Hatching with pastels

This exercise was fun as I really like pastels. However, trying to the tone, form and general composition was a challenge.
The problem with vegetables is that they are far too bright and loud!

I have realised that my compositions are all much the same. Lots of things together, taking up most of the page and on A3.

Things will change but for now I thought it best to just concentrate on getting used to the different mediums. I also tend to draw the vegetables the size they are rather than enlarge them. To enlarge the picture while looking at it means doing the adjustments in my head. The exercise on enlarging an image using the grid system might be more appropriate for doing larger pictures later on. The thought of larger than life fruit and vegetables seemed a little nightmarish.

The start of wild marks.

Stage two

This was the start of the still life. I attacked it like a painting. On the easel, pastel held at arms length.


The next step was to put some tone in and lay out more shapes.

Finished

The finished drawing was more or less what I intended. A bit of cross hatching, indication of cauliflower leaves, tone and shadows with items nestling together for warmth!

Because I did not want to include the top of the cauliflower, I deliberately made it lighter and looser in order not to dominate the overall composition. I wanted the eye to move from the mushrooms to the apple, to the pak choy and let the cauliflower become part of the background.

But now for the next pastel attempt!

First I put an ink wash over watercolour paper size 16ins x 20ins. I roughed in some pastel then used a brush full of water to splatter over it. 

When that was dry I used dipping pen, more pastel and tried to draw some shape into it to pull it together. I put blue and brown pastel to deepen the shadows and pale yellow to highlight the brightness of the fruit.

The next thing was to refine the pink towel and "fluff it up" a bit with breaking up the line and using stipples and dots.

The patterns on the cup and saucer over colours that reflected the colours of the jar holding the brushes had to balance in order for the apples to really jump out. The cafetiere drawn so as to not overpower the composition. The light kept changing and so the highlights move around a bit. 

I feel that my first watery attempt has the most life about it and the third drawing is in danger of being overworked. However, on the whole I think it is more interesting than the previous drawing.

I have noticed that this is very similar to the man made still life that I submitted for assignment 1.

The composition is similar and the object are similar. However the process is slightly different and the addition of apples with strong light and shade combined with the looser application of pastel I think show progress. I think it is less static and has more colour and more subtlety. The texture of the towel behind the jar adds to the contrast, the depth of the shadows is what my tutor recommended for future still life studies.