Week Three: moving towards form and colour

A lovely selection of drawings from this morning. All at various stages of development. Good observation of shape. Spatial quality starting to become clearer with variation of line and addition of simple tones. The addition of colour in some of the works is nicely and sensitively added.

Anne: early days but a good start. Keep it simple at this stage until you have all the shapes added to the composition and the ground colours are in. Then you can focus on the colour development. 

Brian: two good studies. Try to always be aware of your line weight variations to reflect the delicate yet sharp qualities of the plant. 

Brian: as above. This has some really good observation around the edge of the leaf. Skilfully executed, you just need to go a bit farther with the range of line weights. 

Carolyn: a lovely study and very nicely drawn. Good line variation and excellent spatial range from front to back of the plant. Take a bit more care not to accidentally rub the lines with your hand, use a sheet of paper to rest your drawing hand on thus avoiding contact with the drawing itself. 

Christine: a good start and strong observation of the complex foreground leaf edges. Hope you are able to complete this one as it will help you get back into the groove.  

Christine: a very nice drawing is emerging here. Take your time and this will be a very good drawing. 

Christine: well observed leaf shape and the jagged, slightly menacing, quality of the leaf edges.  You need to increase the range of tone values so there is a much stronger darkest tone value followed by 4 or 5 grades from darkest to lightest.

David: an excellent drawing showing good concentration levels. You could leave this as is or increase the space between the front leaf and the back leaf - make the front leaf or leaves come froward with a bit more pressure on your pencil then using a rubber very carefully lighten and thin the lines on the back leaf/leaves.  

Jane: a super first drawing of the term. Continue the technique that you are using on the rear most leaf - drawing with the rubber and then using line to create the "white" gaps along the leaf edges. 

Janice: a very good drawing with excellent use of exaggerated line weight to stretch the space between the front and back leaves. Pay careful attention to the lines inside the leaves so they too have variable line weight. 

John. Great drawing which I would say is finished. The darkest centre leaf and the shadows around it really capture the sense of intimate space inside the heart of the plant. Well done.

Karen: a good start to drawing with oil pastel sticks. The edges are beginning to have a really good quality about them and the tones in the greens have good contrast. Take care of the edges at all times - a lot of concentration needed to stay in control but it will further improve your technique. 

Linda: lovely studies from your sketchbook. The soft shading technique on the right hand study works really well. To achieve a similar high quality using just line (as in the left hand study) you need to use a range of line weights and density. Density means lots of lines closer together for darker tones and fewer or further part lines for the lighter tones. The closer the lines, the more subtle the tone changes will appear. 

Linda: lovely pure line studies. Looks like you really enjoyed these. 

Margaret: this is complete now and is a really nice drawing with a soft look and feel.  Well done.

Moira: lovely drawing with really effective addition of simple colours. The use of the warmer and contrasting cooler yellows/greens is great. Keep it simple. 

Pat: very nice drawing with excellent control of the pencil. If you want to take this further vary the line weights even in the short strokes/marks use slightly harder pencils that still allow strong blacks and greys - B or HB and for the silvery grey, translucent silk-like wings use H or 2H. 

Val: Lovely start to what will be a beautiful colour drawing. The use of a subtle, cooler blue to the lower edge is clever and very effective. A darker background colour might help make the feather appear lighter and more delicate. Adding a background colour will also allow you to further refine the edges of the feather.