Research Point: The comparison between two artist.

The reason of this research is to compare two artists.  One who is more loose and sketchy and one who demonstrates a more tight and rigourous approach.

I chose these two artists at they have distinctly different styles. 

John Minton and Jeffrey Smart.  

John Minton's style of painting was more loose and sketchy but it is still obvious that the composition is still precise and definate as in this painting:

Rotherhithe from Wapping.  

The use of colour is dramatic and a little on the dark side. The two abstract figures and the boat painted so that we can see inside of it add to the fascination of the painting.  The buildings and the water gently sloping to the right also add to the beauty of this painting.

In this painting, 'The Crane' Minton has used the very bright blue for the sky but almost added within the sky another painting.  When you look into the painting you can see many different things like bridges, building and boats all in abstract forms making the it a visually pleasing piece of work.





 In contrast with this painting is a very precise controlled painting called

'The Control Tower' by Jeffrey Smart.  



Every brush stroke is 'contolled' and realistic.  Almost like a photograph but no quite.

'Central Station' is also very life like and almost like a photograph.  

It is a very realistic painting and compared to John Mintons' work I would say that it is not as interesting.  I personally prefer Mintons' work as it is open to personal interpretations.  Although looking at this particular painting you could wonder what is behind the high fence???

Part Two: Exploring coloured Media

Exploring coloured media

Experimenting in Mark Making

My favourite medium - watercolour with black pen.  The black pen is not waterproof so it moves in the water, I think this property adds another demention  to the piece.

Getting tone and depth in detail
When I looked at this pineapple I thought it was too hard and I did not know where to start but I started at the top and found after a short time I could actually look and then draw what I saw quite easily.

Check and Log

I prefer to draw with black pen and then add watercolour.  I like the effect of the non waterproof pen.  I also enjoyed the plane pencil drawing of the pineapple.  When I first looked at the pineapple I thought that there was no way I could do it as it is so complicated. But I found by just starting with the top leaf section I was able to do it quite well.  I did not enjoy doing the line drawing and found it very boring, perhaps I could have done lots more shading to make it more interesting, but I was not motivated to draw this way.  The line drawing was not good at helping look at the space more effectively.  However, I think that the watercolour and pen painting shows a good use of the space.

Stipples and Dots

I enjoyed this exercise very much.  I used indian ink and a pen with a nib and and bamboo pen.   There is a distinct difference between the thickness of the lines of the bamboo, which is almost like painting and the fine line of the nib pen.  It created a good contrast between the sections of the wood.  I also like the shadow created by diluting the ink with water I think it was quite successful using this technique.

Still life group using line

 Still life group in tone

Check and Log

 What aspect of each drawing have been successful, and what did you have problems with?
With the first exercise I possibly could have used more different types of media such as pastel,  pastel  pencil and perhaps charcoal, but I find it so messy.  My line drawing is very lame I am afraid and I could have done a lot more or chosen something more complex.   The pineapple drawing was successful but I did put a few marks on the page with the black ink from another page so perhaps it’s a bit messy.  But the drawing is good I think.  My still life group using line, definitely does use line but its not as good as I would have liked, but I do like very much the black ink line and where I have used a little watercolour in the flowers and the green stalks and leaves.  The still life in group and tone I feel is the best piece of work in this section.  I took a long time and I used a lot of care and I am happy with the results.  I think i managed to get a sense of depth in this panting but I am not sure if I interpreted the exercise correctly using tone and line. 

Drawing Fruit and Vegetables in Colour

Using markers or dip pens

I chose to use new markers that I had just purchased.  I loved using them, the colours are very strong and you have to work hard to create different variations of colour.

 

Drawing using Oil Pastel

Check and Log

The composition for the oil pastel work was quite successful  I think not leaving to much negative space but all in the right proportions.   It is a challenge to draw the details of fruit and vegetables but when you observe thoroughly you can draw it quite successfully.  It’s like everything else you do the more you practice the better you get.  The most challenging part of this group of exercises was getting different colours with the marker pens.  But I enjoyed the strong colours very much and I think that in a few areas of the groups that I did were excellent such as a couple of the apples.