For this exercise I was asked to throw a piece of clothing or a length of plain fabric across a chair to make folded and soft layers of fabric and then make two 15 minute sketches, one using line and the other concentrating on tone. 

I draped my dressing gown over a kitchen chair. I drew using charcoal on a3 white paper. I started with a quick 15 minute line drawing, I tried to observe the lines of the fabric following the curves, rises and falls.

Because I only spent 15 minutes on my drawing, there will undoubtedly be some inaccuracies, however drawing quickly forced me to concentrate fully on the lines of the objects in front of me and produce a more raw and fluid drawing without worrying about mistakes and inaccuracies. 

My next drawing was in tone. I again used charcoal and I again only spent 15 minutes on my drawing. I worked quickly and I tried to identify and emphasise the areas of light and shade. I think I did manage to show the creases and folds in my dressing gown as well as showing the weighty thickness of the fabric. However my drawing is quite unrefined and I think I have overused the charcoal, my drawing may have been more effective if my charcoal use was less heavy and more subtle. 

I then divided my page into 12cm squares where I drew five minute sketches of different parts of the fabric. I tried to look at the shapes caused by the folds and I tried to emphasise form by showing areas of light and shade. I used a selection of different media’s including, charcoal, Indian ink, colouring pencils and oil pastels. 

I enjoyed doing this exercise as I enjoy working quickly and I enjoyed using a selection of different media’s. I did find it difficult though to create volume in the folds of the fabric and clearly some drawings are more successful than others. 

For example my drawing using colouring pencils is quite successful as I can see clearly the folds in the material and where shadow is created. I have also managed to show form through tonal areas. My drawing using purple and yellow pastel paint is less successful though, I think this is mainly because I drew in pastel to start with then I added water to activate the paint! However the colour of the paint seemed to run into each other & I lost the form that I had created. 

For this exercise I was instructed to work  towards creating an image in a single colour. 

I was really inspired by the fish on the plate drawing in the handbook. Created by an OCA student of a mackerel and a blue patterned plate. 

I loved the shimmer of the mackerel and it’s beautiful pattern and fine detail. 

I decided to take a trip to Sainsburys and buy my own fish. 

I put my fish on a plate, considered my viewpoint and started sketching my composition a3 size using my blue biro. I enjoyed using a biro as it gave a permanent line. It allowed me no room for mistakes and certainly no room to get hung up rubbing out mistakes over and over again. 

Before I applied more tones of colour I decided to practice a range of blue tones so I was prepared. I used watercolour as it is a medium I haven’t used so far in this course. I also thought it may work quite well with the biro. 

As I began to add paint and build the colour up, I tried to focus on looking at the way the light catches on the fish and against the plate. I tried to capture some of the small detail of the fish scales and I tried to do this by showing the contrast between the very plain plate against the very detailed fish. 
I tried to show the texture of the fish through mark making with my biro and through building up colour with my paint. 

I found using monochrome quite difficult. Especially as I was working from still life. I kept wanting to work into the flesh of the fish using flesh tones of pinks and browns. Also looking at my finished piece it is clear I have been somewhat hesitant on the application of colour and I could have built up my colours tones further in order for it to be a more effective drawing? 

In my drawing I think I have managed to capture the pattern and shimmer and tone of the fish effectively. However what hasn’t worked so well is it’s contrast against the plain white plate. In hindsight I think this would have been a more effective piece of work if I had of used a more detailed and more exciting patterned plate. 

For this exercise I was asked to place two pale, simple shaped objects together and position a lamp so they were lit from one side.
I experimented with a white ceramic bowl a white ceramic tea cup and a white ceramic mug. Below are some photographic layouts.

Then I was asked to make some quick sketches in my a2 sketchbook observing light and dark, mapping out the broad areas of light and shade.
Below is my first drawing. I worked a2 size and used a stick of charcoal. I worked with the charcoal as I would a pencil and I am not happy with my result! I seem to have misjudged its shape and form and whilst working to fix its proportions, I worked over and over my shades of black charcoal, which has not worked. I decided that the best thing to do with this drawing was to leave it and to start a new.

For my second drawing I used my charcoal stick on its side to achieve thick bold strokes . I then tried to block in the graduation of tone. I started with mid tones then added lighter and darker tones, pressing down harder and lighter as I worked. I also tried to work on smaller details such as interlocking shadows.

Overall I felt this was a better drawing than my first one. I think my tonal work with the charcoal was more successful as was my initial use of shape and form.

I found this work difficult, mainly because I was working on such a large scale. I am not especially happy with my results, however I feel it has been a good learning tool and hopefully this method will improve my drawings in the future.

For this exercise I was asked to choose at least 6 objects of different sizes and shapes some of them being 3D shapes like rectangles and cylinders and some of them being less regular in their form. The six objects I chose were, a tube of paint, a jar of linseed oil, my sons money box, a lino cutting tool, my sons miniature vanish bottle and a bottle of sunscreen. I selected the objects due to their shape and form.

I began by photographing my objects from different positions experimenting with layout to get the best composition. Below are my different layouts.

For my drawing I worked on a2 sized paper. Before starting my drawing I wanted to make my page more interesting so I collaged over it using brown paper and greaseproof paper. On reflection a simpler background may have been more effective?

I used just a pencil, a graphite stick and a biro for my drawing and I tried to loosely describe my objects. I tried to work big and fill the space. I was asked to imagine I could see through my objects. I believe this was so I could focus purely on shape and form and not get too carried away with fine detail?
Below are the different stages of my drawing.

I struggled to fill the a2 paper, I am not confident about working on such a large scale and I feel this is evident in my drawing. I found working on such a large scale difficult but I can see the benefits as it really loosened up my wrist and I really felt like I was expressing myself.
I ended up cutting my paper down so my drawings fitted the page better and this did work, however in the future I must really focus on this.

I am relatively pleased with my drawing however aside from not working large enough I can see that I do need to work on my accuracy of form.