a light mark on the page. I also found it difficult to capture the little detail on the coral.

   On the left page i drew out the coral from a different angle using a fine liner pen and continuous lines. Then i used various coloured crayons to randomly layer over each other. I like the cross overs and the way the crayons mixed and marked the page. As the biro looked lost under all the crayon i used the charcoal to create a rough outline.
   On the right page i just used a HB pencil doing continuous lines. I changed pressure for darker areas and used a more scribbly technique.







   I began drawing out the coral using a black biro, then turned my book upside down and continued drawing. Doing that threw me off a bit as i had to try and look at the coral a different way. Then i changed the black biro to a red ink pen. I really like the contrast on the colours and using the red i tried to highlight specific areas and add small coral details.
   In the middle of the page i drew out the coral again using a H5 and B6 pencil at the same time. Doing this was interesting but it was hard to notice the H5 pencil amongst all the scribbling as the B6 covered it. Next i changed the shading pencils to a brown and green colouring pencil. Using different colours helped add details in some areas and attempted adding shading. Holding two pencils made it harder to do small details and as the colouring pencils weren't particularly sharp they didn't stand out much. I would like to try this technique on a much simpler design so the different lines are easier to see as i think it could look quite effective.