Observational Drawing and Painting

Observational Drawing and Painting

Observational Drawing

Drawing is a fundamental skill of Art. It is a core element of the discipline, and it is at the heart of every Artistic practice. Therefore, it is paramount it is taught effectively to pupils. It is at the core of the Junior and Leaving Certificate curriculums. It was the first workshop I participated in on this course. Even though I felt I already had a good education in my drawing practice. My knowledge was not sufficent enough for teaching to others. These drawings are examples of observational drawing workshops, where intense and close study of an object is required. Line, Proportion, Shading, tone, Foreshorting are all terms I understood, but a pupil would not necessairly. Therefore, it was probably one of the more important workshops to be taught to us. 

Obsersevational Painting

The Fundamentals of colour mixing, composition and most importantly observation were shown to us in this workshop.  We were shown how to set up a still life, and draw thumbnail sketches, to see which still life layout would be most successful.Once, that was completed a large scale drawing was begun. In this picture below you can see some of my original sketch and the first two layers of paint applied to this still life painting.

 In the image below, where much more detail can clearly be seen in the painting. It is about at the half way stage of the work. Observing and mixing the colours was a very difficult task, as I found the changing light, from different days, difficult to control in my painting. However, it was an excellent workshop in painting, as I did not have that much previous knowledge about colour mixing. Warm and cold colours, could clearly be seen, and I found the best tool to help aid in my colour mixing, was the colour wheel. Yes it is a simple tool, but the simplest are often the best!